Her Wicked Highlander: A Highland Knights Novella (11 page)
Read Her Wicked Highlander: A Highland Knights Novella Online
Authors: Jennifer Haymore
Three hours later, Lady Grace showed them to a bedchamber.
“How’d she ken we’d want to sleep together?” an alarmed Aila asked Max in a low voice after the lady had wished them a very good night, slipped through the door, and shut it behind her.
Max shrugged. “All of them could likely tell.”
“Tell what?”
He gave a crooked grin. “How in love with you I am.”
Aila’s chest went tight. “Nay. I’d wager they were looking at me… at how in love
I
am with
you
.”
Max’s smile broadened, showing his dimple, and she leaned up to peck a kiss on it. “Mayhap they saw it in both of us, then.”
They undressed each other slowly, cognizant of their injuries, and used the basin to wash. Finally, Aila was dressed in the fresh nightgown Lady Claire had loaned her, and Max had donned a clean nightshirt.
They slid into bedclothes, and Aila sighed. “This is perfect. We didna even have to wash the bedding first this time.”
“Aye,” Max mumbled. “Thank God.”
He wrapped his arms around her, and Aila snuggled against him, squeezing her eyes shut tightly. “Max?”
“Aye?”
“I’ve killed someone.”
“Aye, lass, you have.”
“I’m not sure what to think about it.”
“Dinna think about it at all,” Max suggested.
“I’m… I’m worried it’ll change me somehow.”
Against her, Max’s chest moved as he sighed. “Aye. It’ll change you. But not the essence of who you are.”
“I dinna ken who I am anymore. I feel like… I’ve lost everything.”
“Not me, lass. You havena lost me.”
“But you belong to the Knights.”
“Nay,” he said quietly. “I belong to you.”
She swallowed hard, then pulled back so she could look into his face.
“What do you mean?”
“If you want to remain here in Scotland and rebuild your cottage, I’ll stay with you. If you’ll have me.”
“But… The Highland Knights… they… you…”
“The Knights are my brothers,” Max said softly. “But you, Aila… You are my life. I want to make you my wife. I wish to be by your side, always.”
She couldn’t breathe. All the air had been sucked from the room.
“Think about it, love,” he murmured.
“Nay!” she snapped.
“Nay?” His brows shot upward in surprise, followed quickly by a profound look of hurt.
“I mean, I dinna need to think about it,” she said quickly.
His jaw hardened, and she knew his mind was going in altogether the wrong direction, that she needed to fix this, this instant.
“I dinna need to think about it, because I want it too. What you said about being by my side… I want to be by your side too. I want to stand by you as your wife. As the wife of a Highland Knight.”
“But—” He frowned in confusion. “Your home. Your lands…”
“I’ve nothing left here, Max. My parents are gone. Gin is gone. My home is gone. I have never felt so at home as when I am with you. And now I ken that no matter where you are, whether it’s London or the far reaches of the earth, that as long as I’m with you, I’ll be home.”
He swallowed hard, his gaze softening as he stared at her.
“I want you to stay with your brothers—with the Highland Knights. Their quest is an honorable one, and it’s important. My land will always be here, and we can rebuild the cottage too. But we dinna need to live there. My home is at your side.”
Max released a shuddering breath and yanked her against him with his good arm. “I love you, lass,” he murmured into her hair. “I love you so much.”
“I love you too,” she said.
Max gently made love to her in the warmth of the bed in Inverness—their home for tonight. And both of them knew that no matter where tomorrow led them, they’d always be home. Because, until the day they died, they’d always have each other.
THE END
To learn more about Jennifer Haymore and the
Highland Knights
series, visit her at her website:
jenniferhaymore.com
, on Twitter at
@jenniferhaymore
, and on Facebook at
facebook.com/jenniferhaymore-author
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ABOUT JENNIFER HAYMORE…
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.
To learn more about Jennifer, visit her at her website:
jenniferhaymore.com
, on Twitter at
@jenniferhaymore
, and on Facebook at
facebook.com/jenniferhaymore-author
. To sign up for Jennifer’s newsletter,
click here
.
ALSO BY JENNIFER HAYMORE
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Novellas