The MacKinnon's Bride by Tanya Anne Crosby Read Free Book Online

for it spoke to her of warmth
and caring... a welcoming embrace... things she’d never known. She
snorted and refused to look down upon him again until he was
snoring beneath her. Fast asleep, and so easily! She ought to spit
on him for truth. That would surely show him! She ought to drool
all over him, too!
    She writhed beneath him, trying to dislodge
him from her limbs, to no avail. His weight, as he’d intended, made
it impossible. Wretched, insufferable man!
    She ought to scream in his ear—but that, she
counseled herself, would only serve to wake the rest of his
lechers, as well. Nor did she wish him to follow through with his
threat and send Lagan to guard her instead. That one, she trusted
the least of all.
    And that brought her to another thought
entirely... how pitiable it was that the one man who, by rights,
should have been the most cruel was the one man who had been the
most gentle.
    It made too little sense.
    Close upon the heels of that conclusion came
her most nonsensical yet. It occurred to her, as she gazed down at
her abductor’s too comely profile, that she still hadn’t yet
determined the color of his eyes.
    What would he do when her father refused to
deal with him?
    A frisson passed down her spine; fear?
    She refused to acknowledge it.
    Her last coherent thought before she dozed
was not unlike that of a stray pup’s, she reflected somewhat
lamentably... for it occurred to her to wonder, then, if the
MacKinnon would think to keep her.
    God forgive her, but the foolish notion
kindled just the tiniest spark of... something... Something so
absurdly unreasonable, she refused to give it name.

     

 
     
     
     
     
     

chapter 4

     
    Though Iain forced his body to rest, his mind worked
ceaselessly through the night.
    In his half-sensate state, he was wholly aware of
where he lay. He could hear the lassie’s even, steady breathing
when she dozed at last, and her fitful slumber when her dreams
disturbed her.
    He understood what those soft cries bespoke, for his
own nights were too oft plagued by demons—worse since Malcom’s
abduction.
    She was afeared, he realized, and guilt pricked at
him. Though she had too much pride to cower before him while awake,
in her dreams she could scarce keep herself from it.
    Despite that she was his enemy’s flesh and blood,
Iain could only admire her. She’d masked her fear well, had stood
up to him like the fiercest of she-wolves. In defense of his son,
even! He only wished he didn’t have to resort to such measures that
would cause her such distress, but it couldn’t be helped.
    He would do anything to ensure Malcom’s return.
    He was full awake come first light, but loath to
move lest he wake her. For the longest interval, he lay, listening
to the easy rhythm of her breathing, and savoring the delicate
scent of the woman upon whom he was so intimately nestled. He
smiled, remembering the indignant tone of her voice when he’d dared
insinuate himself upon her person.
    He hadn’t intended to be so bold—had only meant to
sleep beside, not atop her—but the beguiling scent and sight of her
had appealed to his baser instincts. And then, as he knelt over
her, bantering words with her, listening to her stubbornly insist
that she could fend for herself, that she didn’t need his aid, and
watching her stroke the blood back into her aching wrists, a
strange tenderness had stolen over him. She wasn’t so strong as she
appeared, he sensed, and he fully intended to hasten the
negotiations and see her safely returned to her father.
    In truth, had she been any other woman, in any other
circumstance, he might have liked to know her better.
    His nostrils flared as he drew the essence of her
into his lungs. His body reacted to her siren’s perfume like a man
famished and scenting Heaven’s manna.
    He opened his eyes and peered up into her face,
trying to ignore the insistent burn of his loins.
    She slept still, her head lolled forward. Touched by
the faint morning light,