Kiwi Bride Series: Highland Kiss (13 page)

“
Not really,” he replied
promptly.

She paused and looked at
him blankly. “How did you know I had a fever last
night?”

Alec cocked his head to
one side as he studied her. “I was here.”

“
What were you doing
here?”

Alec grinned.
She
didn’t remember.
He was
curious, so he asked, “What do you remember from
yesterday?”

Ruby lowered her eyes and
frowned darkly. Alec could see that she was blushing.

“
What do you remember from
yesterday?”

“
I don’t want to talk
about it.”

“
The storm?” he
prodded.

She bit her lip, knowing
he was an insistent man. If he wanted to know something, he’d
pursue it until he got the answer. Reluctantly, she
nodded.

Alec continued, “You
injured yourself?”

Again, she
nodded.

“
I saved you?”

She nodded, her eyes still
downcast.

“
In the drawing room, I
tended to your injury?”

Her blush
intensified.

“
And you—”

“
And I fell asleep; and now I have woken up only to find
myself in this room,” she said quickly. “Okay, I remember
everything
, even the part when I admitted to you I was scared.
So I was scared. Happy now?”

Alec smiled. Aye, she remembered…
everything
,
except for the
kiss.

“
Did you do something?”
Ruby asked curiously.

“
Something?” He raised his
eyebrows at her.

“
About my fever,” she
supplied.

“
Yes,” he said, thinking
about unbuttoning her shirt and sponge bathing her
more-than-desirable body.

“
Thank you." She finished
the last bite of toast. “You know, I didn’t expect you to be so
nice, being my captor and all. But you are, and so I sincerely
thank you.”

“
You’re welcome,” he
replied as he got up. “Would you like something to
read?”

She reached for the cup of
tea as she nodded.

“
History?” he
asked.

“
Yes, thank
you.”

“
Your wish is my command.” As he was about to leave, he
said, “I’ll do it again anytime for you.” He winked at her and
walked out.

Ruby’s heart started to beat like there was no
tomorrow.
He winked at her.
He really just winked at her!
Calm down, you ninny, it was just a wink. But it was a very
hot one all the same.

“
Do you think it means
anything, Westies?” she asked Captain Snow.

The dog looked at her
blankly, resting his head back on her lap.

“
No, it means nothing,”
she said to herself. “But what does he mean by ‘I’ll do it again
anytime for you’?” She cocked her head to one side, contemplating
the possible meanings of his enigmatic words.

* * *

Ruby was ready to explode
that afternoon when Alec refused to listen to her argument. She
simply wanted to punch him, but she knew that no amount of punching
could ever hurt that hard, muscular chest of his. She thought about
punching his face, too. That’d bring his handsome quotient down by
a notch or two; and then, perhaps her heart wouldn’t flutter so
much every time she saw him.

“
Surely, you see what not
having them has done to me,” she rationalized. “If I were to have
them earlier, this wouldn’t have happened to me.”

“
And if you had stayed put
like I told you to, it also wouldn’t have happened to you,” he
replied calmly at the door, ready to leave the room.

“
I’m only asking for my glasses back. And I promise you, I’m
not going to run away again. Not with this blasted foot." She
pointed to her injured ankle.

Alec didn’t reply to that.
Oh, he knew she’d try to escape again, injured foot or not. If past
experiences served him right, she’d come up with another outrageous
solution to escape again, and very soon. He thought he’d better
keep his guard up.

He said, “Now have your
lunch and drink plenty of fluids.”

Ruby took a deep breath and started counting to calm
herself down.
This man is
simply impossible. Does he not understand the meaning of human
rights?

Her counting didn’t work.
She got to number three. “No!” She slid off the bed and looked
around the room wildly. Surely, there must have been something in
this room that was worth trading for.

“
Madame, please get back
into bed,” he warned. “You’re unwell.”

She stood straighter,
staring up at him. “No!”

Ruby spotted the Chinese
urn sitting on the table near the window. Limping over to it, she
snatched it, and held it precariously in the air.

Alec secretly smiled as he
watched her standing there holding the expensive, antique urn,
ready to smash it to the floor any moment. He debated whether to
come any closer or just agree to her simple request.

He thought she looked
rather fetching indeed, dressed only in his shirt, her long hair
wild, her face flushed, and her lips angry red.

“
This urn in exchange for
my glasses,” she proposed.

He calmly walked toward
her; and she started to flutter once she realized the threat didn’t
bother him one tiny bit.

“
I said, this urn for my
glasses. If you come any closer, I’ll smash it. I mean it,
Alec.”

He eventually stood by the
bed. As he watched her staring back at him, he folded his arms
across his chest and leaned against one poster of the four-poster
bed.

“
Aren’t you going to get my glasses?” she asked, confusion
clearly evident on her face. “You’ve got five minutes.”

“
Nay, I’m not going to,”
he replied.

Ruby stared in
astonishment. “What about the urn?”

“
You can smash it if you
want.”

She opened her mouth to
say something, but promptly closed it again. He looked bored out of
his tree. He looked as though he didn’t care whether the urn were
smashed by her, or anyone else, for that matter.

She glanced at the beautiful urn in her hands.
That brute doesn’t even care if I
smash you or not. He just doesn’t care!

She sighed and gently
returned the urn to the table. It was simply too beautiful and
expensive for her to smash. Even if she had nothing to lose at the
moment, she still didn’t have the heart to destroy such an
invaluable item.

