The Bride Says Maybe Read Online Free PDF Page A

looks that have attracted you, Laird, plain and simple. You know nothing of me. We’ve only spoken once, and it was not a memorable conversation. At least, not of the sort that would indicate a man was interested in a woman. I was surprised when I learned you’d offered for me . . . and had gone to considerable trouble to do so.” She knew she was tweaking the bear’s nose. She had everything to lose if he walked away. Her father’s foolishness would be exposed. He would be ruined, and her humiliation would be complete.
    Still, that realization didn’t stop her from adding, “So now who is the one who thinks highly of himself?”
    The grim line of his lips tightened.
    Tara was not one to be rude if she could save herself from it. However, something about this man challenged her. She remembered first meeting him, remembered being aware of his presence.
    He was very still a moment, then he swung down from his horse. His men now started to ride up. They had kept their distance while she and the laird had been throwing words back and forth to each other.
    Laird Breccan held up his hand, a silent command for them to stay back. They obeyed immediately.
    He towered over Tara. It took all her courage to stand in her place. He believed she had no Davidson pride? She wanted to prove him wrong, and yet the urge to run was very strong inside her.
    “You have a sharp tongue, my lady.”
    “I do,” Tara admitted. “There is more to me than just my looks. I’ve a mind as well.” She’d never said such a thing before. In fact, she’d once believed that all she had to offer was the arrangement of two eyes, a nose and a mouth.
    But suddenly she wanted someone, anyone to realize there was more to her. There had to be. There must be.
    “What if all I want is your looks?” he asked, his voice so low only she could hear him.
    “Then I would think you as shallow as all the others. And you would be doomed to disappointment. Looks do not last forever. Even a rose loses its beauty to age and time. Are you certain you wish to marry me?”
    She could see his eyes now. She’d expected them to be hard, sharp, and there was a touch of anger in his curt answer. “Yes.”
    To her surprise, her body reacted to that one word. Something deep in her very core tightened, and she found herself starting to lean forward.
    She held herself back, startled by such a strange fancy. Tara might have been desired by many men, but other than Ruary, whom she loved passionately, no others had moved her.
    Yet here it was, a twinge of yearning. And the focus of her desire? The laird of the Black Campbells.
    He did not seem to notice the turmoil inside her. He stood as if he could have been carved from stone. “And what of you?” he challenged, his voice still quietly low. “What is it you want?”
    No one had ever asked her that question before.
    For a moment, she had no answer. She’d been taught her job was to please. Be pretty and pleasing, the watchword of every debutante presented in society.
    And yet, she realized she was haunted by just that question. What did she want?
    Why had she been running?
    “I want to return to London,” she answered.
    “London?” He snorted his opinion.
    “Have you been there?”
    “I don’t need to go. Everything I could ever want is here.”
    “And how do you know? Have you never gone to Town?”
    “I dinna wish to go,” he answered, his accent thicker, a sign she had touched a nerve.
    But a new thought had crossed Tara’s mind. She took a step toward him, no longer intimated. “You asked me what I wanted. I told you. If I marry you, can you help me? Will you?”
    He frowned as if she spoke gibberish, but she was seeing her way clear now. At last she realized here was her chance to make a bid for her own life.
    She did not wish to rusticate in the wilds of Scotland. During her three years in London, she’d learned she had a taste for the sophisticated life of the city. She’d been happy to shed the