Highlander in Her Dreams by Allie Mackay Read Free Book Online

books piled on her tiny desk across the room.
    Research for her next assignment: My Three-Month Marriage to a Yeti .
    Suppressing a groan, she threw back the covers and stood. “ Destiny Magazine pays well enough for me to cover my monthly bills. And”—she shoved a hand through her mussed hair—“writing for them lets me stretch my imagination. The readers who buy the magazine are entertained and I can pay my rent.”
    â€œMaking up tales of alien abductions.”
    â€œIf need be…yes.” Kira shot another glance at her stack of Yeti books, not about to admit that she, too, was growing weary of penning such drivel.
    But not weary enough to barter her soul by working with the kind of wolf pack presently prowling the Castle Apartments parking lot. They were still there, the snarkies, as a furtive glance out her window revealed. If she weren’t mistaken, they might even have increased in number overnight.
    Like the plague of the giant toadstools she’d written about a few years ago.
    Cringing at the memory, she turned away from the window and dropped onto the edge of her bed, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
    â€œKira, child, Carter Williams is—”
    â€œNot all my stories are about aliens,” Kira cut in, thoughts of aliens and mutant toadstools making her testy. “The Norse longboat is an important discovery. The excavation has drawn some of the nation’s top archaeologists. Destiny understands my special gift. No other magazine or paper would let me—”
    â€œCarter Williams is single.”
    That did it.
    Kira shot to her feet. “And so am I. Happily so.”
    Her gaze slid to the glittery clump of granite sitting in a place of honor beside her computer’s keyboard. At once, Aidan’s face flashed before her and she could almost hear his deep burr again.
    You are mine .
    I will ne’er let you go. No’ if I must search to the ends of the earth to find you .
    Crossing the room, she picked up the stone. “Carter Williams will just have to do without me,” she said, closing her fingers around the piece of granite. “You know I’ve gone off men for a while. I told you that the last time you tried to set me up with someone.”
    Her mother made an impatient sound. “There was nothing wrong with Lonnie Ward. Your father says he’s certain Lonnie will be the next manager at the Tile Bonanza. You could have done worse.”
    Kira glanced at the ceiling. “Lonnie Ward doesn’t like dogs.” She tightened her fingers around the granite. “You should have seen him brushing at his pants after a dog ran up to him and sniffed him in the park. You know I could never be happy with a dog-hater.”
    â€œYou don’t have a dog, dear.”
    â€œI will someday.”
    As soon as she didn’t live in an apartment the size of a fishbowl.
    Her mother drew a breath. “I believe Carter Williams has a dog. I’ve seen him about town with a spaniel. And his mother has two—”
    â€œIt won’t work, Mom.” Kira puffed her bangs off her forehead. “I’m not biting.”
    â€œYou’re still mooning over that Highland chieftain,” her mother said, and Kira almost dropped the phone. She’d never told anyone about her dreams. Not even her sisters. And especially not her mother. “It isn’t healthy to obsess over someone who lived centuries ago, poring through history books and decorating your apartment like the set of Brigadoon .”
    â€œLots of people love Scotland,” Kira returned, relief sweeping her that her mother hadn’t somehow guessed the truth about Aidan. “Even Kerry and Lindsay devour romance novels set there.”
    Blanche Bedwell sighed. “Your sisters are also well-balanced young women who have other interests.”
    Kira rolled her eyes. Her younger sister, Kerry’s, only goal in life seemed to be squeezing into