Captured by a Laird by Loretta Laird Read Free Book Online Page A

There was one place she longed to feel him, and that place throbbed with anticipation of his possession. Desperate to convey her need, Lena pressed herself closer to Stref, her hips moving with an instinctive rhythm.
    The second onslaught of the bird at the window drew the pair apart. This time Lena pulled away from the giant man and raced to the aid of her pet. She called out soothing words as the creature wailed a lament. At the sound of his mistress’s voice, Pride calmed and took off again. Lena sighed with relief as she turned to face the man who she had so wantonly seduced.
    “Clever,” he nodded, his hands clapping slowly in mock admiration. His dark eyes had turned from soft grey to flint as he looked at her with disgust. His lip curled as he turned to leave. “Get some rest,” he snarled.

Chapter Five
     
    Stref locked the door and then leaned on the frame. His breathing was irregular and he needed something to hold him steady.
    What manner of woman was that?
    Lifting a hand to his lips, he touched where hers had been. He recalled the way she had stalked towards him like a predator. Her hands on the back of his neck pulling him closer had touched something deeper in him than he ever chose to go. It was the reason he alternated his women and never kept the same one for too long. When they wanted more from him than he was prepared to give, he pulled back and moved onto the next one. The woman who remained locked behind that door had only to look at him with those dark eyes and he was thinking of things he had never let himself dwell on.
    He pulled himself upright as a thought entered his head. What if that had been the plan? What if she had been sent here to seduce and distract him? Maybe there was an enemy attack headed his way.
    As soon as the thought entered his head, he ran. Racing down the stairs, Stref burst out of the keep and into the courtyard.
    “Call the men!” he barked out the order in a harsh tone. “Saddle the horses! We ride!”
    Soon a flurry of activity filled the yard as men and horses gathered to depart.
    “What is this all about?” a tall warrior asked his Lord.
    “A trap, Clyde! That whore upstairs, she was sent to distract me.”
    “And has she?” The younger man, Clyde, looked at his Lord with a questioning tilt to his eyebrows.
    A loud guffaw was the only reply he got.
    Clyde was the only one who would have dared question the Lord of Harris. The two had been friends since childhood. On Stref’s regular visits to his uncle’s keep they had hunted and sparred together as brothers. Clyde was the son of the guardian of the keep, and had been the one dispatched to bring Stref home to claim his title. Reunited, the two men had hit it off at once, and Stref relied on Clyde to assist him in all things related to his duty.
    As the horses left the keep, the golden eagle maintained its circumnavigation.
    “Damn loyal bird,” Stref noted gruffly.
    “Thought that bird was the mark of Green Bow,” Clyde commented innocently, “same as that cape and the bow and arrows we collected. Seems a coincidence they were all found on the wench.”
    Stref rode on musing on what Clyde had said. There was a niggling at the back of his mind that he couldn’t ignore.
    “Where are we headed?” Clyde’s question broke into Stref’s thoughts.
    “Rwenor,” he replied. “There is something I need to discover.”
    “Rwenor?” Clyde sounded incredulous. “We’ll be shot down as soon as we come within a league of the place.”
    “Not today, I think,” Stref said.
    Riding on in silence, Rwenor got closer and closer, and the men became more anxious. Pulling his horse about, Stref turned to his men.
    “Wait here!”
    “What?” Clyde reached for his friend’s rein.
    “I do not wish to cause a battle. I must speak with these people.”
    “But Green Bow? You have his woman. He will not welcome you.”
    “I think I will not see Green Bow here today,” Stref said with a smile. “I will send the