Mia Marlowe by Plaid Tidings Read Free Book Online Page B

Bonniebroch, no’ for adults fully grown such as we.”
    “Call me Alexander,” he said.
    “Not His Muchness?” she asked archly.
    “Not until you’ve seen if I deserve it.”
    Her eyes flared and she flicked her gaze to his groin for the space of several heartbeats. It was as if she’d stroked him. He’d mistakenly thought he couldn’t get any stiffer.
    “A lass can make an educated guess, and it appears to me, ye’re much of a muchness,” she said coolly, as his trousers betrayed his roused state again. “Remember, I’m farm raised, Alexander. I may never have been kissed, but there’s naught on a male frame as will shock me, be it on man or beast.”
    This Scottish girl was a constant surprise.
    “I’m gratified to hear it. But back to magical kisses.” He still needed to win this bet, so he moved over next to her. “Adults need magic more than children, you know.”
    “Adults fully grown,” she repeated with another wicked glance at his lap.
    His cock responded with a deep throb.
    He’d started this day by winning a Scottish estate. Then this strange woman had all but flung herself into his arms, keeping him from his business of providing an advance guard for the king’s coming visit. And finally, as unlikely as it seemed, he found himself unexpectedly in possession of a fiancée. After a morning like that, any man would lose his temper over such unrelenting torment from said fiancée.
    “All right, woman, do you want to hear it baldly? Yes, I want you. You’re as tempting a young lady as I’ve ever run across and I’m fair bursting with the need to kiss you.”
    “Weel, then,” she said, palming his cheeks. “Since ye put it like that . . . let’s see if there be any magic between me and ye.”
    She closed the distance between them and before he knew what she was about, her lips brushed his. He didn’t move as she gently explored his mouth.
    He’d always avoided virgins, preferring the company of courtesans and ripe widows. Even as worldly as his other partners had been, none of them had kissed him first.
    The sweetness of Lucinda’s kiss made his soft palate ache to taste her more deeply. It was time for him to show her what a real kiss was. He palmed the back of her head, wrapped his other arm around her and drew her closer.
    Alex traced the seam of her mouth with the tip of his tongue and she opened to him, warm, wet, and wonderful. Her hitching breaths made his balls ache. He swallowed her low groan of need as he stole the air from her lungs and replaced it with his own.
    A shared breath. Holding each other’s souls. Those words had been calculated to pique her curiosity. He never dreamed they might feel true.
    He tongued her softly, letting her suckle him. Then he encouraged her to slip hers into his mouth as well. She teased him with it for a bit and in frustration, he showed her exactly why a French kiss was but a rough parody of another sort of joining. He thrust into her mouth in long strokes, his groin aching because only their mouths were so engaged.
    Long before he was ready for the kiss to end, she pulled back and gazed up at him, wild-eyed. She rang the pointed tip of her tongue over her kiss-swollen top lip. Then she smiled.
    A satisfied smile that told him somehow he’d been royally hoodwinked. He might have won the bet, but she’d make him regret it.
    “Well, Your ‘Much of a Muchness,’ it appears I lose,” she said. Her breaths still came in short gasps, but her eyes gleamed in triumph. “You’ll still be in full possession of a Blackface ram once we wed and I get to kiss three more men before Christmas Day.”

“’Tis often said one never really knows a gentleman until one marries him. To remedy this, the uninformed might suggest that the bride should mark how her prospective bridegroom treats her family before the nuptials are celebrated and be either reassured or forewarned thereby. However, the knowledgeable lady understands a more reliable indicator of