"Then ..." Her fingertips played in the crisp dark hair covering his chest and he shuddered, "are you going to take me up to the hayloft?"

Her gaze flashed to the ladder and his arms tightened about her. "Lady, perhaps you are right," he said, sounding desperate, "perhaps we should consider the ramifications of our acts."

She pouted, plucking the glass token hanging on his chest and giving it a rough tug. It was the token that had given him away, a small glass vial containing a glint of red-gold, a strand of her own hair that she'd sent to him last year. He'd obviously forgotten he wore it.

Of course, she now realized he knew who she was, too, and had been playing with her, punishing her for her deception by pretending to seduce her. Only now it had become real. She knew this because she knew he would never try to seduce one of Jeanne Forbe's own companions on the virtual eve of his marriage. Not because she mistook him for a saint. No, the reason she knew he must realize her identity was because he had politicked and manoeuvred and argued for their marriage and he wouldn't risk that for a tumble in the hay even had she been the Medici witch, Helen of Troy and Cleopatra all rolled into one. If she knew nothing else about Rob Macalduie it was this: he wasn't stupid.

"If you've suddenly lost your ... will, so be it," she said. "But in that case there's no need for us to stand about hoping it returns. I should like next to see the chap-"

"I have not lost my will!" he thundered. "I have will aplenty, lady, and am half a mind to-"

"What I want takes no mind at all," she cut in, reaching up and pushing the dark hair from his handsome face. "Simply ... will."

He threw back his head, groaning. She smiled. He was too honourable to take her under these circumstances. The question was, was she?

She turned in his arms, letting imagination lead where experience failed her. She pressed her lips against the heavy plane of his chest and then, quite deliberately, touched the tip of her tongue to the salty skin and trailed a long, searing line to the base of his throat. He drew in a long, shaking breath in response and she laced her fingers around the back of his wide neck, pulling his face down to hers. Their mouth met in a heated kiss, open and hungering, locked into a fever of yearning, their tongues dancing together. The fervour of their actions caused her gown to pucker and pull, her breast escaping above the decolletage and rubbing erotically against him. Its touch galvanized him.

With a low sound of anger, he dipped down, setting her on her feet. She swayed, suddenly being ripped from his embrace, dizzy, suffused with unfulfilled longing. She put a hand up to steady herself and he backed away from her. His chest was working like a bellows; his gaze was predatory and keen, frantic and raw.

"Mother of Mercy, how to tell you who I am?" he breathed in a low voice not meant for her ears. "How do I right this?"

But she did hear and was pleased beyond measure by his words, his honour, his self-restraint. Rob Macalduie was a man she could love. May already be in love with, truth be told, and had been falling in love with at the arrival of each new letter, circumspect, reasoned, but flavoured with hints of wry humour and self-deprecation.

"I know who you are," she said breathlessly. "You are Rob."

"Aye, but-"

"Rob Macalduie, Laird of Barras, betrothed to Jeanne Forbes who you well know is ... me."

For a moment he simply stared at him and for an instance, Jeanne feared she might have read into his character things that were not there, and hoped she was not wrong, but then his handsome face lit with a huge grin. "You knew!"

"Aye, but for a far shorter time than you did."

"Faith, lass, we'll make a fearsome pair, I warrant," he said, still smiling, handsome great devil of a Highlander that he was.

"I warrant," she agreed, suddenly shy beneath the hungry, roving, possessive glint in his eyes.

"So, now that we've been revealed to one another, what next?" he asked, still looking greatly amused, oddly proud and decidedly boyish.

She thought of all the things her uncle and the king had told her to explore, all the questions a prudent woman would ask a prospective groom, all the things she ought to insist she see, the people she must ask to interview. But then her gaze caught on a piece of hay drifting lazily down from above.

"I've always wanted a proper tour of a hayloft," she said.

And soon enough, she had one.

Author Biographies.

Marta Acosta.

