more than friends they could be. “And friends dinnae lie to one another.”
“Ye’re right. So I should tell ye that ye have a piece of spinach stuck in yer teeth.”
Immediately, Kiergan dropped her hands and lifted one in front of his mouth, frantically picking at his teeth with his other fingers. “How mortifying!” he managed, around his probing tongue.
It wasn’t until she dissolved into peals of laughter he realized she’d been teasing him. As the trickster of the family himself, his eyes widened, and Kiergan acknowledged she’d beaten him at his own game. One of his hands dropped to his hip as he glared at her.
“I didnae even have spinach this morning, ye minx!”
She shrugged, her eyes still sparkling with laughter, as she stepped closer to him. “Mayhap ye didnae, but ye’ve still managed to get a bit stuck— Hold still.”
And that’s when she lifted one slim finger and stuck it in his mouth. Och, well, not in his mouth exactly. Instead, her fingernail scraped at one of his front teeth, releasing the offending bit of spinach.
St. Columba’s receding hairline, but she was lovely, was she not? This close, he could see the flecks of gold in her blue eye, which matched the flecks in her left one. She was holding her breath, concentrating on his teeth, and he found himself praying it’d take her hours—days—to free the damn piece of leaf, so he could spend the time staring at her.
She had a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose, which made her seem more mischievous. And her lips were curled into a teasing sort of grin that could make a man vow to give up sweets for Lent.
Were he that sort of man, that is.
Ye fooked her sister last night, Kier. Try to make that mean something.
But ‘twas no use. He knew he shouldn’t touch Katlyn MacKinnon. He knew he shouldn’t flirt with her or tease her…but he was going to anyhow.
As she murmured, “There! Got it!” and began to remove her finger from his teeth, he reacted with an instinct he hadn’t noticed beyond the battlefield. Before she could pull her hand away, he’d reached up and snatched it, closing his fingers around her entire hand. With a gasp, her gaze rose to his.
He held it as he slowly drew her finger to his mouth and closed his lips around her fingertip.
He might’ve sucked off the piece of spinach. Honestly, at that moment, he didn’t give two shites for the state of his teeth, or spinach in general. Because her unusual eyes had gone round, and those plump, gorgeous lips had formed a little oh of surprise, and under his kilt, his cock jumped to attention.
Easy lad. Fooked her sister, remember?
Damn his conscience.
Her gaze had settled on his lips, and her breaths were coming faster. If he didn’t know better—and he did, oh he did—he’d guess he was seeing the evidence of her arousal. Kiergan had seen it often enough after all.
His nostrils flared, his cock stiffened, and he was suddenly ready for a good tupping. What the whores in the tavern had failed to do for him, this unexpected lass had done without trying. He studied her lips and wondered if mayhap he’d been too sudden in his decision to offer for Davina MacKinnon.
Aye, the sex last night had been earth-stopping, and he’d thought himself content to limit himself to that for the rest of his days. But then, mere hours later, his resolve was being tested by a pair of mismatched eyes?
Abruptly, he pulled her hand away from his mouth and turned to tuck it over his arm. “Come along,” he blurted, “ye have to meet Melba, the cheese mistress.” Then, before she had a chance to object—or say anything at all—he was marching them smartly toward the other side of the square, vowing to figure out just what in damnation his body was thinking.
No’ thinking much at all is my guess.
Melba was just as prickly as he’d warned but warmed to Katlyn’s knowledgeable questions and even offered a few samples, although she whacked Kiergan’s hand with a spoon when he tried to taste a few. When they left, he escorted her to the smithy to introduce her to Duncan and Skye, then to the candlemaker’s shop and the baker.
Each and every time he introduced her to someone, he saw her go through the same routine.
She’d clasp her hands in front of her and stare down at the ground, though keeping her head up,