“
It’s only my glasses.
It’s not like I’m asking you to take me back to New Zealand,” she
muttered.

He approached her and
said, “Why do you want your glasses so badly?”

Now was her chance, Ruby thought.
Ha! Two could play at this game.
She needed to use her woman’s wit to deal with a
man who had a heart of steel like Alec. Thus, she looked up at him,
her large eyes glistening with fake tears. “I can’t see properly,”
she said pitifully, proceeding to sniff as well, to add more
effect.

“
Yes, I know that,” he
commented.

“
And I can’t read properly
either. My eyes are getting worse. What’s the point of having all
those books if I can’t read them?” She glanced at the piles of
books he brought for her only that morning. Then she looked really
sad.

Alec had to smile at her
expression. He thought she could have asked for anything: her
clothing, her passport, or her wallet, things that would have been
more useful to her, especially if she had plans for another escape.
Instead, she was asking for her glasses simply because she wanted
to read.

“
What can I do to get
them?” she queried him lightly.

Alec knew exactly what she could do.
Damn, but it was very tempting.

“
A trade?” she suggested.
“I’m not sure what I can give. But please, I hate getting a
headache when I concentrate too hard to see the words.”

Alec had to swallow hard as he saw her large eyes, pleading
for his consent. He lowered his lips to her ear and whispered, “A
trade sounds good to me.

Ruby couldn't hide her smile, as she thought,
Mr. Alec Cook, you’re just like
every other man.
She gazed up
at him through her thick, dark lashes and licked her lips slowly
and suggestively.

Alec’s eyes were riveted
on her lovely face, especially those luscious lips of
hers.

“
Okay, my glasses for,
er—” She paused. “For what?”

Alec couldn’t help
himself. It was just too tempting. He touched her bottom lip, his
thumb feeling the soft flesh.

Oh shit!
Ruby
thought, sensing her plan had just backfired. She was in a trance.
His touch was soft and tender, sending wonderful sensations
throughout her body. She wanted him to go on stroking her
forever.
Is this what heaven
feels like?

“
A kiss,” he
said.

“
A kiss?” she whispered,
her heart thundering against her chest.

“
Aye, a kiss. Only a kiss
for your glasses,” he said as he stopped stroking her.

Only a kiss for my glasses? Surely, there is nothing more
and nothing less?
There was
nothing to it, this kissing business. It wouldn’t mean anything.
She wouldn’t feel anything. In exchange for her glasses, and yes,
so much more. Only Alec didn’t know that. To her mind, this was a
great bargain indeed.

“
Okay,” she said brightly.
“I’m not sure how to go about it though.” Of course, she had never
really kissed any guy before, although she saw how it was done up
close on several occasions in movies. She stood on tiptoes and
moved her head toward him.

Once their faces were very
close, she kissed him by simply pressing her lips against his. Then
she moved back, smiling with glee.

There, it’s done—
and
just as she thought earlier—
there’s nothing to it at all.

She was still smiling as she looked up at him. When he
simply stood there and gazed at her, she said, “I’ve kissed you.
Can I have my glasses now?”

Alec didn’t say
anything.

Feeling rather awkward and
embarrassed all of a sudden, Ruby walked back to the bed and sat
down. Then she said, “I’ll have my lunch while you go fetch my
glasses.”

Alec left the room, hiding a smile. As he walked up the
stairs toward the attic, he thought
, so she thinks that was a kiss? We’ll see about
that.

He found her glasses in
her bag, and suddenly wondered what she’d look like with them on.
Try as he might, he just couldn’t visualize it, although her pretty
face beaming up at him, all smiles, kept appearing in his mind’s
eye.

He shook his head and
turned to the door, but quickly narrowed his eyes. He thought he
glimpsed a flash of something white disappearing around the corner
of the hallway. He went to have a look, scanning left and right.
Nothing was there, however. He frowned, shook his head, and went
down the stairs.

Ruby came out of the tiny
closet and sighed with relief. So that was where he kept her
things.

Oh God
, how could she
explain the reason why she was not in the room?

She limped as fast as she
could down the stairs. Trying to keep silent, however, was truly
impossible with her blasted injured ankle.

Across the hall, she saw
him entering the bedroom. Ruby gritted her teeth as she tried to
think of what to do. A moment later, she saw him coming out again.
She sprang back against the wall, hiding anxiously. Her heart was
pumping out of control as she waited for him to leave.

From the corner of her
eye, she saw him walking down the hall toward the stairs, and she
ran into the bedroom and then, into the bathroom. Luckily, the
bathroom door was closed, otherwise she couldn’t think of what else
to do.

She hastily turned the
shower on. Once it was warm enough, she took her clothes off and
got under it.

The warm water soothed
her. Her breathing slowed, and a few moments later, her furiously
beating heart gradually resumed its normal rhythm. She sighed and
smiled at her smart tactics.

She mentally made a note
to go up into the attic later and look for the rest of her things.
Of course, once she had her wallet, which contained all her
necessary items: her visa, credit card, and passport, she’d be able
to really escape. And her cell phone, of course, so she could ring
Brian and her mum. The very thought of her imminent freedom excited
her so much that she giggled.

“
Shoot!” she swore when
she noticed that the bandages around her foot were getting rather
wet. She stuck her right foot out, away from the spraying water,
and started cleaning herself quickly.