Read The Highlander's Temptation for Free Online

such a magnificent man would never escape her mind. The vision of him would be forever burned there, in vading her dreams and thoughts.
     

     
    Jamie could hardly believe his eyes. ’Twas as though he’d been thrust fifteen years in the past, although this time the angelic apparition chose a horse to run away from him on instead of bare feet. Her hair still glistened like spun golden silk in the sun. But now a lass, barely older than a toddling bairn, was replaced by a full grown woman with curves that made him ache and a beauty that had him nearly undone. Mesmerized him.
    With a flick of his reins he had his warhorse , Charger, barreling toward her. Toby and Donald called out for him to slow, but Jamie couldn’t. Curiosity bade him move faster.
    Was it possible that it was the same lass? And what was she doing out here all alone?
    From the castle beyond, warriors spilled out like ants from a hill—probably seeing them and believing their lady was in danger. The thought almost made him laugh aloud, for if it weren’t for him, she might not even be there racing toward home.
    A deep frown creased Jamie’s face. Had Sutherland not learned his lesson all those years ago? These were not simple times in which they lived, but brutal. Man against man. Let the most superior win. The English crawled all over the country—not trapped simply to the Lowlands.
    A little minx of a woman was no match for an outlaw , nor an English bastard. She was lucky he’d been the one to happen on her. On his journey to Sutherland from Glasgow, he and his two best mates had encountered many a suspicious character and hidden themselves from plenty of bands of outlaws—fought several off, too. If his sisters, Matilda and Ceana, had so much as dared to venture ten feet past the gate without at least a guard with them, he’d have seen their arses flayed.
    “Ye there!” he called out.
    The woman turned her head to look at him, but her golden hair swept all the way around her face making it hard for him to see her. Not that he was certain he’d recognize her anyway. If it was she, fifteen years made a world of difference, not to mention she’d been a child and now was a woman. A luscious woman, at that.
    “Stop!” Jamie shouted again.
    That only seemed to make her go faster. And her guards shouted their own calls in return. Jamie rolled his eyes. He held up his hand, bidding Toby and Donald to keep back. The lass’s attempt to increase her speed did little good. Her mare’s legs were no match for Charger’s. His warhorse stretched his forelegs forward, practically flying across the grassy moors and then he was within feet of her, swearing he caught the feminine scent of her. Floral and sweet.
    Jamie reached out to grab hold of her r eins before she killed herself, but the wench slapped his hands away.
    “Dinna touch me!” she cried out , eyes warily flitting over him and then to Toby and Donald who sat their horses a dozen yards back.
    Her men shouted a valley away, their words not fully sounding on the wind. Jamie growled, and this time when he grappled with the reins, he succeeded, yanking both their mounts to a halt.
    But what should have been simple , was not. The woman was mad.
    She wrenched a blade from beneath her saddle and brandished it before her like a miniature sword, her green-blue eyes blazing with fear and anger.
    “Get away from me!”
    “Lass, calm yourself.”
    “Dinna tell me to calm myself.” Exasperation dripped from her words, and she stabbed toward Jamie.
    He held up his hands and sidled his horse just out of reach.
    “I’m nay here to harm ye,” he said calmly, as though speaking to a crazed animal. He clenched his jaw to keep from laughing. She did look like a crazed animal at the moment. Hair flying and sticking out every which way around her face, cheeks flushed red, eyes blazing, and that mouth…
    Hunger stirred within him. There was nothing mad about that mouth. In fact, he found the way her lips