by L. L. Muir
Gaspar clamored to his feet and faced the man quickly, before the woman was close enough to speak.
“Blame me, Laird Ross. I begged your wife to give me some way to distract you. I would not relent until she gave up the tale. My actions were shameful. I withdraw the victory. Just do not punish the woman, I beseech you.”
“It’s a lie, Montgomery. Don’t listen to him.”
Surely it was dangerous to step so close to her angry husband, so Gaspar tried to pull her back and behind him.
The man growled. “If I will not allow ye to put yer hands on my sister, what makes ye believe I’d allow ye to touch my wife?” His voice had grown louder with each word.
Gaspar put his offending hand in the air and stepped to the side. Their audience laughed, but Gaspar could not see the reason.
“Did you hear him?” Ross asked his wife as he reached out and pulled her to him again, her rounded belly notwithstanding. “He was defending ye. And to me. Have ye ever heard such nonsense?”
The woman’s hands worked their way up the man’s arms and behind his neck, though he had to bend far forward to allow it.
“I did offer him a little advantage, husband.”
Monty smiled. Smiled! “Aye, because he was sorely disadvantaged.”
“As are we all,” she whispered. “As we should be, yer lairdship.”
It might have been Jillian’s exaggerated brogue, or the fact that she’d called him laird, but the big man lowered his mouth to his wife’s in spite of an attentive audience.
Since Gaspar was forgotten, he turned to take advantage, and had just enough time to open his arms before Isobelle flew into them.
“Gaspar, my love! Ye’ve beaten him!”
He held her tight a long moment, remembering all those days and nights when they’d had a cold metal wall between them. He reveled in the feel of her while he could, before he had to dash her hopes again.
“No, Isobelle,” he whispered. “Your brother has beaten me.”
She looked up and her lips parted when she noticed his chin. She shook her head frantically, pressed her head to his chest, and wrapped her arms securely around him.
“What is this?” Montgomery barked. “I’ll not take a victory that isna mine. Yer dragon looks a bit long in the tooth, Sister, but ye can keep him if ye still want him. He tried to defend my guilty wife. He’s a saint for all we ken.”
Gaspar remembered what Isobelle had told him in the beginning about the men she knew who treated their women well. Isobelle claimed Monty was not one of them, but she’d been wrong.
He bent to kiss Isobelle again, this time in the dizzying knowledge that they could truly be together. There were no secrets left to bare, no other’s approval to seek. Nothing to separate them—most especially 500 years. Isobelle seemed to be celebrating the same as she met his passion with equal fervor. In the distance, he heard the clearing of a throat or two and dredged up the will to at least pause for a breath.
He opened his eyes and was a little too pleased to find Isobelle was having a more difficult time opening hers. He also found that Lady Ross had been set aside and her husband was moving toward him. Gaspar had scarcely released his hold on Isobelle before he fell onto his backside. Again.
“Saint or no,” the man bellowed, “the next time ye kiss my sister will be after ye’re wed and not before.”
Gaspar got to his feet and fisted his hands, then leaned close to his would-be brother. “How far is the church? For I will be kissing her again, and soon.” He held a hand out to Isobelle and pulled her close again, ignoring her snorting brother. “Will you have me to husband, Isobella—Isobelle?”
She nodded and rose onto her toes to whisper close to his ear, sending delicious chills up his back. “Perhaps when we’re alone in the night, ye can call me Isobella.”
He thought that sounded like an exceptional idea and wished to reward such inspiration with a kiss, but he remembered the brother before he laid his lips on his beloveds once more. He looked at Ross and asked permission with a raised brow. The man rolled his eyes and nodded, and while Gaspar kissed his Isobelle, he realized the laird of the clan, the mighty Montgomery Ross, was all bluster when it came to matters of the heart.
Epilogue
University of Edinburgh library, a year later…
“Who is that?” A brunette American student, approached her blond English flatmate and slid sideways onto a chair. “Tell me he’s not a professor.”
“Unfortunately,” said the blond, “he is, alas, a professor.” She tried not to stare at the man at the other end of the table, but failed. His face was pure perfection, except for the minor detail of an angry white scar that slashed across his face. But it simply made him look…perfectly imperfect. “Teaches History, Art History, and Italian. Oh, and some class on the Ottoman Empire.”
“I’m changing majors,” said the brunette.
“You cannot,” her friend snapped. “Apparently, there has been a rash of girls trying to get into his classes. They are completely full up. And the counsellors are positively snarky to anyone wanting to change any major to History.”
“I bet Italian’s not full.”
“Full. I already tried.” The blond tried to concentrate once more on her book.
“Ottoman Empire?”
She shook her head.
The brunette sighed. “How do you say perfect in Italian?”
“Perfetto,” said a red-head as she passed their end of the table and headed toward the professor. She leaned down and gave the guy a long, sexy kiss. Then she slid into a chair catty-corner from him and laced her fingers in his.
“Who does she think she is?”
“Has to be his wife,” said the blond.
“Oh? How can you tell?” Her friend glanced casually at the other end of the table again.
