He could feel himself flushing as he said it. There was no way on earth that she would return the feeling, but at least he had had the courage to say it out loud. However, he could hardly believe the next words that left Evanna’s lips.
“Oh, Fraser…” She took one step toward him and buried her face against the hard warmth of his chest. “I love ye too.” She felt his arms going around her at the same time, holding her so firmly against him that she would not have been able to escape even if she had wanted to, which she very definitely did not.
Fraser, at that moment, was stunned with disbelief. “Y-Ye love me?” he asked in disbelief. “Are ye sure?”
“Perfectly sure.” Evanna smiled at him radiantly. “I love ye with my whole heart, Fraser.”
Looking into the dark green eyes of his love, Fraser felt as though he was holding his whole world in his arms. He could not imagine anywhere else he would rather be, but he knew it could not last. He had to go far away from her before he brought some kind of calamity onto her.
“I wish we could stay like this forever,” she whispered against him, breathing in the musky scent of his body.
He said nothing for a moment, but he kissed her forehead and pulled her more tightly against him. “I have tae go an’ see the laird.” His voice was determined. “But if I find Rowan first, I will kill him.”
Evanna drew back from him, scowling. “An’ what good will that do?” she demanded. “Let the laird deal wi’ him, Fraser. He will be found out in the end. If ye kill him, they will hang ye. Is he worth it?”
“I wish I had yer faith, Evanna,” he sighed. “The laird might no’ believe me. Rowan has a silver tongue and was no doubt able tae convince the laird o’ his case the first time without much trouble. If I do nothin’, though, I will be runnin’ an’ hidin’ for the rest o’ my life, always lookin’ over my shoulder. Or I will have tae live in exile in France or somewhere.” His face was a mask of gloom.
“I wish there was somethin’ I could do,” she murmured, her heart breaking to see him so distressed. She felt his pain acutely, but she was utterly helpless to do anything about it.
“There is somethin’ ye can do,” he whispered. “Give me a kiss tae remember ye by just in case…in case I don’t come back.”
“Of course I will,” Evanna whispered. She tilted her face up to him and parted her lips, and in a moment she was in heaven as his mouth swooped down onto hers and she heard him growl with desire deep in his throat. She flattened herself against him so that they were almost one body and stroked her hand along the soft hair of his blue-black beard.
Fraser thrust his tongue into her mouth to stroke and suck hers while his hands moved down her body to cup her bottom and his fingertips kneaded the firm flesh. He felt her fingers dive into the thick hair at the back of his neck and a frisson of lust shot straight to his groin. He moaned against her mouth as she ground her hips against him, and he was rewarded by a little gasp of surprise as she felt his arousal pressing against her belly.
Evanna sank her hands into his hair, then his beard, and felt him smile against her. She had not quite known what it would be like to be fully embraced by a man, even though he had kissed her before, but this was far better than anything she could ever have imagined. She moved her hands to his buttocks and found them to be hard and muscular, nothing like her own at all. Their bodies were so different!
After another moment, Evanna found herself lying on the bed with his body half on and half off her. She was almost breathless because of his weight, but she did not care. She was on fire for him, and nothing he did could change how much she wanted him.
He broke the kiss, and she felt his hand cup her breast while his thumb teased her nipple, drawing circles around the aureole. No one had ever touched her there before, and a jet of pure desire shot straight to her core as she stared into his eyes, which were almost black with desire.
“Ye are the only woman I will ever want. The only woman I will never forget,” he said hoarsely, as his big hand continued to knead and squeeze her. Suddenly his hands seemed to be everywhere, and she squirmed and writhed with the pleasure he was giving her. Why had no one told her that lying with a man could be like this?
Evanna was almost desperate for something that she could not identify or understand. She just knew that the place between her legs was throbbing and wet, her nipples were tingling, and her body was moving without her telling it to.
Then, before she could stop herself, she begged, “Please, Fraser, make love tae me before ye go. If…if the worst should happen an’ I don’t see ye again, I will have the sweetest memory o’ ye.”
It was the most difficult thing he had ever had to do, but as soon as he heard her words, Fraser closed his eyes and drew away from her. She tried to pull him back, but he was too strong for her.
Slowly, he stood up, feeling completely frustrated, and an absolute swine into the bargain. What had he been thinking? He had led Evanna on for no good reason other than his own selfish satisfaction.
He looked down at her. She had curled herself into a ball and had put her hands over her face, making him feel even more wretched. “I am sorry, Evanna,” he murmured, as he knelt down by the side of her bed. “I did no’ mean tae be cruel, but if I had made love tae ye, ye might have got wi’ child, an’ a woman who has no father for her child has no life at all. An’ the life o’ the child, well, it does not bear thinking about.”
“Did it happen tae ye?” she asked gently.
Fraser nodded. “I could never do that tae ye.” His eyes were infinitely tender as he gazed at her. “Ye deserve better. But I will be back. I swear it. They will have tae kill me tae keep me away from ye.”
They might just do that,Evanna thought sadly as she thrust her fingers into his beard. “The laird is no’ a bad man, Fraser. He will listen tae ye. I am sure o’ it.”
They had been walking down to the stable as they talked, and when they arrived, the first fingers of sunlight were piercing the spaces between the trees.
Evanna saddled up the old mare and realized that her face was wet with tears as she looked at Fraser, perhaps for the last time.
“Come back tae me,” she whispered. “I cannot imagine my life without ye anymore.”
“I will.” His voice was suspiciously hoarse as he bent to kiss her one last time. It was not a kiss of hungry passion but a sweet and tender expression of love.
Then Fraser mounted quickly and urged the old mare into a canter. He did not look back, not because he did not want to, but because he was afraid he might turn back and throw himself into her arms.