Love in the Time of a Highland Laird (A Laird for All Time Book 3) by Angeline Fortin (whitelam books .TXT) 📗

very tall. Even to a woman who’d had to look up at men her whole life. Having him looming over her so should have been intimidating, but it wasn’t. She felt petite, yes, but protected. Safe. The idea of nestling into his encompassing embrace was alluring. But then she also felt energized and alive, even when standing in his shadow. As bright as those stars twinkling from above.

“Shall I be e’en bolder?” His brogue was low and husky. His fingertips traced her jawline in a light caress, leaving her trembling with yearning. “Shall I offer ye my kiss and see if ye accept it?”

She licked her lips. More than anything, she wanted to say yes. For the past few days—when she hadn’t been lost to the pure enjoyment of their conversation, at least—she’d been pondering how it might be to kiss him. Replaying the ever-changing fantasies in her mind over and over.

Wondering why he hadn’t tried to yet.

Would he be hesitant? Would he take? Would he plunder like the rake he denied being?

Any of the scenarios might make her heart rate skyrocket. But this shameless flirtation? The way he asked in words that might have seemed uncertain yet were phrased with such assuredness, had her nearly puddling at his feet.

She wanted this. Wanted to know if it would be anything like the earth-shattering kisses she’d read about but never thought possible. Or even probable. She was dying to know.

Yet when he bent his head, his lips only hovered above hers. Uncertain what stopped him, she took a nervous step out of his reach. With a shake of her head, Al tucked her loose hair behind her ear and laughed lightly. Hoping her frayed nerves weren’t evident in the shaky laugh.

“There you go, getting your rake on again. Tell me, is this one of your usual pick-up lines?”

“Pick-up lines?” Keir frowned down at her.

“I thought you told me you left such bull…er, excessive flattery to your cousin,” she said with another light laugh. “Yet here you are, a veritable Prince Charming.”

“Ye think I’m bamming ye now?” he asked, deciphering her words. “Look at me, Al.”

Holding her chin firmly, he tilted her head back until she was forced to meet his eyes. “I am nae liar, nor am I prone tae false flattery. If I tell ye ye’re bonny, ‘tis because ye are. Because I believe ‘tis so.” His low voice was thick with his brogue. As it had before, the gravelly tone incited a corresponding tremor through her body. The desire she’d been denying surged through her veins, making her dizzy. “Ye insult me and my intelligence by making light or assuming my words empty ones. Do ye understand?”

“Y–yes.”

“Good. Do ye believe me now when I say ye’re bonny?”

She believed that he believed it. Though she marveled at it, she had never doubted it. “Yes.”

He nodded curtly and stepped away, leaving Al to sway unsteadily without his support. “Now, come, let me show ye my surprise.”

Chapter 15

It took every ounce of his willpower to turn and walk away from her. All of his strength to even walk a straight line, but Keir did it anyway. His entire body burned with wanting, longing.

As it had been for days, without even a single kiss between them yet. He wanted badly to taste her lips, to learn their shape. To feel them against his.

But he’d be damned if he’d give her more reason to think him a rake.

True, he’d never considered she might already have a man of her own when he’d made his intentions to woo her into his bed clear. The way she looked at him, he knew she found him comely. She couldn’t take her eyes off him any more than he could force his gaze from her.

That didn’t make him a rake.

Nay, she would come to him first before he’d admit to being brought low by his raging lust. She’d succumbed easily to a seduction of words and the slightest caress of his fingertips. The tiny tremors racking her body told him without doubt she wanted him. He thought only that she might be shy and so had provided an easy opportunity for her to take his kiss and allow them each to expel the desire burning within them both.

Still, she denied them. It’d never occurred to him that it would take so long. Or worse. That she might not plan to act on the attraction between them at all.

Now he was becoming less and less certain she ever would. It wasn’t morality or modest reticence holding her back but her own insecurity. He doubted she would ever see his true admiration for her when she couldn’t even acknowledge the beauty she possessed.

How could she not see it? Be confident in her appeal? Shyness wouldn’t account for it. Perhaps the men in the future were naught but blind fools? In his eyes, Al was the embodiment of womanly perfection. The generous curves were perfectly proportioned on her wee frame. Bountiful breasts that his palms itched to hold and weigh. A tiny waist flaring out to rounded hips, and her legs! Though he hadn’t given them the attention they deserved in his anger in the dungeon or when she’d come to his library, the memory of those bared limbs extending from her indecently short skirt haunted him.

He couldn’t imagine how men in her time kept a sane thought in their heads if all the women there dressed so scantily. Just the thought of her had kept him in a semi-aroused state for days.

There wasn’t beauty in her body alone, either. Nay, she had the face of an angel. Heart-shaped, her skin flawless ivory with a perpetual blush of pink on her cheeks. Her eyes were large and gray, fringed with long dark lashes. Her most prominent feature, he’d found his gaze drawn to them over and over. They reflected her moods, her humor, her intelligence.

With her blonde hair left unbound as she liked to wear it, she’d