Highlander Unmasked Read Online Free PDF Page B

difficult. But anger wasn’t what he felt.
    Hell. If Alex weren’t so disciplined and focused on the task at hand, he might have even thought it was a flicker of pleasure.
    Apparently his body had no discipline, because it responded right away. The same intense attraction he’d felt that day in the forest hit him hard. It was odd. She was not the typical sort of woman to inspire instant lust. But damned if that wasn’t what he felt. Raw, unbridled desire. Desire that coiled like a fist inside him and would not let go.
    She looked different, which wasn’t surprising since the last time he’d seen her she was soaking wet. Now, instead of a simple Highland arisaidh, she was gowned resplendently in her court finery, though the pale yellow color of her dress did not flatter her incredible ivory skin. He looked a little closer. Nor did the gown seem to fit too well; it hung shapelessly on her dainty figure.
    Her hair was lighter brown than he’d realized. Rather than tumbling loose around her shoulders in enticing damp tendrils, she had it arranged in a tight, severe knot at the back of her head. But it was more than just the change of clothes and hair. Her expression was different. The serious-looking woman staring at him looked nothing like his vulnerable wood nymph.
    Still, he had no doubt it was the same lass. The tiny, heart-shaped face and enormous soft green eyes were unmistakable.
    As was the heat that surged through him the moment their eyes met.
    He quickly turned his gaze, but not before he saw the look of shock on her face, followed quickly by recognition. Which was definitely a problem. Knowledge of his presence so near Skye only a few weeks ago could lead to questions with which he’d rather not have to contend.
    He would not let anything, or anyone, interfere with his mission. Certainly not one wee lass, no matter how hot she fired his blood.
    Alex had been sent to court on behalf of his brother, Rory, and the other Island chiefs, to discover what he could about the rumor of a second attempt by the king to colonize the Isle of Lewis with Lowlanders. The Lowland colonists, the so-called Fife Adventurers, had been repulsed from Lewis once before. It was Alex’s sole purpose to ensure that if they tried again, they would fail again.
    “Colonize” was the king’s euphemism for displacing Highlanders and stealing their land. Convinced that the Highlands were an unmined source of riches with which to fill the ever insatiable royal coffers, the king had enacted a series of laws intended to divest the clans of land they’d held for hundreds of years.
    In many ways, the fate of Lewis was a bellwether for the rest of the Isles. Rory and the other Island chiefs realized that if the king was successful in colonizing the Isle of Lewis by supplanting Highlanders with Lowlanders, their lands would be next.
    Alex’s reasons were more personal.
    Knowing that the Lowlanders at court would be suspicious of any Highlander in their midst, the plan had been to distance Alex from Rory, including circulating rumors of a falling-out between the brothers. Alex’s absence for the last few years had worked in their favor. It also had provided an explanation for his being at court. Posing as a mercenary looking for hire, recently returned from fighting with the Irish gallowglass, the elite mercenary warriors, under the famed Irish Chief of O’Neill, Alex hoped to learn information from the type of men who might be hired to protect the colonists of Lewis.
    This mission was Alex’s chance to strike hard at the king’s injustice and to redress an old wrong in one fell blow.
    He would not fail.
    Meg Mackinnon could make things difficult for him. Especially since she appeared to be close to one of the men he was targeting for information—Jamie Campbell, the Earl of Argyll’s cousin and right-hand man. If there was a plan to colonize Lewis, you could be sure Argyll was aware of it. The greedy bastard undoubtedly had a hand in