Let Me Be Your Hero Read Online Free PDF Page A

live around Fintry. We are meeting to discuss the sudden increase in cattle raids. Have ye had a problem with it?”
    “Aye, and the raids seem to be coming closer together. Mayhap I will bring Breac and Ronaln with me. ’Tis something we all have an interest in.”
    After saying good-night, the men walked outside. Claire’s sisters all went above stairs, but Claire waited to tell her father good-night. She was wandering aimlessly around the hall when she noticed Fraser had left his gloves sitting on the end of the table. She snatched them up and ran across the hall. She threw back the door and ran—right up against Fraser.
    “Oof!” It was all she could manage before Fraser’s arms went around her, which put her nose no more than an inch from one of the pewter buttons on his jacket. When she looked up, he grinned down at her.
    Oh, he was a fine-looking one, he was, and she had a feeling women went after him like salmon after a shiny hook. She knew she should chide herself for having such shameless thoughts about him, but the will to do so was not there.
    “’Tis not ladylike to run in the hall,” he remarked, “but I canna say I am sorry ye did, for if ye hadna, then I wouldna be holding a fire-haired lass with eyes o’ greenish-gold in my arms. ’Tis not a bad feeling. Pity ye are so young.”
    “I am not so young. I am fifteen. And ye dinna look so verra old yerself. So, will ye be telling me yer age? Or are ye so ancient ye canna remember?”
    “I have four more years than ye, Lady Claire…and soon to be five.”
    “Then ye have no business calling me young. I am a woman full grown.”
    “No need to tell me that, lass. ’Twas one o’ the first things I noticed aboot ye.”
    Claire had been waiting for his retort, only now she found herself completely distracted by his closeness. His chin was square and proud, his cheekbones high, his face tanned enough to make his blue eyes so very, very blue.
    She had already judged him to be a gentle man, but standing so close to him, with his arms around her, she realized there was nothing about him that was soft and gentle now, for he was tall, powerful and handsomely dark-haired, with a fine edge to him that could turn ruthless and dangerous when called upon. Several times tonight he had demonstrated he had a mind that was as quick and sharp as a razor’s edge.
    “Where were ye going in such a hurry, lass? We’ ye rushing to give me a farewell kiss?” he asked, amused.
    “I would sooner kiss a pig’s liver,” she said. “Ye ken I had no such thought, and ye are a devilish brute for saying such.”
    “Aye, and ye have a devilish temper to go with it, so we are a matched pair, you and I.”
    “I wouldna be matched with the likes of ye, Fraser Graham, for all the gold in King Solomon’s mines.”
    “I could easily prove ye wrong on that account,” he said. He grinned cheerfully and said, “Och, ’tis a false face ye put on now, lass, for ye kept yer gaze on me a goodly part o’ the evening, and while I find it pleasing,it doesna please me to think ye are the kind who willna own up to it.”
    “Ye did a muckle amount o’ looking yerself,” she said.
    “Aye, but I own up to it. ’Tis not so strange that a man would find it pleasurable to gaze upon a lass as bonnie as ye, for ye are a beautiful woman, Lady Claire Lennox, and ye have no’ seen the last o’ me.”
    “’Tis folly to think I will be watching the loch pining for a sight o’ ye or yer boat,” she replied, looking disinterested.
    “Ye will learn soon enough that I am not overly fond of resisting temptation, lass.”
    He kissed her suddenly, quick and hard, but long enough that she felt the warmth of his tongue and the urge to put her arms around him and kiss him back, but he released her with a laugh. “’Tis sorry I am that I dinna have time to do that a wee bit longer, but that will have to hold ye until next time, when I will finish it properly.”
    Her mouth dropped open in a