Bannockburn Binding (Beloved Bloody Time) Read Online Free PDF

looked around the office, glancing out the broad bank of windows at the star field and cleared her throat self-consciously.
    “Is there something else?” Ryan asked, puzzled.
    Nayara shook her head. “I was just wondering—” She shook her head again. “I wondered why Christian and Tally don’t…It’s clear they….” Nayara drew in a breath and let it out. She grimaced and looked away.
    “It’s clear they love each other?” Ryan finished. He realized his heart was working. Working hard. He let his gaze travel over Nayara slowly, taking in the waist-length tumble of red curls, the kelly green eyes and white, white skin. For all that Nayara had emerged from the Mesopotamian basin centuries before Ryan’s ancestors had settled in Eire, to Ryan’s eyes, she often looked as sweet as any Irish colleen.
    It didn’t matter to Ryan that Nayara was so powerful and skilled a fighter she could probably best him and two others besides. Her fighting prowess was a bonus. The knowledge sat in the back of his mind like an invisible aphrodisiac, even as he was admiring her feminine curves and softness.
    Nayara turned back to face him again, squaring her shoulders. “Yes,” she said firmly. “They love each other. Yet they do nothing about it. Why?” Her gaze pinned Ryan to his chair. Challenging him.
    Ryan focused on the medallion at Nayara’s throat, nestled between the open neck of the leather jacket she wore. The ancient medallion with its elaborate Celtic scrollwork. All his warm feelings evaporated. His heart silenced, even as a hundred painful old memories rifled through his mind, too fast for his conscious to linger over, but enough for all the warmth in his body to congeal.
    “Perhaps their history gets in the way,” Ryan said, using the explanation that made the most sense to him right then. History for vampires was everything.
    Nayara’s challenging gaze faltered. Pain flickered in her eyes and expression. He’d reminded her. Again. Ryan silently cursed himself.
    Nayara waved toward the door. “I must see Brenden in Security, about Natália. And I’ll wait for Christian and let him know as soon as he gets back.” She slipped out the door as she spoke and was gone.
    Ryan rubbed his temples as he studied the closed door, feeling a weariness he knew he could not possibly be feeling. “ Dia sé diabhal go hIfreann ,” he muttered. He didn’t believe in a god or hell, but the curse did help relieve his feelings. A little.
    * * * * *
     
    Still mostly asleep, Natália rolled onto her side to relieve the ache in her spine from sleeping on the ground. She found herself up against the solid heat of Rob’s back. She blinked for a few seconds, staring at the white of his shirt, bringing things back into focus. Sleeping was still a novelty and the gathering of thoughts upon waking took extra effort.
    Was this a moment she could take advantage of to escape and find Leuwis? Were Rob’s shoulders really that wide?
    But she had jostled him and as she lay considering her options, Rob contrived to roll and face her without tangling them both up in the rope that bound them together. It had taken little time for them to become painfully experienced with the arrangement.
    Rob’s very blue eyes stared into hers and while she recognized that the moment to escape had passed, there was not much regret attached to it. There would be other moments.
    “I woke you. I’m sorry,” she whispered.
    “I was thinking, not sleeping.” His bound hand came to rest over her waist. It seemed like a natural movement, but Tally’s body came to instant alert. She could feel the heat of his hand through her clothing.
    Mentally, she fought and argued with herself, as she had been for the two days she had been Rob’s prisoner and realized the predicament she was in. Leuwis was safe enough for as long as Rob thought he was her manservant and a ransom could be raised for her. For a highlander of his time, Rob was smart, kind and principled,