An excerpt

It's been a while since I posted any excerpts. So...

From Celtic Love Knots, Volume 4, an excerpt from Maidensong:

“Interested in Pictish symbols, are you?”

The voice startled her. It came from directly behind herand she whirled around so quickly that she became offbalance.Her body tipped and she banged her shoulder intothe ten-foot-high pink granite stone she had been examining.

“Shit!” Dianne cried as she grabbed her shoulder. Stars danced behind her eyelids as the pain raced through her body.When it subsided she opened her eyes.

The owner of the voice was tall and handsome in a ruggedsort of way. His hair fell in full ebony curls across hisbrow and his eyes were a deeper, richer green than the lushgrass that they were standing on. He was tall, with broadshoulders and a muscular body and wore the outfit of everyhiker in the Scottish highlands: jeans, a woolen sweater andhiking boots. His sweater was a deep loden green thatmatched his eyes.

“Didn’t mean to scare you. Are you all right?” He leanedcloser to where she stood, rubbing her shoulder, and lookedinto her eyes with such intensity that she wondered what hewas doing.

“Do I look all right?” she asked, scowling. “And what areyou looking for, anyway?”

He pulled away from her and smiled. When he smiled itwas as if the sun dimmed, she was so overwhelmed with theway his features moved on his face.

Handsome when you’re serious, Lord-have-mercy gorgeous whenyou’re smiling.

“I was looking to see whether or not you had a concussion,”he answered. “Apparently you do not.”

“I smacked my shoulder, not my head. And what wereyou doing, sneaking up on me like that? Did you try to scare me half to death?”

He tilted his head and a lock of black silk fell across his eye. “I am sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you at all. And Iwasn’t sneaking up on you, either. I didn’t try to conceal myselfin any way.”

“So what, then? What were you doing if you weren’t tryingto scare the pants off me?” She stopped rubbing her shoulderand stood with her hands on her hips, waiting for an answer.

“I was merely trying to meet you, that’s all. It’s not everyday I find a beautiful woman at the Maiden Stone,” he said. Hesurveyed her the same way she had examined him. When hiseyes met hers again he grinned. “And I did not say I wasn’topen to getting your pants off of you, mind.” He waggled hiseyebrows rakishly and, coupled with his thick Scottish accent,the effect was hilarious.

She threw her head back and laughedout loud, a sound that reverberated through the trees at theedge of the clearing.