Free Seducing the Highlander by Emma Wildes Page A

disgust.
    “Yet he yearns for yours.” Angus chuckled suddenly, stroking his beard. “It’s retribution, I am guessing, for all those years you so easily bedded any woman who caught your eye. Here you are now, having to defend your claim to none other than your own cousin.”
    “I am defending nothing,” Ian snapped. “She’s mine. Robbie knows that. He won’t challenge me. If I thought he would, I would hardly let them go off and picnic or fish or God knows what particular ridiculous outing he has planned today, the besotted fool. Leanna enjoys being out of the castle, so I allow it. Nothing will happen.”
    Mildly, his friend remarked, “You seem testy for someone so sure of young Robbie.”
    “He would give his life for her,” Ian said with conviction. Then he added on a breath, “But I don’t want to have to ask that of him. Therefore the extra guard. And you are right as usual, Angus; I am growing peeved with him. He does nothing to conceal the way he looks at her, as if he is imagining her naked and willing in his arms. By the fires of hell, what does he expect I will do in the end?”
    “His eager cock is thinking, not his mind. Last eve, I thought you were going to tear his young head off.”
    Remembering the way his cousin had stared at Leanna’s admittedly lovely full breasts, the creamy upper curves bared by a low-cut gown that flattered her entrancing figure, still made Ian’s mouth tighten in irritation. “He annoyed the devil out of me,” he admitted, thrusting his fingers through his hair. “Will I have to endure this for a lifetime, every man who sees her wanting her?”
    “A lifetime? Ah, I see, you’ve decided then to wed her? I guess I am not surprised.”
    Had he? The question set him off balance. To avoid answering it, he said quickly, “I want no part of a quarrel with Robbie, quite the contrary. He is like a brother to me, closer than anyone else in my family. I am fond of him, and I also see how he is with me now these past days: jealous and angry as well. Tension like this between us is the last thing we need, especially considering the threat from Frankton. However, I cannot see how to fix it. I suppose I could forbid Leanna to be near him, but I haven’t seen that she encourages him in any way, so it would seem as if I were punishing her and regarded him with mistrust. It might make things worse.”
    Putting his hands on the wall in front of him, Angus looked thoughtful. “Perhaps the best thing to do would be to let him consummate his passion for her. Give him permission to bed her for one night.”
    For a split second, Ian could not even speak. Then he exploded in uncharacteristic fury. “Are you insane? One second, you tell me you aren’t surprised I want to marry her; the next, you tell me to let her fuck someone else.”
    “Just to get a reaction from you, lad.” Angus chuckled, but then his smile faded and he said gruffly, “I saw how it was from the beginning between you and Lady Leanna. So did Rossie. Not much slips past her keen eye, and she is fond of the girl. For an Englishwoman, the lass is acceptable for the wife of our laird. When a woman is truly in love with a man, it is hard to miss.”
    Pushing aside the unpalatable vision of his cousin and Leanna in bed together, Ian asked tersely, “You think she is in love with me?”
    “By the gods, it’s obvious, boy, to someone not so involved. And since she told Rossie plainly so, I am guessing it is true.”
    Leanna in love with me —the idea was not new, if he admitted it. He wanted her to be in love with him.
    As he was with her. And apparently his cousin was as well.
    Damn, this was a complication he didn’t need.
    “What should I do about Robbie?” he asked. Though he was used to making decisions affecting the lives of his clan with calm, cool logic, clearheaded thinking escaped him when it came to Leanna.
    “Perhaps you should let her handle it.”
    He was not used to letting others handle anything