Free Terri Brisbin by Taming the Highland Rogue Page A

bring her
close.
    Her mouth grew hot, her kisses filled with passion and her body
melted to his. His own lust flared, as it always did for her. He slid his hands
up, tangling them in her hair and holding her mouth to his and possessing it.
She tasted of spices and sweets, as though she’d just eaten one of the special
treats the cook had prepared for the wedding of his foster son and his sister’s
daughter on the morrow.
    But nothing was more appealing to him than the taste of her
skin as he moved his mouth away from hers and down onto her neck, kissing and
licking his way to that place near her ear that would make her shiver and sigh.
The sound of it heated his blood and he reached down to caress her breast.
    And he would have gathered its fullness under his palm and
rubbed his thumb across her nipple to urge that sound from her once more if it
had not been for the—
    “Connor!” Rurik called as he climbed the stairs below them.
    Caught up in the rush of heat in his blood and love in his
heart for her as he was, Connor almost allowed their passionate embrace to be
witnessed by Rurik…and Duncan…and Hamish and several other men who all seemed to
need his attention now. Jocelyn tugged her gown in place, ran her fingers
through her hair and licked her lips, adjusting herself before turning to face
this unwelcom onslaught. The last gesture, the glide of the tip of her tongue
across lips swollen from his kisses, made his cock harden even more.
    He would kill them all if no good reason brought them to his
chambers at this moment! War had best be at the gates to justify this
interruption. Before he could take her hand and bid her to remain, Jocelyn
slipped away, passing the men as they arrived.
    * * *
    A stupid mistake brought near disaster, Jocelyn thought
as she made her escape. Passing the men on the stairs, she nodded and smiled and
did not speak to them or slow in her direction down to the main hall. Tomorrow’s
wedding was the first in what she hoped would be many successes to come and she
should not endanger this one, or future ones, by rushing too quickly to gather
information about other possibilities. She reached the chamber she called her
own and entered it, closing the door and facing one of her fellow
conspirators.
    “Did you find them?” Margriet, Rurik’s wife, asked, twisting
the end of her long, blond braid in her fingers.
    “Nay,” Jocelyn answered. Sitting in her chair before the hearth
and slumping down into its comfortable cushions, she shook her head. “Connor was
there.” Her heart yet raced from his brief but hungry attention.
    “He caught you?” Margriet asked, approaching and sitting in the
chair next to hers.
    “I walked in on him, so I did not have the opportunity at all.”
Her husband kept all important papers and contracts in his strongbox in their
chamber. The same papers she needed to search before the wedding on the
morrow.
    “Mayhap after supper? He will be busy with his visitors.”
    As the laird’s wife and as Countess of Douran, her presence
would be required at his side until he retired. Knowing his love of celebrating
and talking with visitors from all parts of Scotland, Jocelyn knew they would
return to their chambers late.
    Too late.
    “I will think of a way,” she promised.
    Connor MacLerie was a hard man; ruthless, some would say. Known
as the Beast of the Highlands for too many years, he had changed during their
marriage, but not enough for anyone to consider him a man who would give in to
the softer feelings when managing the affairs of the clan. Decisions and
alliances were made for the good of the clan and not to fulfill the whims and
wishes of those under his care…and direction.
    Not even hers.
    Jocelyn sighed. Sometimes, he did listen to her counsel, but
she wished he’d pay more heed to her suggestions. Marriage agreements were her
biggest concern.
    Since law and custom gave him the right and privilege and
responsibility to arrange marriages for those under