The Bearwalker's Daughter Read Online Free PDF

catch her to him. He’d never wanted any woman this powerfully before, let alone this soon.
    He truly must have run mad, and was getting crazier by the moment. Little brother would kill him for taking what he, no doubt, longed for, and Jack wouldn’t blame Joseph if he did. But nothing would’ve induced him to relinquish his claim on her. This was war, the lips beneath his, too sweet. As for Shequenor, he must wait a while longer to see his daughter.
    Then Karin broke from his mouth as if she’d suddenly come to her senses. “You are too bold, sir,” she panted, her chest rising and falling beneath her shift.
    The sight and feel of her rent him with the most exquisite torture. “I shall be bolder still, Miss, given half the chance.
    Her eyes widened ever more. “You mustn’t.”
    “I make no promises.” But he didn’t prevent her pulling away and scrambling from the bed. She flew out the door in a glorious swirl of black hair.
    Smiling to himself, he stretched out under the blankets. He’d felt the first flames of wanting spring up in Karin and knew what she did not yet realize. Jack McCray wasn’t so easy to escape.
    A sobering thought followed on the heels of his headiness. Neither was Shequenor.
     

 
    Chapter Four
     
    The unremitting breeze rattled the square panes of glass in Karin’s chamber window. Ever since Jack McCray had enveloped—nay, invaded—her world, she’d been too distracted to distinguish the whispers in its muttering, let alone try and discern their meaning. The candle on the stand flickered in the draft as she shivered through a sponge bath. For some mysterious or not so mysterious reason, she took more pains than usual with her toilette this morning while trying to think of anything other than the outrageous newcomer.
    Her exasperation only grew. The more she pushed searing images of him aside, the more he thrust back into her inflamed consciousness like a comet shooting across the sky. For heaven’s sake, Jack attacked you , she admonished herself while drying her goose-pimpled skin.
    That wasn’t all he’d done. Flushing hotly, she wriggled into her shift. What an unbelievably rousing first kiss. Dear L o rd . What would a second one be like?
    She bent her leg to pull on a cream-colored stocking. Thoroughly discomfited, she lost her balance and stumbled. Any feelings this potent must be suspect.
    Jack McCray was a dangerous man, rather like the untamed stallion Grandpa bought that she’d badly wanted to ride, only her emotions toward Jack were a hundred times stronger and a cauldron of confusion.
    So, why did a volatile part of her yearn to be close to him? Was she entirely devoid of reason?
    She’d never been before. But now…
    Back well away , she warned herself, tying crimson garters below her knees.
    She lifted the stopper from a glass bottle and dabbed perfume behind her ears, on her throat, and wrists, as if to shield herself in scent.
    Swaddled in her gray shawl, Neeley shuffled into the room. “Phew.” She fanned the air. “’Tis like a great posy in here. You’ll empty that smelling bottle in hurry and your grandfather’s not one for journeying to town more’n twice a year.”
    Karin restored the stopper. “Spoils me shamelessly when he does go, doesn’t he?”
    Neeley shrugged rounded shoulders. “He’s worked hard to bring you up proper. Besides, ’tis your twentieth birthday, the harvest’s plentiful, the animals thriving. If he wants to provide you and Sarah some of the niceties ladies enjoy and take on a few servants so you don’t work yourselves to death, that’s his affair. Be thankful.”
    Again, the stabs of conscience. Karin stepped into a crimson-striped petticoat. “I am. He’s a good man.”
    Neeley’s wrinkled face creased in a grimace. “With the temper of a newly roused bear.”
    Smiling faintly, Karin tied the skirt at her waist then slid her arms into the sleeveless bodice. “I’m sorry to be so late in dressing. I overslept,”