A Highlander's Heart: A Sexy Regency Romance (Highland Knights Book 1) (14 page)
Read A Highlander's Heart: A Sexy Regency Romance (Highland Knights Book 1) Online
Authors: Jennifer Haymore
Rob had loved their son. The truth of it felt like a precious gem that she’d found after years of searching. She took it and held it close to her heart. He’d loved Jamie.
He had grieved. She’d just been too stubborn and self-absorbed to realize that he’d grieved in a different way than she had.
And he loved her. No man on this earth, especially not one as tightly controlled, masculine, or as powerful as Rob, would expose himself like he had to a woman unless he trusted her and loved her beyond measure.
Grace and Duncan Mackenzie met them in Norsey House’s main salon. After taking one look at their faces, Grace’s expression softened. She came to them and kissed them on the cheek, first Rob, then Claire. She squeezed Claire’s hand. “You both look exhausted. Shall I have a light dinner sent to your room?”
“Yes,” Claire said in relief. “That would be very nice. Thank you.”
They left Grace and Mackenzie and went to the room they shared whenever they came to Norsey House. The maids had already turned the bed down and laid out some fresh nightclothes, and within a few minutes, a small dinner was served.
Rob and Claire washed and changed in companionable silence, then sat at the small table where the meal had been laid out. Rob poured them each a glass of wine, then they shared a small portion of bread, cheese, and grapes.
She looked shyly across the table at her husband. “The doctor says I can bear you children, and I want that. But what if I couldn’t? Would you hate me because of it?”
He frowned. “I could never hate you.”
“But…”
“How could I be angry at something you canna control?”
“Because—”
“Aye, I’d like a brood of bairns. And I’d love ye for giving me one. But… Look at me, Claire.” When she looked up at him, his expression was grim. “Even if ye couldna give me one child, I’d still love you the same. You’d still be my wife… You’d still be my
life
. You understand that, don’t ye?”
She looked down at her plate. “A woman’s worth is often judged by her ability to bear children.”
“Not your worth,” he said softly. “I judged that long before I married you. And that had naught to do with your child-bearing hips.”
She smiled at that. “Thank you.”
“For not judging your child-bearing hips?”
“No, for judging I was good enough to marry.”
He pushed back from the table and held out his arms. “Come here, lass.”
She went into his arms, and he tugged her so she was sitting on his lap. He alternated from giving her loving little kisses to feeding her grapes and sips of wine and bread and cheese until she was pleasantly full and buzzing deep under her skin with arousal.
She wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his shoulder. “I will always miss him,” she whispered.
“I will too.”
“It’s never going to go away, though, Rob. It’s always going to be a part of me.”
“I understand, love. It’s a part of me too. It always will be.”
She closed her eyes, for the first time really feeling as if her husband understood. That he was
here
with her, in every way.
“I’m sorry I’m such a shrew.”
He laughed, his chest vibrating against her cheek. “I’ll be asking ye no’ to make a habit of it.”
“I’ll try not to. I fear I might just have a shrewish nature, though. So if it comes out once in a while, you can’t blame me.”
“If it ever does come out, brace yourself for the sting to your bottom.”
She pulled back, her smile widening. “Will you really spank me if I behave badly?”
He made that grumbling Scottish noise she adored.
“Then I should misbehave more often,” she said, laughing, burying her face back into his chest to hide her expression—which must have shown some combination of fear, excitement, and hopefulness. “Prepare yourself,” she murmured, her voice muffled against his chest, “for a great deal of shrewishness in the near future.”
And there it was—final proof she
was
an unabashed hoyden.
He stood suddenly, gathering her in his arms, and she squealed, clutching him so she wouldn’t topple to the floor.
He took her to the bed and dumped her unceremoniously on it. She scooted toward the head of the bed as he crawled atop it like a tiger after its prey.
When he reached her, he placed an arm on either side of her and flattened his hands against the headboard. “I’m going to show ye right now, wife, what happens to a misbehaving lass whose husband loves her beyond measure and never wants to spend another day apart from her.”