Author of the award-winning Casa Dracula series, she is a Romantic Times award nominee. Her first young-adult gothic novel, The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove, will be published in 2012. She also writes romantic comedies as Grace Coopersmith (Nancy's Theory of Style).

www.martaacosta.com.

Jackie Barbosa Jackie knew she wanted to be a writer by the time she was seven years old. After detours into academia she holds a Master's degree in Classics from the University of Chicago and the software industry, she is at last achieving her lifelong dream of writing romantic fiction, and is published by Kensington Books and Harlequin.

www.jackiebarbosa.com

Annette Blair Award-winning author who owes her paranormal roots to Salem, Massachusetts, where she stumbled into the serendipitous role of Accidental Witch Writer, her bewitching romantic comedies became her first national bestsellers (magick or destiny?). Her thirty-plus titles include her popular Works Like Magick novels and Vintage Magic Mysteries.

www.annetteblair.com

Sandy Blair Winner of a National Readers Choice Award and RITA nominee, she continues to make the Barnes and Noble and Amazon national bestseller lists with her light-hearted Highlander novels.

www.sandyblair.net

Terri Brisbin When not being an award-winning author of compelling, emotional and sexy historical romances set in medieval Scotland and England, Terri Brisbin is a married mom of three and dental hygienist to hundreds in southern New Jersey.

www.terribrisbin.com

Connie Brockway New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and two-time winner of the RITA, with starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Library Journal, when not writing historical romance and irreverent women's fiction, Brockway makes her home in the Minnesota tundra where she plans to stay until they plant her. If they can dig through the perma frost.

www.conniebrockway.com

Leah Marie Brown Leah Marie Brown has worked as a newspaper reporter and television journalist. Her freelance articles have appeared in magazines including Writer's Digest, Parenting, and Seventeen. She has written six historical romance novels set in her beloved France and maintains an award-winning website dedicated to Marie Antoinette.

www.leahmariebrown.com

Jacquie D'Alessandro Jacquie is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than thirty historical and contemporary romances. She grew up in New York where she dreamed of being swept away by a dashing rogue riding a spirited stallion. When her hero finally showed up, he was dressed in jeans and drove a Volkswagen, but she recognized him anyway. They married after both graduating from Hofstra University and are living their happily-ever-afters in Atlanta.

www.jacquied.com

Anne Gracie Anne Gracie was born and raised mostly in Australia, but lived in Scotland as a child and is deeply, foolishly romantic about it even knowing about the miserable weather and the midges! She's an award-winning, bestselling author published by Berkley books for whom she writes Regency historicals. She regularly blogs with the word wenches at http://wordwenches.typepad.com/.

www.annegracie.com

Donna Grant Bestselling, award-winning author of dark, sexy, historical paranormals, she's written more than twenty-five novels and a wide variety of romance from Scottish medieval to dark fantasy to time travel, from paranormal to erotic. She lives in Texas with her husband, two children, a dog and three cats.

www.donnagrant.com

Patricia Grasso Author of eighteen historical romance novels comprising the Devereux series, the Dukes and Douglas trilogies, the Russian Princes series, and her Flambeau sisters series. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages.

www.patriciagrasso.com

Lois Greiman Born on a cattle ranch in central North Dakota, she learned to ride and spit with the best of them. Since selling her first novel in 1992, she has gone on to publish over thirty romantic comedies, historical romances, stories for children, as well as the fun-loving Random House-published mysteries under the pen name Christina McMullen. A two-time RITA finalist, she has won such prestigious honours as the Romantic Times Storyteller Of The Year and the LaVyrle Spencer Award. She currently lives on the Minnesota tundra with her family, some of whom are human.

www.loisgreiman.com

Jackie Ivie Jackie Ivie lives with her family in Alaska, where she combines being a wife, mother, retired USPS manager and electronics apprentice with a massive love of writing lovable Alpha Male heroes in Scottish historical settings. She's the award-winning author of eight historical romances, all featuring strong heroines and a "knight" fated to be hers.