The Condemned Highlander (Highland Intrigue Trilogy 2)

She had given brief thought to marrying someday, though more thought to not marrying. She feared a husband would expect wifely things from her and she was not good at wifely things. But she had to admit she did enjoy the light taste of intimacy she had experienced with Brogan.

“You worry for Bliss,” he said, his arms staying snug around her.

“I do,” she admitted. “The curse has claimed Lord Rannick’s three wives. What will stop it from claiming a fourth?”

“You,” he whispered.

“If I am not too late.”

“Do not think that way. Think only on your quest,” Brogan urged.

She turned in his arms, craning her neck back to look at him, his face a mere shadow in the night, though she did catch a spark of his soft blue eyes. “Why encourage me now when you have done nothing but discourage me from the start?”

“You have a will about you, a tenaciousness I have not seen in any other woman. You refuse to surrender to naysayers. You forge ahead determined and with more courage than I see in many men. You are a force to be reckoned with and if by chance the witch does exist, I believe she will meet her match in you.”

That he believed so strongly in her startled her and also squeezed at her heart. Her response came quick without thought or delay, more instinct—or was it desire?

She kissed him, a strong and eager kiss.

Shock did not stop him from responding. His hand went to the back of her head and his lips returned her eagerness while his tongue slipped through her slightly parted lips. It wasn’t only an eager kiss, it was a hungry one, both of them in need of it.

Breathless when it ended, she rested her head on his chest, passion poking at her most intimate places. She was not ignorant of what went on between husbands and wives, Bliss having explained what she had learned from the married and unmarried women she treated. Never, though, did Annis think that a kiss could be so enjoyable and make her body ache with such powerful sensations.

“It is different than I imagined,” she said. “No wonder you kiss so many women.”

Brogan lifted her chin for her to look at him. “I never truly enjoyed a kiss until I kissed you. And nay, I have never spoken those words to any woman.”

“What makes me different?” she asked, hiding her surprise that he answered the question in her mind without her saying a word.

“I care for you, feel for you like I have never felt for another.”

“It surprises you,” she said, hearing it in his voice.

“Very much so. It caught me off guard. I didn’t see it coming until you were right there in front of me. It was like a punch to the gut.”

To her, it was slow, pulling her in little by little until… she shook her head. “I have not the time for this. I need my thoughts on saving my sister.”

“This need between us is not going away,” Brogan cautioned.

“You may be right about that, but at the moment, my sister comes first. She stepped out of his arms, the emptiness that met her so overwhelming she almost rushed back into them. Fear of losing her sister stopped her. “You will kiss me no more,” she ordered.

“You kissed me,” he reminded and chuckled when Annis cringed. “And when you say no more, do you mean forever?”

“I never said forever,” she snapped.

“Then how long is no more since you obviously want to kiss me and enjoy kissing me,” he said and raised his hands when she looked ready to argue. “And I enjoy kissing you and would miss kissing you, terribly.”

Annis sighed. “I suppose I should have wed you and been done with it and saved my sister from sacrificing herself.”

“Neither of us wanted to wed,” he reminded and reached out, hooking her around her waist with one arm. “Of course, if we wed now, we could kiss as much as we want, and engage in other delightful husband and wife duties.”

“And that is a good reason for us to wed, because you want to poke me?” she asked bluntly.

“It’s a good start,” he said with a wink.

“You truly are impossible,” she said, shaking her head.

“Let’s discuss it,” he said, and giving her no chance to object escorted her to the fire.

Iver was sitting up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “I thought I heard voices. Is everything alright?”

“It is,” Brogan confirmed. “Annis and I need to talk. Go and seek your bed for the rest of the night.”

Iver looked to Annis with a raised brow.

“I mean Annis no harm, Iver.” Brogan patted his lip that was healing nicely. “And I know from experience she can well take care of herself.”

Annis grinned and raised a fisted hand in proof.