Highlander's Tempting Stranger: A Steamy Scottish Medieval Historical Romance by Ann Marie Scott

Author:Ann Marie Scott [Scott, Ann Marie]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2020-10-18T16:00:00+00:00

10

When Maura woke, it was to Lachlan shaking her shoulder gently. She was lying on the floor of the bothy, curled up into a ball beneath her cloak next to the extinguished remnants of the fire from the night before. As she woke slowly, rubbing sleep from her eyes, she was acutely aware of the ache in her muscles from sleeping on the cold floor, and so she stretched out slowly, groaning.

“Good morning,” she mumbled, still not yet fully awake.

“An’ a fine one it is too!” Abhainn called from over by the window. He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, peering out across the hillside as if he was looking for something. He turned back to face them, beaming. “Did ye sleep well?”

Maura winced as she sat up, rubbing the back of her neck, which ached from the awkward position in which she had spent the night. “I cannae say that I did, sir.”

“Ah, a mighty shame.” Abhainn sighed, shaking his head as though the news was a genuine tragedy to him. “Ah, well, ye’ll be back in yer own bed in no time, lass. That’ll be somethin’ for ye.”

“We’d best get moving as soon as possible,” Lachlan told her quietly. “Don’t want to leave the wee ones for too long.”

She could not argue with that point. The thought of leaving Angus and Isobel alone for even a moment longer made Maura feel sick to her stomach, and in that moment, all she wanted to do was gather them in her arms and tell them everything was going to work out just fine.

She could not do that, though. All she had in their place was Lachlan, who helped her to her feet with a tight-lipped smile. Maura noticed that he did not hold her gaze the way he normally did, instead dropping it to the floor between them or focusing on a spot just above her head. She couldn’t help but wonder if this was because of the kiss. Was he thinking about it too?

Maura had thought of the kiss as she’d drifted off to sleep beside the fire the night before. She’d thought of the warmth of his lips as they’d kissed, the touch of his hands against her body when he’d held her close. In the cold light of the morning after, she couldn’t help but wonder if he had thought of the same things as he had fallen asleep.

Although the two of them seemed to feel incredibly awkward around each other as they made the return journey to the Inn, it went largely unnoticed by their new healer friend. Abhainn seemed perfectly content to fill the long, awkward pauses between the two of them, talking at length about his journeys or the work he had done. He was so engrossed in these stories that he failed to see the way Maura would look over at Lachan but look away as soon as he glanced at her or the way the same thing would happen with the roles reversed.

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