Read The Virgin's Pursuit for Free Online Page B

Iness.”
    She would argue with the one man who could save her? No wonder stubborn Isolda had survived the wild alone.
    He did not know if it was his fear for her safety or his need to quarrel with her that hoisted his leg over the side of the well, but he didn’t think twice about scaling down the narrow shaft to follow her wherever she went. The stony passage had been build for little more than a bucket to pass through it; the space was more suited to a woman’s smaller frame than his.
    â€œCormac?” Her voice loomed nearer this time and he realized he must be close.
    The sweet worry in her tone spurred him past a spot where his shoulders stuck against a protruding rock in the wall. His tunic tore along with his skin, but he eased downward a little more.
    His knees slid free of the narrow confines as the sound of rushing water filled his ears. Praying he did not have far to fall, he relaxed his grip on the stone walls and fell.
    The ground rose fast to meet him, surprising him with how fast he hit muddy sand, smashing his knee on a jagged rock. He heard Isolda cry out and was surprised to realize he could see her.
    Impossibly, the light of dawn penetrated the cavern from a small opening in the rock wall nearby. He realized it must be a passage in and out of the keep. Isolda’s means of escape.
    He shook his head to clear it and slowly got to his feet in the inky black cave beneath Iness Keep. Sharp rocks were padded by dark moss in a space that seemed no bigger than his bedchamber.
    â€œYou are not a bartered object.” He wiped his hands on his braies before he reached for her, needing to feel her healthy and whole. His fist-tight heart expanded in his chest with new realization. “ You are a treasure that I’ve long searched for.”
    She stilled for a long moment. Studied him with new eyes glowing in the dim light.
    â€œYou sought me for my name and title. You cannot deny that.” Her fair hair lay in tangles about her shoulders, her surcoat tied awkwardly from her hurried departure and her hem ragged from her fall.
    She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
    He edged her away from the current to safer terrain alongside the underground stream. Dark rock surrounded them, while the water glistened with the hint of rising dawn.
    â€œNo more so than the man your father betrothed you to.” He recalled that she’d had a contract for marriage before the invasion. A contract that came to naught when her intended husband had died protecting Iness.
    She shrugged, a frown pulling her brows together. “A bird that’s never known freedom does not miss what she has not experienced.”
    Cormac tried to appreciate what she wanted and what she’d been willing to risk.
    â€œYou could have died in that well shaft.” He approached her slowly, needing to impress his point without scaring her away. “And what if you now carry the babe you wanted so desperately? Would you risk a child for the sake of a freedom fraught with danger?”
    He wanted to tuck her under his arm and keep her safe. He had seen much violence in the world and knew how quickly life could turn upside down without the least warning. He would not let anything happen to the people he cared about.
    And this woman was the only person he’d thought about for many a fortnight.
    â€œI have been more unwise than I realized,” she admitted. “I only thought to see if the escape route still existed, and perhaps to test the rope to make preparations for another day.”
    As a bit more light penetrated the cave, or perhaps as his eyes adjusted to it, he spotted a fresh scratch on her cheek and rubbed a bit of dirt away from it.
    â€œYou planned to leave eventually, just not today?” The revelation stung while his body still hummed with the pleasure she’d given him.
    â€œI hoped that we might find happiness together, but I could not sleep until I knew there would be a