Read The Marriage Contract for Free Online Page A

You will return to my sister and she can see to an annulment plus give you a fat settlement, since this is all her doing. It is the best I can offer.”
    Anne bowed her head. Suspicious, Aidan waited for her next sally, but when it didn’t come, he realized how tired she was. He tempered his tone. “Come along. You’ll feel differently after a good night’s rest.” Dear Lord, he sounded like a nursemaid! He mounted Beaumains. The horse stamped, impatient to follow the others.
    Her gaze followed the line of the horse from the tip of one mammoth hoof, past his broad chest, up to his alert ears. “How am I going to climb up on that great beast?” she demanded.
    He waved the hand he held out impatiently in front of her face. “The same way I lifted you out of the coach.”
    “But where will I sit?”
    Aidan felt his temper sizzle dangerously. “Miss Anne, you can walk, if you’d rather.”
    She placed her hand in his. Her fingers were longand feminine and her skin felt like the silk of her garments. He heaved her up to sit in front of him.
    He had no doubt he was making the right decision to send her back. She was obviously unaccustomed to hard riding. Her hands didn’t have calluses. Her clothing was too thin for Highland weather. She would never survive country life.
    She was also sitting right in his lap, her rounded bottom pressed against his hardening staff.
    Well, at least she hadn’t neutered him.
    She shifted. Aidan bit back a retort for her to hold still and the sound came out as a half groan. Her cheeks turned bright pink. “I’d forgotten about your injury,” she hurried to apologize. “I could sit behind you.”
    Ah, yes, and wrap her long legs around him lest she fall off, her breasts pressed against his back. “Stay where you are.” He was damned either way. “We’ve a ways to go and it is growing late. I don’t want to worry about you falling off the horse.”
    And it was a good thing she was leaving tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow.

Chapter 3
     
    Anne couldn’t relax. Her husband’s body surrounded hers. The horse he rode was no tame hack, but big and powerful, much like its master.
    She wasn’t certain what to do. She’d never met anyone like Aidan. He wasn’t gallant or scholarly or weak, but overwhelmingly masculine. He was nothing like the figure in the miniature. The nose that had appeared straight and noble now had a slight bump. Evidently it had been broken at one time or another. Character and maturity lined his face as did the shadow of a heavy beard. Remaining bits of blue paint clung to the stubble.
    Try as she might, she couldn’t picture him in London. This man would never crimp his hair to make it curl or wear a starched collar. He played by rules she’d not been taught. Bold, brash, and wildly eccentric: those were the words she’d use to describe him.
    And that nonsense about marrying for love—“what rubbish!” Did he really believe she was that green?
    “Did you say something?” his deep voice asked.
    “What?”
    He scowled down at her. “You said something. Were you speaking to me?”
    “No,” Anne averred, embarrassed to be caught talking to herself. She sank down.
    He appeared ready to say something else, then changed his mind.
    They rode on in silence. The rhythm of the horse’s hooves threatened to lull her to sleep. Now she understood why he’d wanted her to sit in front of him—and she was becoming accustomed to being this close to him. Actually, his body warmth was quite nice.
    The days were long this far north, but the hour grew late and at last a silvery half moon dominated the sky. They caught up with Deacon and Hugh on the coast road, the same one Anne and Todd had been taking when the horses had smelled the wildcat. All seemed so peaceful now.
    Anne kept awake by considering her options.
    Leaving him might be a very good decision. Todd’s death made her wonder if her marriage hadn’t been doomed from the beginning. She speculated on