Love Wild and Fair Read Online Free PDF

It might be simple, perhaps a sprig of pine and a gilded cone tied with red velvet ribbons. Or it might be as valuable as a carved ivory box holding a dozen diamond buttons. Cat and Patrick became better acquainted on short rides through the December snows, and long walks in the sleeping gardens.
    Patrick Leslie was a well-educated man, and his young betrothed, who had struggled so hard for her own education, listened to him eagerly. It amused the earl to find this serious mind housed in such a lush young body. But it worried him that she was so innocent. Raised in the insular world of Greyhaven, she understood almost none of the facts of life.
    She had grown secure enough in his company to suggest they be married on St. Valentine’s Day. After Easter, Adam and his Fiona would be quietly wed—though all the family knew that wedding would be a mere formality. They were already living together as husband and wife. And Fiona, who had always run to the lean, was growing as plump and sleek as a cream-fed cat.
    “She almost purrs,” giggled Ailis Hay. “I only hope my Jamie’s as good as the lasses say Cousin Patrick and Adam are.”
    “As good at what?” asked Cat.
    Ailis’ large blue eyes opened wide, then she giggled again. “Oh, Cat! Yer such a tease!”
    “I dinna know what ye are talking about, Ailis. Ye hope Jamie’s as good as Patrick and Adam in what?”
    “In bed, you goose!” said Ailis, exasperated. “They say the Glenkirk men drive the lasses mad wi delight! I canna wait till I’m wed in June!”
    “God, Ailis! Yer as big a whore as Fiona!”
    Ailis’ eyes filled with tears, and her blond curls quivered with outrage. “I am,” she said with great dignity, “as virgin as ye are, Catriona Hay! But there the similarity ends! I look forward to my nights in the marriage bed, and I shall do my best to please Jamie. Yer as cold as ice. And if ye dinna change yer ways, the earl will seek solace in a warmer bed. Who would blame him?”
    Cat stalked away from her cousin. Since the family had arrived for Christmas, Glenkirk’s behavior had been quite correct. There had been no repeat of that night before the fire when he’d unleashed emotions in her she had never felt before, and still wasn’t sure she could handle. She wanted to feel those feelings again.
    That night, clad only in a soft linen shift, she crept from her apartments and hid in an alcove by the earl’s rooms. It was cold, and he didn’t come till quite late. She slipped from her hiding place and followed him into his room.
    He turned. “Why, Cat, sweet. What is it?”
    She shivered, and he quickly dropped his fur-lined cloak over her shoulders.
    “Now, love, what is so important that ye come to my rooms in the middle of the night?”
    Shyness overcame her. He picked her up in his arms and, cradling her, sat down in the chair by the fire. “Tell me, my sweet.”
    Her voice was low. “I want—I want ye to make love to me.”
    “Nay, hinny. If I believed that I should have ye stripped, and in my bed in an instant.”
    “Please, Patrick! I really do! Oh, my lord, I am so woefully ignorant! My mother has tried to remedy this, but she makes love sound so lofty and spiritual. Then Ailis chortles and giggles about the reputation of the Glenkirk men, and Fiona is sleeping openly wi Adam, and looks so damned superior and content
That’s
not at all spiritual. So … I dinna know what to expect Please teach me! Even a little!”
    “Very well,” he said, and there was a hint of laughter in his voice, “but if ye become frightened, or want me to stop, dinna be afraid to ask me.”
    “All right, Patrick.”
    The room grew very quiet, the crackling of the fire the only sound. His one arm cradled her, the other was free. Slowly he pushed one side of her shift down, exposing a lovely globe-shaped ivory breast its nipple colored deep rose. For a moment he gazed at the perfection of it His hand cupped it tenderly, and squeezed. He felt her quiver