Laird of Darkness by Nicole North

before the fireplace now, bent forward, working at something. What was he doing? Had she chased him from his own bed? ’Twas warm here and she wished to curl her body into his and sleep more.
    “Why do you not come to bed and sleep?” Alana said.
    Duncan straightened and turned, finding her with his midnight eyes. “Nay. Go back to sleep.” His voice was a raw, edgy sound.
    “I will if you sleep with me.”
    Giving her his back, he was silent for a long moment. “Why did you lie to me?” His cold tone chilled her. How could he speak to her thus after their scorching encounter?
    “About what?”
    “If you have to ask, you must have told more than one lie.” Again he glared back at her.
    “I know not what you speak of.” Loutish knave!
    “When I asked if you were a virgin before, you said that you were. But we both ken you were not.”
    “’Tis not your concern.”
    “’Tis now.”
    She shook her head. What did it matter and why did he care? “Because…I was ashamed. And I sought to protect myself.”
    “How long since this happened?”
    “Three years. I was young and foolish. There was a lad—”
    “You are still young and foolish,” he snapped in a chastising tone. “You shouldn’t have allowed me to…” He muttered curses and rose to his feet.
    She remained silent, refusing to regret it.
    “Once ’twas clear to me that you weren’t a virgin, I told myself it wouldn’t matter if I took you. MacClaren would blame me for the loss of your virginity whether I’d taken it or not.”
    “’Haps you are right. So it matters not. What’s done is done. Why don’t you come here? Am I so terrible to sleep with?”
    He watched her for a moment with a displeased expression then glanced away.
    She noticed something white wrapped around the lower part of his leg beneath his plaid. It even appeared dark blood was seeping through “Is that a bandage?”
    “Aye.”
    She started to rise from the bed. “How did you get hurt since—”
    “Nay, stay where you are.” He held up his hand. His white sleeve appeared bloody as well.
    “What happened? Your arm and leg are bleeding. I’m a healer; mayhap I can help.”
    He shook his head. “I am well. The bite marks and scratches will heal. They always do.”
    A chill slid down her body. “What? How did you get bitten? A dog?” She recalled the earlier healing wounds she’d seen on his body.
    “Nay.” He remained stubbornly silent about the cause.
    “How?” she said in a firm tone, determined to hear the truth of it.
    “Why do you fear rats?”
    Panic closed around her throat. “Were you bitten by rats?”
    “Nay,” he said calmly. “You said earlier that you were afraid of rats, and I wondered why.”
    Was he trying to divert her from the subject at hand? If she revealed her fear, maybe he would finally tell her the source of his injuries. “If you must know, when I was seven summers old, my father sent me to foster with a lesser chieftain and his wife who had no children. They gave me the honor of my own bedchamber in the old castle. But during the night, large rats invaded the dark room and bit me all over, creating horrible painful wounds.” The mere memory of the sharp teeth slicing into her in the blackness, no one to help her despite her screams, made her stomach clench with nausea. “I was terrified, naturally. I refused to eat or sleep until my father and his men arrived to take me home two days later.”
    Duncan’s intense and concerned gaze burned into her. “’Tis a hellish thing for such a young child to suffer. They shouldn’t have left you alone,” he growled.
    She was surprised to feel a stinging mist of tears in her eyes. From the memory or from his disturbed, caring tone, she wasn’t sure. Alana knew if he’d been with her, he would’ve protected her.
    “What bit you, Duncan? I won’t tell anyone if you don’t wish it.”
    After a long moment of silence, he spoke in a low voice. “After dark, if I go to sleep, my