The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie (Mackenzies & McBrides, #1)

by Jennifer Ashley

She was like rare porcelain, he thought, delicate beauty with a core of steel. Cheap porcelain crumbled to dust or shattered, but the best pieces survived until they reached the hands of a collector who would care for them.

“We don’t fit in, you and me,” he said. “We’re both oddities no one knows what to do with. But we fit together.” He took her hand, pressed her palm to his, then laced their fingers through each other’s. “We fit.”

As they walked out, surrounded by the waiting dogs, Beth slanted a worried glance up at Ian, but Ian wore the broadest smile she’d ever seen.

Damnation. Damnation.

“Is this what love feels like?” he whispered to her. “I don’t like it, my Beth. It hurts too much.”

If Ian had “calmed,” it was because he’d realized that if he suppressed his rages and abrupt speeches, he’d be left alone.

If she died, he might as well take himself back to the asylum and lock himself in, because he’d go mad if he had to live without her.

“Because when I look at you, I forget everything. I lose all track of what I’m saying or doing. I can see only your eyes.” He laid his head on her pillow and rested his hand on her chest. “You have such beautiful eyes.”

“Love you,” Ian repeated. His gaze bore into hers harder than Hart’s ever could hope to. “Love you, love you, loveyou, loveyou, loveyouloveyouloveyou