The Highlander's Haunted Kiss Read Online Free PDF Page B

on the Darroch brothers since they could never travel together. They’d tried for years, but the results had been mayhem at best. Debilitating physical pain at worst.
    â€œOnly this,” Alexander began, his voice fading as he moved deeper into the Caledonian wood. “If she is mortal, perhaps the reason she can see you is that she’s your soul’s one true mate…”
    The last word was barely whispered on the breeze as Alexander disappeared completely. But it might as well have been shouted from the top of CairnGorm for the way it reverberated in Iain’s ears.
    Magnus turned to him, his shaggy eyebrows raised. Iain could already see the question in his eyes.
    â€œNever.” Iain would not consider it. The mere possibility rattled him more than facing a whole forest full of
Sidhe.
The forest ancients liked to say that true love was the only way out of immortality, but Iain had never pinned his hopes on the vague possibility that any woman would feel that way for him.
    Besides, he would allow no one to love him. Not when a future was so uncertain. For all he knew, he could end up consigning a woman to share his fate instead of being saved from his curse.
    He started down the rock ledge, determined to shake loose some answers from Lily Rothmore Desalles. She was a mortal woman, plain and simple. A mortal woman with acute vision and a misplaced sense of adventure to choose Invergale of all places to rest her pampered head.
    The sooner Iain could convince her to leave, the better.
    * * *
    Lily watched the sun slip behind the mountains in the reflection on the loch. She had thought of this moment all day, impatiently waiting for sunset so she could see the mysterious Iain Darroch again.
    She would have believed she dreamed the whole startling episode the night before if not for the secret doorway he’d revealed in her bedchamber. She had spent the better part of an hour moving all her wardrobe chests against the entrance. They would not keep out a strong warrior, but anyone trying to enter in the future would be forced to make a great racket.
    Turning her back to the placid loch at the end of a mild day, Lily watched the tree line where she had seen the Highlander before. Was it foolish to meet a man alone at the forest’s edge? Everything she had ever been taught told her yes, but her instincts trusted Iain’s honor. He could have dared much with her during the kiss that had so affected her, but he had not. Because of that, she felt a certain amount of safety around him. And yet, a bit ensorcelled, too.
    Perhaps it was this place—so ruggedly beautiful and wild, unlike anything she’d ever seen in New York or London. With the mists hanging over high mountain peaks and the deeply green forests full of ancient trees and unnamed beasts, the Highlands seemed enchanted. Even Invergale itself was straight out of one of Ms. Radcliffe’s gothic novels, with its echoing corridors and cold drafts that seemed to have no relationship to any weather outside. The castle felt full of secrets. Being here made her feel different.
    Less constrained.
    â€œLily.” She heard Iain’s voice before she saw him.
    Her gaze ran the length of the trees, searching. She found him lounging against the trunk of a thick old ash, his shoulder tipped against the bark.
    By now, the sight of his bare legs clad only in dark gartered hose did not surprise her. The belted plaid he wore draped over one shoulder revealed a crisp white tunic, now tied at the neck, unlike the first time she’d spotted him. His hair was damp, too, and tied neatly in a queue that rested on one shoulder. He had the appearance of a man freshly washed and laundered, and she wondered if he’d made the effort for her sake. Her heart beat rapidly as she approached him.
    â€œI have been looking for you,” she admitted, dispensing with drawing room manners that had no place in these wild lands. She liked that about