Free Seducing the Highlander by Emma Wildes Page B

in his life. He’d been laird since he was twenty. Ian said curtly, “I’ll talk to him.”
    Angus’s bushy brows lifted and he snorted. “You can try, lad. Let me know when you plan to reason with him so I can be there to help mop up the blood.”
     
     
    “These are for you.”
    The flowers looked strangely delicate next to Robbie’s sinewy, masculine fingers. Leanna took them, unable to suppress a smile, though she shook her head. “You are very sweet.”
    “I am not sweet,” Robbie told her with a cheeky grin. “Though I imagine you are.” His gaze drifted suggestively over her body, boldly lingering on her bosom. “I own I wouldn’t mind a taste.”
    Leanna did her best to give him a quelling look. “Rossie tells me your reputation is already more notorious than Ian’s was at the same age, and I think I see why. Flowers and compliments aside, you must know Ian is becoming annoyed by your attention to me.”
    “And I am so damned envious of him, I can barely exchange a civil word,” Robbie admitted sharply, glancing away. “I see his disapproval; don’t worry. We are at odds for the first time in our lives. He wants to throttle me. I want to castrate him and take you for myself.”
    Put that bluntly, the sentiment was a little shocking. “Robbie,” she said reproachfully, feeling uncomfortable. “You’ve been here a week. We barely know each other.”
    “You were at the castle half a day before Ian bedded you.”
    She could feel her cheeks heat. “How do you know that?”
    “Everyone knows it,” he said restively. “And I wish we knew each other,” he countered, giving her a meaningful look from dark, direct eyes. “The amount of time elapsed since I met you is but a detail. But don’t worry. I wouldn’t betray Ian, however much I might want to do so.”
    They sat on a small hill, a blanket underneath them, with the remnants of their lunch packed back into the basket Rossie had provided. Twirling the lovely blooms in her fingers, Leanna pondered how odd it was to be so far from home, with the threat of Frankton still looming, and feel so . . . settled and happy. “Ian is a wonderful man,” she admitted softly. “I know you admire him and that he cares for you. Don’t let this infatuation spoil anything between you, please. It would make me feel terrible.”
    “I am not happy with it either.” His tall body propped on one elbow, looking every inch the frustrated young lover, Robbie gazed at her. “I want you. He wants you. The trouble being, of course, he has you. Every night.”
    Over and over. Leanna blushed again, recalling how ardent and skillful Ian was as a lover, taking her again and again, eliciting delicious sensations and incredible arousal as he enjoyed her body.
    “It’s that good, is it?” Robbie muttered, his mouth twisting as he watched her expression. “Damn him,” he added blackly.
    Not having dared to say this to anyone but Rossie, whom she now considered a friend, Leanna acknowledged quietly, “I love him.”
    “I know.”
    Her brows went up. “You . . . do?”
    “Oh, hell, yes.” Violently he ripped up a long blade of grass, crushing it in his fingers. “Who better to see it? I love you; you love him, and Ian . . . who knows if he will recognize what he feels? He’s older, guarded, used to women besieging him because of his looks and title. He takes them to bed, but as far as higher emotion, I doubt he even allows it.”
    “I hoped . . .” Leanna swallowed and looked away. The fields were very verdant, the sun high again, the scent heavy with summer. “I . . . well . . . hoped he might come to care for me.”
    “If he doesn’t, I’ll rip his heart out.”
    She couldn’t help it; she laughed out loud, a choked sound. “Nothing so drastic, if you please, Robbie. Chivalry has its place.”
    He laughed too, looking boyish again and not so seriously intent. “It might not be so easy. The other night when the baron’s assassins attempted their