A Time & Place for Every Laird by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader TXT) 📕

make me want to … oh, find abigger storm. Like it could be even more thrilling but at the sametime the thought is even more terrifying. Do you understand whatI’m saying?”

He did. For all the doubt and chaos hisappearance had brought, Sorcha was enjoying their time together andtheir burgeoning friendship. He, too, enjoyed their unusualcamaraderie, their lively exchanges, and even their more vexingones. Despite the brevity of their acquaintance, their relationshipwas already familiar beyond what might be expected. The days aheadwere filled with uncertainty but borne by the knowledge that Sorchawould be there with him. And he welcomed them because of that.

But that wasn’t all that Sorcha wassaying.

There was another storm brewing. One thatcould be far more thrilling than any other. Her own reservationsnotwithstanding, Sorcha was alluding to something far more enticingthan their evasion of the federal agents.

She was saying that she was tempted.

By him.

The realization sent a shaft of sudden lustthrough Hugh’s veins, a primal urge to plunder, knowing theravishment was mutually desired, but Hugh tamped back the arousal.He was coming to know Sorcha well enough to realize that anadmission was not an invitation.

Forcing a calm he didn’t feel into hisvoice, Hugh asked gruffly, “So what do ye want from me, lass?”

“And that’s where I’m still a mess,” shesaid with a sigh, tracing a finger around the steering wheel. “Iwant … I want … And then I want something else.”

Cryptic words to say the least, but somehowhe understood her implication. What Sorcha was struggling withwasn’t Hugh himself but her loneliness. After three years, it wasmore likely that she missed a man in her bed than that she carriedany particular attraction to Hugh himself. Sorcha didn’t want him.She wanted her husband back, a husband she loved still.

“Dinnae fash yerself, lass,” Hugh said,hiding his regret behind an exaggerated blustering brogue. “I toldye already that I wouldnae touch ye again wi’out yer permission. Imight hae slipped yester morn but it willnae happen again.”

She stared at him with some surprise. “Oh,is that why you didn’t …? Oh, God, what a mess.”

“I will keep my distance and respect yerwishes,” he clarified, unsure of what the mess she was referring towas.

“That’s not what I’m saying, Hugh.”

Hugh just shook his head. “I ken what yemean, Sorcha. It all goes back tae our argument, aye? Ye mourn yerhusband still, but I can see yer lonely.”

“I did … I mean, I do, but you were right.Everyone was right.”

Sorcha was so flustered that Hugh couldn’thelp but tease. “Are ye saying ye want me in yer bed, lass? Nae,even if ye said so, I wouldna believe ye. If the time comes, I’d bepleased to accommodate ye, for ye are a bonny, desirable woman, butI’ll nae hae another man’s ghost in my bed. If ye ever come tae me,ye had best make sure ye come alone.”

It might not have bothered Hugh before, butif he were to make love to this bewitching woman, Hugh suddenlyknew that he needed to be assured that it was he she saw, his namethat was on her lips. He wanted to know that she was with him notonly in body but in heart and mind. He would not have her any otherway, and she was not likely to have him any other.

But even that knowledge could not stop hisblood from boiling at the sight of her.

Claire twisted her hands around the steeringwheel, fighting back the incongruously girlish embarrassment thathad been building throughout Hugh’s speech. It was humiliating toknow that she had been so obvious in her attraction to him, but ina way, it was nice to know that the feeling was mutual, that hethought that she was beautiful—at least she thought that was whatbonny meant.

That he intended to never act on thatattraction, not only because of the promise she had wrenched out ofhim in a moment of self-flagellation but also because of hercontinued mourning for her husband, was disappointing. But givenhis reasoning, how could she be disappointed? She wouldn’t want tosleep with a man who was in love with another woman, so why would aman want a woman who was in love with another man?

The problem was that she would always loveMatt. He would forever hold a piece of her heart. Surely even withtheir temporal differences Hugh could understand that? That didn’tnecessarily mean that she would picture Matt when she kissedanother man or be wishing that he was Matt instead. That certainlyhadn’t been the case when Hugh had kissed her on the beach. She haddrawn away for only the reasons Hugh had listed afterward.

Fear. Claire’s introspective time on thebeach had provided a long list of things she was afraid of. Maybethe biggest of them all was that she would someday be content toput Matt in her past.

Which led to the reason Hugh hadn’t listed.Guilt.

Indecision had set her nerves jangling. Takethe leap. Cower back. Tease. Retreat. No wonder she was drivingHugh crazy. She was a jumble of mixed signals! Like a teen with herfirst crush rather than a woman approaching thirty years. Perhapsit was a matter of experience in flirtation… she’d never had muchof it. Had never needed or wanted it.

So she wasn’t ready for a running leap intohis bed—Hugh was right about that—but she didn’t want to take theoption completely off the table, either. How was she to tell himthat now, after what he had said?

“I guess I’ve been put inmy place for the second time today,” Claire said at length,uncertain how to approach the true subject once more. “Or is it thethird?”

“I am nae counting.” Hugh’s brogue hadgentled again, the sting of his rebuke left behind.

“A very gentlemanly thing to do.” Claireangled at look at him from the corner of her eye to find himwaiting patiently, though she had gotten the impression before thathe wasn’t a particularly patient man. Of course, what else could hedo after delivering such a set down? “I’m not normally like this.You must think I’m some sort of tease.”

“Nae, I believe nothing more than that yeare plagued by yer past and by yer indecision,” he told her