Page 26 of Lost with a Scot
“I started a fight with the blacksmith.”
“The blacksmith? Why?” she asked. “Do you make a habit of starting fights with tradesmen?”
The shadows crept back into his eyes. “Only with ones who hit children or animals.”
“Oh. Well, good.” She didn’t know what else to say to that. If she’d met a man who struck a child, she would have hit him too.
“Ye don’t mind that I’m a brute?” Aiden asked.
She lifted her chin almost defiantly. “Defending someone who is defenseless is not being a brute. I think it’s rather heroic.”
Aiden still held her wrist, and he moved his fingers up until he held her hand instead. Then he slowly pressed his lips to her knuckles.
A hot flush swept through her as she drew in a sharp breath.
“Is it madness to want to kiss ye, lass?” His low, husky voice did funny, wonderful things to her lower belly.
“Kiss me?” she echoed as her gaze fell to his lips.
“Aye. Have ye been kissed before?” Aiden pressed his mouth to her fingers again, which only made it harder to think.
“I... Once, I think... But I was young.”
“Ye’re still young,” he teased.
She laughed. “I mean, I think I was perhaps fourteen or fifteen? It was with a young stable hand. I remember the smell of hay and...” She looked up into his eyes. “Have you kissed someone?”
“A few someones, but not many.” His eyes held hers. “Will ye let me kiss ye now, Anna?”
“Yes, but what if I am terrible at it?” A sudden fear of her own inadequacy made the rising desire within her dim.
Aiden cupped her cheek in his other hand. “If that is the case, then it will be my pleasurable duty to tutor ye. I’ve never met a woman yet who canna kiss better than a man. I believe women were born for kissing and it’s the men who need lessons.” Well, when he put it like that, she worried a little less. Lessons from him would bemostwelcome. He gave her a little wink, and she found her worries vanishing. He had the most wonderful way of doing that to her.
“All right...” She leaned in, perhaps in too much haste, because the next thing she knew their foreheads had collided.
“Ouch!” She drew back and covered her forehead with a hand. Aiden rubbed a similar spot on his own head.
“Let me come to ye, lass. That’s the first lesson. Ye lean in just a little, and then ye let me come the rest of the way.”
“Oh, I see.” They returned to their positions. This time she leaned in an inch and closed her eyes.
There was a moment of nothing but her own hungry anticipation, the sounds of the room fading as her ears homed in on the soft exhale of Aiden’s breath. His fingers fluttered against her jaw, the touch hot and tingly, and then his lips pressed against hers, velvety caresses that pulled a sigh of delight from her. Aiden moved his lips back and forth over hers, and soon she learned to move with him. It was somewhat like dancing, only these were new steps she was learning, and Aiden was a masterful teacher. Anna wasn’t sure how long they kissed—it seemed to go on forever, and yet it ended far too soon.
When their lips parted, he had a hand cupping the back of her neck while their foreheads rested against each other.
“Good?” he asked her.
“Very good,” she replied between deep breaths. “Was I?”
“Like a dream, lass.” He gave her a dreamy smile, and her heart fluttered in response.
“’Tis late. We should go to bed. I’ll take the chair again while ye take the bed.” He stood and clasped her hand in his and then led her back up the stairs.
She paused when they reached the door to their room. “And if I have more bad dreams?” she asked, suddenly anxious that her nightmares might return.
Aiden’s eyes glowed in the dim light of the corridor. “Then I’ll be right there to chase them away.”
CHAPTER7
