by Cait London
“You actually read another woman’s thoughts to see how she would react to her beloved, what he did to please her. You used her thoughts for a manual on giving me the things I’d love most. Of serving up those sweet words to stun me. You couldn’t just tell me of the legend. Oh, no, you had to make me hunt for it.”
“I gave them to you. They’re yours, and so am I.”
Michelle shook her head. “So this is the secret you’ve been keeping all these weeks. And the legend of the flint and the fire. That’s exactly how we are, combustible. I’ve lost sleep over this, Liam. I’ve worried that I’d never be able to discover why the flints were wrapped as if they were precious. They were—they were Liam’s gift to Elizabeth. You could have told me right away.”
“But then there wouldn’t be a game, a challenge for you, would it? At first I didn’t believe it myself—that romance and love could come into my life—and then the legend proved true. You responded perfectly…. She’s getting wound up,” Liam murmured in an aside to the Tallchiefs. He tried not to grin, because Michelle’s gaze was wandering, warm upon him. From the steamy look of his wife and soon to be his bride again, she loved what she saw. He recognized the warm flush easing up her cheeks, that sultry look beneath her lashes. The flick of her tongue across her lips told him that later she’d be tasting him in a way he loved to return.
He bent to brush his lips upon hers, in the new way he’d discovered to stop her rising temper. Waylaid on the way to scolding him, Michelle whispered, “Your family is right here, Liam.”
“That’s right, they are my family, and so are you, lily of my heart.” Then he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her hungrily. He stepped back to watch her expression. Just the sight of Michelle igniting set off his need to carry her away. Moments later, in the closet next to the kitchen, Michelle’s warm mouth parted for his. Her arms locked around him tight, her hands still filled with the flints and the tinderbox. “You’ll marry me then, this way?” he asked, uncertain of his appeal while dressed in a skirt.
“I’ll take you any way I can get you,” she returned against his lips. “We’re a family now, boyo. And you’re wearing your namesake’s ring when we marry. You’re quite the romantic, you know.”
Liam wrapped his hands in her rippling, silky hair and studied his beloved’s heart-shaped face, her meadow-green eyes. She would always look the same to him, years from now—the woman of his body and his soul. His future was here, against him, warm and soft and secure. His past was eons ago, dropping away more every day.
“I didn’t think all this was possible,” she murmured in the shadows as he caressed her. “I look back at what I was and how much I have now. Sometimes I think it’s a dream.”
“Dream this,” Liam whispered against her lips. After a kiss that spoke of dreams and years together, he started smiling. Then he began to laugh, joy bubbling from him into the tiny shadowy room, echoing in his heart.
“You’re beautiful,” she said, her hand smoothing his cheek, her eyes adoring him. “And you’re blushing. You’ve come home, then, my love.”
“Aye, I have. Home with you.”
“Liam? I’ve noticed that all the Tallchiefs have that same little scar on their thumbs as you have on yours. First I noticed Duncan’s, then Calum’s and all the rest. Why is that?”
“Accidents, I imagine,” he said, and settled back to watch his beloved take the bait. “Nothing to think about.”
“No? Why do you have that grin as if you’re holding back another secret? I’ll find out. You know I will.” Then she grabbed him close and kissed him hard, and when they both couldn’t breathe, the heat simmering between them, Michelle said, “Aye, I do.”
When a man and a woman, equally matched, strike against each other, fire will fly—just like two flints, striking sparks off each other. ’Tis a game, finding the strength of a man and challenging that truth…. For his part, he gave me the two flints, the tinderbox marked with the Tallchief symbol and a love that burns true.
ISBN: 978-1-4268-5418-7
TALLCHIEF: THE HOMECOMING
Copyright © 2000 by Lois Kleinsasser
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*The MacLeans
*The MacLeans
*The MacLeans
†The Blaylocks
†The Blaylocks
‡The Tallchiefs
‡The Tallchiefs
‡The Tallchiefs
‡The Tallchiefs
‡The Tallchiefs
‡The Tallchiefs
†The Blaylocks
†The Blaylocks
†The Blaylocks
§Freedom Valley
‡The Tallchiefs
‡The Tallchiefs
