The Highlander by Elaine Coffman Read Free Book Online

send a beautiful temptress to ferret information, under the pretext of being a shipwrecked lass, for they had been guilty of much worse in the past.
    Whenever he looked at Sophie's angelic face, he wanted to trust her, wanted to believe everything she said. He could not allow his desire— to help her or to bed her—to rule his head, and neither could he allow his heart to acquit her because he found her desirable.
    And therein lay the crux.
    How could he accuse her unjustly, and call her a spy, without proof?
    He had practically betrothed himself, only two weeks ago, to a woman he did not love, and then the ideal mistress floats out of the North Sea and into his life. She was the kind of woman a man wanted to keep all to himself, and the thought of making love to her nightly held an inordinate amount of appeal.
    He could not erase the memory of her sweet body and innocent face, the full lips made for kissing, and the long legs that would fit so perfectly around a man's torso. She was as rare as virgin's milk.
    He shifted his position, feeling uncomfortably hard. Thoughts of her had a way of doing that to him. Desire for her was like a snake that coiled around him, sinuous and subtle, charming him and catching him unawares, until the fatal bite.
    How could he ever be satisfied with Gillian, the woman he thought to make his wife? Gillian, who managed to arouse nothing in him, save his temper...
    As always, his thoughts could never reside with Gillian for long, and now thoughts of Sophie were beginning to supersede them. He thought about the way Sophie said Oh, yes, and how her sultry voice aroused him instantly, and stirred impassioned thoughts as he wondered what it would be like to copulate with her and have her whisper Oh, yes, in exactly that way the moment he came inside her.
    The idea of making love to her was elbowing its way to the forefront of his mind, for all thoughts seemed to eventually wind up there. Naturally, that made him consider the probability of it happening. She thought she was a lady's maid, and, if so, he could have her at will, but there was something about her that made him suspect she might be more than a lowly maid.
    She seemed too refined, too genteel.
    Oh, he wanted her to be a lady's maid, and wished for it to be true, for then he could go ahead with his plans for marriage to Gillian, and when his obligation there was done, and an heir was born, he could seek his pleasure elsewhere, and he knew without a doubt that when it came to Sophie, she would be all pleasure.
    It occurred to him also that if she was not a lady's maid, and if she was of a higher position or, God forbid, a member of the peerage, then having her here alone with him had already compromised them both.
    Well, it was a little too late to think about that now. The oarless boat was adrift in the water, and could not be called back. If Tavish had taken her to Monleigh Castle instead, things would be different. But he had not, and now she was here.
    There was a reason this lass came into his life, at this particular moment, and whether it was to turn his world upside down or to fit smoothly in his plans to keep her beside him for as long as it pleased him, he had no idea. He could only wait and see which one it would be.
    He hardly slept that night, for it was difficult to sleep when he knew Sophie was lying in another bed alone, and not very far away. All he had to do was go to her. Somehow, he knew— call it instinct—that she would not turn him away.
    By the time morning came, he was tied in enough knots that he decided a cold swim would shock some much-needed sense back into him and cool the raging lust that roared for attention, for it would not serve the Earl of Monleigh well to go about as besotted as a schoolboy, with the front of his kilt raised up, especially when he was only two weeks into the idea of marriage to someone else.
    Gillian came briefly into his mind but could not linger, so overpowered she was by the lustful