Her heart racing, she reached up to cup his cheek and looked into those beautiful ice-blue eyes. “This misbehaving lass loves her husband back beyond measure. She vows she will never again try to push him away.”
“And when she’s sad and when she weeps, he’ll be there, holding her safe in his arms,” he whispered. “He’ll never run again.”
She blinked hard. “Do you mean it, Rob?”
“I do. I love you, Claire. You are everything to me.”
“We’ve wasted so much time.”
“We have the rest of our lives,” he murmured. “And we’re no’ going to waste another day.”
And with that, Claire’s husband lay with her, cherished her, and taught her that nothing in the world would ever again come close to severing the bond they’d forged together.
USA Today
bestselling author Jennifer Haymore is the author of sexy historical and contemporary romance. Her books have been nominated for numerous awards, including five
RT Book Reviews
Reviewers Choice awards and the prestigious RITA® award for best historical romance.
You can find Jennifer in Southern California trying to talk her husband into yet another trip to England, helping her three children with homework while brainstorming a new five-minute dinner menu, or crouched in a corner of the local bookstore writing her next novel.
Website:
jenniferhaymore.com
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The House of Trent
The House of Trent Novellas
The Donovan Sisters
Confessions of an Improper Bride
Once Upon a Wicked Night (a short story)
Secrets of an Accidental Duchess
One Night with an Earl (a novella)
The James Series
Sugar Cay
Standalone
The House of Trent, Book 1
by
Jennifer Haymore
Simon Hawkins, duke of Trent, is no stranger to scandal. Rumors and innuendo have darkened the House of Trent for decades, and it has fallen to Simon to restore his tattered family name. He lives by a strict code of honor, but when he is called home to investigate his mother’s disappearance, the distinguished duke will tangle with temptation. For there waits the only woman he has ever loved-and the last woman he should desire...
Sarah Osborne has spent her life dreaming of Simon’s touch. But dukes do not long for lady’s maids—or so Sarah believes, until a stolen kiss sparks a passion that could be her ultimate undoing. As the couple begins a forbidden romance, a cunning enemy plots to destroy the duke and everything he loves. Now, caught in a blackmailer’s web, Simon faces an agonizing choice: sacrifice his family’s future or break Sarah’s heart.
"Emotional, sensual and enchanting, this tale of forbidden love is a romance to savor. Appealing characters, a beautiful, unconventional love story and family dynamics—as well as deft plotting and depth of emotion—make this a keeper."
-4 1/2 Stars and a Top Pick from
RT Book Reviews
The Duchess Hunt
Simon’s eyes met hers, held her steady in his gaze. “I would have liked to see you dance. I would have liked to dance with you.”
“I do not stand at Lady Esme’s side as her equal, Your Grace,” Sarah reminded him gently. As Lady Esme’s companion, she could not encourage invitations to dance. Her duty was to be an observer, a protector of her lady’s interests.
He was quiet for a moment, staring down into the liquid he swirled in his glass. “I know Miss Farnshaw taught you how. I watched you once, years ago.”
“Did you?” she breathed.
“I did.” He raised his gaze, met her eyes. “I watched you dance a minuet in the parlor.”
“Oh.” Something about the way he was looking at her sent a soft heat flushing through her from the inside out.
“I wanted to dance with you then. I wanted to dance with you tonight, too. Did you not wish you had danced this evening?”
She considered this. She would have liked to dance, yes, to take the place of Miss Stanley on Simon’s arm. But how could she tell him that?
Suddenly, firmly, he set the glass on the side table and rose. He held out his hand to her.
She stood without thinking, reached out to take his hand. Like when he’d helped her into the carriage earlier, his grasp was warm and strong, but now was different. Now she touched his bare skin, felt the roughness of his fingertips under the sensitive flesh of her palm. His hand was warm and dry. Intoxicating. Touching him like this, skin to skin, was a heady feeling, indeed.
