Page 27 of Highlanders for the Holidays
He winked at her. “Ah. Wait till ye see my snowman.”
For a moment, she only stared at him. Finally her eyes went wide, and her mouth formed a shocked “O.” She started pelting him with the pine needles.
He laughed and shook off the deluge. Then he caught her about the waist and hauled her to him.
Kissing her felt as natural and instinctive as breathing. Her lips opened to his as readily as a lock to a key. Her laughter spilled into his mouth, and he lapped up her joy. Their tongues touched, and the current bolted through him, making him instantly hard and eager.
If it were summer, he would have spread his tabard on the soft grass and made sweet love to her, right there and then.
But the world was wet and frozen.
So, between kisses, he gasped out, “Let’s go back…to the keep…before I turnye…into a snowwoman.”
Shaking off his lust, he took her hand and began the short hike home, happy he’d made her smile. But by the time they emerged from the wood, in view of the keep, he was already thinking about her warm bedchamber.
“I’ll race ye,” he said.
“What?” She giggled.
“Come on. Whoever is first to the gate gets to undress the last.”
She was still puzzling out whether it would be better to win or lose when he bolted off across the snow.
“Wait!” she cried. “Ye cheated!”
“Hurry up!”
“But ye never said go!”
“Go!” he yelled.
He gained several good yards. But then he made the mistake of turning around to gloat. While he was running backward, his heel caught on a tree root, and he fell smack on his arse.
She burst into laughter, charging past him as he scrambled to get up.
“Come back here, wife!” he bellowed after her.
“I don’t think so!” she crowed.
“But a wife’s supposed to obey her husband!”
She only laughed.
Chuckling, he dusted the snow off of his surcoat and let her get a short distance ahead. He was enjoying the view, after all, watching her bustling backside and catching a glimpse of her lovely calves as she picked up her skirts to scurry through the snow.
He couldn’t get over the fact that she was his. That breathtaking, vibrant, fresh-faced Highland lass belonged to him. How he’d gotten so lucky, he didn’t know. But he didn’t intend to let her get away from him. Now or ever.
In the end, he let her win, but only by an instant. He nipped at her heels the whole way, making her squeal in panic one moment and giggle at his antics the next. By the time they collapsed against the gate, they were breathless from running and giddy with laughter.
He grinned into her shining gray eyes and bent to give her a bold kiss, deciding he didn’t care whether it was proper or not. What should it matter if a few curious clansmen saw how much he loved his bride?
Her lips were cool. Her tongue was warm. Her breath mingled with his as they kissed, then caught their breath, then kissed again.
“You win,” he whispered, cradling her face with his palm. Then he stepped back with his arms outstretched. “Go ahead. Undress me.”
She gasped in delighted shock, shoving at his chest. “Ye’re a wicked, wicked man.”
She’d add a few more “wickeds” if she could read the lusty thoughts coursing through his head right now. Of course, he wasn’t about to act on any of them. By now there were several sets of eyes on them.
