Page 66 of Highland Spy

She had Connor at her side.

And she had him in her heart.

Of that, she was now certain.

• • •

It was far warmer than any other April Connor had experienced.

The scent of dew roused his senses with its freshness, its delicate feminine quality.

He cracked an eye open and found a dark lock of tousled hair tucked beneath his chin.

Ariana.

Though he should not, he breathed in once more, and plucked her fragile scent from that of the earthy forest floor beneath them.

His arm lay draped over her slender body, and she held it to her breast like a lady clutching her sable in a windstorm. The night had left him impossibly hard, but it wasn’t just the normal press of a full bladder. The ache extended to the tip of his cock where it nudged against the sweet curve of Ariana’s rump.

It was almost impossible not to strain his hips forward and press against her softness.

He shifted in his makeshift bed, defying desire and forcing himself from her. A channel of cold morning air bled between their bodies, dispelling the heat once shared there.

Ariana gave a soft whimper and rolled toward him. Her hands caught blindly at his chest, where she rested her head and sighed in contentment once more.

Her scent was more pervasive now, teasing and tempting.

And damn it, he was only a man. He could take no more.

Connor eased himself from her touch and turned a deaf ear to her sleepy protest.

The chilly morning air was damp with the promise of rain and made his body creak. Soft light from the slowly rising sun colored the forest a quiet blue-gray, the early hour finding everything still.

He found his gaze fixed upon Ariana’s sleeping form. Her long dark hair trailed behind her like a proud banner caught in a defiant wind. The innocence of slumber tinged her cheeks and lips pink and left her alabaster skin porcelain white in comparison.

She truly was beautiful.

And altogether too alluring.

He’d been close the night before. Too close.

She had been the one to stop him.

He was grateful to her for having done so, for surely he hadn’t had the strength to stop himself.

She shifted in her sleep, and her hand reached toward where he’d slept. Her fingers fanned over nothing for a moment before falling still.

He would not make the same mistake again. He would keep his lust in check.

For that was surely all it was—lust.

With the thought firmly lodged in his mind, he decided to let her sleep several moments more while he cleaned up in the nearby stream.

That was when the rain started.

The trickle from the skies was slow at first, little flecks of moisture dotting his skin. By the time he came back to camp, the hiss of a hard rain filled his ears.

Ariana peered at him from beneath a plaid she had thrown over her head with only her face peeking out.