Tempted by the Highland Warrior Read Online Free PDF Page B

quietly. ‘The tunic should come
off so I can treat your wounds.’
    Tension knotted his face, but he seemed to understand her. He
turned around and gripped the edge of a table, as if to brace himself for the
worst.
    ‘I’ll try not to hurt you,’ she offered. The garment had stuck
to his skin; no doubt removing it would reopen many of his wounds.
    Marguerite loosened the ties and brought her hands to the hem
of the tunic, lifting it slowly. The underside wasn’t so bad, but when she
reached the middle of his back, it was stuck fast. Callum’s knuckles whitened on
the table and she had to force herself to continue.
    She closed her eyes, as she felt his skin tearing away from the
cloth. Revulsion formed in her stomach and she heard a rushing sound in her ears
as she pulled the tunic over his head. It wasn’t until the edges of her vision
started to blacken that she realised she was about to faint.
    Don’t , she ordered herself. She bit
hard against her lip, taking deep breaths with her head lowered. And when she’d
regained control of herself, she opened her eyes and saw his bleeding
wounds.
    Mon Dieu , he was suffering so
badly. Marguerite soaked another cloth in the bathwater and touched Callum’s
face again before she wet it once more and laid it upon his bare back.
    He lifted his head to look at her, and though she’d caused him
pain, there was also relief in his eyes.
    ‘You’re safe now,’ she whispered. ‘It will be all right.’
    But the way he was looking at her made her feel vulnerable. She
didn’t understand the needs hidden behind his eyes, or what he was thinking.
    ‘I’ll leave you to bathe,’ she whispered. ‘If you want, I can
send Bram back to help you.’
    He shook his head, returning to the bench. Though he said not a
word, he rested his forearms upon his legs, lowering his head. Exhaustion
weighted him down and she didn’t like the look of the wounds upon his back. He
was thin, his ribs revealed in the torchlight. But his arms held a wiry
strength, his muscles well defined.
    ‘Or would you rather I stayed to help you?’ she blurted
out.
    Heaven only knew what provoked her to make the offer. Although
she’d assisted her father’s guests with their baths in the past, there had
always been several servants in attendance. It was an expected duty and she’d
thought little of it.
    But the prospect of seeing this man naked made her feel
breathless, almost anticipating something that would never happen.
    Callum stood up and raised questioning eyes to her. Marguerite
held still, trying to feign a calmness she didn’t feel. Her mind was ordering
her to leave, for to stay meant far more than tending his wounds. She was a
maiden, untouched and innocent.
    ‘It’s all right,’ she whispered. ‘If you need me, I’ll
stay.’
    When he turned his back, reaching to untie his trews, she
quickly averted her gaze.
    * * *
    The water had grown cooler, but it was like sharp blades
cutting into his back. Callum sat in the wooden tub with his knees drawn up,
wincing at the burning sensation.
    He should have sent Marguerite away. Letting her see him like
this wasn’t right. But the past few weeks had changed him, making him care less
about what was expected and falling into the instinctive urges that bordered on
wildness.
    He wanted her with an urgency that consumed him. When she
dipped a cloth into the water, washing the dirt from the wounds on his back, he
was grateful for the pain. It kept the urges under control, for her very
presence had aroused him.
    As she moved her hands to wash his shoulders, his skin erupted
with shivers. His treacherous mind envisioned her hands moving over his chest,
down to the part of him that was growing harder.
    Callum slowed his breathing, trying not to get distracted. He’d
never been with a woman before, and right now her touch upon his skin was firing
up his imagination.
    He remembered one night at Cairnross when a prisoner’s wife had
visited her husband, trying