Return of the Scot (Scots of Honor #1) - Eliza Knight Page 0,42
matter was, her sister’s situation was a major part of both their lives and couldn’t be negated. “Because ye do no’ want to claim the child, or responsibility for the woman ye ruined.”
Lorne let out a bitter, laugh. “Let me ask ye this, Jaime—why would I no’ take responsibility for my wife and child? Why would I throw a woman I’d pledged to marry out if she were carrying my heir? My whole existence, the legacy of my line, is based on the act of reproduction. I would never take advantage of a woman, and I’d never leave my child behind. That makes absolutely no sense.”
Jaime shook her head because everything he said seemed sensible. Even his voice was filled with reason. And now she was remembering small things that she didn’t want to. Seeing Shanna writing a letter and then slipping it in her sleeve when no one was looking. Shanna, staring wistfully off in the distance and ignoring the duke. Shanna, forgetting again that the duke disliked cucumbers or that he’d arranged to take her for a ride in the park, and she’d gone out instead with a friend. All of these things, Jaime had taken as her sister being in love and distracted by Lorne—for who wouldn’t be. Perhaps it had been that Shanna was thinking of another that entire time.
“Oh, no.” Jaime fanned her face and took another step backward. How perspectives changed when looked at from different angles.
Now that Lorne had planted the idea of Shanna’s lover in Jaime’s mind, she could see that it wasn’t the duke her sister dreamed about but someone else entirely. It had been Jaime back then who had kept encouraging her sister to do the things a bride-to-be would do. Inviting Lorne for tea, attending balls and picking out perfect dresses. Telling her sister the things that she’d noticed Lorne liked or disliked. Because Jaime had so badly wanted her sister to be happy, to be a duchess. Jaime’s admiration for Lorne had so blinded her that she’d failed to see her sister didn’t want him at all.
The question was, who had Shanna desired?
That was a question Lorne couldn’t answer, and suddenly Jaime felt so overwhelmed because it wasn’t just the truth of what happened between Lorne and Shanna that crashed into her like North Sea waves in a storm, but the other truth she’d denied for nearly a decade—Jaime had wanted Lorne.
Jaime turned, intending to flee the darkened room, the knowledge of her feelings, the intensity of his stare. Only as she ran, the lighting was terrible. The toe of her slipper caught on one of the heavy dumbbells, and she pitched headfirst into the floor. Her hands slapped the wood, catching her before her face smacked into it.
The quick clip of Lorne’s boots rushed behind her. As she was pushing herself up to sit, he knelt beside her, looking over her face and then the rest of her.
“Are ye all right?” He pressed a hand to her knee and then jerked away as if now realizing what he’d j done in that simple gesture.
Heat zinged up her thigh, settling somewhere in the middle, and she bit the inside of her cheek, her breathing uneven, which she hoped he’d conclude was because of her fall. Goodness, she needed to get out of here. The chill on her stockinged foot was warning enough she’d lost her shoe.
“My slipper.” Jaime patted around, trying to find the shoe that had been caught and ripped off her foot. But it was Lorne who found it first, her hand brushing over his fingers.
Another zing of awareness rapidly shot up her arm.
“I’ve got it,” he said slowly, reaching for her ankle. He smoothed his fingers over her foot, testing each toe. Nothing hurt, and his examination tickled. She bit the tip of her tongue to keep from laughing or gasping, really from reacting at all. Jaime was fairly certain the heat his touch caused would never go away. Her toes, foot and ankle would burn forever. “Nothing broken.”
She wiggled her toes. Circled her ankle. Still, he held onto her. “No.” The word came out in a rush of air. Jaime was surprised to find how much she liked the man she’d thought to be an arrogant fool. The impression she’d had of him since the incident with Shanna was being edged out by the man she used to know before that terrible moment—the man before her now.