The Highlander's Destiny (Highland Rogues #2) - Mary Wine Page 0,23

nesting in them during the winter.

Cora pulled one down and sat it in the lower bunk. She reached for the knot in the tie.

“Fancy another ride over me shoulder, Mistress?” Faolan asked from behind her.

Cora jumped. “How do ye move so silently?”

His lips curved into a grin. “A man does nae bring home much to eat if he cannae sneak up upon his prey.”

There was a glint in his eyes.

A warning.

One which stroked her determination.

“Clearly, the other women slept here,” Cora began to make her argument.

“They were not ye,” Faolan replied firmly.

“I see no difference.”

Faolan stepped into the kitchen. Cora turned her back on the bunk in favor of making sure she watched him.

“Ye are different, Cora. And do nae try to tell me ye do nae understand that yer brother indulged ye. How many other Mackenzie lasses were out riding alongside ye?” His gaze was serious as he contemplated her.

Cora felt the bite of guilt. “Why do men insist their brides sit and waste the day in a solar so that there might be no question of her innocence?” She narrowed her eyes. “I have no stomach for such boredom.” It wasn’t a topic she should have been discussing with him. No, it was more the conversation she had been warned to never voice again. “Ye use the word indulge as a judgment against me.” She lifted her hand to indicate the kitchen. “Yet, I’d wager ye are happy I am here.”

Faolan stepped closer. One of his dark eyebrows was rising. He’d crossed his arms over his chest when he first arrived, but now, he unfolded them as he closed the distance between them.

“Of course, ye do nae have the temperament for such a life,” Faolan remarked. “The fire in ye is plain to see with those red curls on yer head.”

“Me red hair is no’ a curse,” Cora responded quickly. “Why is it my every flaw is blamed on the color of me hair? Is yer soul black just because yer hair is dark?”

His lips twitched. For a moment, a very pleased, very male grin was there in plain sight. “There are other reasons me soul is dark, lass.”

Something flickered in his eyes. Faolan looked at her so very differently from the other men she’d encountered.

Like a woman…

She stepped back as she put words to her feelings. A surge of approval went through her as she realized just how correct she was. Faolan didn’t look away from her, didn’t hide the harder elements of his nature from her. He was a man, and he didn’t have any intention of shielding her from seeing it.

“I did no’ call yer hair a curse, Cora.” His gaze shifted to the edge of the fabric she’d tied over her head to keep the soot and flour from it. “If I had no’ seen ye shaking yer fist at the sky, I would have still guessed ye have a fiery temperament from it, though.”

His eyes had narrowed. She was suddenly struggling to draw breath, somehow caught in each moment as though something was about to happen. His gaze had dropped to her lips, which made her heart thump harder.

“A woman such as ye…is someone…” He paused as he considered his next words.

Cora chuckled softly. “Whatever word ye settle on, I have heard it applied to me before.” She shrugged as a shiver went down her spine. “Hellion, unbridled, spitfire…”

“Only fools would label ye such.”

Cora was fascinated by his words. She stood in place, even as he closed the last few paces between them.

He was watching her, his head angled down because of how close they were.

“So ye have another word for me?”

“Aye,” he whispered.

She wanted to hear it. Unspoken, the idea of what he thought of her tantalized her. Her lips suddenly went dry as she waited to hear him speak.

But a moment later, he’d scooped her off her feet.

She let out a startled cry as he tossed her over his shoulder and turned toward the doorway.

“Put me down!” she demanded. But she wasn’t going to wait for him to comply. She flattened her hands against his lower back and tried to push her lower body up.

Faolan smacked her on the bottom.

She gasped, her face heated from more than the fact that the blood was rushing toward it.

“How dare ye!” she demanded.

Whatever he might have said was drowned out as he left the kitchen and ventured into the hall. The rest of the McKay Retainers were there. It took only a moment before