Border Bride Read Online Free PDF

stared at the bar of sunlight seeping beneath the door to Alpin's room.
    Alpin's room. In my own castle.
    Having her here meant he could make her life miserable on a daily basis. He could avenge the stinging blow she'd dealt him so long ago. The prospect should have made him smile. But the moment their conversation had turned to the innocent, fumbling kisses they'd shared as children, he'd sensed a vulnerability in her. Did she pine for an island beau or had she been truthful when she claimed to have had affairs?
    He tried to picture her writhing naked with a man, the nipples of her luscious breasts standing at pert attention, the lavender of her eyes darkening with desire. But he realized he knew little about the woman she'd become, wouldn't know the truth from a lie on her lips. In his occasional letters Charles had seldom mentioned her; the grief-stricken widower had been consumed by the loss of his wife.
    He put aside his confusion; now that she belonged to him he had all the time he needed to learn about Alpin MacKay.
    He remembered her shock at seeing the nearly nude Rosina standing in the open doorway of his bedchamber. Petulant and eager to return to her native Italy, Rosina had taken her anger out on his staff.
    His patience grew thin. Same as his mistresses before her, Rosina was supposed to have stayed at Carvoran Manor, his estate near Hadrian's Wall. But the moment his father and Lady Miriam had left for Constantinople, Rosina had moved into Kildalton. He usually shared this castle with his parents and his younger half sisters; he simply didn't want Rosina intruding on his privacy or influencing his impressionable siblings.
    Rosina was an accommodating and inventive bedmate, and she served a necessary role in the current political problems, but as a constant companion she bored him to tears and disrupted his household. Eager to lessen the complications of his life by one, he went to his bedchamber.
    He found her lounging naked on his bed, practicing one of her more seductive moves. She trailed a long tapered fingernail from her thigh to her navel.
    Smiling, she stretched her arms over her head. Holding the submissive pose, she purred, "Come back to bed, my lord. I find I like it here."
    The old hunger roiled in his gut and lower.
    He stared at her navel and the webwork of tiny lines, a memento of the stillborn child she'd borne her former lover. She'd bear no bastards for Malcolm. Alpin MacKay had seen to that.
    He walked to the bed and sat, the mattress shifting beneath his weight. The heady smells of the past night's lovemaking blended with her signature scent: roses. She even tasted like freshly crushed petals. "As much as I would enjoy whiling away the day, I cannot."
    Rolling to her side, she bent one knee, giving him an unobstructed view of her femininity. "You're angry with me because I dismissed the housekeeper yesterday."
    He was angry, but taking her to task always proved futile.
    "Only a fool would call my mood angry, Rosina, especially after the dessert you fed me last night."
    She cuddled her cheek against her shoulder. "You kept me awake until dawn." Her hand dipped lower. "But I'm rested now."
    Temptation dragged at him. He had assizes to conduct. Judgments could wait until tomorrow. Saladin could return today. If so, Malcolm could hear the report at supper. Alpin would be at the table. Alpin.
    Rosina reached for his hand. "You'll find another housekeeper," she said without a trace of an accent.
    She struck a nerve, but the argument was old and unwinnable. Rosina wouldn't lift a finger. "I could use your help these days."
    She huffed and indignantly challenged, "Do you want a mistress, a clerk, or a housekeeper, my lord?"
    He almost confessed that he wanted all three—and more. But he knew well the difference between dreams and reality.
    "What I want, Rosina, is for you to return to Carvoran Manor. Alexander will take you there."
    Anger flared in her eyes. "I think I shall return to that rustic