A Highlander in a Pickup - Laura Trentham Page 0,100
avoid being drawn into polite conversation. Padding up the stairs, he made for Anna’s room. With his fist raised to knock, he hesitated. The next few minutes might well change the course of his life.
“I never pegged you for being indecisive, Highlander.” Anna’s voice came from over his shoulder.
Shock had him slapping his hand on the door and spinning around. Anna leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the hall, her legs crossed at the ankle.
“You gave me a fright, lass. I was just…” He gestured toward the door then ran a hand through his hair and gave a humorless laugh. “Gathering my courage, I suppose. I deserve a good tongue-lashing for the way I left.”
“A tongue-lashing? You wish.” Anna swept by him, trailing the scent of magnolias, and entered her room to lean against the nearest post of the four-poster bed.
He followed. The moth-eaten curtains and musty rugs had been replaced since he and Alasdair had engaged in one of their sweeping games of hide-and-seek twenty-odd years earlier. Perhaps he’d been inside since to change a lightbulb, but with Anna in the room, he took in every detail with fresh eyes.
The green bedding brought out the red glints in her hair. The stone walls were softened by faded tapestries. The lemony scent of wood polish sharpened the air. In olden days, a fire would have burned in the massive fireplace, but now, only a brace of unlit candles stood on the hearth.
“You deserved better than to have me sneak out. It was cowardly.” Iain remained standing in the middle of the room.
“Yes, it was. I was mad and hurt and wanted to beat you senseless that morning. And the day after and the day after that and—”
“I get the picture.” Nerves shuffled him into a short pace, hemmed in by the bed and the hearth. “I wanted to stay, but I made promises and was honor bound to keep them.”
“Promises to who? I thought you didn’t have a girlfriend.” Anna straightened and crossed her arms under her breasts.
Iain barked a laugh and pivoted toward her. “Not to another woman. To my da. I couldn’t abandon him the way my mum had. Besides Cairndow, I’m all he has.”
“He’s a nice man with kind eyes. The kind of dad I always wished for.” Her smile was tight and watery. “I understand. I even forgive you. Is that what you want?”
“There’s something else I want even more.”
“What?”
“You. I want you. Do you still want me?” His jaw was clamped so tight, he was sure all his teeth would crack.
A laugh stuttered out, even as a tear escaped her eye and trailed down her cheek. She wiped it away. “Of course I want you, but nothing has changed. I can’t leave Highland.”
“My da released me from my promise. He wants me to be happy and knows you will make me happy.”
“What are you saying exactly? I need you to spell it out like I’m the village idiot.” She took a step toward him, closing the distance by half.
He met her in the middle and took her hand in a grip that was desperate and too tight, but she didn’t pull away. “Wherever you are is my home. I’ll happily move to Highland. If you’ll have me.”
“You’d move halfway around the world just to be with me?” The wistful incredulousness in her voice made his heart swell.
When words were hard to come by, Burns never deserted him. “‘My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer.’”
“Am I your deer?” she asked.
“You’re my everything. I love you.”
Her mouth opened and closed, but only a strangled sound emerged. She threw her arms around his neck, and her weight fell into him. He closed his eyes and wrapped her close, knowing he didn’t have to let go.
“What will you do in Highland?” she asked.
“Hire myself out as a contractor. I’m good with my hands and based on my experience with Loretta and her friends, there’s plenty of work around town. What do you think?”
“You are definitely good with your hands.” The sexual tease in her voice kindled a heat in his stomach. She pulled back to look at him, her hands tight on his shoulders. “Do you want to know what I really think?”
He nodded brusquely.
“I think we’ll have to find a house together. You don’t fit in my apartment. And what about a work visa and immigration and—”
“We’ll figure it out. Together.” Unspeakable relief flooded