Quest of the Highlander (Crowns & Kilts #5) - Cynthia Wright Page 0,75

the shadowed corridor with Lennox. She thought he had never looked more handsome, his wild Highland looks in appealing contrast to the civilized Englishmen.

Lennox backed her up against the wall and put his arms around her waist. The nausea that had plagued her at supper was gone, replaced by a surge of desire. She wanted to tip her head back, part her lips, and welcome his burning kiss.

“Ah, lass, how I have missed ye,” he said, his voice melting her bones.

He was kissing her sensitive ear, the fragile curve of her jaw, each tender spot on her neck. Nora wanted him so much she ached, but some higher part of her found the will to shake her head. “Lennox,” she breathed. “We must not.”

As he bent to kiss the first curves of her breasts, Nora yearned for more and made a soft, involuntary sound.

“Let us go to your rooms,” urged Lennox. “We need to be alone.”

He gently fit his hand to her swelling breast, and she felt a delicious cascade of arousal. Her mouth went dry. “If I agree, this cannot happen. Please, give me your word that we will only have conversation.”

Lennox straightened as if he’d been slapped and stared down at her, his green eyes aswirl with confusion. “Is it something I’ve done that has turned ye against me?”

Nora led him to her chamber and, once inside, gestured toward the chairs near the windows. “Please, sit,” she said.

Lennox shook his head, continuing to stand, illuminated by the rosy-gold beams of light that bathed the room. “Do ye imagine I can be moved here and there at your bidding, that ye can direct me as if our lives were a play?”

“I beg you to listen to me,” Nora said, spreading her hands wide in supplication. “You must not think I don’t want to be in your arms, to kiss you—”

“Then why won’t ye do it? We are wed!” he shot back. “First ye tell me that we must not tell the duke and duchess that ye are my wife, insisting that ye must have a room alone. Now ye say conversation is all we can share. Did I fall short somehow that night at Duart Castle, when I did all in my power to show how precious ye are to me?”

Tears swelled in her heart. “Lennox, can you not see? It isn’t as simple as you believe. I want you to complete your quest before we choose a way forward.”

“My search is nearly ended.” He told her then what he had learned about the man who could be his true father. “I do not yet know his name or circumstances, but Sandhurst says he is a good man.” Nora heard the surge of hope in his voice. “His wife and only son have both died, so he lives with grief.”

“Perhaps you will soon find that long-sought sense of belonging.”

“I will confess something to ye alone.” Lennox looked utterly vulnerable, the miniature in his extended hand. “I was worried that this Englishman might not be worth all I have endured to find him. After all, he lay with my mother, knowing she was a married woman! He could well have been without honor, a libertine like Slater.”

Her heart seemed to stop when he said Slater. “Thank God you know that is not the case. Oh, Lennox, if he is the man you seek, this reunion could transform both your lives.” She ached to put her arms around him, but that would be foolhardy. “Let us see what happens next before we talk about the future. I have dreams and needs of my very own, and if I could not weave, I would never be happy.”

There was much more Nora could not say: that she was carrying the child of a man he despised, and that fact alone could prevent her from sharing his future. She loved him too much to risk hindering him in the wonderful destiny that waited just around the corner. Lennox might well refuse to accept those reasons, however, so her aspiration to become a master weaver seemed the best argument—at least for now.

Lennox stood now before the windows, looking out over the River Thames, bathed in the molten hues of twilight. A range of emotions passed over his face, and Nora knew him well enough to read most of them. Finally, Lennox fisted his hands and pressed them against his eyes.

“Why must ye make this so hard?” he asked, his voice raw. “If we love each