Page 88 of The Highlander's Alluring Spy
Magnolia tilted her head. “Well, all right then,” she said curiously. “See you there an hour hence?”
“I’ll be waitin’,” he promised.
* * *
Nathair was sitting at the table where they’d read together that night they’d first kissed when Magnolia walked in. His heart started hammering immediately as he took her in.
She was dressed simply, in a pale-blue dress that made the color of her wide eyes shine. Her honey-blonde hair, still damp, was pinned up on her head. She wore simple slip-on shoes and no stockings, clearly having hurried to get here.
She’s the most bonnie thing I’ve ever seen.
“Come sit down,” he said with a gentle smile. “Ye look grand.”
“Oh,” she said, her eyes traveling up what he was wearing. She seemed surprised, and he didn’t blame her. Nathair rarely dressed so casually, in some simple trews, and a shirt that hung open at the lacing, but he had been in such a hurry today that dressing well had simply been an afterthought. “Yes, all right.”
Magnolia took the seat directly next to him, and he saw a rose tint to her cheeks as she did. Was she thinking about that night, too? Did she long for it as much as he did?
“I thought we could read together,” Nathair said. “Like we used to.”
She gave him a strange look, and he almost laughed, but he couldn’t. That would give the game away.
After a’, every time we tried to read together before now, it ended up in arguin’ or kissin’ or…
That thought trailed off as something deep and dark inside him let out a low, anticipatory growl.
Hush, Nathair. Nae yet.
“I picked ye out a book,” he continued, gesturing at the table. Magnolia’s gaze followed his hand, settling on his chest for just a second before looking at the book.
Then she started to laugh loudly. “A Traveler’s Guide to Clan MacFoihl?Really, Nathair, you brought me here for a joke?” she asked. She touched the book cover lightly. “God above, it feels like years ago that I spirited this thing out of your library.”
“Aye, an’ me heart with it,” he told her seriously. She looked at him, taken aback by the change in his tone, and he made himself sound as earnest as possible. “When ye kissed me that day, Magnolia, me heart was never the same.”
“I…” she started. The rose color had given way to a deep crimson flush, not just on her cheeks but disappearing down her chest and below the hem of her bodice. “I think you will find thatyoukissedme.”
“Oh aye?” he asked, moving a little closer. “Because that isnae how I remember it.”
“Well,Iremember you getting rather upset with me,” she replied, leaning forward too. Their faces were so near each other now that their breaths mingled in the air. “I remember a very angry Laird who simply did not know what to do with himself.”
“Aye,” he said again. “And an Earl’s daughter wi’ an impossible secret and nae idea what to dae next.”
She nodded, and she was so close that he could hear her swallow. “I know what I should do next, now,” she whispered.
“An’ what’s that?”
But her hand was already moving, gently, cautiously cupping his cheek to bring his face forward that extra inch. He went willingly, and their lips met again at last. It started gentle, but that only lasted moments as the wild hunger neither had ever been able to entirely repress once again leaped to the surface.
She clambered off her chair and into his lap, her legs straddling his waist, and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer, the heat between them more scalding than the sun in the sky. One hand raised to tangle in her hair, and she was already pulling at the lace of her bodice, already impatient for him.
“Wait,” he said hoarsely when they came up for air. “Wait, wait. Magnolia. We cannae.”
She leaned back, one hand on her bodice, the other on his shoulder, and her expression was wary. “What? But…why not?” she asked. “I…do you not—did I misunderstand?” There was a slight note of panic in her voice.
“Nay!” he said quickly. “Nay, nay, I just…Magnolia, I brought ye here to read an’ I’d really like it if ye’d read the book I got ye.”
Magnolia’s expression went still, then she tilted her head in that way she did when she was confused. “Are…are you being serious, My Laird?”
God almighty above me, when she calls me that it’s almost more than I can bear.
