Gift of the Realm Read Free

her.”
    He
was silent for a moment, and she turned back. His eyes were watchful, his smile
sharp.
    “Nearly
the whole village is inside. Kathleen is holding court in the garden.”
    Keely
couldn’t help but smile. Her grandmother’s best friend was a fixture in
Dunhaven. Though Colin had inherited Quinn Manor at the death of his mother, it
was a well-known fact that Kathleen ruled the roost. From what Keely remembered
from her seventeenth summer, neither the indomitable matron nor her charming
grandnephew would have it any other way.
    “How
is she?”
    His
smile softened and he laughed. The rich, rumbling sound always sent her senses
on a trip toward haywire.
    Nothing
changed there, either. Damn it.
    Pleasure
tap-danced over her nerve endings.
    “She’s
as ornery as ever. She’ll be glad to see you.”
    “Well.”
She tugged at Donovan’s leash. “We’ll let you get to...” she waved her free
hand, “wherever it was you were going.” She turned on her heel to start up the
path to the gate.
    “Keely,”
Colin called to her back. She stopped and squeezed her eyes shut. Double
crap . Just three steps away from escape.
    Donovan
jerked at the leash, and she pasted what she hoped looked like a mildly curious
look on her face. She met Colin’s gaze over one shoulder.
    His
smile was gone, and his eyes were intent on her. “About that night in the
gazebo.”
    The
second scenario crashed and burned.
    “The
gazebo?” she asked, arching her brow in feigned puzzlement even as she flushed
with embarrassment.
    “I
wanted to apologize,” he said. “I overreacted and scared you. I’m sorry about
that.”
    “Oh,”
she breathed as though just realizing what he meant. “That.” Her lips curled in
a smile that should have garnered her an Oscar nomination. “There’s no need to
apologize. I’d forgotten all about it.”
    His
answering smile said he thought she could benefit from acting lessons.
    She
ground her teeth. Damn it, she wasn’t supposed to have had to face him about
this until she was surrounded by dozens of party guests. And her ferocious dog
had been absolutely no help.
    Donovan
redeemed himself when he chose that moment to bolt through the gate. She gladly
let him tow her along.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter
Two
     
    Colin
watched her go, grinning helplessly at the way the huge dog leaped ahead of
her, nearly dragging her in his exuberance. The grin slid away as he considered
her reaction when he’d mentioned that night in the gazebo. She had remembered despite her initial reaction and, like Keely, it was a night he
couldn’t forget.
    The
details returned as he watched Keely disappear in the distance.
    ****
    That
night, surrounded by the obsidian darkness within the stone pergola, he’d been
stunned by his reaction to the woman he’d yanked into his arms. The moment
she’d stepped within his reach the compulsion overwhelmed him.
    He
remembered how he’d been working toward getting the luscious Nora Murphy into
his bed for days, but the few stolen kisses he’d managed to that point had been
merely enjoyable. Those kisses held no resemblance to the nuclear explosion
he’d experienced the moment his mouth had closed over the lips of the shapely bundle
in his arms.
    Never
before had he gone from simple carnal interest to sensual meltdown so quickly.
But as generous curves had molded to his body, the top of his head nearly blew
off. The woman’s ardent response instantly lit a fire inside him, turning the
flames into a raging inferno with an urgency he’d never experienced before.
    Only
the loud clearing of a throat had stopped him from dragging her to the floor
the way his body had demanded.
    Looking
up and finding Nora standing just beyond the gazebo had been like taking a
sucker punch straight to the libido.
    The
woman in his arms had fit up against him as though she’d been designed
specifically with him in mind. The shock of discovering she was actually little
Keely O’Brian had nearly