bottom. She sputtered, but had to clamp her lips closed when he started walking and her head swung back and forth across his back. Her face burned with her temper when she heard the faint sound of his men chuckling.
Men—they were impossible to stomach!
“What are you doing, Keir McQuade?” Helena had struggled to see the man. He’d placed her right in the center of a bed. It was a fine bed, the blankets soft and rising up around her weight. But she didn’t have time to be distracted by such things.
“Claiming what is mine.” He stood across the room. Two candles burned on the table near him, their light bathing him in gold. A huge sword was strapped to his back, the handle of it rising above his left shoulder. She stared rather stupidly at the thick leather of the scabbard because it had kept her from being cut while she lay over his shoulder. He reached up and untied it. Twisting around, he pulled it from where it was latched to his wide leather belt and set the weapon aside.
“What are you talking about?” Her thoughts were racing and she honestly didn’t believe that she could absorb any more. Especially something like thinking that Keir McQuade considered her his. Part of her leaped at the idea, but her temper was far past being willing to listen to anyone tell her that she was their property. She sat up and pushed herself off the bed. Even with her hands still bound behind her, being on her feet felt less helpless.
He turned to study her. His eyes darkened, his face set into a hard expression. It was a stark contrast to the teasing look she’d seen from him before.
“I didna want to think you’d be so foolish as to try a stunt like running down a dark street.” His expression darkened. “But ’tis a good thing that I set me men to watching the house. ’Tis the truth, I expected yer brother to try to smuggle ye out of the city.”
Confusion swept through her. Helena clamped her lips closed against the next question that wanted to sail past her lips.
Who to trust…
There were too many men telling her that she belonged to them. Her earlier fascination with Keir had blinded her to the fact that the man was every bit as dangerous as Ronchford or her brother. All of them wanted control of her for their own agendas.
“And I was foolish enough to think that ye would nae be so opposed to wedding with me that ye would flee.” Hurt edged his voice but it was the reprimanding note that gained her full attention. She was sick unto death of being corrected.
“I was on my way to a convent.”
Edmund would have taken exception to her tone. Keir tilted his head and crossed his arms across his chest. The pose made him look larger and more imposing. Her gaze wanted to shift to where the muscles of his arms bulged. There was only the thick fabric of his shirting covering it, the sleeves of his doublet unbuttoned and secured behind his back. In the cool night he should have been cold, but he didn’t look like even the temperature affected him. The strength practically radiated off him. She shook her head, refusing to become mesmerized by him.
“A convent?”
“Aye, a place where men wouldn’t rule me.”
One corner of his mouth twitched, curving slightly upward. His arms uncrossed, sending a shiver down her spine. It was such a foolish response, one she detested. There was no reason she should be so attuned to his movements. It made quarreling with the man near impossible.
“Well now…” He closed the distance between them, watching her while he did it. She suddenly understood exactly how a doe must feel when the hunters closed in for the kill.
“If ye were to become a nun, wouldn’t ye be expected to obey the pope without question?”
He touched her. It was a simple brushing of his fingers across the lower curve of her jaw. But she shuddered. Sensation flooded her, rippling across her skin as quick as lightning.
“At least he would be a celibate man.”
Challenge flared up in his dark eyes. Her memory offered up the way he’d looked the first time she’d encountered him. This was not a man who ever gave up on what he considered a challenge.
“I dinnae think ye are made for the life of sleeping in a cold bed, forever a virgin.” His gaze lowered to her