Love in the Time of a Highland Laird (A Laird for All Time Book 3) by Angeline Fortin (bill gates books to read .TXT) 📕

telling you to have a care for yourself but do have a care for my cousin as well. Not just his heart but in these days ahead. Keep him safe.”

Wow, maybe Ceana really wasn’t so bad after all.

“Of course, if anything happens to him, I might just have to finish what Maeve started.”

Or not.

With a wave and a laugh that left Al feeling uncertain whether she was serious or not, Ceana patted the now-staid horse on the nose and left the stable.

Nut jobs or not, the many members of the MacCoinnach and Urquhart clans were certainly interesting. They’d keep her on her toes, that much was certain.

She just wished everything else was as assured. If Keir really cared for her as much as both his cousins seemed to think he did.

And more importantly. Would it last?

Could it?

Accidents happen for a reason.

Chapter 33

Three days later

Dusk was almost upon them. And then they would be on the short final leg of their journey into Edinburgh.

Al wasn’t quite certain how she was going to find the fortitude to walk into the town when every muscle in her body was screaming in pain.

Three days, Keir had said. Three days of pure hell, he should have said. It might not have changed her mind about coming along but it would have at least prepped her for the reality of what she was getting herself into.

Oh, she’d managed to find the rhythm of riding the horse after the first several hours when it was either that or a continuous pounding to her rear end. But nothing could be done to spare her the desperate cramping on the inside of her legs.

At least now she knew why Ceana had looked so self-satisfied three days ago when she’d first mounted her horse. When she got back to Rosebraugh—if she got back—she was going to kick that woman in the teeth.

And there’d been little to comfort her since they’d departed other than such heart-warming thoughts. Keir was still stewing in the simmering in the juices of his bad temper. Leaving her to experience the misery of riding in the pelting rain on her own.

Leaving her to Mathilde and Artair’s company rather than providing his own. Leaving her plenty of time to wonder about accidents and doorways and fate.

Such abstract thoughts weren’t really her forte at all. It was the sciences that had always drawn her. Hard-core fact. She’d saved her fairytales for fiction not Platonian philosophies.

She wished she could talk to Keir about it all. But he was giving her the silent treatment, repeatedly making his point that he hadn’t wanted her along.

Hadn’t wanted her in harm’s way.

His point might have been more effectively made if he hadn’t come to her at night and curled beneath the blankets of her pallet with her. Massaging away the ache in her thighs and bottom for her. Warming her against the chill of the dampness that lingered. Then holding her so tightly she couldn’t breathe. Whispering sweet Gaelic in her ear that might very well have been scolding but sounded far more loving.

How could the words be anything else as he made love to her under the cover of his tartan?

She’d loved sleeping spooned alongside his hard body but she’d been surprised and perhaps a wee bit mortified when his wayward hands had first found their way to her breasts, then between her thighs. His warm lips nuzzling the nape of her neck with Artair, Mathilde, and a handful of his clansmen not more than twenty feet away.

But he had plucked her nipples until her body sang for him as always, played her with his skillful fingers until she was wet and throbbing, helplessly grinding her bottom against his groin. Without hesitation, he’d pushed up her skirts and entered her from behind, sliding in and out in a sensual dance. Silencing her with a kiss when she couldn’t stop herself from crying out as the cataclysmic crescendo struck.

Only to ignore her the next morning, leaving her alone to blush under Mathilde’s knowing smiles and Artair’s reproachful glares.

Last night, she’d only fallen to sleep in his strong embrace, exhausted from the journey. From the worry and apprehension of what lay ahead.

She’d woken in his arms this morning, legs twined with his. Her cheek resting on his chest. Listening to his heart’s steady beat as the sun began to rise. Pink whispered across the canvas of purples and reds. Lightening. Brightening.

Not nearly as beautiful as that steady rhythm.

Birds called in the distance, sweetly heralding the new day as if it were to be a fine one. The weather might be. Al could only hope their mission would shine so bright.

Keir stirred beneath her, his arms tightening around her. Wakening drowsily, he nuzzled her hair. His fingers finding the long braid she’d been wearing for the past few days and unconsciously winding it around his fist.

As if she were a part of him. An extension.

As he was already a part of her.

Live your life wi’ me, lass.

Oh, she wanted to. Wanted to be a part of his always. But did “always” ever last? She’d never known anyone who’d stayed together before. Not when things got rough. Not when they should have clung to each other even more tightly in times of adversity.

As she was clinging to him now.

For the rest of our lives.

As he was holding her?

“Tell me ye’ll stay here, lass,” he whispered in her ear.

Her heart leapt at the thought that he meant for her to stay in his arms.

“Tell me ye’ll nae go tae the tolbooth.”

Her heart sank.

“I’ll do what must be done, Keir. Just as you will.”

Pushing aside the blankets, she rolled away from him. Ignoring him when he reached for her braid.

He disappeared after that. She hadn’t seen him all day. Disappointed, a little heartbroken, she’d traveled with Mathilde, Artair, and the rest of the men to an inn just outside Edinburgh. There she’d spent the day checking and rechecking her wiring, wrapping them in