Entrusted to a Highlander (Highland Promise Trilogy 2)

Once again he mentioned them being friends. How could he have thought that when he had barely spoken to her. Years ago she wouldn’t dare voice what she truly thought. But much had changed, including her, so she spoke her mind.

“Friends?” she questioned. “I didn’t think we were friends, acquaintances perhaps, or I was simply Bayne’s sister to you, but never were we friends. Friends talk with each other, spend time together. We did none of that.”

“Acquaintances then if you must, but friends now. We talk and spend time together” he said as if that proved and settled it.

She laughed again and not too lightly. “We spend time together because you refuse to leave, and as for talking? I do most of it. You offer little. If we are friends, or to be friends, then share with me,” —she turned serious— “tell me how you got those scars on your back.”

When silence followed, she questioned that if they couldn’t be friends, if he couldn’t talk freely with her, then how could they ever be husband and wife.

Arran never intended to tell anyone, though there were a few who knew, like him that thought the same, the memories were better left alone. And Purity certainly didn’t need to know and yet for some reason he had the urge to tell her.

He didn’t stop himself. “I was taken captive during a battle with a horde of savages. Their leader—a soulless, evil man—enjoyed inflicting pain. You never knew when you would be beaten or which prisoner would get taken. Or if you would have days or hours after the last beating to recover. One prisoner suffered so badly—so many beatings—he begged for death.” He cringed, the stench of the cell returning to him along with the man’s pleas. “He begged and begged and begged for one of us to kill him, to end his suffering. Everyone had been warned not to help him or they would suffer tenfold for it. One night when everyone slept, I crawled over to him, not making a sound. I placed my hand over his mouth and his eyes went wide. I removed my hand and I nodded and he smiled and nodded in return. He took my hand and placed it over his mouth and nose. It would have been faster and easier for him if I snapped his neck, but they would have known his neck had been snapped and so he let me know how I should end his misery. He closed his eyes ready to meet death. Suffocation would have taken too long and he no doubt would have struggled and brought attention to us. I didn’t even give it thought. I snapped his neck quickly. In the morning when they found him, I let the guards know what I did so that no one else would be punished.” He shook his head. “I should have known better. I got lashed first. Then I was made to watch as the other men were made to suffer worse than I did.”

Arran was stunned when Purity suddenly appeared before him and dropped down into his lap, her arms going around his neck as she laid her head on his shoulder, and his arms went around her.

“I’m so sorry. You were so brave to do that and so kind.”

He heard her sniff back tears, but he couldn’t let her think that he was brave or kind. “I’m neither of those, Purity. My only thought had been that the man had been used by our captives to keep us in fear. If someone helped him we’d suffer, if no one helped we’d still suffer watching him die slowly and painfully, wondering which one of us would be next. So out of fear of being the next man begging to die we all suffered. I didn’t kill him out of kindness. I did it to regain control, though I doubt any understood that.”

Purity raised her head off his shoulder and looked at him. “You can tell yourself that all you want, but I know differently. You’re kind and that’s hasn’t changed.”

Arran grabbed the back of her neck as his lips came down hard on hers. He purposely kissed her with force. He wanted her to understand that there was a brutality to him that wasn’t there before. He shoved past her lips with his tongue, waging a battle with hers. He waited for her to fight him, to break free of him, and he would let her go since she’d finally see what kind of man he had become. She shocked him when she returned his kiss with just as much force, her arm coiling around his neck and holding on, her tongue battling his with fervor, and her breasts pressed against his chest, her hard nipples jabbing at him like the tips of a dagger, leaving their mark. And his shaft swelled in response.