Page 35 of Highlander’s Curse (The Daughters of the Glen #8)

Too late he realized his inability to control his own attraction to her. Not even the plaid that separated them could disguise his quickly hardening shaft.

“Oh!” She looked up at him, her eyes large with surprise.

There was little he could say. His traitorous body spoke loudly on its own.

“He”—Colin glanced quickly down and back to her face again—“is, I fear, beyond my ability to control. While I canna prevent his appearance, I can see to it that he behaves himself while he’s here.”

She continued to stare up at him, the corner of her mouth twitching until she broke out in a peal of laughter.

“Honest to God, Colin.” She pulled the corners of the plaid from his hands and hugged them close before moving around him to collect her nightdress. “Men and their penises totally crack me up. I’m frankly surprised you haven’t given it a name.”

Struggling to regain both his composure and the upper hand he felt he might have lost in that exchange, he followed her out of the bathhouse.

There was a slight chance he should be offended by her laughter and her comments, but the sight of her perfectly rounded arse swaying back and forth in front of him as they made their way back to their room occupied too much of his imagination to let him dwell on any slight or insult.

Though all of his other attempts to dissuade her from going with him had failed, he wasn’t yet ready to admit defeat. The tactic on which he had just embarked, wooing her into agreement, would, if nothing else, be a most enjoyable way to spend his evening.

The only problem with his current plan was that he’d have to use great care not find himself ending up the wooed party.

Was it just this afternoon she’d been wishing she’d taken more physics classes in pursuit of her degree?

She’d been way off on that call. It was definitely more biology classes she should have taken.

Specifically, she desperately needed one that covered how to control her raging hormonal impulses in the presence of this certifiable Holy-Shit-Hot-Guy.

Abby pushed open the door of their bedchamber and entered, all too aware of Colin so close behind her. When the door clicked shut, she nearly jumped.

Skittish much? Oh yeah. Skittish very much.

“I don’t suppose you’d consider waiting in the hall while I change into my nightgown?” The smirk he wore answered before he did.

“No, wife, I dinna think I’ll be doing that. But I will turn my back if you like.”

“Yes, I’d like that. And you don’t have to keep calling me your. . .”

The words died in her mouth as he turned his back, pulling his shirt up and over his head as he did so.

A noise escaped from her, something primal rising up out of her throat. Something between a whimper and a squeak over which she had no more control than Colin had had over his erection out in the bathhouse.

A pretty impressive erection, too, now that she thought about it. Easily as impressive as the muscular back he was now presenting to her.

The man’s body clearly belonged on a piece of Michelangelo’s marble. It was, without a doubt, the best she’d ever seen. Not that she’d seen a lot so up close and personal. But of the ones she had seen, his was definitely the best.

Letting out a shaky breath, she grabbed up her nightdress and dropped it down over her head, letting the drying towel drop only after the gown had fallen into place.

For the first time since she’d seen the clothing selection Ellie had presented, she was actually grateful there was so much material in what she’d be wearing through the night.

“Okay. I’m done.”

“Then it’s time for bed,” he announced, crossing the room to poke at the fire until the flames died down.

One look at Colin’s expression as he approached and Abby knew it was time for immediate action. She pulled the coverlet from the top of the bed and quickly wadded it into a roll, plopping it on top of the nearest pillow and pushing the entire bundle toward him.

“There. Do you think that will be enough bedding for you? I mean, you are planning on sleeping on the floor, right?” Because he wasn’t sleeping in the bed. Not with her. She remembered all too well how she’d behaved the last time she’d been horizontal next to Colin.

“I’ve enough of the hard ground in my future. It’s my own bed I’ll be sleeping in this night.”

“Okay.” She pulled the bundle back toward her and picked it up in her arms. “You’re right. It is your bed. I’ll take the floor.”

The hearth looked a likely spot. There was already a rug there to soften the stone floor a bit. She skirted around the bed, but made it only a few steps before Colin’s big hand clamped down on her arm.

“No.” He pulled her to him until their faces were mere inches apart. “You’ll have yer own fill of the hard ground in a day’s time.”

And then he was kissing her.

