Page 110 of Some Like It Scot
My gaze dropped to his fullycoveredchest, and I nodded about three times. Maybe eight. “Good. Great. All... fixed now.” Was that my high-pitched voice? And then my shoulders slumped with a sudden realization. “Oh man, but you realize, every time I look at you, I’m going to have X-ray vision. Which means I’ll never get anything useful done in your presence for the rest of my days on Mull.”
Maybe for all eternity.
His smile only grew more breathtakingly threatening with each step.
And I was pretty sure I was nearing maximum hyperventilation.
Every bit of spice-leather-ocean yumminess of his scent wrapped around me in his next step, and my knees paid homage in protest of gravity.
Thankfully, maybe, he caught me midswoon and drew me up against his now-shirted chest. But with my X-ray vision in working order, I knew what hid beneath.
I swallowed and, like the complete glutton for punishment I was, I rested my palms against his chest. Those electric blue eyes of his bore into mine, searching, waiting.
I raised my chin, all ability to verbalize as nonexistent as his shirt used to be. But evidently he saw whatever he needed because his palm tightened against my back, bringing me flush against him at the same time his mouth captured mine. Every muscle in my body joined in my knees’ revolt, and I gave in to the tug.
His firm lips knew exactly what to do. Caressing my shocked and dazzled ones to life... and response. My palms moved up his chest to frame his face, fingers sliding over his ears in such a way that caused a deep sound to reverberate from his very impressive chest into mine.
I should stop.
But he’d become my gravity. Holding me up. Keeping me afloat from the inside out. And the fact his body encapsulated mine in this protective sort of hold while kissing away every thought in my head flipped something over in my chest.
A feeling I didn’t fully recognize branched through me, as if it had to travel so far to make it to identification. His warm kiss. His strong hold. His scent and protection and rescue and humor, all twined together into the far-off feeling of... coming home.
I pulled back, barely two inches, my fingers refusing to release their grip on his shirt. “Mrs. Lennox would not approve. At all.” My whispered breath pulsed between us. “Not Edwardian. Especially the shirtlessness.”
The slightest twitch tipped one corner of his lips. “Do you think I’m concerned about Lennox, lass?”
Lass? The word left his lips and rammed right into my cracked heart. A simple, common word, but rumbled low from his throat and paired with the searching sweet look of his, the combination of four letters declared war in my chest.
Fear.
Hope.
I shouldn’t have let him kiss me. It really was the most ridiculous thing I’d ever done (apart from the horrible decision I made on a paraglider in Iceland), but in all honesty, I was under the influence of hot Scotness... or Scot hotness. That was my only excuse for not running away as soon as his tenderness threatened to undo my carefully honed flight mode. Either way, I shouldn’t be held responsible for the actions that happened next. Because, without one bit of consideration for Edwardian appropriateness, I took his wonderfully bearded face in my much-too-eager hands and pulled him right back in for more.
Bad idea.
Very bad.
And I kept encouraging this very bad idea with a great amount of zeal.
Graeme didn’t seem to mind at all. He growled his pleasure and wrapped me in those massive arms of his as if I weren’t too tall or too clumsy or too broken.
I was just right.
An amazing rush of heady happiness swirled up from my stomach to my brain as his lips claimed mine, taking over the kiss.
I gladly relinquished the power. Letting go had never felt so good, so easy.
Heaven, help me.
Kisses shouldn’t be this deadly. This consuming.
But here I was, snogging like one of the most appreciative snoggers in the whole world, without a care about what happened when I stepped out of these strong arms and entered the real world again.
Was I intoxicated by a hot Scot?
Without a doubt.
