Quinn: A Scottish Outlaw (Highland Outlaws Book 2) by Lily Baldwin Page B

She had no words for the feelings he stirred within her. She looked away and finished cooking the bannock all the while aware of his watchful eyes.
    Later on, when their bellies were sated, they moved to the rear of the cave and laid down on their respective blankets, which she had intentionally set more than an arm’s length apart.
    “Ye’ve done well today, my lady,” Quinn said.
    She smiled her thanks, again too nervous to speak. She longed to be closer to him.
    “Tell me more about your family,” she said when the silence became more nerve wrecking than the anything else.
    “What would ye like to know?”
    She wanted to know what his skin tasted of, how his lips would feel pressed hard against hers. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force her thoughts in a new direction. “Tell me about Alec, and why his is so…so…”
    “So distant?” he volunteered.
    She nodded. “Yes.” Although, she thought ‘troubled’ to be a more apt description.
    He pressed his lips together and laid on his back, looking up at the cave ceiling. A slow breath fled her throat as she tried to invite her racing heart to calm now that his black eyes were not fixed on her. She too laid back and closed her eyes, letting his deep voice move through her.
    “Ye might not believe me when I tell ye that Alec has dreams which show him things.”
    Her interest piqued, she turned on her side and looked at him. “How?”
    Quinn shrugged. “He has never opened up about what actually goes on in his dreams only what they’ve revealed.”
    “And what do they reveal?”
    “Truth,” Quinn said. “Answers to troubling questions. His dreams have even revealed that which has yet to be told. A dream showed him the destruction of Berwick before Edward had arrived with his legions outside the city limits.”
    Her eyes widened. “He foresaw the massacre?”
    “In a manner of speaking. His dream did not reveal Edward’s attack, only the aftermath, the slaughter and wreckage.”  
    She shivered, and her heart soften toward Alec. It must be a great burden to carry so much weight within one’s soul. It was no wonder Alec seemed so cold, especially when compared to Rory.
    “Is Rory as rakish as I imagine him to be?” she said.
    “Rory is reckless more than anything.”
    “Was he a sailor like you?”
    Quinn shook his head. “Nay, he worked on the docks alongside my father. He had no wish to be trapped, as he saw it, at sea. He seldom strayed far from the city, from his friends and lovers.”
    She blushed. “Did he take many lovers.”
    Quinn turned his head and looked at her. “A few,” he said.
    “What about you?” she asked.
    He smiled. “What about me?”
    She held her breath, fighting for the courage to speak her mind. “Have you loved someone before,” she blurted at last.
    “I have cared for women,” he said. “But I was a sailor and never in one place long enough for love.”
    She rolled onto her back to hide the smile his answer fixed to her lips. “Were you lonely?”
    Again, his deep voice flowed through her. “I missed my family, but I loved being at sea. It gets into yer soul—the power of the ocean and exploring marvelous new places. People always looked and sounded so different everywhere we went. And yet whenever we would dock for a stretch, I would see that people everywhere were actually all the same. People working, caring for their families, moving from one day to the next with mostly the same concerns, same worries, same joys. I would love for ye to see for yerself,” he said.
    “Me on a ship?” she scoffed.
    “What would ye say, if I asked ye to set sail with me for distant shores?”
    She turned and looked at him. “Several days ago, I would have been scandalized and terrified—shamefully in that order.”
    “And now?” he asked softly, reaching his hand across the great divide.
    A flutter of wistful excitement coursed through her. She stretched out her arm, her fingertips grazing his. “Now, I wish