Read Midnight's Kiss for Free Online Page B

you’d seen the things I’ve seen, Dr. Reid, you wouldna be asking me that.”
    She laughed, the sound so musical and beautiful that it caused him to smile in return. “That was a good response, but not an answer.”
    “It was most certainly an answer. You just have to know how to decipher a Scot’s words.”
    “You like toying with me, don’t you?”
    “I like this banter,” he replied honestly. He also liked watching the emotions flash through her lovely hazel eyes. “Most of my friends are married, and while we do spar verbally on occasion, it’s nice to be able to do it with someone as intelligent and fetching as you.”
    “Oh, and now a compliment,” she said as she looked at the ground. “I don’t get much of those. Thank you.”
    “I doona say things I doona mean. Remember that. The man’s name?”
    “I’ll give it when you tell me why it’s so important.”
    “I did, lass.”
    She rolled her eyes. “You gave me a line of shit. I deal in truths, Arran. Remember that .”
    The conversation was halted as Arran’s cell phone rang, and then Andy came into the tent.
    “Until tomorrow,” Arran said, and ducked out into the rain before he changed his mind and ignored the call from Fallon.
    Ronnie stared at the opening long after Arran had departed. Andy was speaking, but she didn’t register anything he was saying.
    In her mind, she was replaying her and Arran’s entire conversation. He was witty and charming. A rogue of the first order. And one she should keep away from.
    But she knew she wouldn’t.
    It had been so long since her body had ruled her, and it felt good—right, even. Being in Arran’s arms made her remember what it was like to feel breathless need racing through her.
    Except with Arran, that breathless need was magnified tenfold. It frightened her, this all-consuming need she felt to be in his arms, to know the sexual promise she saw in his gaze.
    To give herself to a man such as him.
    If it was just attraction she might be able to fight that, but the pull went deeper, as if an invisible bond kept dragging her toward Arran.
    As if their destinies were intertwined.
    The thought chilled her.
    A future that involved anyone but herself would only end in tragedy. She had to keep herself apart if she wanted to find the relic she searched for.
    It was too important to forget. Too important for her to dally, even with a man as charming and sexy as Arran MacCarrick.

 
    CHAPTER
    FOUR
     
    Arran answered his phone with a terse, “Aye?”
    “I gather you’re there?” Fallon asked.
    Arran sighed and quickly ducked into his tent. He was drenched, but his blood was on fire because of one woman—Ronnie Reid.
    “Aye,” he answered.
    “What’s going on? I hear something in your voice.”
    Arran wiped the water from his eyes as he stood in the middle of the tent. “Nothing I can no’ handle, Fallon.”
    “This mission is important. If I need to send another Warrior—”
    “It’s a damned woman, all right,” he replied tightly. “That’s all that’s wrong with me. No need to send anyone.”
    There was silence for a heartbeat before Fallon laughed. “You had me worried. Who is this woman?”
    “Ronnie Reid.”
    “The archeologist running the dig?”
    “The verra one.”
    “You’re buggered, mate.”
    “And I know it.” Arran decided to turn the subject away from him. “There’s magic here. I felt it as soon as I drove up.”
    “Do you think it’s the spell?”
    Arran peered out the tent’s entrance. The rain had sent everyone scurrying away. It would be a perfect time for him to have a look around. “It could be, or it could just be the remainder of the magical artifacts sent from Edinburgh. Ronnie has a necklace that’s ancient Celt. That could be part of the source.”
    “There’s something else.”
    “It’s probably nothing.”
    “Arran,” Fallon said, his voice low. “I can be there in a blink. Doona lie to me.”
    He squeezed his eyes closed because he