Page 71 of Sins of the Highlander

Words were just sounds, puffs of air with meaning attached, but Elspeth evidently put a lot of stock in them, so he’d give it his best.

He closed his eyes to compose his thoughts. Looking at her roused his body so, his mind became jumbled. Even with his eyes shut, he could still conjure an image of her, mouth passion-slack, brows tented in pleasurable agony.

His chest constricted, a hard lump of tenderness crowding his ribs.

“When I cover ye, Elspeth, and the glory of your coming is upon ye, ’tis like I hold your soul and ye hold mine.” He opened his eyes and met her gaze. “And the brightness of our joining would fair strike me blind, but for the life of me, I canna look away.”

Then he frowned down at her. “Does that sound like whoring to ye?”

She shook her head.

“What does it sound like?” he asked.

“Like…trust,” she said slowly. “Like…love.”

“Well, then.” He thought so, but he was no expert when it came to the shadowy realm of emotion. It steadied him to have her confirmation. “There ye have it.”

“Have what?”

“Trust and love.” He bent to kiss her, but she turned her head at the last moment, and his lips landed on her ear.

“Ye love me, then?”

“I said as much, did I no’?”

She met his gaze squarely. “No, ye didna.”

“Then let me speak plainly.” He leaned on his elbows and palmed her cheeks. “I love ye, Elspeth Stewart.”

Her smile would have lit the queen’s hall, brighter than a hundred candles.

He bent to kiss her again but stopped short.

Her eyes flew open. “What’s wrong?”

“Ye dinna love me back?”

“Of course I do.”

“Then say it,” he dared her with a grin. “A man canna tell what a woman feels unless she speaks of it.”

Her heart shone in her hazel eyes. “I love ye, Rob MacLaren.”

He kissed her, softly and sweetly. Then he cast her a wicked grin. “Prove it.”

***

Mrs. Christie banged on the door to the guest suite. She’d lugged the copper hip bath up the steps with no help at all from that lout of a husband of hers. The water was aboil in the kitchen and ready for her to start the multiple trips it would take to fill the shallow tub.

Good thing the MacLaren was paying them so handsomely.

She rapped the door again before she thought better of it.

The door opened a crack, and she saw Mad Rob’s brilliant blue eyes peering out at her. And the rest of him that she could see was naked as Adam.

She hadn’t brought in the hip bath yet, so that could only mean the MacLaren and the woman with him were…

Merciful Saint Brigid! And in the middle of the afternoon.