The Capture of Highland Desire (The Mac Coinnach Brothers) by Kella McKinnon Read Free Book Online Page B

good looking before … she told herself. 
                  “I… I collect stones”, he went on, with a gesture towards the rocks scattered around them on the hillside.  “To study them, ye ken.  I was told there are some rare ones in that cave, that I doona have yet.  In my collection.”
                  Allia regarded him with doubt.  A rock collector?  That somehow just didn’t fit.  Not with those muscles.  A rock lifter , maybe.  More likely a swordsman.  Or perhaps a warrior.  One just didn’t get that kind of physique collecting rocks.  Of course, it would be only a hobby.  Or a pick up line, she thought.  Though certainly not a very good one unless perhaps one was at a geology convention.
                  “So you’re going into this cave?” she asked, gesturing towards the narrow black opening.  She hoped she had just called his bluff.
                  “Aye.”
                  Or maybe not .  “Well, you’ll need a light.  It’s very dark in there.”  His closeness was making her so nervous.  It was a little hard to breathe when she could feel the heat of his body so close to hers.
                  Still holding her gaze, he swung a pack down from his shoulder, dropping it to the ground in front of him, and making her notice his chiseled, muscular legs between the hem of his kilt and the tops of his high leather boots.  Damn again.
                  “I brought a light”, he told her, looking up to catch her gaze again.  When he looked at her like that, she felt like she was the only person on earth.  Of course, so did a lot of other women, no doubt.  “Essential for entering dark caves, of course.”  He knelt on the ground and pulled out a torch and a tinder box, which he opened to take out a flint and steel.  He didn’t light the torch though.  Instead he looked up at her with a provocative little smile.
                  “Come in with me, lass.  It will be an adventure, much more fun than going alone.”
                  She shook her head.  “No.  Uh uh.  I’m not going anywhere with you, especially not into a small, dark cave.  I… I don’t even know you.”  But in her mind she pictured the two of them together in the cramped space of the cave, their bodies pressed close because there wasn’t enough room, and then his mouth lowering to hers, because no one would see and neither of them could resist… Stop!  That’s what you get for reading all those romance novels.  Real life isn’t like that… and this man is a womanizer, not some hero to sweep you off your feet.  Though she could certainly use a hero right about now…
                  “Come with me”, he pressed.  “Dinna be afraid.  It will be fun, and I can show ye the umm… stones.”             
    Allia sighed and looked down at her feet, wavering with indecision.  She had always wanted to see what was inside that cave, and he was calling her out on being afraid.  She didn’t like being called out.  It tended to bring out the worst in her, and the most reckless.  What could it really hurt to spend just a little time with him? 
                  “All right, I’ll go with you, but only because I’m actually curious to see what’s in there, and I didn’t bring a torch of my own.  And you’re not allowed to touch me in any way”, she added.
                  He smiled again, and this time she could have sworn his smile was far more self-satisfied, if not downright predatory.  There was a dark, heady lust in that gaze, that spoke of wicked pleasures she had only ever read about, in said romance novels.  It was the look of a man who knew exactly what he wanted, and a part of her was outright flattered that such a gorgeous man would look at her that way at all.  But it did not mean she would give in, as much as she might be