Page 29 of A Match Made in Heather

Her breath hitched at the sudden tension flaring between them. “Then leave Highburn,” she whispered, “and let me have it.”

“No,” he replied in a masculine purr that trickled through her and left a blaze of heat in its wake. “I have plans that require me to be right here.”

She arched a suspicious brow. “Only two days, you said.”

“To bring down the wing,” he clarified, his eyes not leaving her. “My most important plans require much longer than that.”

Her belly tightened. Did he mean that he was staying in the highlands?

Oh, he wouldn’t do that! His life was in England now. He had no reason to linger here . . . although a foolish part of her wished he would.

His eyes flickered with an emotion she couldn’t decipher. “Don’t you want to know what those plans are?”

“No.” Because whatever they were, she was certain they would only cause her trouble.

The flicker turned into a sparkling gleam, as if he were debating telling her anyway. Instead, he turned sideways, his shoulder close enough to hers that she could feel the heat of his body, and murmured, “Lady Rowland said you’d moved the wedding to Kincardine.”

“Yes.” Was he expecting an invitation? Thevery lastperson she wanted at her wedding . . . when once he was the only man she’d wanted to marry. The only man, even now, that she ever truly wanted. “Mama decided that the wedding should be here, for tradition’s sake.” When she sensed him tense, knowing full well what he thought of her bowing to her family’s wishes, she added quickly, “Truly, it was the only way to keep both the wedding date and my residency here.”

“And the only way to mollify Murray.”

Her back stiffened. Garrick was sticking his nose where it didn’t belong. “What’s wrong with being considerate of my future husband?”

“Considerate?” A low laugh rumbled from him. “Of all the things I want in a bride, beingconsiderateisn’t one of them.”

She swallowed hard at that innuendo. “Ewan isn’t you.”

“Most definitely not.” He kept his eyes straight ahead, pretending to focus his attention on the workmen. “Iwould never have left you alone in a house with another man.”

She ignored the pulse of heat low in her belly. “We’re not alone. We’re with Aunt Matilda and all the servants.”

“But I was once your lover,” he provoked in a low voice, this time wickedly sending the throbbing heat lower.

Their conversation was wholly inappropriate. Yet speaking intimately like this, while the men carried on their work only a few feet away, sent her heart racing with a wanton deliciousness she couldn’t make stop.

Garrick pressed, “He doesn’t know that, does he?”

“He knows I’m not innocent,” she dodged. “And he doesn’t care.”

“Then he’s either a liar or a fool, because it would drive me mad to know that some other man had possessed your body, your passion . . . the most secret parts of you,” he confessed quietly, although Arabel heard a hard edge to his voice. Was that jealousy? “Has Murray made love to you yet?”

She caught her breath at the boldness of his question. And at the realization that he truly was jealous. Now her heart raced for an entirely different reason.

Unable to find her voice, she whispered, “Of course not.”Only you . . . There’s only ever been you.

“Then he’s a fool.”

The insult rankled, because she’d been the one who had refused intimacies. Not Ewan. “Garrick—”

“If you were mine, Arabel, I sure as hell wouldn’t be in Edinburgh.” He didn’t dare to look at her, his gaze fixed on the workmen. “I’d be right here, making love to you as often as you’d permit me. Worshiping your body the way you deserve to be worshipped . . . with soft poetry, those bold caresses you crave, and lingering kisses over every inch of you.” Then he slid a sideways glance at her, catching her stunned gaze and holding it for only a heartbeat before looking away. “Everyinch of you.”

Her body flashed hot at that wicked image, and she trembled.

“You’re the most alluring woman I’ve ever known. Your spirit, your laugh, the way your hair shines in the sun like flames, the scent of heather that surrounds you like a cloud . . . A man who didn’t want you would be a fool.” He nonchalantly brushed at a speck of plaster dust on his shirtsleeve. Anyone watching them would never have suspected the scandalous conversation they were having, or how he crossed the line when he murmured, “And I’m no fool.”

With a soft gasp, she parted her lips, stunned and confused. In moments like this, she could almost imagine that the last ten years hadn’t passed, that they had the rest of their lives stretching out before them, together. Hearing his sultry voice purr in her ear like this felt like . . .

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