To Capture A Highlander's Heart: The Beginning (2 page)

Gabriel nodded. “’Tis a wise decision, my
friend.” He turned to capture Grace’s hand and tugged her toward
the antechamber to one side of the great hall.

****

Grace’s breath came in stumbling breaths as
Gabriel drew her into Lord Campbell’s antechamber. With the door
finally closed behind them, he released her and began to pace the
room, his movements agitated.

He’d fought for her. Fought over her. What if
he had done so simply out of kindness? She struggled to suppress
her excitement.

A huge table and chairs dominated the room.
Just off center, sat a basket filled with wild hyacinth blossoms.
Wary of the anger still imprinted on his face, she moved to touch
the flowers and stir their fragrance.

“Your basket dinna survive your treatment,”
Gabriel said. “Since ’twas my fault I thought to replace it.”

“Oh—Gabriel—” Grace’s heart beat a frantic
rhythm. Tears blurred her vision as her fingers dwelt upon the lip
of the new basket. No man had ever given her a gift. But what if
she should misunderstand his meaning?

“Do the flowers please you, then?”

“Aye.” Her attention focused on him as a
small niggling hope bubbled up inside her. “Aye, a great deal”

“That day upon the path, you were lying
amongst them—” Color touched his cheekbones. “I have been thinking
about that.”

He
saw
her. He finally
saw
her.
Joy whipped through her and she smiled.

His gaze settled upon her lips and his
features took on an intent expression filled with heat and promise.
“Walk with me.” He offered her his hand.

Her heart beat a heavy rhythm against her
throat as she grasped it. His warm calloused palm melded with hers
as he drew her from the room to the front entrance.

Gabriel paused upon the stone stairs just
outside the door. “Why me, Grace?”

Grace drew in the cool, moist air filled with
the scent of hay and livestock, of smoke and fresh turned earth.
She averted her gaze. If she looked at him she could not broach the
subject. “You loved Tira. You loved her son and cared for him as
though he were your own. A man with so generous a heart—” His grip
tightened upon her hand and her voice died.

Gabriel raised her face with his fingertips
beneath her chin, his features set and serious. “’Twas not love,
Grace. I know nothing of love.”

She did not believe that. “You knew enough to
care for a fatherless boy who needed you. And ’tis not just loyalty
that holds you here at Lord Campbell’s side.”

“I canna hope to live up to the man you
believe me to be, Grace.”

“’Twill not hurt you to try.”

His quick surprised expression dissolved into
laughter.

“’Twill do no good should we not please one
another in other ways,” he said a moment later, a smile still
curving his lips.

The emotion she read in his features drew the
breath from her lungs and stole the strength from her voice. “And
what would you be speaking about?”

Gabriel’s arm slid around her waist and he
pulled her into the shaded alcove next to the door. His arms
tightened, aligning her body with the long, lean length of his. His
eyes scanned her face, a look in their depths that caught her
breath. His lips covered hers.

After the first moments of surprise passed, a
sweet sensation of pleasure swept through her. Grace slipped her
arms up his back holding him close as the soft pressure of his
mouth moved upon hers, his beard soft against her cheeks. The
height and breadth of him offered her, at first, a sense of
protection then something else. Infused with an aching need to be
closer, she rose on tiptoe and curved her body into his.

When he drew back to look down at her,
Gabriel’s cheeks appeared ruddy, and his breathing unsteady.

She pressed her hot face against the coolness
of his leather tunic and reveled in the gentleness of his touch as
he smoothed her hair.

“Does that please you, lass?” he asked, his
voice husky.

“Aye.” She drew back. “For now.” She slipped
free of his arms and stepped down the stairs.

****

Still addled by his own response to the sweet
taste of her lips and the shy inexperience of her kiss, Gabriel
eyed Grace as she turned to look over her shoulder at him.

“’Twill take more than a gift and a kiss,
Gabriel.”

The challenge he read in her expression
tugged a smile to his lips. “Aye, I can see that.”

It would be marriage or nothing.

He would not have wanted it any other
way.

She offered her hand, the gesture a dare. He
leapt down the steps to capture it.

To be continued …….

More information can be found at

www.TeresaReasor.com

BREAKING FREE (Book 1 of the SEAL TEAM
Heartbreakers)

BREAKING THROUGH (Book 2 of the SEAL TEAM
Heartbreakers))

TIMELESS

HIGHLAND MOONLIGHT

CAPTIVE HEARTS

Short stories

AN AUTOMATED DEATH: A STEAMPUNK SHORT STORY

TO CAPTURE A HIGHLANDERS HEART : The Beginning

Children’s Books

WILLY C. SPARKS THE DRAGON WHO LOST HIS FIRE

HAIKU CLUE (COMING SOON)