The Laird of Stonehaven Read Online Free PDF Page A

unwinding his plaid. Like most Scotsmen, he wore nothing underneath, and when he whipped it off he heard her gasp.
    He knew he was going too fast for an innocent maiden whom he had met mere hours ago, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. She averted her gaze as he climbed onto the bed.
    “Blair, look at me.”
    When she refused, he grasped her chin and turned her toward him. “Dinna be shy, lass. If this is to be our only time, I want to make it pleasurable for you.” He stretched out beside her. “Relax.”
    Before she realized what she was saying, the words she had spoken in her dream escaped her lips. “I canna love you.”
    “I dinna ask for love.”
    Blair knew that. He loved another. “I am sorry for you, Graeme MacArthur. You were trapped into marriage by my father and had little choice in the matter.”
    “Nevertheless, we will make the best of this marriage once we get the bedding out of the way. You do understand why this is necessary, do you not?”
    She nodded jerkily, understanding but still unwilling. She knew well enough what would happen to her once Niall became clan chief, but marriage to Graeme seemed a drastic step to take. Her visions, however, had clearly pointed to a future with the Campbell chieftain.
    Her thoughts skidded to a halt when Graeme gently began to remove her shift.
    “What are you doing?”
    His hands stilled. “I want to see all of you.”
    “Is that necessary?”
    “You’re only delaying the inevitable, lass. Do you know naught of mating?”
    She knew how it felt to mate with
him
. “I know enough.”
    He touched her breast, squeezing gently. She was so distracted, she was scarcely aware that he had bared her breasts and was pushing her shift down her hips with his free hand. She made a desperate grab at the material, but it slipped through her fingers. He lifted the shift off and tossed it onto the pile of discarded clothing.
    Graeme’s hands moved with slow deliberation over Blair’s body, savoring the satiny feel of her skin, his own body reacting strongly to the soft female beneath him. She made a small, inarticulate sound and shifted restlessly. He smiled, aware that she wasn’t totally immune to him. Her mind might be unwilling, but her body’s need was unmistakable. He had known enough women in his lifetime to recognize desire, unproven though hers might be.
    His own need was quickly escalating. It was as if he were touching someone familiar, someone he had known intimately in the past. But how could that be? Her flesh beneath his fingertips quivered, yet he sensed no fear in her. He gazed into the mesmerizing violet of her eyes and felt a jolt of something he could only describe as recognition.
    When she shifted beneath his questing hands, rational thought ceased. Driven now by raw lust, he lowered his head and captured a pink nipple that seemed to be begging for his attention. He suckled gently, his tongue lapping at the puckered bud until she cried out and pushed herself deeper into his mouth.
    Then the urge to kiss her, to commit her taste to his memory, overcame every other need. His mouth left her breast to settle over her full red lips. He groaned his pleasure into her mouth, deepening the kiss as he probed the inner sweetness with his tongue.
    Naught in his life had prepared him for Blair MacArthur. What he’d felt for Joan the Maid was innocent adoration, while this witch-woman writhing beneath him tasted of mystery and dark, forbidden secrets. Abruptly his mouth left hers and he reared up, staring into her eyes.
    “What are you?” he asked in a strangled voice. “
Who
are you?”
    Her expression dazed, Blair gazed up at him. “You know who I am.”
    “Mayhap I do and mayhap I dinna. If you plan to cast a spell on me, lass, forget it. It willna work.”
    Blair wanted Graeme to get on with it. The longer he lingered over the consummation, the more involved she became in the process. Something she had vowed to avoid. She didn’t want to feel