He lay down lightly upon her, wrapped one leg around her, then turned to one side, holding her against him in their intimate embrace. "Oh, my God, Meredith," he whispered, "what a woman ye are."
She was unable to speak or move or think or scarcely even breathe. He was everywhere she wanted him to be. Around her, within her, in her mind and heart, body and soul. She may have made a terrible mistake in this, but this was an experience she would cherish for the rest of her life, no matter what the consequences.
"I… don't generally fall into bed with virtual strangers," she said, finding her voice at last, teasing the hair on his chest with one finger.
"Nor I." He drew her even closer with his leg. "You've made me lose my mind, lass."
She looked into his eyes. "Lass. I've never been called a lass before. It's so… Scottish."
"Do ye like it?"
"I do."
"Hmmm. Did ye hear what ye just said? Ye said, 'I do.' I like the sound of that."
Meredith blinked. He couldn't mean… "What are you talking about?"
He kissed her forehead. "Do ye suppose a Sinclair could marry a Macrae without everyone in the territory i a king up arms?"
Meredith held very still. Marry? Was he serious? "Is that a proposal?"
"Aye,'tis."
"But… but we barely know one another." "I thought 'twas rather well-acquainted we just became."
Meredith's heart began to race all over again. This couldn't be happening. She'd known this man less than a week and, although she was overwhelmingly attracted to him, there were still many things about him she distrusted. Falling into bed with him might be bad judgment, but marrying him so hastily could be disaster. She placed her hand on his chest and drew away slightly.
"When you picked me up on the road, you said we needed to talk about something. Is this what you meant?"
Ian shifted and they separated. Meredith felt the loss and shivered. He threw the bedspread over them and drew her back into his arms. "No, actually, it wasn't what I had in mind."
No one was more surprised than Ian Sinclair when the proposal of marriage came out of his mouth. Marriage was something he'd thought he might consider one day, but not for years yet. He'd been married to his work and to the ongoing project with the castle. There simply hadn't been time to think about it, or a woman worth thinking about.
Then along came Meredith Wentworth, Meredith Macrae Wentworth, and suddenly marriage seemed the most logical step in the world. If, that is, they could settle the rather major issue that still loomed between them. He held her close and jumped into it with both feet.
"Ever heard of a company called New Horizons Cruise Lines?"
"I've seen their ads on television. Why?"
"They want to buy this castle."
Meredith turned wide eyes on him. "What on earth for?"
"The same reason they're after the land in the village. They want to run us all off and create a vacation resort here as one of their fantasy ports of call."
He jumped when she bolted out of his arms and sat up, clutching the bedspread to her. "Why, that little weasel. He's playing both ends against the middle."
"It wouldn't be Angus Stewart of which ye speak?"
She jerked her head toward him, and he saw the fire m her eyes. "What did he offer you? Or should I say threaten you with?"
Ian knew in that instant that Meredith had nothing to do with Stewart's deceit, and joy surged in his heart. He told her the details and watched as her eyes widened in astonishment and then narrowed again in disgust.
"Why, he's the sleaziest, slimiest bastard I've ever run across."
"And I thought ye were a lady," Ian teased, but agreed wholeheartedly with her opinion. He was curious, though, as to how she knew about Stewart. She must have heard something in the village. "Your turn. What do ye know about him?"
"He came to the village and informed my kin that they don't own their land, and that you, the mighty Earl of Sinclair, were about to enforce another clearing. He said you were going to turn the village into a tourist attraction. He failed to mention New Horizons Cruise Lines."
It was Ian's turn to explode. "I would never dream of such a thing… even if I owned the land! Which as far as I know, I don't."
Meredith snuggled down next to him in the bed. She was quiet for long moment, then whispered, "I owe you an apology, Ian. Like the rest of the Macraes, I've doubted you. I didn't know if Stewart's claim was true or not. That's what I was trying to find out last night when I started talking about tourism."
Ian drew her closer. "I owe ye an apology of my own," he said softly, kissing her hair. "Stewart showed up in my office just a day or two after ye arrived in Corridan. When he made his threat, I concluded that it was just too coincidental that ye both came to this remote little village at the same time. I thought ye must somehow be involved with him, maybe had even hired him."
"What! You couldn't-"
"Wait a minute. It gets worse," he added unhappily. "Last night, ye convinced me that ye couldn't possibly be involved in a scheme to promote tourism. By the way," he added with a small laugh, "ye also stole my heart." He felt her move closer, but it didn't make his confession any easier. "Today, when I found out that the cruise-line company was American, I was suspicious all over again. It was one thing to think ye, a stranger, might be about to betray me, but after last night, ye weren't just a stranger anymore. Ye see, I'd fallen in love with ye, and I couldn't bear it if ye were really only just a beautiful enemy." He paused, then added, "That's what I wanted to talk about."
She looked up at him with a bemused smile. "So what am I? Friend or foe?"
"Would I propose to a foe?"
"I'm a Macrae," she reminded him, "and you didn't know the truth about Angus Stewart's scheme when you proposed."
"I knew ye, and that's all I needed to know."
Chapter Ten
The rain relinquished its stranglehold on the mountains, and Meredith let go of her last doubts about Ian as the two of them lay on the bed, intermingling discussion of the solicitor's scheme to take Corridan and the castle with lovemaking and talk of what-ifs that only the day before would have seemed impossible. With some effort, she managed to convince him that they should postpone any talk of marriage until the issue of land ownership was clarified and any misunderstandings sorted out between the Macraes and the Sinclairs. "It would just give the clans something else to squabble over," she pointed out. "Neither clan is going to like the idea."
She didn't tell him that her real reason for deferring his proposal was that everything had moved too quickly where her heart was concerned. She knew she'd fallen in love with Ian, but marriage, so hastily… that was something else.
She watched him now as he drove away and missed him immediately. Is that what it feels like to be married? Closing the door to the cottage behind her, she looked around the cozy dwelling. Only days before she had considered how easy it would be to remain here. Now she was trying to talk herself out of it. Why? The answer, she knew, was fear. She thought of Ian's proposal, delivered in a moment of profound intimacy. Had he really meant it? They scarcely knew one another.