This time the circumstances were different. Premeditated, slow, calm. She and Alan were husband and wife, taking their time, in the private comfort of their own home. Alan moved at a leisurely pace, as if he had the rest of his life to make love to her. She supposed he did, after all.
“I will spend outside of you, for now. But you must realize that’s not as fulfilling for a man. And it’s certainly not guaranteed, though it will reduce the chances of my seed taking root within you.”
To keep from saying “thank you” like a fool again, she merely nodded. Cam had spent on her belly and in her mouth most of the time, though in his fervent haste he did come against her womb more than once. She was lucky he hadn’t gotten her with child.
More than lucky. She knew her dalliance with the earl could have cost her everything. Yet at the time, even that knowledge hadn’t stopped her. She had lived her days desperate to see him again, to feel his hands on her body, to succumb to the sensation of him inside her.
She’d known her actions were impulsive and foolish. Perhaps that had been part of the pleasure in it—the innate excitement in furtive trysts and secret rendezvous.
When her father had taken her from Camdonn Castle to live in Glenfinnan, she’d secretly mourned losing Cam, but their separation was for the best. She’d never been enough of a fool to think there was a future for them—she was a factor’s daughter and he an earl, for heaven’s sake.
Alan grinned suddenly, jolting her attention back to the here and now. This man was her future, not the Earl of Camdonn. She’d best remember that.
“It seems odd that one of our first conversations should be of such a personal nature. But I want to be candid with you, Sorcha. I believe honesty to be the basis of a strong marriage.”
She smiled back at him, and this time it was real. “As do I.”
And then her own hypocrisy struck her. She truly believed honesty was important to a marriage. Yet she lay here, deceiving her husband on their first night together, playing the part of the virgin wife. What a liar she was.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Teaser chapter
Highland Surrender Page 33