A Highlander Christmas (30 page)

Slowly, she looked up and met his gaze. “I talk a lot when I’m nervous or upset.”

A slow smile lifted his sensual mouth, and he cocked his head, studying her so intensely, it made her squirm.

“What?” she finally asked, wondering what he was thinking.

“You really dunna see it, do you?” he asked. Complete and utter amazement tinged the question.

“See what?” she said.

He studied her for several more seconds, before locking his gaze onto hers. “Just how beautiful you truly are.”

There went the heat flash again, crawling up her neck and spreading across her cheeks. She looked away. “You don’t have to say stuff like that, Gabriel. I’m completely fine with the way I am. Just plain ole Paige MacDonald. Now with a broken nose and a pair of black eyes.”

A deep, soft chuckle sounded from Gabriel, and Paige glanced at him. “What’s so funny?”

Gabriel scrubbed his jaw, scratched the back of his neck, and looked at her. “Do you know what I’ve wanted to do for the past fifteen hours or so?”

Butterflies began anew in Paige’s stomach, and she swallowed. “Strangle me for putting you in a bad predicament?”

“Nay,” he said quietly, and leaned closer. “I’ve wanted badly to kiss you, Paige MacDonald. Just to see if those lips tasted as good as they looked.”

God, she’d wanted the very same thing.

Slowly, the corners of Gabriel’s mouth lifted.

Paige swallowed again. Hard. “Did I just say that out loud?” How on earth could a ghost kiss a live being? How could she say something out loud and not mean to?

Gabriel leaned closer still. “I’m going to kiss you now, the only way I can,” he said, and lowered his head. “Hold verra still.”

With her heart thumping, she did.

Paige froze, her heart hammering with anticipation, unsure what to expect. Gabriel’s green eyes darkened as he drew painfully close, and his gaze never strayed. They stayed locked onto hers. Intense. Sincere.
Determined
.

Unbelievable
.
And
unbelievably sexy.

Then he lowered his head and settled his mouth over hers. A strange, pleasurable sensation tingled the sensitive skin, turning her lips warm, and making her heart race.

Lifting his hand, Gabriel traced the outline of her jaw with his knuckles, and more sensations erupted. She’d never felt so alive, so wanted.

All from a ghostly kiss, without any real contact.

“Part your lips,” he commanded gently, in almost a whisper.

Paige did, and Gabriel turned his attention to first her top lip, where he kissed briefly, then to her lower lip. With a sensual taste of his tongue, he lingered there, the tingling sensation overwhelming her senses. His fingers traced her throat, and Paige’s heart pounded out of control. Her hands grasped the throw pillow and clenched it tightly in her fists. And just when she thought her ragged breathing would cause her to pass out, Gabriel slowly pulled back.

Paige noticed his breathing came hard and fast, too. She’d never wanted to touch something—someone—as badly as she wanted to touch Gabriel. It almost hurt not to. She knew what would happen if she did.

Together, they stared, face-to-f ace, and simply breathed. Well, it looked like Gabriel breathed, anyway . . .

“Christ, woman,” he finally said, his voice deep, his brogue heavy, and his eyes searching her face as if he’d found something long lost. “Christ.” He lifted a finger and traced each of her blacked eyes.

Paige felt the heat rise from her neck.

Gabriel glanced away, rose from his seat, and walked to the windows.

Paige stared after him. Fear grabbed her insides, and she glanced around the chamber, unsure what she’d done wrong. She was scared to ask. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. She stared at her hands, still gripping the pillow as if her life depended on it. Finally, she stood. “I, um, do you want me to leave?” She barely even heard the words herself and she’d been the one to say them.

Gabriel rubbed the back of his neck, shook his head, then turned to face her. In two strides he stood before her, towered over her, and somehow crowded the cavernous chamber with his enigmatic ghostly presence. A somber expression filled his eyes, and with one knuckle, he traced Paige’s jaw. It left her skin tingling. “Just the opposite, lass,” he said, nearly in a whisper. “I never want you to leave.” He smiled, and Paige could tell it was forced. “But I willna waste what paltry amount of time I have with you cryin’ over time we dunna have. What else shall we endeavor to do this day? The dungeon, mayhap?” He tapped the tip of her nose. “Now there’s an adventure you’ll no’ want to miss—”

“Can you do that again?” Paige asked, barely above a whisper. She looked up at him, certain her face was as red as a beet. She swallowed all humility. “Please?”

Gabriel blinked. He stared at her, studied every inch of her face with the most intense expression. Then, he smiled. “Move to the windows and sit down.”

“Why?” she asked, barely breathing.

His intense stare nearly made her legs lock. “I fear your legs willna be able to steady you well enough.”

Paige gulped and backed toward the window. “Oh.”

Gabriel followed. Smiling.

When the backs of her knees touched the window seat, Paige slowly lowered her bottom until she felt the cool, solid wood beneath her. Her hands gripped the lip of the seat on either side of her thighs, and she watched Gabriel closely.

“Lean back,” he said, his voice deep, heavily brogued, and commanding.

She did, and the icy glass seeped through her sweater.

Slowly, and without breaking his gaze, Gabriel placed a hand on each side of her head and braced himself. He drew close, the depths of his green eyes turning dark.

Paige’s heart nearly stopped.

Then, his mouth moved over hers, and the tingling sensation started anew. Wherever Gabriel’s lips touched, her skin numbly burned, and it made her insides flame. She gripped the wooden seat so tightly, her fingers ached, and without a command, she parted her lips.

