Kiwi Bride Series: Highland Kiss (12 page)

“
Could you not put me in
another room?”

Alec took out a pair of
clean jeans and a white shirt. “And risk another attempt at
escaping? But of course, I’m sure you can’t escape with that foot
of yours in such a bad condition.” He turned to give her a devilish
grin, his grey eyes twinkling.

Ruby’s heart started to
beat outrageously fast. Even though she couldn’t see clearly
without her glasses or contact lenses, his smile still affected her
more than she liked to admit.

Alec noted the blush.
Damn it!
She looked
so adorable with her wet hair, apple red lips, and brown eyes. He
wanted to ravish her there and then.

She lowered her eyes, blushing even more. Alec braced
himself and stifled his lusty urges as he walked into the
bathroom.

Ruby closed her eyes,
wondering why she was staring at him like a wanton. She was still
mortified by her behavior when Mrs. McKenzie brought in her dinner
of chicken soup.

“
Now there,” the woman
said, “ya eat this. It’ll make ya feel better, nice an’ warm an’
all.”

Ruby thanked the woman as
she took the bowl of soup. She started eating after Mrs. McKenzie
left. Alec returned, wearing his clean, dry clothing.

Ruby glanced up from her soup and simply stared. Her heart
started to jump into a silly rhythm again. She could see his lean
muscles beneath the tight jeans and shirt. His hair was in a
disheveled state, which made him look so
hot
.

She swallowed the soup in
her mouth, gulping hard.

Stop it!
She told
herself internally as she put the bowl on the bedside table, her
hands trembling.
That’s
it!
It must be a consequence
of the shock, and the aftermath of her recent fright and experience
while being lost in the woods.

“
You must eat,” he said,
coming around to her side.

Ruby’s heart lurched even
faster now.

“
I’m not hungry,” she
snapped.

Go away! Don’t come near me!
She wanted to yell at him.

Stubbornly staring at the duvet when he sat beside her, she
wanted to scream. She longed to look at him and throw herself into
his arms. What a wanton she was! She never felt like that before,
not toward any man.

No, she reasoned in her mind, she wanted to throw herself
at him because he was the one who saved her; therefore, it was only
a natural result that she felt obliged to him, and duty-bound to
thank him with all her heart and soul.
Yes, that was it!
It was overwhelming gratitude toward him that she felt, and
that was all.

Alec picked up the bowl of
soup, dipping the spoon into it, and scooping out the dark broth
before aiming the spoon toward her lips.

“
Here,” he
said.

Still refusing to look at
him, she shook her head. Alec put the spoon back into the bowl and
placed it on the table. He shifted closer to her, moving his head
next to her face.

Ruby felt his warm breath
on her cheek. When she turned slowly to look at him, her heart did
a somersault. His grey eyes were staring right into her brown
ones.

Alec moved in such a way
that his nose was touching her glowing cheek. Swallowing hard,
Ruby’s throat was suddenly very dry.

“
Are you innocent, Ruby?”
he asked, his hot breath fanning her cheek.

Ruby couldn’t reply. She couldn’t think either. The only
thing she could do was concentrate on her breathing. She was
becoming acutely aware of his strong, male presence. The room
seemed quite hot for her suddenly.

She lowered her eyes.
“What do you mean?”

Alec stared at her thick, dark eyelashes. She was
enchanting.
Damn,
but he wanted her. He hardened
himself against his unreasonable, primal male urge. He knew he was
playing with fire, seducing her through intimidation into obeying
his advice and eating.

“
What I mean is, Ruby, are
you so innocent you don’t know what I’m going to do to you?” His
voice sounded thicker.

Ruby licked her dry lips,
and Alec glanced at her small tongue. His alpha male instinct took
over then, and he grabbed her delicate chin in his hand before
kissing her passionately.

His kiss felt hard and
lasted a long time, which, to innocent Ruby, who had never been
kissed before by any man, was very dangerous indeed. She got scared
all the way down to her little toes, and tried to break free from
his embrace by pushing her small hands against his
chest.

Alec noticed her
shivering, so he ended the kiss and moved back.

“
You know I can do more
than that,” he whispered, his warm breath sensuously tickling her
ear.

She glanced at him through
her dark lashes, her heart fluttering. She didn’t know what to say.
The only things she could be sure of were the nearness of him and
the drumming of her beating heart.

“
Here. Eat.”

“
I will eat if you leave
me alone,” she murmured, her eyes downcast.

“
Nay.”

She turned to look at him
then, and Alec had to hide his smile at her reaction.

“
But,” she began.
Stop
it, you ninny,
she told
herself.
He was just playing
with you.

“
Fine,” she said, her
voice sounding a little bit stronger. “I’ll eat. I’m hungry
anyway.” Then, she practically snatched the bowl from him and
started eating without further reserve.

Alec couldn’t help but
smile as he watched her devouring her soup so
salaciously.

Alec made sure Ruby was asleep by the time he returned that night.
He felt rather stupid sneaking into his own
bedroom—
his own goddamn
bedroom!
He was not a thief,
for God’s sake. But he was pretty sure she’d insist they sleep
separately; and he either had to let her sleep in another room or
he, himself, would have to sleep in another room. And
that
he didn’t want.

Once he changed into what
he considered a decent pair of pyjamas: loose trousers and a
T-shirt, which he rarely used, he climbed into bed beside
her.

Twenty minutes later, his
eyes were still wide open despite being dead tired.

