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an indrawn breath. His fist gripped her unbound hair for a moment, then loosened.
    “Is that better?” he asked. His warm breath fanned the length of her neck as he eased her back against the pillows.
    “Yes. Thank you.”
    Did that breathless whisper come from her? She gazed at him and wondered why she found him so attractive. In some ways, he reminded her of her mysteries phantom lover. But the man in her dreams wasn’t real. Was he? This man was very real. Her fingers reached up to trace the puckered flesh from his forehead to his lip.
    Her action must have startled him as much as it did her. He froze. Unbelievably, his eyes darkened further and became a vortex of emotion. When her finger outlined his bottom lip, he grabbed her wrist. Gently, he turned her hand upward and placed a soft kiss to the palm. Her fingers curled around the warmth where his mouth had lingered. His tongue flicked her wrist, and the field of butterflies in her stomach took flight.
    His palms caressed a trail of fire up her bare arms, over her shoulders to cup her cheeks. Desire burned in the depths of his ebony eyes. Heat coiled tight in her lower regions. His head lowered.
    “I be glad ye be awake. I thought ye lost to me fore’er,” he murmured against her mouth.
    Warm lips captured hers in a kiss that sent her senses shooting for the stars then plummeting to earth with such speed it left her dizzy. His tongue stroked the seam of her lips, demanding entrance. Helpless against the sensations swamping her, her mouth opened. The kiss deepened, nearly frantic as he devoured her.
    This was nothing like the soft coaxing kisses of her dreams, but urgent, demanding, and very thorough. A moment in time hovered on the edge of her memory, but slipped away.
    Through the softness of his shirt, she felt the rapid tempo of his heart increase. Her finger slid between the lacings to touch his warm skin, to tangle in the whorls of his chest hair. Suddenly his mouth released hers. His breath came in harsh gasps.
    Wow! Abby’s friend sure could kiss.
    Firelight, from the fireplace, glowed behind him and cast his face in shadows, hiding the emotions she sensed roaring to life inside him. Nostrils flared as he took several deep breaths and removed her questing hand from his chest.
    “’Tis too soon, gaol . Ye’ve been ill.” The smile he gave her was as intimate as his kiss. After touching her palm with his lips, he laid her hand in her lap and moved back to sit in the chair.
    Too soon for what? Before she could decipher his ambiguous remark, he spoke again.
    “Ursula said ye had questions.”
    Apparently, he’d recovered from their kiss faster than she had. Blood still thrummed through her veins, thick and heavy. To gain control of her wayward desires, she forced her gaze away from him and scanned the room.
    Abby hadn’t mentioned where she’d take Maggie once she kidnapped her from the center, but this didn’t resemble a place Abby would frequent. She and her friends would hang out where dancing and nightlife would rage-on until the early hours of the morning, not at some medieval stage show.
    Gathering her emotions around her like a suit of armor — she silently laughed at the comparisonand after she cast a quick glance at the tapestry on the wall , she asked what seemed most important.
    “Where am I?”
    “Ye be in the north tower.”
    She almost groaned. This was going to be harder than she thought.“The north tower of what?”
    “Castle Menzies.” A large brown hand reached out and touched her forehead. “Are ye sure yer fever has nae returned, Margaret?”
    “You know my name?” Don’t be silly. Abby would have told them your name.
    “Of course, ye be Margaret Campbell, now Menzies.”
    Margaret Campbell? The name Campbell stirred vague memories, but the name Menzies, nothing. Was this Abby’s weird way of informing Maggie someone had found her family?
    “What am I doing here?” Surely, he’d admit Abby had arranged her abduction,