Maidensong

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 her and she whirled around so quickly that she became off balance.Her body tipped and she banged her shoulder into the 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 rugged sort of way. His hair fell in full ebony curls across his brow and his eyes were a deeper, richer green than the lush grass that they were standing on. He was tall, with broad shoulders and a muscular body and wore the outfit of every hiker in the Scottish highlands: jeans, a woolen sweater and hiking boots. His sweater was a deep loden green that matched his eyes.

“Didn’t mean to scare you. Are you all right?” He leaned closer to where she stood, rubbing her shoulder, and looked into her eyes with such intensity that she wondered what he was doing.

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

He pulled away from her and smiled. When he smiled it was as if the sun dimmed, she was so overwhelmed with the way his features moved on his face.Handsome when you’re serious, Lord-have-mercy gorgeous when you’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 were you 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 myself in any way.”

“So what, then? What were you doing if you weren’t trying to scare the pants off me?” She stopped rubbing her shoulder and 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. He surveyed her the same way she had examined him. When his eyes met hers again he grinned. “And I did not say I wasn’topen to getting your pants off of you, mind.” He waggled his eyebrows rakishly and, coupled with his thick Scottish accent,the effect was hilarious. She threw her head back and laughed out loud, a sound that reverberated through the trees at the edge of the clearing.