Joanna's Highlander (Highland Protector #2)(72)

“Aye,” they responded in unison.

Grant eased a step closer. He lifted their bound hands and gave her a gentle squeeze. “By the stars above and the earth below, I pledge my life to thee. Ye are m’heart. Ye are m’soul for all eternity.”

Joanna swallowed hard and smiled up into Grant’s trusting eyes. How could she ever have thought to leave this man for something as meaningless as money? She squeezed his hand and did her best to speak louder than the sound of her pounding heart. “By the stars above and the earth below, I pledge my life to thee. You are my heart. You are my soul for all eternity.” She pressed a kiss to his broad knuckles, glanced out at the smiling guests, then turned back and locked her gaze with Grant’s. “For the good of all, with harm to none, so mote it be.”

Grant leaned in closer, bringing his mouth so close his lips brushed across hers in the gentlest of kisses. “Aye, m’love. So mote it be.”





       Heart failure. Rheumatoid arthritis flares. Lots of obstacles popped up while I was writing this book. It’s only by God’s infinite grace, love, and patience that I plowed through them and kept writing—keep writing, in fact.

   “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” —Philippians 4:13





Acknowledgments


   Thank you to my infinitely patient editor for always reeling my stories back in when they wander off and get lost.





BY MAEVE GREYSON


   Highland Hearts


   My Highland Lover

   My Highland Bride

   My Tempting Highlander

   My Seductive Highlander





Highland Protectors


   Sadie’s Highlander

   Joanna’s Highlander

   Katie’s Highlander (coming soon)





Photo: Crista Sullivan





MAEVE GREYSON and her hubby of over thirty-eight years traveled around the world while in the U.S. Air Force before returning to their five-acre wood in rural Kentucky, where she writes about her beloved Highlanders and the sassy women who tame them.

Her full-time day job at the steel mill is now a thing of the past, so Maeve spends her time matching the sexy Highlanders in her head with women that are certain to drive them crazy. When she’s not plotting the perfect snare, she tinkers with new technology and computer programs where she knows just enough to be dangerous and never learns to stop saying, “I can do this without reading the directions.”

maevegreyson.com

Facebook.com/?AuthorMaeveGreyson

Twitter: @maevegreyson

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Read on for an excerpt from


   Katie’s Highlander


   A Highland Protector Novel



by Maeve Greyson





Available from Loveswept





Chapter 1


BRADY, NORTH CAROLINA

SOMEWHERE IN THE WOODS, MODERN DAY

“Come here, you stubborn bastard!” Hanging upside down through the moon roof of her car, Katie roared out her frustration, then continued her frenzied digging to reach her backpack with the crooked stick she’d found in the woods.

I knew I should’ve seat-belted that thing in. Then it wouldn’t have ended up in the floorboard when she’d overcorrected, hit her brakes, and shot into the ditch. If she’d had any sense, she would’ve grabbed it before she climbed out of the car the first time. But she hadn’t. Story of her life. At least she’d scattered enough emergency glow sticks both in and around the car that satellites could probably find her. Seeing the bag wasn’t a problem. Snagging the bag was. No way was she about to climb all the way back in and swim around in all that nasty powder from the air bags again. But she couldn’t just leave it. Her laptop and journal were like her best friends.

“Oy, there! Are ye hurt then?”

She froze in place, then cocked her head and listened harder. “Hello?”

It was hard to shout with a moon roof shoved up against her gut and gravity sending everything else up against her lungs. No response. Well, crap. Had she really heard somebody or was it just wishful thinking? After all, she had been hanging upside down for quite a while trying to snag that damn bag. The way the blood was pounding in her ears, she felt like her head was about to explode.

She sucked in a deep breath, turned her face toward the roof of the car, and yelled louder. “Hello? Is somebody out there?” Please be a person. Please be real. She wiggled around, trying to turn herself by scissoring both legs that were currently sprouting out of the roof of the car.

Struggling against the headrest, Katie walked her hands across the narrow back of the driver’s seat. If she could worm her way back out of the car, she could make them hear her. She accidently bumped the moon-roof button with her right elbow and the panel made a high-pitched humming sound as it snugged up tighter against her waist. Panic mounting, she banged both elbows against the headliner of the car, managed to hit the button again, and stopped it before it got even more uncomfortable. She sagged forward and rested her hands on the high headrest of the compact car’s sporty little driver’s seat.