A Scot's Surrender_Scottish Historical Romance by Tammy Andresen

Author:Tammy Andresen [Andresen, Tammy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-03-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Agnes struggled to remember a time when she’d been more content. Or excited. She’d never sleep like this. He was warmth and muscle under her touch, heating her in all the right ways.

With her ear still resting against his chest and her body fit snuggled against his side, she angled her face up to his. Before she could hold it back, she let her thoughts slip out. “I don’t know how I’ll sleep alone for the rest of the winter. This is so much nicer.”

A deep chuckle rumbled through his chest, and she felt it before she heard it, which was somehow deeply satisfying. “Aye, it is.”

“You really think you’ll never marry?” she asked. “You’ll spend every winter alone?”

He was silent for so long that she’d first thought he hadn’t heard her, and then she worried she’d offended him. “Most times, I’m don’t mind being alone. Lately though, I wonder.” He squeezed her tighter, then his lips grazed her forehead. “But I am not remaining alone for myself. As you pointed out, I lack some gentlemanly qualities that make me a less-than-ideal candidate for any woman.”

She swallowed, guilt stabbing at her chest. “I didn’t mean to insult you.”

“I ken, lass. And you were correct about me in your own way.”

“My own way? What does that mean?” she asked, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

“I’ll admit to being less than a gentleman in a few circumstances if ye’ll agree you can be rather naïve about the temperament of a man. Yer always going on about a man being a gentleman.”

Agnes sighed. “I’m sure I often appear so, and there are areas that I certainly have a great deal to learn about the world. But how I want a man to treat me isn’t one of them. I lost my father, Keiran, and my mother and I were cast into the world. He’d had debts he’d hidden, and it wasn’t until the collectors came to take our possessions, our home, that my mother realized the truth.” She lifted her head a little to better look into his eyes. “You only need to lose a man’s protection to understand its importance. I need a man who understands that too.”

Keiran didn’t answer, and Agnes assumed that he did not agree with her. But she wouldn’t argue her point further with a wounded man who she was currently cuddled against, and so she settled herself back down deeper into his embrace and closed her eyes.

She could feel herself relax, a lull of sleep just settling over her when he finally spoke again. “I sometimes forget ye’ve suffered too. Ye’ve known loss.”

“That’s all right.” He wasn’t wearing a shirt, it had been cut off him to bandage the wound. Agnes allowed her fingers to trail over his warm skin, the hair on his chest tickling her palm. “But it is why I have to return in the spring and find a husband. My mother and my uncle have shouldered the burden long enough. It’s my duty to marry a man who can provide for us.

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