A Highlander for Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page A

the wall and covered her face with her hands. How could her life have changed so drastically in one night? How could her hopes and her newly born dreams of a future be dashed so quickly? She wanted to fight back, to storm back inside the room and tell them they were fools to leave Camlochlin. That she wanted a new life, not a continuation of the old one. And that she was staying with Finn.
    But she cared about them too much to do it.
    “My passion.”
    She looked up over her fingers and then wished she hadn’t when she saw Finn standing just a few feet away, his hand reaching out toward hers. At the sight of her wretched discomposure, his already pained expression grew more somber.
    “I wish to have a word alone with yer brother.”
    “No!” she refused quickly.
    “No?” He moved closer but dropped his hand to his side.
    She didn’t want to look at him, to see his reaction to what she was about to tell him. She feared that if she did, she might crumble and give in to her own desires. But her gaze remained, as if her eyes had a mind of their own, taking in every nuance of his visage, his posture, his strong, tanned kneecaps beneath the hem of his plaid and burning them across the surface of her heart.
    “I am going back to Dumfries with my family, Finn. I must!” she cried out, holding up her palms to stop him when he leaped for her.
    “Nae, Leslie.” He pulled her into his arms and dragged his mouth against her ear. “I beg ye not to go. Ye’re the song in my heart. Silence me not.”
    Leslie called on help from the angels to keep her legs from giving out beneath her. Every nerve ending, every muscle, bone, and emotion that fashioned her quaked to shake her family loose from her shoulders and promise her life to him. But she couldn’t. She would never let him die for her, and she couldn’t let her family die because of her selfishness. She was their only hope of staying out of prison…or worse.
    She stifled a sob at the pounding of her heart pressed to his chest, and the reply of his against her.
    “I must go. I must.” And she had to go fast before she changed her mind and begged him to somehow save her. “Papers were signed for me, Finn. My brother cannot go back on his word without the risk of rebuttal.” When he opened his mouth to speak, she stopped him.
    “You don’t understand. If anyone comes against your family, you have a small army of very capable warriors at your back. Andrew will have no support in Dumfries, save for the Douglases.”
    “Nae,” he reminded her. “Rob has agreed to let ye all remain here under our protection. Yer brother doesn’t have to leave and put ye in danger.”
    “My mother wishes to return home. I cannot put her life at risk by returning without me. It’s not my will. But I must do what I can for my family. You would do no less.”
    “I would! Did ye not hear me before? I love ye, Leslie!” He clutched her by the arms and gave her a little shake, forcing her to look at him…right into his eyes. She stared, unblinking, mesmerized by what she saw in his gaze. No other man would ever look at her this way. As if she was as vital and as breathtaking as a midwinter sunrise. “I would do anything fer ye. I would leave Camlochlin, my kin, my quill, everything fer ye. Nothing matters to me but seeing yer face every day, hearing ye speak my name, whether ’tis to revile me or to entice me. I want to take ye to my bed. But more than that, I want to wake up beside ye the next day, and every day after that.
    “I will not let ye take another fer a husband…” He closed his eyes briefly, as if the image he’d conjured was too painful to consider. “I’ll go mad, Leslie.”
    She didn’t know how she was doing it, really. She teetered on the brink of a sorrow so complete she feared she would never get over it. But his words frightened her, so she managed to command control over her roiling emotions. She couldn’t stay and if Finn fought for her, her brothers might