Highland Vow by Hannah Howell Read Free Book Online Page A

own. After all, if she was going to ache and lose sleep, it was only fair that he did, too.
    “Good sleep, Cormac,” she said, speaking only a little bit above a whisper.
    Cormac inwardly cursed. That soft, husky voice was like a caress. He had notthought his body could swell with desire any more than it had already, and he did not like to be proven wrong. The woman was dangerous, more so because she did not seem to know it. Cormac was surprised Balfour Murray ever let his daughter leave the protective walls of Donncoill; then he decided that a father might not see that his daughter was such a temptation to a man.
    “Good sleep to you, Elspeth,” he whispered back.
    Feeling his desire as she did, Elspeth suspected her dreams would not be restful ones, but they would certainly be interesting.
    It was a while before Cormac felt Elspeth relax in sleep. He tried to pull away, but she simply followed him with her lithe body, cuddling up even closer than before. Her shapely backside rubbed against his aching groin and he shuddered.
    In a village barely a day’s ride away there was a tavern maid who often granted a man her favors for a small fee. He had never answered her smiles before, but perhaps he should do so now. A good rutting would take the edge off a long unsatisfied need, and he would find the temptation of Elspeth easier to resist.
    Even as he considered taking the time to dally with the tavern maid, he knew it was foolish. A waste of time and money. Such desperate measures had always failed him before, leaving him empty and unsatisfied. He was cursed with a very single-minded lust. Once fixed upon a woman, no other would do. Cormac knew he could spend a month in the bed of Scotland’s most skilled whore, and within moments of seeing Elspeth again, he would be in the same dire state he was now.
    What troubled him most was how even thoughts of Isabel, so close and waiting for him, did nothing to cool his ardor. He could not even bring to mind a clear image of Isabel. Elspeth was there, interfering, her green eyes staring out of Isabel’s face until that woman disappeared completely and only Elspeth remained. Reminding himself that it had been a very long time since he had seen Isabel did not ease his troubled mind much. Isabel was the woman he had loved and honored for nearly half his life. She should not be so easily pushed out of his thoughts by a tiny, green-eyed girl, even if that girl had a voice that could melt rock.
    Elspeth moved against him again in a slow, suggestive way. Cormac groaned, then sighed. It was going to be a very long night. If he remained a gentleman, kept his hands off Elspeth, and continued to honor his bond with Isabel, he deserved nothing less than sainthood.

Chapter Three
    Warmth flooded through Elspeth’s veins as she started to wake. It poured into her from the soft lips brushing temptingly over hers. She did not need to open her eyes, did not even need to be awake, to know who held her, who kissed her. It frightened her a little to know that Cormac was already so much a part of her, but she accepted it. She murmured his name and curled her arms around his neck.
    “Are ye so accustomed to being kissed awake, my wee angel, that it doesnae startle ye?” Cormac asked as he nibbled lightly on her bottom lip.
    It was an insulting question, but Elspeth decided to ignore its implications. Since she so readily accepted and returned his kiss when she was half asleep, it was not surprising that he would wonder about her innocence. She could not tell him she knew him by his smell, by the feel of his desire, or by the fact that her heart already claimed him as its mate. He would either think her mad or trying to entrap him, and he would run, very fast, in the opposite direction. Men, she had discovered at a young age, were not very good about accepting, discussing, or understanding feelings.
    “I kenned it was you.” She threaded her fingers through his thick hair and pressed her body even