Highlander’s Champion – Release Day

Hello my friends, today I’m celebrating the release of Highlander’s Champion and sharing an exclusive excerpt with you. I’ve been longing to bring you James MacDonald’s story and here it is. I hope you enjoy.

Buy HIGHLANDER’S CHAMPION at: Amazon Kindle

Traveling through time…for a Highlander.

It’s been four long years since Arianna MacLeod Cunningham’s ancestor opened a portal in the past to free lost souls and inadvertently pulled Arianna through from the future into her time. Arianna desperately wants to save her ill father and return to him, and when she travels to the Highland Games being held so near her childhood home, that desire is one she can no longer deny.

Highland warrior James MacDonald is at the Games representing his clan. He hopes to topple the reigning champion, although the last thing he expects is to fall under Arianna’s spell. She’s the girl he cared for when she first fell through time, and now four years later, the woman he can’t allow to walk away.

When Arianna seeks to send a message to her father, James comes to her aid, only now destiny is about to pull them both apart. Can James find a way to save the woman he loves…even through the separation of time?

Exclusive Excerpt:

Arianna slept in a large four-poster bed, her pale blond lashes glimmering in the fire’s glow. She was such an innocent.

James knelt at her side and smoothed his knuckles across her soft cheeks. Everything about her touched him, from her absolute devotion to those she loved to her feisty and fierce nature. He breathed deep and her sweet vanilla scent swirled seductively around him. From the moment he’d carried her into Zenia’s cottage and she’d burrowed against him, he’d experienced an overwhelming sense of rightness, one that had grown over the years from strength to strength. Being with her, holding her, was all he desired. Hell, how on earth was he meant to court another woman when she was the one he wanted?

If only Arianna wished for what he did, but in the four years since her arrival she’d never once changed her course of mind. Her aspiration was to return to her father, a dream he couldn’t and wouldn’t deny her.

“Mmm, James.” Arianna pushed her arms out from under the covers, dislodging the tartan blanket. Her nightrail remained loose at the top, the ties partially undone and exposing the upper swell of her breasts. “Don’t leave me, James. You promised should I ever have need of you, you’d come,” she murmured in her sleep.

“I’m here.” He hauled the blanket back up to her neck. Her lush creamy skin would send him insane if he saw any more of it.

“James?” She blinked her eyes open and sat up, the dratted tartan slipping to her waist. “How did you get in here?” She searched the room. “The door’s bolted.”

“We have adjoining chambers and there’s a connecting door inside your ambry that leads to mine. Your, ah”—he motioned toward her chest—“nightrail is loose.”

“Oh.” She yanked the ties together and closed the gap. “What a stroke of good luck to have adjoining rooms.”

“William wouldnae think so.”

“Then we’d best not tell him.” Smiling, she wriggled across and patted the mattress. “Sit with me. Now we finally have a decent chance to talk.”

“Aye, we do.” He toed off his boots, propped his sword beside her bed where it would lay within easy reach and sat beside her. They’d talk, and then he’d leave. She was a craving he had to set aside, for both their sakes.

“You have a rather serious expression on your face.” She plumped her pillow and propped it behind her.

“’Tis naught. I said we’d speak about your desire to seek out your Cunningham ancestors and the conditions you’ll need to agree to when I take you. I willnae allow you to speak to them, to divulge your secret to another, but if you know of a safe place to keep your letter where your father might find it then I’ll gladly aid you.”

“I’m sure I can come up with somewhere.” She popped a kiss on his cheek. “Thank you. I’m very grateful for all you do for me.”

“You shouldnae kiss me.” He palmed the place where the heat of her kiss still lingered.

“That wasn’t a kiss.” She leaned in again and this time licked his lower lip. “Neither was that, but I’m getting closer.”

Desire surged through his blood and he growled her name, gripped her arms and pressed her back into the mattress with his body. Looming over her, he hoped like hell he had a stern enough expression on his face. “This is your last warning. You shouldnae kiss me.”

“You seem rather bent out of shape over what I wouldn’t even call a kiss.” She wriggled her body and her nipples poked her thin nightrail. “Honestly, I’d like to kiss you. It might help me stop wondering what it might be like.”

“You need to watch your words as well.” His cock hardened and pressed into her belly. “Do you no’ feel what you do to me? I want you Arianna. I always have.”

“Then kiss me. We’re alone and no one can interrupt us.” She slid her hands free of his hold, wrapped her arms around his neck then gently, drew him closer. “One kiss, and we’ll make it count.”

Buy HIGHLANDER’S CHAMPION at: Amazon Kindle

Thank you for taking the time to check out this excerpt. I wish you a safe and wonderful week.

~ Joanne