A low growl emanated from somewhere deep within Gabriel, and Paige felt his urgency in the air around them. It all but snapped with electricity, and it heightened her already sensitive senses. His kiss became more intense, and he crossed over her solid plane as his fervor grew. Finally, he pulled back, staring hard at her. He closed his eyes and lowered his head, his lips close to her ear.

“I’m sorry, lass,” he said, barely above a whisper. His chest rose and fell as if he actually could breathe. “I didna mean to lose control.”

Paige’s own breath came fast, as well, and her heart thumped hard beneath her ribs. Slowly, she lifted a hand to rest against the line of his jaw. Low in her stomach, her insides burned with need. “Pretend you can actually feel my hand on your face, Gabriel,” she said softly. “And pretend I’m forcing you to look at me.”

He did, and looked at her.

“Again,” she whispered.

Gabriel’s heart softened at her timid command. At the same time, his need for the virtual stranger with the blackened eyes and bandaged nose nearly consumed him. As he studied her, he knew then it wasn’t her physical beauty that disturbed him so much, that made him want her more than any woman he’d ever known, or that had made him crave a woman’s intimate touch with all his ghostly might.

’Twas her soul.
He could see it as clearly as he could the purple moons beneath her wide blue eyes.

With a deep breath, he lowered his mouth to hers. Reining in the primitive passion he felt for her, he kissed her slowly, thoroughly, and he could tell by the way her head fell back, her lips parted, and the sigh on her breath, that she felt the verra same way.

At least, he hoped.

When he tried to pull away, she followed, not allowing it, and with a deep chuckle at her enthusiasm, he continued right on kissing her the best way he knew how.

She seemed to fancy it. A lot.

Finally, Paige lifted her hand to his jaw and pulled back. She stared, eyes glassy with need. “That’s got to top all kisses in the history of kisses,” she said softly.

Gabriel chuckled. “Is that so? And when have you last been kissed by a ghosty, lass?”

Paige shook her head. “No, I mean in the history of
all
kisses. If you can do that as a spirit, I can’t imagine what you’d do,” she searched for words, “in another, well—”

“If I were a live man?” he finished.

Slowly, she nodded and looked down in her lap. Her hands, now together, grasped one another tightly.

Gabriel cocked his head. “Look at me.”

Paige raised her head and did.

“I cannot change what I am, lass,” he said. “I dunna know exactly what I feel, so let’s just say I am verra grateful that yon car out there stranded you here. I’ve no’ felt this way in centuries.”
Ever
, truth be told, but he kept that to himself. He gave a smile. “Besides, ’tis good that I’m in such a paltry form, lest you be bested of every stitch of clothing and thrown atop yon sofa for me takin’, propriety be damned. Aye?”

The shade of red Paige MacDonald turned made the purple moons beneath her eyes seem pitch black. She returned the smile. “You are a very big flirt, Gabriel Munro.”

He grinned. She had no idea just how serious he truly was. He decided best now no’ to let her know. “Guilty as charged, Ms. MacDonald. So right. Are you ready for a trip to the dungeon after all?”

Paige nodded, and Gabriel stepped back. She stood and shoved her hands into her pockets.

He thought she looked rather sexy standing there, passion set deep in her purple-r immed eyes and bandaged nose, her white teeth worrying her luscious lips.

It made him want her even more.

“Yes,” she said, and rubbed her arms. “I’m ready for the dungeon now.”

With a nod, Gabriel led the way. At the door, they both stopped, and he looked down at her.

A somber look filled her eyes.

“Just so you know, lass,” he said, just before disappearing through the wood. “I didna want to stop.”

As he faded through the door, he saw Paige MacDonald’s eyes widen.

That was answer enough for him.

And for some reason, it made his heart lighter than it’d been in centuries—mayhap in his entire life.

Paige stared at the empty spot Gabriel Munro had just occupied. Unconsciously, she lifted her fingertips to her lips.

How had the spirit of a man gained access to her heart so fast? She’d all but broken the wooden seat she’d gripped so tightly. He’d awakened a searing passion inside her that she knew had never even been touched before. A man who couldn’t even actually feel, had no physical substance, had made her shake with need. She shook even
now
, thinking of it.

She could only imagine how intensely passionate he’d be, were he alive. How would those big hands feel against her skin?

That brought on an entirely new shuddering.

Paige turned the door handle and stepped into the darkened staircase. Gabriel was there, grinning. Waiting.

With a shake of her head, Paige followed the sexy spirit down to the great hall. Every other step, he’d turned his head to glance at her, making sure she held tightly on to the rope, she imagined.

Or to make sure she followed at all.

One thing Paige knew, and the thought stunned her every time it crossed her mind. Which, in fact, was all the time.

It wasn’t Gabriel’s sexiness, or his boldness in unusual but highly erotic kissing, or the passion he awakened inside her that made her thoughts return to him constantly. It wasn’t her insanely acute attraction. Not at all.

It was something way deeper than that. Something she felt clear to her
soul
.

“It will be the Yuletide in two days,” said Gabriel. He picked at his plaid, but didn’t look at her. “What did you wish for this past Yule eve?”

They sat in the great hall on a long, plush sofa before the roaring fire Gabriel had helped Paige make. While she’d physically made it, Gabriel had instructed her how, step by step. It was a good fire, she thought, casting toasty warmth to the cavernous room.