The Reiver Read Online Free PDF Page A

anticipate a reiver breaking into his stables to return a horse. A smile tickled her lips as she thought about Duncan’s reaction on the morrow, when he discovered his prized steed had been returned—though her brothers, ever the opportunists, had seen to it that the stallion had left a few “deposits” with several of the Johnstone mares in the months before they’d brought him back.
    Of course, James and Robbie still thought this entire plan was mad and dangerous. And yet, perhaps because they felt some latent sense of guilt for her months of imprisonment in Maxwell territory—a fate they considered several orders of magnitude worse than death—they had acquiesced to her decision. And now, she was but a few steps from meeting them outside.
    Not so mad or dangerous , this…
    “Oof!” Just feet from the door, she came to an abrupt halt against an immovable object that felt remarkably warm and strangely malleable. Rather like a human chest. And a damnably familiar one at that.
    Damn and blast!
    “So, reiver, we meet again.” Duncan’s voice was low and gravelly and terribly arousing. He grabbed her wrists and yanked her flush against his body. Her eyes widened. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who was aroused. “What did you come to steal this time?”
    “You know as well as I that I have not stolen anything from you,” she retorted. Please, let James and Robert have gotten away. As long as they were safe, she could bear any indignity at Duncan Maxwell’s hands. She reckoned she deserved every one he could dish out after what she’d done.
    “On the contrary,” he murmured against the top her head, “you’ve stolen my heart. I was hoping you came to return it.”
    The raw, unconcealed pain in his voice took her aback.
    “I—I—” she stammered. Her heart hammered like a blacksmith’s mallet against her breastbone. “I came to return Curaidh.”
    “I know,” he said softly, grazing her ear with his lips as he spoke.
    Gooseflesh rose on her skin, racing down her arm. She didn’t know what to make of this strange situation. It seemed rather more like seduction than detention.
    “What do you want?”
    “I should think that would be obvious. I want you, Jamie Johnstone.”
    She gasped, incredulous. “You know my name!”
    “Aye, lass.”
    “But—but how?”
    “You did not think I just let you escape, did you?”
    She stared up at him blankly, a rather fruitless enterprise in light of the darkness. “What choice did you have? You had a slow horse and no clothes on.”
    “True, and I could not have prevented you from getting away…not without shooting you, and though I’ll admit I was sorely tempted, I might have missed and shot Curaidh instead.”
    She burned with instant indignation at the insinuation, but then she caught the twinkle in his eyes.
    “But in any event, ‘twas simple enough to track where you’d gone, runag . And once I realized you were a Johnstone, it was only a matter of making inquiries of the right people to discover the rest.”
    Jamie’s mind whirled. All these months, he had known who she was, who her family was, and yet he’d made no effort to exact justice for the raid. He could have petitioned the Warden for redress, or even the king, but obviously he had not.
    “Since then, I’ve been waiting for you,” he added, brushing her cheek with the back of his hand. “Not entirely patiently.”
    “What? But—what on earth could have made you believe I would come back?”
    He shrugged. “I know you, and I knew you would not steal from me. Not after what we shared.”
    “But I ran away—“
    He pressed his finger to her lips to shush her. “I did not give you much choice, did I? Telling you I’d never trust a Johnstone. That was why you asked about the scar, wasn’t it?”
    “Aye,” she admitted. “I wanted to know if you still hated my family for what happened at Dryfe Sands.”
    “And I did. Then, and for some time afterward. And I was furious with