Hew thought the laird would be far more upset over his daughter reiving cattle than feeding rats.But he didn’t tell her that.
“I won’t breathe a word.”
“Y’re a good man.”Her eyes turned all soft and dreamy.“I’m so glad y’re here.”
“I’m glad I’m here too.”
Mostly because someone had to keep her from leaving the room in her condition.
The opium had definitely taken control of her.Opening her mind.Softening her heart.Relaxing her tongue.
“Y’re very handsome,” she said.
His lips twitched with amusement.“Thank you.”
“An’ strong.”
He nodded, not knowing how to respond.
“Good-hearted.An’ generous.An’ full o’ honor.”
“You’re too kind.”
“Bold an’ brave.”She pondered hard.“An’ handsome.Did I say handsome?”
“I believe you did.”
“Veryhandsome.”She caught her lip under her teeth.“I like your hair.An’ your eyes.An’ the way ye smile.”Then she waved him forward with a flutter of her fingers.“Come ’ere.I have somethin’ to tell ye.”
He couldn’t refuse.He came up beside her pallet and hunkered down beside her.
Her eyelids dipped and opened again slowly.“Come closer,” she murmured.
He drew as near as he could.Near enough to see the languid glaze in her amethyst eyes.Near enough to smell the sweet lavender on her skin.“What is it?”
She lowered her voice to a whisper.“Sometimes when I see ye smile, I think about kissin’ ye.”
He gulped.
“I wonder what y’r arms would feel like aroun’ me,” she confessed.“How y’r breath would feel upon my cheek.What y’r lips would taste like.”
Hew could only gape at her in slack-jawed silence.
In any other moment like this, he would have swept the woman off her feet, delved his hands into her hair, and ravished her mouth with passionate abandon.They would have ended up in an intimate embrace and inevitably in a tryst between the linens.
But this wasn’t any woman.This was Carenza.This was The One.And she wasn’t in her right mind.
She lifted a finger and placed it on his mouth.“Do y’ think about it too?”
He didn’t trust himself to speak.So he nodded.
She traced his lips with her finger, lingering on them with a limpid gaze.Then she whispered, “Do y’ think about other things?”
His throat closed.The raging beast below his waist was thinking of them.In fact, it was demanding them.
She withdrew her finger and gave him a sultry smile.“Y’re goin’ to make a terrible monk.”
She wasn’t wrong.But for now he had to behave like one.
