My Heart's in the Highlands by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader screen TXT) 📕

her body was pressed against his. Felt hisheart beat against her cheek, his lips brush against her ear.“Don’t cry, my love. I am here.”

And she wanted him to be.

Just the feel of him against her was achinglydear. Her arms slid around his waist and curled up his back as hiscame around her to pull her trembling body close. He felt the sameas she remembered and different at the same time. Stronger, moremuscular beneath his tailored dress shirt and sport coat. Yet sowas she, and her body still fit against him just so. He lifted herhand from his chest, raising it to his mouth.

It was a gentle kiss he placed there, butthen he moved her hand back and forth across his lips, a caressthat sparked a remembrance. When he pressed another kiss to herpalm, Mikah shuddered helplessly, remembering when Ian had done thevery same that day by the pagoda. Looks were one thing. Words,another. But actions?

Mikah’s arms slid around him, clutching himto her. In turn, his arms were binding her so tightly to him thatshe could scarcely breathe. She did not care. The chemistry wasthere, his heart beating against hers so comfortably. He evensmelled so right. “Ian?”

“Aye, Hero. I’m here.”

Mikah tilted her head back to look at him,caught the light of love burning in his chocolate gaze, and thenhis lips captured hers in a tender kiss, full of longing. Withsudden joy, Mikah returned his kiss. Heat flared between them. Theheat of passion, of love, and of rediscovery.

She smoothed a hand over his chest, and hishand came up to cover hers. He caressed gently and paused,fingering the ring she wore. He pulled away and looked down at herhand.

“Where did you get this?” Mikah started atthe hoarsely spoken words. She could hear his wonder. Feel hisemotion at the sight of the ring that had so briefly boundthem.

“It was right where we … they left it.” Thosewords, her hesitation and alteration of those words, brought Mikahback to reality. What had she been thinking? That thisJason—Jace—could somehow fill the gap Ian had left in her heart?Nothing had changed.

Mikah drew away from him in horror. “I thinkyou should go.”

Jace frowned, clearly puzzled by her suddenchill. “Go?”

“Leave.” Mikah went to the door and openedit, pointing to the hallway.

“Hero …”

“I’m not Hero!” she exploded. Her handsfisted at her sides as she stared at him. “She’s dead. They areboth dead! This,” she wrenched the ring from her finger and stareddown at the sparkling emerald. “This is just a fantasy for us.Someone else’s reality, and I won’t be sucked back into it again!”She threw the ring at him and he caught it, his fingers curlingaround it. “Now go!”

Mikah buried her face in her hands. She felthim approach rather than heard him. The heat of his body neared andwarmed. In spite of her shaky resolve, Mikah couldn’t help butshiver.

He walked past her, and part of Mikah criedout not to let him go, but she knew that she had to do what wasbest. And what was best was not to fall back into the madness thathad beckoned to her for the past three months. The door closed, anda moment later, Mikah felt warm hands encircling her wrists and shealmost sobbed in relief … or in defeat. She wasn’t certain whichone.

Forcing her hands down, he spoke softly.“Look at me, my love.”

The command was such a gentle one that Mikahcould not deny him. She opened her eyes and met his familiar darkgaze. That chocolaty warmth was still there. So like Ian, his eyes,his kindness, and unfortunately, his determination. A tear sliddown her cheek.

“Why do you deny it?” His brogue was low andhusky but there was pain beneath it. Pain that was on par with herown. “I am Ian Conagham as surely as you are Hero, his wife.”

Still Mikah did not dare agree with that. Asmuch as she had fantasized of a moment like this, as much as itwould be so easy to do, she wasn’t Hero any more than this man wasthe Ian she had known. They were different people with differentpasts, different interests. If they were to do this only to bedisappointed in those differences, her heart would be broken allover again. She didn’t want that. It had taken her three months toaccept the truth. Ian, her Ian, was dead and buried.

If this man ended up being nothing more thana poor substitute … if she ended up being the same for him, Mikahfeared she would never recover.

I can’t. I can’t, she thought. Anothertear fell. Then another.

“Do you think I cannot understand yourfears?” he asked, wiping the tears away with the pad of his thumband showing all the patience and intuition Ian ever had. “I wouldimagine that I have felt each one of them myself. It is why I didnot come straight away. I feared that you would not be the woman Iremembered.”

“And I’m not.”

“It is not only the person we remember, it isthe essence of their soul,” he told her quietly, “and I believethat has not changed. You are the same. We are the sametogether.”

“It is crazy to think that our lives weremeant to be influenced by theirs,” she denied.

“But it was not just their lives. That wasmy life.” His brogue grew thicker as he spoke. “Do ye thinkI look back and think, ‘Ian said this’ or ‘Ian did that’? Idid those things. I was the one who held ye for hours in thecaves. It was my arms that burned in pain, my heartthat was torn apart with the fear that ye were going to die.”

Tears sprang to Mikah’s eyes, burning as sheblinked them back. Her heart beat harder against her ribs, as ifher chest were constricting it tightly.

“I was the one filled with incredulity that Imight fall in love with a woman so quickly when I had never thoughtto fall in love at all,” he went on. “I might have started outapart from him, but once I came to accept it, the actions were hisand mine together. The memories I have are my own. They aren’tmerely the residue of their lives.”

Mikah felt