Stephanie Laurens Quote

Through the dimness she could just make him out, stretched on his back, his arms crossed behind his head. He might have been silent, but he hadn't been asleep. She could feel his frown as he looked at her.What are you doing?Moving closer to you. Dropping her gowns, she shook out her cloak and laid it next to his.Why?Mice.He let a heartbeat pass, then asked, carefully, You're afraid of mice?She nodded. Rodents. I don't discriminate. Swinging around, she sat on her cloak, then picked up her gowns and wriggled back and closer to him. If I'm next to you, then either they'll give us both a wide berth, or if they decide to take a nibble, there's at least an even chance they'll nibble you first.His chest shook. He was struggling not to laugh. But at least he was trying.Besides, she said, lying down and snuggling under her massed gowns, I'm cold.A moment ticked past, then he sighed.He shifted in the hay beside her. She didn't know what he did, but suddenly she was sliding the last inches down a slope that hadn't been there before. She fetched up against him, against his side-hard, muscled, and wonderfully warm.Her senses leapt greedily, pleasantly shocked, delightedly surprised; she caught her breath and slapped them down. Desperately; this was Breckenridge-this was definitely not the time.His arm shifted and came around her, cradling her shoulders and gathering her against him.This doesn't mean anything. The whispered words drifted down to her.Comfort, safety, warmth-it meant all those things.I know, she murmured back. Her senses weren't listening. Her body now lay alongside his. Her breast brushed his side; through various layers her thighs grazed his. Her heartbeat deepened, sped up a little, too. Yet despite the sensual awareness, she could feel reassurance along with his warmth stealing through her, relaxing her tensed muscles bit by bit as, greatly daring, she settled her cheek on his chest. She knew what he meant. This was just for now, for this strange moment out of their usual lives in which he and she were just two people finding ways to weather a difficult situation.She quieted. Listened.The sound of his heartbeat, steady and sure, blocked out any rustlings.Thinking of the strange moment, of what made it so, she murmured, We're fugitives, aren't we?Yes.In a strange country, one not really our own, with no way to prove who we are.Yes.And a stranger, a very likely dangerous highlander, is pursuing us.Hmm.She should feel frightened. She should be seriously worried. Instead, she closed her eyes, and with her cheek pillowed on Breckenridge's chest, his arm like warm steel around her, smoothly and serenely fell asleep.Breckenridge held her against him, and through senses far more attuned than he wished, followed the incremental falling away of her tension...until she slept.Softly, silently, in his arms, with the gentle huff of her breathing ruffling his senses, the seductive weight of her slender body stretched out against his the subtlest of tortures. Why had he done it? She might have slept close to him, but she would never have pushed to sleep in his arms. That had been entirely his doing, and he hadn't even stopped to think.What worried him most was that even if he had thought, had reasoned and debated, the result would have been the same.When it came to her, whatever the situation, there never was any question, no doubt in his mind as to what he should do.Her protection, her safety-caring for her. From the first instant he'd laid eyes on her four years ago, that had been his mind's fixation. Its decision. Nothing he'd done, nothing she'd done, had ever succeeded in altering that.But as to the why of that, the reason behind it...even now he didn't, was quite certain and absolutely sure he didn't, need to consciously know.