Love in the Time of a Highland Laird (A Laird for All Time Book 3), Angeline Fortin [top ten ebook reader txt] 📗

He rolled his eyes. “If Father survives this night, he should be grateful enough tae let it pass but I dinnae care for his opinion on the matter one way or the other. Al will be mine.”

“Unless ye die.”

“Aye, only that would keep me from her.”

*

“Ye’re leaving then?”

Al peeked up from the ties of her cloak, her heart rate accelerating. “In a few minutes.”

Darkness had already fallen. She’d been afraid she wouldn’t see him again before she left. Wondered if he would continue to give her the cold shoulder and then never have the chance to berate her once more, if that’s what he wanted to do. She’d take even that if it meant seeing him again just in case…

Tears burned at her eyes but Al blinked them back. She knew what they were about to do was dangerous. She wasn’t a fool. But whatever he thought, her part in it was minor. She was just a player not the hero.

It was his neck on the line and damn it, she wanted to hug it one last time just in case it was the last time.

If only he didn’t seem so foreboding, much as he had down in the dungeons. His arms crossed over his chest, his blue eyes gleaming in the darkness. But with what emotion she couldn’t say.

Vision clouded with unshed tears, she tucked her head down and fumbled with ties at the neck of her cloak. A second later, warm hands covered hers. With a soft squeeze, he pushed them away and finished the job himself.

His rough fingertips caressed the line of her jaw and tilted her chin up. “Lass, ye dinnae hae tae do this.” His brogue was thick, husky.

“Of course, I do.”

“Mo rúnsearc…” He trailed off and sighed heavily.

“What is that?” she whispered, running her fingers into the curling hair clinging to his neck. “What does it mean?”

“It literally translates as my secret love,” he admitted, looking away. “It means beloved.”

“Oh, an endearment then?”

“‘Tis nae merely an endearment, lass,” he corrected, his voice low. “I’ve ne’er used it before. But perhaps it isnae entirely correct either.”

A poignant ache gripped Al’s heart. No, of course it wasn’t. She’d never been anyone’s beloved before.

“I might hae better said mo shíorghrá or m’fhíorghrá. Either would be more fitting. More true tae what I feel.” He gazed down at her, stroking the hair back from her temple tenderly. “Do ye ken what that means?”

She shook her head. He knew she didn’t.

“It means my eternal love.” He lifted her hand to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss to her fingertips. She was riveted by the intensity of his vivid eyes. “My true love.”

She shook her head and tried to look away but he wouldn’t let her, holding her firmly.

“Ye dinnae think ye deserve love. Nay, dinnae try tae run away. I ken all too well how ye think, lass. What ye dinnae realize… what ye willnae accept is ye already hae it. Ye dinnae hae tae do this thing, risk yer life tae earn it. I love ye already, lass. My heart is yers.”

It was incomprehensible. There wasn’t a thought beyond denial running through her head as she stared up at him blankly.

“Ye think I lie?” he asked perceptively. “That I make it up tae keep ye from going? Can ye nae see in yerself what I see in ye? A beauty of heart? A brilliant mind? Ye stole my heart from the beginning, lass. Ye give of yerself so fully. Did ye ne’er think anything would e’er be given back?”

“I don’t know…” God, he scored her heart with his words. Never had she heard anything so soul-wrenching. But here? Now? Turning her head, she stared down the street. If only…

Damn, if only they were alone. A handful of his men were waiting not far down the street. Far enough away to be out of earshot but not so far they had any real privacy.

“We don’t have time to do this right now.”

She pushed on his chest but he took her by the shoulders and held her tight.

“What? Nae time for me tae tell ye I love ye? Nae time tae hear the same from yer lips?” He gave her a little shake. “Do ye hae nae love for me, lass?”

God, he couldn’t be doing this right now! His words had flooded her to the edge of her limits. If he continued to press her, she’d end up bawling all over him, clinging to him in desperation and begging him never to leave her.

She’d never had a man tell her he loved her. Lay down his heart like that. Certainly not in a way that skyrocketed past every far-flung fantasy she’d ever had or any narrative she’d ever read.

Couldn’t he see she just didn’t know how to respond to something like that? How to deal with her heart aching so painfully in her chest it must have cracked open inside of her and spilled out? Couldn’t he see it leaking out in her tears?

Her throat was so painfully clogged with emotion she could hardly breathe. Her chest burning. Her head reeling…

“Good God, Keir, is she about to faint?”

Chapter 35

Mathilde stepped out of the inn pulling on her gloves, studying Al’s… aye, near-faint, with an expression bordering on amusement.

“Go away, Mathilde,” he barked, sweeping Al off her feet and into his arms. Brushing past his cousin, he carried her into the inn.

“We don’t have time for this!”

Ignoring his cousin, he made his way toward the stairs with his curvaceous bundle.

“Keir, stop,” she whispered, regaining some tension in her body. “Stop.”

“Ye’re ill.”

“I’m overwhelmed,” she murmured so quietly he barely heard her. “Please stop.”

He didn’t but he did veer into one of the private rooms off the tap room and close the door.

“Will you put me down?”

“Nay.”

Her soft chuckle tickled his ear. A moment later, her arms wound around his neck and she nestled her cheek against his chest with a