“A minuet,” he murmured. “Dance with me, Sarah.”
He stepped back and bowed formally to her. Entranced, she curtsied back. They both took a step, and he swept up her right hand once more in his firm grip. They turned to face the closed door at the other end of the room, and as he hummed the notes, they danced forward then began the figures and turns of the minuet. Throughout it all, Simon’s lips pressed together, humming the notes in a low tenor, and his eyes never left hers.
In the minuet, the couple came in contact with each other infrequently, and when they were separated and dancing to the corners of the room or turning to complete their figures, Sarah ached for the moment when they would come together again, only their hands contacting, those strong fingers curving around her palm.
It was the slightest touch, the rarest contact between the two of them. But with his green eyes focused solely on her, his bare hand touching nothing but her, Sarah had never felt anything so erotic. Each time her skin connected with his, a deep shudder ran through her.
Finally he gathered both her hands in his, and as they turned, Sarah realized this was the end. The humming notes stopped, and he let her go, stepping back once more to bow.
She curtsied, and he straightened as she rose.
They stood there, in the center of the room, staring at each other. The depths of his dark green eyes held her in his thrall, so heavy with the weight of the world, and at that moment, she wanted to wipe it all away—the pressures of Parliament and government and his position. Worries about his sister…and his mother.
“I wished it had been me,” she said softly. “When you were dancing with Miss Stanley and the others. I wished you were dancing with me.”
He gazed at her unspeaking for a moment. Then he said, “I did, too.”
He stepped forward, wrapped his arms around her, and pressed his lips to hers.
The feel of him, of their lips gliding against each other, sent fireworks exploding through her. She dragged him harder against her, heard his ragged whisper, “Sarah.”
Their lips moved in a hot, sensual slide. His hand rubbed tight circles over her lower back…and lower, until he cupped her bottom, pulling her against him so the hard ridge of his arousal pressed against her abdomen. The feel of it, of that most primitive, masculine part of him, sent a carnal shudder racing through her.
His mouth moved down her chin, and she kissed his rough cheek, then tilted her neck as he moved her braid aside with his free hand to kiss her there.
His lips pressed against her jaw, then caressed the shell of her ear before kissing their way back to her mouth, seeking, exploring.
Sensation washed over her. Not only in the places his mouth touched, but all over and through her. Deep yearning. Longing. Need.
She gave a small whimper, clutched him tighter, kissed his bare, warm skin wherever her mouth could reach him. She wanted more. So much more.
His arousal grew, pressed against her lower belly, so hard and so hot she could feel the heat between the layers of their clothes.
His hand moved from her neck to the opening in her robe, cupping her breast over her nightgown, his thumb running over her nipple, hardening it into a sensitized nub that strained against the fabric of her chemise.
She pressed her body tighter against him, blindly seeking his lips with her own.
She caught them, moving against him in a brazen kiss that she hadn’t known she was capable of. He tasted like man and desire. Cedar and spice. So delicious. She didn’t know how she’d ever get enough.
Suddenly his hands moved from her buttocks and breast to her upper arms. With a low groan, he pushed her back.
“Stop.”
She gazed at him, clawing through the haze of desire that had overcome her. “No, Simon.”
He blinked at the use of the familiar name and, from a part of her deep inside, she froze.
Reality crashed in. Forcing her frozen neck to move, she swung her head away.
“Sarah, look at me.” He cupped her hands in his palms, and warmth instantly flushed through her, combating the cold.
“I…Sarah, I want you. But I don’t want to hurt you. I’m not the kind of man who…uses women.”
“I know you’re not.” One of the reasons she adored him.
“So you see why we can’t, why I can’t…?”
“I’m not a fool, Your Grace,” she said softly. Sarah knew that no matter what happened between them, no matter what power he had over her, Simon would never take advantage of her. “I know what I am doing. What I want.”
Simon flinched. “I don’t want to ruin you.”
“I know,” she whispered. “But sometimes I wish you did.”