Highland Defender
by Kathryn Le Veque
Publication Date: 1/26/2021
About the Book:
Gladiator meets Fight Club in the Scottish Highlands in a new series from USA Today bestselling author Kathryn Le Veque
Ashamed of a decision he made in battle that cost good men their lives, Bane Morgan escapes to Edinburgh to forget his past. But the more time he spends away from his Highland home, the more he’s filled with regret and despair.
Lucia Symington knows something
about despair. Forced to work off a family debt for a clan with little moral
compass and a particular hatred for her, Lucia loses herself a little more each
day. When a chance meeting with Bane gives them both a glimpse of what their
future together could be, Bane pledges himself to the Ludus Caledonia, the
warrior training club where he can reconnect to the fire for justice that still
burns within him. The Highland Defender has returned…only to discover that his
quest to free his lady could cost them both everything…
Meet the Author:
With over one hundred published
novels, KATHRYN LE VEQUE is a critically acclaimed USA Today bestselling
author, a charter Amazon All-Star author, and a #1 bestselling, award-winning,
multi-published author in Medieval Historical Romance and Contemporary Romance.
She lives in California.
Purchase Links:
Amazon: https://amzn.to/3sxIvJY
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Oh, but there was a storm churning inside of Lucia, and the lightning she’d come to associate with Bane was flying in all directions. His close proximity had started a firestorm, and she was struggling to stay on an even keel.
Gazing up at him, she could feel his hot breath in her face as his
right arm went up, casually bracing himself against the support beam of the
stall over her head as he looked down upon her. The closer he loomed, the more
the lightning sparked.
“I…I dunna hear it often.”
“From the men around here?”
“Never from them.”
“Then they’re fools.”
“Or mayhap they know their place.”
A grin spread across his lips. “I’ve never been accused of knowing
my place,” he said huskily. “Even if I did, in yer case, I’d ignore
it.”
God, he was so close. Lucia was having difficulty breathing and
she turned her head, looking away from him because she was thrilled and
intimidated at the same time. Looking at him made her feel as if she were
losing control of herself. She could see him in her periphery as he leaned in,
taking a long, deep smell of her hair.
It was enough to turn her bones to jelly.
“Bane…” she said breathlessly.
“Shush,” he murmured. “Let me smell ye. I want tae know
what an angel smells like.”
It wasn’t just her hair he was smelling, but her skin. He sniffed
her neck, moving to her shoulder and smelling that as well. All the while, he
didn’t touch her. He didn’t make a move to make contact. But his face, his
nose, was close enough that Lucia could feel him brushing against her. His
heated breath spilled over her skin, blowing against her like the bellows of a
smithy’s forge.
It was intoxicating.
“What does an angel smell like?” she managed to
ask.
He moved so his face was next to hers. He was looking at her
profile at close range as she looked away.
“Beauty,” he muttered. “Strength. Honor. It smells like everything
a man needs in life.”
She sighed in utter delight as his words filled her ears. When his
lips gently kissed her cheek, her jelly bones gave way and she slumped
back against the wall. Bane swiftly moved forward, slipping his arms beneath
hers and bracing her against the stall so she wouldn’t fall. As she turned to him,
opening her mouth to speak, his mouth slanted over hers in a deliciously
tender kiss.
The lightning exploded.
Lucia could hear little gasps as he kissed her, hardly aware
they were her own. For all of Bane’s size and strength, his kisses were so
very gentle, like the touch of a bird’s wings, something so delightful yet
something that filled her with awe and wonder. She’d never been kissed
before.
Not even close.
It was as if the sun suddenly burst out from behind the
clouds.
Her arms went around his neck, holding him firmly against her as
she responded to his heated kiss. Enfolded in his embrace, she was vastly
aware of his body pressed against hers, the heat from his big frame filling her
with a comfort she’d never known before. She could hardly breathe, but she
didn’t care. She welcomed the giddiness. He was overwhelming her with the
virile masculinity that had been buried beneath that street filth.
His scent filled her nostrils, too.
Glorious.
And then it was abruptly over.
***
Excerpted from Highland Defender by Kathryn Le Veque. © 2021 by Kathryn Le Veque. Used with
permission of the publisher, Sourcebooks
Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. All rights reserved.
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