Page 63 of Highland Sword
“It’s anA,” she announced.
Cheers went up all around her, and Morrigan stared at them in confusion.
Aidan always thought of himself as a man of reason. He used fact in his arguments. He largely ignored fantasy and old wives’ tales. He liked to walk on solid ground and avoid slippery slopes. Still, he was a Highlander, and his heart beat a little faster as he stared at the shape of the apple peel on the ground.
“What does it mean?” Morrigan asked the women around her.
“The peel takes the shape of the first initial of the man ye’ll marry.”
She leaned over and stared at the pattern again for a long moment. When she straightened, her face was flushed, and she shook her head. “Rubbish.”
Her denial prompted loud laughter, and she walked calmly toward him.
Aidan decided that she could say what she wanted, act as composed as she pleased, but even in the light of the torches, he could see the bright splotches on her cheeks.
“Who do you think it is?”
She didn’t answer but held out the half-eaten apple toward him. “Would you care for a bite?”
“I believe I would.”
He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and slowlybrought the fruit to his lips. Their eyes locked. Deliberately, he took his time—staring at her mouth, wet from the apple—before he took a bite.
He saw her lips part, and he released her. Everything around them disappeared. The crowds, the fires, the village, everything. Only he and Morrigan existed. They were two people drawn together by an invisible tie. Caught in this moment, this sublime instant, as time stood still.
“May I kiss you?”
She stared at his lips and nodded slightly.
Aidan took her hand, and the two of them moved quickly down a lane away from the light of the market square fires. Urgency seized them, and suddenly they were running. He didn’t know where they were going until she pulled him to the gate of a dark cottage.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered, his gaze scouring every inch of her face. “So perfect and—”
Morrigan kissed him. Raising herself on her tiptoes, she crushed her lips against his.
There were no soft words. No coaxing. No wooing. Their kiss became the unleashing of repressed desire. Aidan’s fingers delved into her hair, and his mouth devoured her lips, forcing her mouth open. His tongue surged inside. She gave a stifled gasp, and her body molded against him. Her hands encircled his waist, pulling him tighter.
Suddenly, she drew back. Her eyes were wide. She pushed him away, shaking her head. He backed up a step, his heart still racing.
“I can’t,” she whispered, alarm evident in her voice. “I can’t do this. I’m sorry.”
Morrigan turned and ran up the lane, and Aidan watched her go, confused and wondering what exactly he’d done to frighten her.
CHAPTER19
MORRIGAN
Morrigan’s lips tingled from the kiss. How alive she’d felt in Aidan’s arms! As the castle walls loomed up in the darkness ahead, her heart raced. For the first time, she’d been overthrown by real passion. It struck like a summer storm, with lightning flashing and thunder shaking the ground beneath her feet.
Morrigan wanted to give and take. To sample and feel. To hold onto him and ask him never to let her go.
Aidan challenged her and—for all his teasing—respected her. He wasn’t intimidated by who she was or what she was capable of doing. And her heart sang every time she was near him. Right now, her body burned, knowing he wanted her. And his words. The hints about matrimony and children.
Her steps faltered. She stopped.
What was she thinking?
Morrigan looked around her in the darkness. They said that tonight fairies, ghosts, and witches roamed unhindered. Spirits of mischief playing their tricks on humans. Making off with souls of the living. Tonight, she wasbeing tricked into believing that she could have a life. Have a future filled with dreams.
