The Brightest Star in the Highlands: Jennie and Aedan (Clan Grant Series Book 7) by Keira Montclair Read Free Book Online Page A

healer reconcile this strange dichotomy? It was not something he could handle.
    But yet there was something about Jennie Grant he could not deny. She intrigued him, and the draw he felt toward her was like nothing he had ever experienced. The aura of gold surrounding her seemed to have been dropped from the heavens, and it beckoned to him, threatening to pull him in and never let go. Perhaps Jennie had seen all of a man’s body, but he was quite sure she had never experienced what his mind was thinking of doing to her; nay, with her.
    His mind told him he didn’t have time for this now, that a woman would complicate matters and get in the way of what needed to be done for his clan.
    But his gut told him different. That was not the last time he would see Jennie Grant. In his mind, their relationship had only just begun. He needed to allow her to come to the same conclusion. Together, they could be powerful. She had given him the hope he had been denied since his father’s untimely death. Jennie Grant was hope.
    And he planned to charge at her the way she had charged at him many moons ago in a forest in Lothian.
    ***
    Jennie left, not wishing to face more embarrassment from that brute of a chieftain. She hated the way her insides flipped whenever she was in his presence. But more importantly, she hated his ability to read her mind. She had tried so hard to conceal the fact that she did not want to use her healing skills just now, and yet he had immediately known. It was as if he were inside her head, inside her heart.
    Well, if he did not need her skills, she would return to the abbey. She fled down the passageway and down the staircase, hoping to escape without running into Lady Cameron. She breathed a sigh of relief when she passed through the great hall and descended the steps to the outdoors.
    The inner bailey was extremely busy, with clan members bustling about in different directions as if something unusual had transpired. Men were yelling, and women were bustling around with their bairns. She did not care to find out what was happening. She was going to leave before she lost her mind. She passed the smithy, then took the long way around to the stables to arrange for an escort back to the abbey. Taking the straight route through the bailey might well have gotten her run down.
    When she finally arrived at the stable, she was shocked to see Aedan standing next to his horse while the stable lad assisted him.
    “What are you doing? You cannot do that. You’ll pull all the stitches and break your wound open again.” She came up behind him and reached for his hand, oblivious to the fact that she was ordering around a chieftain.
    Aedan spun around. “You are still here? Then turn yourself around. You cannot leave now. There is another skirmish on our boundaries, and who knows if it will progress inward. You need to be inside the curtain wall. These scavengers are not above attacking an abbey. Stay here.”
    “You cannot go. You’ll undo all the progress you have made in the last few days.”
    Aedan strode up so his face was inches from hers, though he had to bend over in order to do it. “The last I understood from you, my lady, was that you did not care what happened to me. You are no longer interested in healing, so begone.” His last words came out in the barest whisper.
    Jennie could not tear her gaze from his. His brown hair curled at his neck, and the expression in his blue eyes shot straight to her core, causing a tingling that spread throughout her body. He was so close she could feel the heat of his breath, and her senses reeled in response. She ached to touch him, but to do so would be inappropriate. Wrapped up in his presence, she could barely even recall what she’d just said to him. He was as locked into her as she was to him, the world dissolving around them and leaving just the two of them, wrought with confusion but unable to let go of each other.
    Totally unsettled, she cleared her throat. “You must