Free To Tame a Highland Earl by Tarah Scott Page B

never
would.
    “ If you don’t mind, my
lord, I would prefer to walk.”
    He halted. “A walk?” The words were drawled
with nonchalance, but she knew he was surprised by her
suggestion.
    “ The exertion and fresh air
will do me good,” she said. “I haven’t fully recovered from, er,
recent events.”
    “ Indeed?” This time,
amusement laced his voice. “And a walk will put you to
rights?”
    She flushed with embarrassment and prayed he
couldn’t see the blush she knew followed the heat creeping up her
cheeks. “Fresh air cures many ailments.”
    Eve looked up, then regretted meeting his
gaze when his fingers flexed against her waist. A moment of silence
passed. Why did he hesitate? He couldn’t conceive of, much less
suspect, what she had in mind. No, she realized with a jolt of
frustration. He was searching for a reason to decline the
invitation. There could be no denying his arousal when they’d been
jammed into the hidey hole in the parlor. He hadn’t hesitated then.
Why now? Eve shifted so that her breast came in contact with his
chest and pressed closer. It seemed he was suddenly a statue, his
body hard as stone, his hand on her waist an unmoving vice.
    “ Shall we, my lord?” she
asked.
    “ That depends, my
dear.”
    Good Lord, she wasn’t Grace, but she was
worth a walk in the gardens. What did she have to do, strip down to
her shift in order to entice him? He lifted a hand and Eve froze
when he ran a finger down her cheek.
    His finger reached her chin and he grasped
it. “Are you carrying a pistol?” She blinked, then narrowed her
eyes. “A lady does not carry a pistol.”
    He gave her chin a small squeeze. “A lady does not sleep with a pistol under her pillow.”
    Ire flashed. “Use some sense. If I intended
to shoot you again, the parlor would have been the place to do
it.”
    “ Indeed?”
    The amusement in his voice fueled her
frustration. “It isn’t as if I asked you to walk the plank.”
    “ Oh, but you did,” he said.
She pulled away, and he released her. “But, as I am a good swimmer,
I am willing to take the plunge.”
    The arm that had been pressed close to him
prickled in the cool night air. An odd sense of lightheadedness
gripped her. Warm fingers grasped her hand and Lord Rushton slipped
that hand into the crook of his arm as he started forward. Movement
amongst the hedges’ shadows snapped her back to attention.
    She swallowed. Once they left the manicured
gardens and entered the privacy of the shadowed hedges there would
be no stopping Oscar from his assigned duty. Lord Rushton didn’t
stand a chance against the hulking man. At Gretna Green, he would
have no choice this time but to marry Grace, and Eve wouldn’t have
to worry about having him as a husband. No. She would then call him
brother.
    She thought she might be sick.
    *****
    Erroll feared his near painful erection would
cripple him. Since leaving the parlor, he’d barely regained
control. Then the vixen had pressed that lovely breast against his
chest. She’d already witnessed how quickly the blood could rush to
his cock—and his inability to think. She had to know how badly he
wanted her. Her reluctant acquiescence in the small confines of
their hiding place hadn’t fooled him into thinking she would spread
her legs so easily, however. She would have had to be made of stone
not to be aroused when jammed together with him. But after making
it clear she had no intention of marrying him, he hadn’t expected
an invitation to walk with her in the gardens. He strolled forward,
willing his lust into submission with the promise of imminent
satiation.
    “ Are you all right,
sir?”
    “ Never better,” he
replied.
    “ Is your leg well? You seem
to be limping.”
    It wasn’t his leg that caused the limp.
    “ I am sorry I shot
you.”
    At least this time she sounded half
remorseful. “It is a mere flesh wound.”
    “ Your limp seems to be
worsening,” she said.
    He knew how to remedy that and once