A Laird to Hold by Angeline Fortin (free children's ebooks online .TXT) 📕

He bent over her lax body, each breath ragged. Torn from deep within. Claire lifted her face to his and Hugh kissed her again, sliding his tongue along hers as she sighed contentedly. Her hands swept over his shoulders, down his back, to clench his arse. With another luxuriating moan, she arched her hips with him still buried inside her.

Unbidden, his sated body stirred once more and her satisfied laugh brushed against his lips. “My insatiable Highlander.”

“My greedy wife,” he countered and rocked his hips, hungry for more.

She laughed again, a joyous sound. “I love you, Hugh.”

“And I love ye, mo ghrá. More each day.”

Hugh proceeded to prove it and it was quite some time before more troubling thoughts came to mind again.

They might be temporarily subdued but unfortunately they couldn’t be so easily dismissed.

Emmy

Emmy collapsed against Connor’s heaving chest, every blood vessel in her body thrumming with rapture.

Again.

“You can keep doing that all you like,” she sighed, “but you’re not going to make the subject disappear.”

He chuckled and combed his fingers through her hair.

“I’ve brought ye to paradise four times this night,” his husky brogue was close to her ear. “And still that’s all ye hae to think aboot?”

Five times. But who was counting?

Draping herself over his hard body, she buried her face against his sweaty neck. “Connor, it’s two in the morning and my body is aching in places I didn’t even know I possessed. I’m exhausted, getting a little cranky, but no, this subject is not going to go away no matter what you—” Her breath caught as he arched beneath her.

Damn him. How could he keep doing this to her?

“Stop, please.”

His chest shook beneath her, his chuckle vibrating through her. Connor flipped her underneath him and lifted himself on one elbow. His brown eyes were deep, dark. Filled with love.

For her.

How could he know her body so well to make it sing over and over and not know how thoroughly he possessed her heart?

“Do ye surrender, lass?”

“Never.”

But the authority was lacking. Emmy’s gaze caressed his face, absorbing the sight of his rugged features. One she would never grow tired of. Not in a million years.

“How could you doubt me?” she asked again. “Even for a second? I love you so much.”

“And I love ye, lass.”

His lips touched hers again and he shifted until he was between her sore legs once more. The weight of him was heavenly, but she couldn’t let him distract her again. Pushing at his shoulders, she forced him to meet her eyes.

“Be honest then,” she pleaded. “How could you even think I wouldn’t want to go home with you?”

“I dinnae ken.” He exhaled slowly and rolled to his back, carrying her into the crook of his arm. “’Tis no’ that I truly believe it…Ah, I dinnae ken, lass. ‘Tis such a strange time to me. I feel oot of my skin, yet I can tell ye like some of the luxuries here despite yer protests.”

“Ha, name one.”

“The hotel. The stores.” He rolled the R hard. “The hospital.

A moue turned her lips downward. “I said one.”

Yes, she was enjoying it. There was no denying that. But he failed to see the bigger picture.

“Do you remember all the times we talked about the things I liked to do before Donell sent me back to you?”

“Aye, and they’re all here for ye again in this time. I ken ye missed it.”

“Maybe I have to some extent.” The admission wasn’t a difficult one to make, but Connor needed to know why more than anything.

Emmy draped her arms across his chest and propped her chin on her hands to look up at him. “What I’ve enjoyed most of all about being here, though, is sharing all those things with you. Can’t you see? It’s been so enjoyable for me to see your expression when you try the things you could only ever expect to talk about.”

Connor stared at the ceiling, idly stroking her hair. He was heeding her words though.

She pressed on, stroking his bristled jaw. “I love being with you here, Connor. I loved watching you drive for the first time. Watching you take your first bite of Ben & Jerry’s. I wish we could do more. Take you to an Orioles game or to the opera or to Las Vegas. But only because I want to share the things I love with you.”

“Would ye nae want to stay here?”

“How can you think I’d want to stay?” Astonishment left her gaping at him. “Sure, there may be a few toys here I miss, and I’m willing to admit I’d rather give birth in a nice modern hospital someday rather than in our bed, but I told Donell and you, too, a long time ago, life here is nothing compared to what I gained being with you. My home is at Duart.”

He wasn’t mollified by her heartfelt declaration, but then he’d always been a stubborn man. “But if something were to happen to me, ye’d prefer life here to Duart.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to you,” she declared fiercely. “And I’m going home with or without you. I’d simply prefer with you.”

“’Tis glad I am to hear ye say so.”

Still, he did not relent. Emmy heaved a deep breath, pushed up and gazed down at him with a stern frown. “Did you hear what Scarlett said in there? That once she was just in love with Laird? As if it were nothing in comparison to what she feels now? I’ve never heard anything sum up my feelings so well. I don’t just love you anymore, you idiotic man, I adore you.