He just couldn’t sleep. It was not because of the blasted
storm that kept unleashing its fury upon them, but because of the
beauty lying beside him. She was warm, very soft, and
half naked.
A man didn’t need more than
that
to torture
him with temptation. To make matters worse, she kept snuggling
closer to him, seeking warmth, not that the room was very cold,
with the fire roaring in the hearth.

Everything was going fine with him controlling his damn
urges and impulses, but that suddenly changed after midnight. That
was
the
big problem. She was unexpectedly very hot to
the touch. Not that he intended to touch her, of course, but she,
herself, rolled closer to him, all shivering like a drowned kitten,
craving the warmth of his body. Her skin was burning hot. She was
unnaturally hot, and he knew,
God, he knew
, she was
in the throes of a fever.

He knew he had to give her
something to reduce her temperature.

He hurriedly got out of
bed and found some aspirin. He came back, and managed to wake her
up before helping her take the medicine. When he was satisfied that
she swallowed the two tablets, he lay her back on the bed before
lying down beside her, and letting her head rest in the crook of
his arm.

When, ten minutes later,
her temperature still didn’t lessen, he got very worried. He’d have
to do something else… and fast.

He got out of bed and ran
down the stairs to the kitchen.

Bowl!
He needed a
bowl for water. The kitchen was big, and he was never in there
often enough to remember where everything was kept.

He wanted to ring Mrs.
McKenzie for help, but the thought of waking the woman in the
middle of the night just to find a mere bowl was unreasonable, he
concluded. Thus, he found himself opening every cupboard door he
could put his hands on. At last, he found a bowl and rushed back
upstairs.

Five minutes later, with
lukewarm water in the bowl and a small towel, Alec started sponge
bathing Ruby’s hot face. He touched her forehead to see if that
helped, and found her temperature there was much cooler.

“
This is working,” he
said.

Then he started moving the
wet towel down to her throat. As he did so, he was thinking about
the rest of her body, and paused to look at her flushed face. He
told himself he would not take advantage of her. Anyone would do
what he was about to do if confronted with such an odd
situation.

He started to unbutton her
shirt.

“
Forgive me, sweetheart,”
he said.

Buttons undone, he slipped the towel under her shirt and
started bathing her body while keeping his eyes averted, and
staring at her face instead of what he was doing. Once he deemed it
was enough to cool her fever, he touched her forehead again, happy
to discover it was indeed getting cooler.

After rebuttoning up her
shirt, he lay beside her and pulled the duvet up to her chin. As he
did so, she moved closer to him, mumbling about something he
couldn’t understand in another language. He didn’t have the heart
to just push her away, so he wrapped his arm around her and moved
her closer still. He didn’t know what came over him as he kissed
her forehead gently. She groaned in her language again. He smiled
and closed his eyes.

Ruby woke up feeling
utterly drowsy and weak. Her body ached sorely. She sat up, and
instantly, her head spun out of control. She gritted her teeth and
swore silently. Once her dizziness ceased, she scanned her
surroundings. She couldn’t remember where she was. She tried to
think, but her brain refused to function properly.
Where am I?
This wasn’t her bedroom. Where was everyone else?
Where were her mum and four sisters?

A dog yapped. She glanced
at a very cute, snow-white dog sitting on the edge of the bed near
her feet. He looked as though he, too, had just woken
up.

She frowned. Then, slowly and painfully, began to remember
the dog. It was Westies. Then she remembered the storm, her injured
foot, and Alec rescuing her. She remembered him driving the Land
Rover back from the woods and carrying her into the manor. She also
recalled how he treated her injured foot; and then,
oh God,
she remembered herself crying and admitting that she
was scared. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in his
arms.

She bit her lip as she
suddenly became mortified with embarrassment. Why did she admit to
him she was scared? Why did she fall asleep in his arms?

You stupid ninny,
she
chided herself.
What have you
done? You tried to escape him by running away, and instead, you
nearly killed yourself in the storm. But it was her right,
she told herself firmly. It was her
freedom to do as she pleased.

Captain Snow came to sit
on her lap. She stroked the dog’s head and said, “Oh, Westies, he’d
think me a stupid ninny, all right. I can’t face him.”

“
Whom can’t you face?”
came a deep male voice at the door.

Ruby glanced up to see
Alec, carrying a tray in his hands.

You!
She wanted to
shout at him. But, of course, she kept quiet as she watched him
enter the room.

He was especially handsome this morning in his jeans and
T-shirt.
Show off!
She silently swore because she
couldn’t stop herself from staring at his manly body.

“
Food for you,” he said,
placing the tray on the bedside table before sitting down beside
her. That got her heart jump-started like crazy.

Calm down, Ruby, he’s only
a man. He’s only Alec; your captor. He’s simply pretending to be
nice.

He touched her forehead
with the back of his hand, and Ruby recoiled. She was so surprised
by the gentle contact that she backed away.

Alec smiled at her
reaction. “You had a fever last night.”

“
Did I?” she whispered,
her throat dry, a knot forming in the pit of her
stomach.

He nodded.

“
I didn’t know,” she said
as she watched him picking up a piece of toast and giving it to
her.

“
Breakfast in bed?” she
asked.

“
You’re not getting out of
bed today, I’m afraid,” he informed her. “And plenty of fluids for
you.”

“
I can feed myself, thank
you very much,” she said, snatching the toast from him.

He watched her as she ate.
Ruby felt rather uncomfortable and said, “Don’t you have anything
else to do?”