Edilean had no reply to his words, and a minute later, when he set her down, she found herself in high meadow grass, with trees shading them.

“I’ll leave you here,” he said. “Follow the path to me and I’ll take you back.”

It took her only minutes to do her business, then she stood and looked around her. The sun was going down, and the light across the field was beautiful. The brilliant colors of wildflowers were sprinkled among the grasses.

Instead of taking the path back to Angus, she made her way through the field to a big oak tree. The area under it was trampled down, and it reminded her of a place where she’d gone to be alone when she was a child. She’d grown up in the house her father’s family had owned for four generations. As her father was rarely there, she’d spent her early life with governesses and nannies, and the oak tree had been where she escaped them. Smiling, she remembered that in her trunk, which was back in Scotland, she had a bagful of acorns from that tree. She planned to keep her girlhood vow and plant an acorn from that tree wherever she settled.

“It’s beautiful here, isn’t it?” Angus said softly from beside her.

“Yes.”

“I often come here to get away from the tavern.”

“Then you don’t love the place?” she asked, laughter in her voice.

“I hate it.” He didn’t look at her as he put out his hand and took her small one. “Edilean,” he said.

She turned, her eyes looking up at him in the soft light. No words needed to pass between them as he slipped his arms about her and put his mouth on hers.

They were alone under a tree, sweet-smelling grass beneath them, and the woman in his arms wore nothing but a long shirt.

Her mouth opened under his. He could feel her inexperience, but he could also feel her eagerness to learn-and it was an irresistible combination.

As he pulled her into his arms, he kissed her neck. “If I begin, I won’t be able to stop.”

“No one asked you to,” she said, making him smile.

He put his arms under her legs, and lowered her to the ground as he lay beside her. “You must tell me if I hurt you,” he said as he touched a bruise on her shoulder and she winced.

He pushed the shirt aside and kissed the bruise. “Better?”

“Much,” she whispered. “But I have other places that need healing. My ribs were badly injured.”

He put his hand on her leg, and inched up under the loose shirt. “Any bruises here?”

Her eyes were closed and her head tipped to one side as he kissed her neck. He could feel that she was cautious and holding back. With regret, he remembered when she’d been open to him, her eyes full of love and desire. This time, he’d go slow with her. And afterward… He couldn’t allow himself to think about that, but somewhere in his mind was the thought that if she wanted him and he knew he wanted her, then why not? Love wasn’t something that could be based on logic and practicality.

“What of this?” he whispered. “Does this ache? What about here?”

He put his hand up her thigh, to the center of her, and he felt her intake of breath.

In the next second, he’d pulled the shirt over her head, and she was nude before him. He wanted to look at her with eyes of love and lust, not as he had before when searching her beautiful body for injuries. In the gathering darkness the bruises looked almost silver.

“I will kiss every one of them,” he whispered as his lips moved lower to her breast, then lower still.

It took a while but he began to feel her reluctance leave her and he felt her growing passion. He took his time, kissing her past the point where he was in agony with wanting her, but he knew he had to go slowly.

When she was moaning, her hands in his hair, he moved onto her, afraid he’d crush her tiny form, but she pulled him to her, her legs clutching him.

When he entered her, she started to cry out, but he put his mouth to hers and she quietened. Minutes later, they both came to ecstasy.

18

I WANT TO HEAR all of it,” Angus said. “Don’t leave out even one gesture.” They were in his bedroom, Edilean’s head on his chest, and it was nearly dawn. They’d made love most of the night, twice under the tree, and when it grew dark, they’d moved indoors.

“You mean you want to hear about the hair pulling and the kicking and the biting?”

“Biting?!”

“No, no biting,” Edilean said as she ran her hand over Angus’s bare chest. “I don’t think Tabitha wanted the fight, but then, she didn’t know the jewels were real.”

“And you believed her?”

Edilean raised up on one elbow. “Don’t you dare talk to me about believing Tabitha! I did not believe what she said about you and her.”

“What did she say?” he asked, and Edilean told him of Tabitha’s words about having slept with Angus and what he’d said about Edilean.

“You didn’t believe her?” Angus asked softly.

“No. I’ve always known she’s a liar. You are the one who believed every word she said.”

“I did not!” When Edilean kept staring at him, he said, “Perhaps I did. She seemed like a sweet girl.”

“She’s a liar and a thief,” Edilean said.

He pushed her head back down to his shoulder. “You’ve made it clear what you think of her, but how did you guess that she was the one who’d taken the jewels?”

“Multiplication.”

“What?”

“I multiplied your male intelligence by the size of her bosom and I never doubted who’d stolen the jewels.”

“My male-?” Angus said, then, careful of her bruises, he lifted her upward. “I shall repay you for that!”

“And how will you punish me?”

“With kisses,” he said, and proceeded to carry out the sentence.

But Edilean drew away and pushed the cover off him. When he started to pull it back, she put her hand over his. She wanted to see him. She wanted to look at the body she’d seen so often but that was always hidden under clothes.

He seemed to understand and he lay back on the pillow, his dark eyes watching her. She put her hand on his shoulder and pulled, wanting him to turn over. She could concentrate better if he wasn’t looking at her.

His back was broad, with deep indentations from muscle under smooth skin that held not an ounce of fat. She ran her hands from his shoulders to his slim waist-and when she felt the ridges, she gasped. The room was dim, so she stretched across him to reach the lamp. As she did so, her breasts rested on the back of his arm.

“Do you mean to torture me?” he asked.

She turned up the lamp, and looked at his bare back. The ridges she’d felt were scars, and there were several large ones. She ran her hand over one that went from under his arm to his spine. “What’s this from?”

“A bullet.”

When she said nothing more, just glared at him, he gave a one-sided grin. “I was sixteen and not so good at concealment and-”

“By ‘concealment’ do you mean sneaking around in the grass and spying on people drawing pictures?”

“Aye, that,” he said. “I followed some rustlers, I got too close, they saw me, and shot me.”

Bending, she kissed the long scar. “Who took care of you?”

“Kenna, my sister.”

When she felt him hesitate, she lifted her head. “You’re thinking of her new baby and wondering what she had, aren’t you?”

“Aye, lass,” he said. “Do you know me so well?”

“More than you think.” When he started to turn over, she pushed him back down and touched another scar, what looked like a burn on the back of his arm.

“Fell into the fire when I was three.”

“And these?” There were four jagged lumps on the right side of his waist.

“Shamus pushed me off a cliff and I landed on rocks.”

“Ah, Shamus. And to think that had circumstances been different, now he would be here with me.”

Angus laughed at that, and she could feel his body move against hers. She pushed the sheet down and ran her hands over the curve of his buttocks, then down to his heavily muscled thighs.