The Highland Laird's Bride by Nicole Locke

Author:Nicole Locke
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2016-09-17T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

‘Negotiate?’

Maybe it was the dimming candlelight, but his usual smile didn’t seem so easy for him. ‘Regarding our agreement,’ he said.

‘I married you. Why would we need to negotiate?’

‘Because I need to change the parameters of our bargaining.’

She didn’t know what he was talking about.

‘We’re alone, love. We’ve talked. We’re not tired. We’ve drunk all there is to drink and I’m not eating those rolls.’

‘Is this because I doona know how to talk? It’s true, I do like to hunt—’

Bram sat forward with his arms resting on his knees again. It was a restful pose, but his heels subtly rocking belied his underlying restlessness. She was beginning to feel that way, too.

‘I know that now. I heard it,’ he said. ‘Saw it with your skill and how you glowed with the pleasure of talking about it. If you only knew what that means to me, that a woman would feel the way I do about it.’ He stopped moving and laughed, but it seemed to be pointed at himself. ‘And that’s a problem, too. It’s not your talking, lass. You see...I want to kiss you.’

‘Kiss?’

‘The want, desire, longing to kiss you hasn’t disappeared simply because we’re married. You see, it’s your hair, your eyes, the way that crease happens between your brows when you’re confused. Like now.’

‘Those things make you want to kiss me?’

He straightened and sucked in an unsteady breath. ‘Aye, just like that.’

‘We’re married.’

‘Given the parameters of the agreement, I have nae right to ask for more. But I was a fool thinking anything different, so I have to change them.’

‘Change the...parameters...of our agreement?’

‘Exactly, but I won’t do it without your consent.’

‘To kiss me?’

He pressed his lips together and nodded as if he couldn’t get the words out.

‘I didn’t think it mattered what I wanted,’ she said. She agreed to marry him. What more needed to be discussed?

He shook his head. ‘It does matter. It must in our agreement, or we wouldn’t be keeping to our bargain. Although I would have argued about it before, I’d say what the wife wants in a true marriage should matter anyway.’

‘On the kissing.’

Abruptly, Bram stood and turned in the little room before facing her again. ‘Aye, the kissing...amongst other things. I desire you, Lioslath. It’s your hair that rivals the night and your eyes that shame the sky. It’s your moles, your spots and that crease between your brows. All these and so much more. Too much more. You fought the English. You like to hunt.’ Another self-deprecating laugh that turned into a true chuckle. ‘I can’t believe I’m saying any of this at all. Doona you want to kiss?’

If they had to negotiate for kissing, she did not understand what occurred on marriage nights. She certainly didn’t know he’d ask for a kiss. She held still for him in the field and she married him. Ever since the competition she thought of that moment. Of how he felt to her then. And even before, like when he carried her from the kitchens.

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