She somehow missed the start of it. One minute she was staring into the deep pools of his Caribbean blue eyes and the next thing she knew, her tongue was buried in his mouth, her fingers tangled in his hair, and her body thrumming with need.

He broke the kiss, his warm lips trailing across her cheek and to her neck as she fought to catch her breath in quick, desperate little huffs.

Damn, but he was dangerous. And not just because of the way he looked. Or the way he kissed. It was the soft-guy interior packaged in a tough-guy wrapper. It was the kind and gentle way he touched her, the sweet things he did for her.

It was everything about him.

“A shame it is. Hard, rocky ground under yer lovely soft body,” he whispered. “Every night, stones and twigs digging into yer flesh. Unless you’ll but agree to stay here and wait for me to return to you.”

Okay. Not everything about him. His unrelenting stubbornness wasn’t all that attractive.

“No.”

He buried his face in her neck, holding her so close she could feel his heartbeat pounding against her breast.

“Then wish yerself home now. I’d have you lost to me rather than risk yer safety by taking you with me.”

He was nothing if not honest with her. She owed him no less. It was time to confess.

“It won’t work. I already tried. You’re my only way home, Colin. I don’t understand all that much about Faerie Magic, but I do know I can’t go back without you at my side. I’d be happy to wish us both back, if that’s what you want.” In a heartbeat.

“I canna. And I’ve yer oath you’ll no try it without my consent.” He drew his head up from her, pain evident in his face. “Can you no understand that I couldna live with myself if I thought I’d let my kinsmen die without even trying to save them?”

“I do.” Her oath was all that kept her from saying the words to send them home right now. “Can’t you understand my need to be at your side?”

“I do,” he answered in an echo of her own words, sweeping an arm under her legs and lifting her off her feet like a small child. “Truce, then. We’ll share the bed this night, me to my side and you to yers, aye? I swear to you that I’ll make him-with-no-name behave himself.”

When he gave her that almost smile of his, she had to force herself not to drag his face down for another kiss. How could she not agree to his offer? Even in his annoying efforts to leave her behind, she knew his goal was to keep her safe. He’d hidden nothing from her.

“Truce, then,” she agreed, rolling onto her side to blow out the candle next to the bed.

Candles. Her eyes fluttered open, the word niggling at some uncomfortable spot in the back of her mind. What was it about . . .

It’s no so very different from the great steaming tub out back of yer own home, though we’ve no so many candles for you to light.

“How did you know about my hot tub? You didn’t go into my backyard when you were there.”

The pause before he answered seemed to last an eternity.

“I returned later. I saw you there, with yer candles lit all about you.”

“You spied on me? You hid out in the bushes and spied on me? Why would you do that?”

“I needed to see for myself that you were . . .” Another pause, as if he had changed his mind about what to say and was hunting for new words. “I wanted to see you were safe.”

Perhaps she’d been too quick to conclude he hid nothing. Too quick to assume his honesty.

“And you never thought to tell me about that?”

“I thought it for the best.”

The finality in his tone told her their conversation was at an end.

Her thoughts, on the other hand, raced. If he had kept something like that from her, what else might he be capable of in pursuit of what he thought best?

A truce, he’d offered, a truce she’d accepted. But that didn’t mean ignoring her common sense.

Truce, but no trust.

She lay very still on her side of the big bed, waiting until his breathing slowed and deepened before climbing out of the bed to find her clothes and dress.

The little knives were too much of a hassle in the limited light of the dying fire, so she compromised by sticking the smaller of the two into the bust of her gown.

Once ready, she retrieved the bundle of bedding from the floor and carried it to her side of the bed, slipping it under her covers. She tiptoed to the door and quietly let herself out into the hallway.

Dropping to her knees, she propped her back against the doorway and stretched her legs across the opening.

Truce but no trust.

In the last twenty-four hours, Colin had tried every tactic she could imagine to avoid taking her with him tomorrow. Only sneaking out without her was left.

After seeing the sincerity and pain in his eyes tonight, she had little doubt but that he’d try that one, too.

And when he did? He’d find her waiting.

Truce but no trust.