Seduced by the Highlander by Julianne MacLean Read Free Book Online Page A

them.”
    His eyes dipped lower, and he seemed to take in all the swells and curves of her body, awarding special attention to her neckline and breasts.
    For a shaky moment she didn’t hear a single word he said, for she was growing weak in the knees under the stormy heat of his gaze. Everything about him was darkly sexual, burning with angry need, and she couldn’t deny that although he frightened her and made her fear for her safety, on some basic level, he fascinated her.
    Catherine shook herself out of that treacherous fog, and worked to sort out what he was trying to say to her.
    “I told you before,” she replied, “I am not using them.” She paused and shifted her weight from one foot to the other and recalled her constant suspicion that her grandmother was hiding something from her. “But what makes you think that?”
    “You’re worth a lot of money, are you not? Or at least, Catherine was. Everyone in Scotland knows she’s about to receive a considerable inheritance, and from what I’ve heard, if she’s not alive to collect it, it will be forfeited to the Jacobite cause.”
    She nodded her head. “Yes, but I am alive, and it’s my money. At least it will be in six weeks’ time, when I turn five-and-twenty. You think they are using me to gain access to it? To keep it from landing in the hands of the Jacobites?”
    “Someone ordered me dead today,” he said, “because I know who you are. I wouldn’t want the same thing to happen to you, lass. Not before you lift that curse.”
    “But I can’t lift it,” she insisted.
    He stalked forward and caught her by the arm. His scorching gaze dropped to her parted lips. His face was only inches away; she could feel his breath beating against her cheeks. She sucked in a quivering breath.
    “You’re lying.”
    This time she did not argue. She could not even speak.
    “I’ll use force if I have to,” he said in a low, threatening voice. “One way or another, you’re going to give me what I want.”
    Her flesh sizzled where he touched her. She understood that it was part fear, part irrational excitement. He was stunningly handsome, bold and robust, and when she thought of how he had fought off all those armed guards, single-handedly, her body went weak all over again.
    God, why did he have to be so potent and alive? She didn’t want to feel any of the things she was feeling, but something about him awakened her spirit, and she was beginning to feel that he was the key to her past—that he would awaken her memories as well. Make them positively explode out of that tight, locked box.
    “I told you,” she replied nevertheless, lifting her chin and breathing in his musky scent while reminding herself not to become too swept up in his vigor, for he might be handsome, but he was also dangerous and volatile. “I don’t know how to help you.”
    The sheer force of his silence held her captive as his eyes burned into hers. Then suddenly he began to wrench up her skirts and wrestle with his kilt.
    “What are you doing?” she asked in horror, fighting to twist out of his hold.
    “We’ll do it your way then,” he growled. “If you won’t lift the curse, you’ll have to share it with me. Maybe then you’ll be more accommodating, when you’re the one who’s staring death in the eye.”
    He crowded up against her until the backs of her knees collided with the sofa and she landed with a gasp on the plush cushions. He stood over her, gazing down with raging eyes, and was about to push her legs apart and descend upon her when she held up her hands and cried, “ All right! All right! I’ll lift it! I promise! ”
    With one knee braced upon the sofa cushion, he halted. His chest heaved wildly.
    “Do it then,” he commanded. “Do it now. ”
    Anxiety spurted through her. Part of her wanted to cry out for help, but who would hear her at this hour, in this deserted wing of the house? And if someone did come, her cousin would most assuredly kill this man, and