Highland Bear (Book 4)

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

                Artair’s mind whirred a mile a minute, all in the matter of seconds, he did not let his face register anything but surprise. His mind latched onto her words, and could not help the little happy jig he was doing on the inside. Alfred was trying to arrange a marriage for the perfect woman before him. And he was doing this with Kendrick, the male who knew how he felt about the woman before him, even as he had never met her. Kendrick who was probably laughing himself silly over Alfred telling him this while Artair himself was before the very woman he wished to call his own.

                Smiling within over what he hoped was to come. And he made a mental note to make sure things would go his way in Kendrick’s talks. He took a step closer to the trembling girl before him. She was all curves in all the right places, and her eyes wide, round disks in her face. Making her look all the more innocent. He could not stop from reaching up and cupping the side of her face, his face a mask of seriousness, as his mind still continued making the plan he was coming up with.

                Stroking the soft skin over her crisp cheek bone. His thumb slowly dragging back and forth as her lips parted the tiniest amount. Her cheeks flushed with a rosy glow, and her eyes darted back and forth as if trying to focus upon his features and work out the inner workings of his mind. His thoughts and emotions were all centred on her, and yet he could not let her know that fully, not yet. “Rohesia…” he said her name as if it were a prayer, not at all embarrassed that she would hear it in his voice. The reverence he himself heard in his own voice made him pause a moment as if for a silent reflection.

                He cleared his throat. Her gaze capturing his and he felt as if he could fall into them and drown in their deep depths. Her tongue darted out once more, and he wanted to groan as it swept across her lower lip slowly, before retreating quickly. “Artair…” her voice swept over him like a swift summers rain, cleansing and life giving. She spoke barely above a whisper, but he had never heard her speak louder, and she never needed to. Not with him, he swore he could have heard her from across a crowded room, such were his thoughts anyway.

                Clearing his throat once more, he dipped his gaze to his thumb once more. “You are to be married?” He tried to keep his tone as neutral as possible. Yet, his heart was hammering in his chest, so loud he was surprised she could not hear it. Taking deep calming breaths, he tried to be patient before she answered. All he could wonder was if she would confirm it, or claim it all a jest, for it would be the cruellest jest he could ever suffer through. But if it was true and Kendrick could not convince Alfred that Artair was the one for this task…then he could always resort to his kidnap plan, for that was what his ancestors would expect of his of course.

                “Um, yes, I believe that is what Alfred is trying to set up for me…” she swallowed hard. Her eyes flew up to him. “I do not think I should be talking about this with you, or even that you should still be here…” he waited for her to finished, his heart practically freezing as he waited for her to wish him gone from before her. Yet, her whispered comment set it all free. “Yet, I cannot ask you to leave, I am not strong enough to do that…I cannot ask you to go.”