Highland Bear (Book 4)

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

               

                Parting lips he felt warm all the way through to his core, her very being warming him where only moments before he had been chilled to the quick. She was held deep within him and he could never let her go, he just did not know how he was going to cope with exactly with the situation Kendrick had placed him in. Untenable was one word, but he could think of many, many others that he did not even want to think about in the presence of the delicate flower that bloomed in the depths of winter. Her cheeks flushed with the cold and her nose a cute and tempting red that made him want to pepper it with kisses.

               

                Managing to resist the temptation…just, he stepped back and took a moment to watch her in the strange light of night turned day. The streets empty but for the flurry that surrounded them in a thick, cold blanket.

               

                As she shivered under his grasp he noticed for the first time just how little she was wearing that saved her from the chill. The thin cloak she war was barely more than a few threads held together by patches. She played the part of the poor well, her clothes told a tale her very bearing did not. How he had not seen it before he did not know, but it was very much an aura she exuded that told one she was better than them. Not that she thought that, he just saw the utter goodness within her and how different she was from nearly everyone else he knew. He could never see her feeling better than anyone, or seeing herself as anything near as special as she was, no all she saw was a burden on those around her. And he was determined to show her the error in those thoughts before it was too late.

               

                Rubbing his hands up and down her arms he wanted to haul her back against him and hold her close forever. She only gave him the saddest smile he could ever remember upon a face so hauntingly beautiful. It would be an image forever seared into his very core up until the very moment he slipped from this world. He planned to spend much of that time with Rohesia, seeing her transform and become the woman she was always meant to be at his side. A moment of jealousy reared itself. She would always be a woman who was special and any male would want that, some male thought he was getting that, and maybe he would not be able to see just how special she was if he saw her biggest strength as her unsurmountable weakness.

               

                Not that he was going to allow the fact they were both betrothed to get in his way. A Scotsman go what he wanted, whether he bought it, stole it, or managed to finagle his way into a females life…before he stole her way. A Scotsman’s prerogative he figured. Who was he to fail his ancestors by going against a tradition? His palms itched as he inched them up and down her arms, he wanted to grab her, haul her away…somewhere warm of course, a roaring fire and some thick blankets. His brother’s small cottage sprang to mind.

               

                But not only was that miles away. He would have to pass through an unpassable snow filled pass, and the small fact his brother, wife and their adopted bairn would make the space a little cramped. But he had not yet managed to come up with a reason which would fully convince the one he wanted to whisk that way in the first place.