Highlander's Promise Read Online Free PDF Page A

certain the guard was gone, only then did he lift his wife and rest her in his lap again. His arms hurried around her and feeling that her back had chilled again began rubbing warmth back into it.
    He pressed his warm cheek to her cool one and whispered in her ear. “You feel how hard I am, how much I want you. But then you are well aware that my desire runs strong for you all the time, and you make no secret of your desire for me. But as badly as I want you, never would I make love to you in such a horrid place and for others to see.” He felt her cheek rise against his in a smile and he felt her nod. She eased away from him and it took him a moment to understand her gestures, then he smiled. “You are right. This is the second time you were locked away with me and expected to please me. I recall how much you feared me when first meeting you.”
    She gestured again.
    “What do you mean you still fear me?” he demanded. “If you feared me you would obey me and your presence here in this cell proves you do not obey me.”
    Dawn pressed her hand to his cheek for a moment before gesturing again.
    Cree took her hand and kissed her palm. “Never fear that I would stop loving you. It is not possible. Besides, you belong to me and I keep what is mine.”
    She thumped his chest, then thumped hers.
    He brushed his lips over hers. “Aye, I belong to you and no other. You are stuck with me.”
    She hugged him tight, letting him know that he was also stuck with her and she would never let him go.
    “Old Mary will get us out tomorrow night,” Cree said as if saying it aloud forced him to believe it.
    Dawn nodded and assured him with gestures that Old Mary would not fail them.
    “Tell me how the twins do.”
    Dawn told him how much they miss him, especially Lizbeth. She told him how her eyes widened and how her tiny head would turn from side to side as if eager to hear her da’s voice whenever someone entered the room. And how she would scowl just like him when she did not hear it.
    Talk faded between them and they sat in silence, Cree continuing to caress her bare back, arms, and tucking her legs up close so he could keep warmth in them as well.
    After a while Cree’s hand drifted over her shoulder and up along her neck, then ever so slowly his fingers felt along her throat.
    Dawn tensed. She was waiting for this moment and wondered why it had not come sooner.
    “Seeing you here in such danger with little opportunity to keep you from harm and get you out of here safely had my anger near to erupting. And when they striped you bare, I wanted to snap every one of their necks, which I intend to still do. But when Minnoch had the bandage pulled off your neck, I felt a fear grip me that I have never felt before. I thought once he saw that you had suffered no wound, he would discover your identity and there was no telling what he would do.”
    He paused a moment and Dawn could feel his body grow taut with anger.
    He ran one finger over the wound along her neck. “Imagine my shock when I saw this.”
    Her hand went to his to brush it away, but he pushed her hand away.
    “No! I want to feel for myself what was done to you. At first when I caught a glimpse of it, all I could think of was how I was going to slowly slit the person’s throat who had done this to you and watch him bleed to death. Then an absurd thought came to me. You did this to yourself so that no one would suspect you were my wife.”
    Dawn nodded, not wanting to implicate Old Mary. He would eventually find out, but now was not the time. She felt his anger rumble deep in his chest and thought better of offering any kind of explanation for what she had done. None would make a difference to him.
    He spread his hand over the wound. “I want to lash out at you for being so foolish, though your foolishness also saved you, but if you had obeyed me in the first place you would be home safe with the twins.”
    She shook her head.
    “Do not argue with me, woman!”
    Dawn