The Highland Laird by Amy Jarecki

Author:Amy Jarecki
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2020-10-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

With powerful strokes, Ciar pulled himself through the water, willing the iciness to cool the flame burning just beneath his skin. Back and forth he swam, each lap stronger than the last.

Three days had passed, and he was already restless beyond all imagination. He hated waiting for anything. Worse, biding his time while the bonniest lass in the Highlands pattered about trying to keep amused was all but killing him.

Emma’s intoxicating scent wafting through the cellars tormented him with his every breath. The lass need only walk past and she turned his head with her floral bouquet. She was happy and affable and everything he’d ever dreamed of in a woman. She hummed with the most alluring alto voice he’d ever heard. And she grew more and more irresistible by the moment.

By his blood, he would exhaust the lust coursing through his body. He was close friends with the lass’s brother. They’d marched into more brawls and battles together than he could remember. In no way could he ruin their alliance—handed down from their forefathers.

Ciar’s jaw twitched.

Bless it, he would not ravish Grant’s sister. Not ever.

Then his eyebrow arched.

Not unless she agreed to be his wife.

Ciar stopped kicking, treaded water, and looked to the shore.

Emma sat on a log of driftwood rubbing a clamshell between her fingertips and ignoring Albert, who was splashing through the water, chasing fish and yipping as if he was pleased to remain on Kerrera for the rest of his days.

God’s bones, she was a vision.

A wave crashed over his head, and he kicked his feet against the pull of the undertow.

Emma had good breeding for certain. The Grants and the MacDougalls were both powerful clans. But could Emma bear him an heir? She’d been born without sight because she had come too early. Hadn’t Robert said so?

Mayhap she can.

It was Ciar’s duty to continue the Dunollie line. He had no siblings to step into the role. And he’d be obstinate enough to defy death if his cousin were still in line to inherit. Truth be told, Ciar needed an heir posthaste with all this business of being falsely accused on top of impending war.

But then again, he mustn’t give the idea a second thought. Not until he cleared his name.

A mammoth wave smacked him in the back of the head and dragged him under, sending his body tumbling downward to the chilly depths. Pushing off the sandy sea floor, he fought for the surface, coughing like a seal as he let the surf carry him to the shore.

Worry stretched Emma’s features as she stood and clutched her fists to her chest. “Are you all right?”

Completely naked, he trudged onto the beach, his cock just as hard as it had been when he’d started. “Aye.” He coughed. “Swallowed a bit of seawater is all.”

She seemed to watch him, though her eyes were eerily vacant as they always were. Glittering blue, they were recessed a bit, but Ciar always felt the color made her look more mysterious.

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