Sins of the Highlander Read Online Free PDF Page A

complete. I’m no’ even officially a wife, I dinna suppose,” she said, still circling the spring to keep her distance from him.
    Her nipples stood out beneath her bodice, whether from cold or the memory of his touch, he didn’t much care. They were a fine sight in any case. He ached to suckle them.
    “I’m a maiden, which means I need to refrain from lust of any kind.”
    “Ye dinna strike me as doing especially well with restraint,” he said, switching directions and gaining on her by doing so. “I’ve kissed ye, lass, and ye seem prone to passion. I felt the way your body responded to my touch. Ye wanted me, if ye dinna mind my saying so.”
    “Would it matter to ye if I do mind?”
    “No’ in the slightest. Truth must be spoken or ’twill burst out of us, lass.”
    She caught a toe in her broad skirts and went down on the rocky cave floor. Rob ran around and knelt over her. “Are ye hurt?”
    She looked up at him, her eyes enormous. He noticed they were hazel, the sort that picked up whatever hue was near. Now they were the same shade of green as the moss ringing the cavern. She shook her head at him. “The only thing that can hurt me here is you.”
    She balled her fingers into fists but kept them clenched on her lap. He sensed she wanted to strike him but wisely contained herself.
    “Why are ye doing this to me?” she demanded with a hint of a suppressed sob.
    “That should be obvious. Your intended husband owes me a debt he canna repay.”
    “So I’m to suffer for it?”
    “No, I intend that he should suffer the loss of you.”
    “Then…” Her voice tremored, and she swallowed hard. “Ye do intend to kill me still.”
    He sat down beside her. Tears trembled on her lower lashes.
    Deliver me, O Lord, from a woman’s weeping.
    “No, ’tis no’ in me to do ye harm,” he said softly. “Though wee Lachlan couldn’t have known that. I threatened to kill ye if he followed, and yet he came after us. If I were ye, I’d think twice over giving your loyalty to a man who puts so little thought to your safety.”
    She chuckled mirthlessly, pulling her knees to her chest and hugging them to her. “As if ye care for my safety.”
    He gazed into her eyes. There were little flecks of gold ringing her pupils.
    Now that she wasn’t running from him or terrified by him, he realized Elspeth Stewart was really quite a beauty. Her lips were full and lush. By some trick of musculature under her smooth skin, the corners of them turned up naturally in a beguiling half smile, as if she were hugging a delicious secret to herself. There were soft hollows beneath her rosy cheeks, a sign of the bone-deep loveliness that only ripens with age.
    “Lachlan Drummond is a lucky bastard,” Rob said with conviction.
    “I dinna imagine he’d agree with you.” She picked absently at her frayed hem. “He did lose his bride at the altar remember.”
    “Aye, so he did.” Rob leaned closer. She smelled faintly of heather and evergreen boughs. Scent was an extravagance. He wondered where she dabbed the fragrant oil. The thin skin of her wrists? The pulse point at her white throat? Or maybe in the sweet hollow between her breasts?
    Thinking about all those soft, forbidden places made him feel rampantly, throbbingly male. He wanted to search out those tender spots, bury his nose in them, and lave them with his tongue.
    She scooted away from him, but he closed the distance between them so he was still sitting beside her.
    “Then what do ye intend to do with me?” she asked in a small voice.
    “Most men in my position would take your maidenhead and be done with it.” If he listened to his swollen cock, he’d be on her in a heartbeat. She might fight him at first, but she’d melted under his kisses before. She would again.
    “If you intend to ravish me, you’ll have to gag me.” Her chin lifted in defiance. “Because I’ll scream my bloody head off.”
    “Will ye now?” He lifted a hand and ran his fingertip