“Because she’s showing us the ring on his finger,” she whispered, then sat forward so her hair would cover her embarrassed face.
“Oh, wow.” Her friend hunched down in her chair and looked away.
“What?”
“Pregnant as a cow.”
The blond looked up through her bangs at the couple. Mr. Perfection pulled out the chair for his wife who literally appeared to be hiding a basketball beneath her gray sweater. He kissed her hand as she stood, then led her back toward their audience of at least two. He glanced at the blond and gave her a polite smile that lasted a thousandth of a second, but it was long enough to jump start her heart.
She and her friend held their breath as the couple passed. The brunette sighed a bit too loudly. The wife turned back, and they froze.
To be tediously honest, the woman was as beautiful as her husband. Though she looked a bit odd when she mooed at them!
The blond literally died of embarrassment and dropped her head onto her book. After she was sure the couple was gone, she looked up at her friend and grinned. “I think she’s a freaking lucky cow.”
THE END
Get the next bundle of Curse of Clan Ross books HERE. Or turn the page to see all available titles by L.L. Muir.
GET MORE BOOKS written by L.L. Muir
*Scottish Time Travel Romance
The Curse of Clan Ross Series…
1. ROSS
2. QUINN
3. GASPAR
4. WICKHAM
5. JAMES
6. PERCY
The Curse of Clan Ross Volume 1 (books 1-3)
The Curse of Clan Ross Volume 2 (books 4-6)
Christmas Kiss
Kiss This
*Scottish Historical Romance
Kilt Trip
Pirate Trip
Viking Trip (coming in 2019)
Under the Kissing Tree
*The Ghosts of Culloden Moor
By L.L. Muir unless otherwise noted
(Print copies are published as The Ghosts of Culloden Moor Collections)
1. The Gathering
2. Lachlan
3. Jamie
4. Payton
5. Gareth (Diane Darcy)
6. Fraser
7. Rabby
8. Duncan (Jo Jones)
9. Aiden (Diane Darcy)
10. Macbeth
11. Adam (Cathie MacRae)
12. Dougal
13. Kennedy
14. Liam (Diane Darcy)
15. Gerard
16. Malcolm (Cathie MacRae)
18. Watson
19. Iain (Melissa Mayhue)
20. Connor
21. MacLeod (Cathie MacRae)
22. Murdoch (Diane Darcy)
23. Brodrick
24. The Bugler
25. Kenrick (Diane Darcy)
26. Patrick (Cathie MacRae)
27. Finlay
28. Hamish
29. Rory (Jo Jones)
30. McBean (Diane Darcy)
31. Tristan
32. Niall (Diane Darcy)
33. Fergus (Bess McBride)
34. Angus (Jo Jones)
35. Bram
36. Alexander (Cassidy Cayman)
37. Ronan (Diane Darcy)
38. The Blacksmith
39. Ross (Jennae Vale)
40. Alistair (Jo Jones)
41. MacNabb (Diane Darcy)
42. Rhys
43. Gregor (Jo Jones) 8/20
44. Jack 9/7
45. The Storyteller (Terri Brisbane) 9/18
46. Calum (Diane Darcy) 10/2
*New Cozy With Mysteries
Coming Soon
*Regency Historical Romance
Blood for Ink
Bones for Bread
Body and Soul
Breath of Laughter (coming late in 2018, I promise)
Lord Fool to the Rescue
*Romantic Suspense
Gone Duck
*Young Adult Paranormal Romance
Somewhere Over the Freaking Rainbow
Freaking Off the Grid
*Middle Grade Children’s Books
Where to Pee on a Pirate Ship
*Western Romance
under the pen name Bella Bowen
BRIDE SCHOOL Series
Book One: GEN
Book Two: LIZZY
Book Three: MOLLY
Book Four: MARY
Book Five: NADIA (coming someday)
The Infamous Mrs. Wiggs Series
PICKLESFORK
American Mail-Order Brides Series
(50 books by various authors)
DARBY: Bride of Oregon
About the Author
L.L. Muir lives on the Utah side of the Rocky Mountains with her husband and family. She appreciates funny friends, a well-fed campfire, and any excuse to go to Scotland.
If you like her books, be a sport and leave a review on the book’s Amazon page. You can reach her personally through her website— www.llmuir.weebly.com, where you can also sign up for her newsletter.
To be sure you get alerts to new releases, follow L.L. Muir’s author pages on both Amazon and Bookbub.
Links are below
Thank you for playing!
Copyright
Published by Lesli Muir Lytle
Ross © 2018 L.Lytle
Going Back for Romeo © 2012 L.Lytle
Quinn © 2018 L.Lytle
Not Without Juliet © 2013 L.Lytle
Gaspar © 2018 L.Lytle
Collecting Isobelle © 2013 L.Lytle
The Curse of Clan Ross Series © 2015 L.Lytle
All rights reserved
Cover Art by Kelli Ann Morgan
License notes…
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. The ebook contained herein constitutes a copyrighted work and may not be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or stored in or introduced into an information storage and retrieval system in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotation embodied in critical articles and reviews. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This ebook is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
