Highland Hunger Read Online Free PDF Page B

his lips on her skin made her feel. Warm. Safe. Womanly. He was trying to calm her just like one of his cursed horses, she thought. Instead of a pat on the flank, he gave her a kiss on the cheek. Instead of an apple or handful of oats, he fed her stew and porridge sweetened with honey.
    What truly annoyed her was that it was working, and quickly. Una could not believe she could be so easily wooed, but she was. The proof that Raibeart obviously did not know the first thing about truly wooing a woman only worked in his favor. No man who was trying to trick her, or seduce her, would be so inept at it. She could actually feel a softening inside her when she looked at him, a warmth that had little to do with the fact that he was big, strong, and handsome.
    It was going to be difficult to resist him, she realized. Even now, with her arms around his waist, he occasionally patted her hands where they were clasped over his taut stomach. Soothing her again, she thought, just as he did Tor with an occasional pat on the animal’s strong neck, and almost grinned. Most women would be outraged to be treated by a man in the same way he treated his horses, but Una had to admit that she was finding it strangely endearing.
    I mean to woo you.
    And what was so wrong with that, she wondered. The voice of common sense quickly answered. She did not really know the man aside from the fact that he was like her and that he was ready to help her save the others held at Dunmorton. They had known each other for only a day and that had been spent mostly in sleep. It was ridiculous to think of him in any way save as an ally, a man who was going to help her save her friends. She could not allow her innocent girlish dreams of a lover—a husband, a home, and children—make her act recklessly. She certainly should not contemplate giving away her innocence just because a man kissed her on the cheek, not after fighting so hard to hold fast to it for years.
    Raibeart suddenly tensed, pulling her out of her thoughts. “What is it?” she asked in a whisper.
    “Hunters,” he replied in an equally soft voice.
    “The ones who are after me?” She waited as he sniffed the air, not surprised that he would have a keen sense of smell.
    “Aye, and they are mounted now.”
    “Stand and fight?” She touched the hilt of the knife he had given her, which was now sheathed at her side, yet another of his gestures that warmed her heart in a dangerous way.
    “Nay, not unless we have no choice.” He cocked his head and listened carefully. “Six men. The laird must ken our weakness, for ’tis unusual for Outsiders to go on a hunt at night.”
    “He trains men to do so.”
    “So do the others who hunt us.”
    She glanced up at the moon glinting through the trees. “A clear sky and a fat moon dinnae help us much, either. So we hide?”
    “Aye, we hide.”
    Una hung on tightly as he wound his way through the trees, using as much speed as he dared. She had not planned much beyond finding an ally and cursed herself for a fool. She should have considered the fact that she would be hunted, that she would put anyone who helped her into danger. Raibeart was big and strong, with speed and natural weapons, but he was still one man against six. The men after them also knew the strengths of the ones they hunted and would not be easily caught off guard.
    “I have put ye in danger,” she said, guilt a hard knot in her belly.
    Raibeart grunted softly. “MacNachtons have always been in danger. E’en more so since these hunters have caught wind of us. I dare nay think on how many Lost Ones were murdered ere we learned of them or I would weep like a bairn. All ye have asked of me is to help ye save eight people with MacNachton blood, and I ne’er thought it would be a simple matter of rapping at the door of that mad laird’s keep and asking for the prisoners to be released.”
    The man could put a nice bite behind his words, she thought, and smiled. Her good humor fled quickly,