Read Unwilling (Highland Historical #2) for Free Online

least, and
he broke them in a different place than where she’d been fraying them with her
stone.
    Without a word, he swept her into
his arms and carried her to the pallet of furs he’d lain out after setting the
fire.  Instead of placing her upon it, he sat cRoss-legged and nestled her onto
his lap.  He reached for a skein of water from his belongings close by and took
one of her wrists from where she held them in the cloak.
    Lindsay sat in wide-eyed passivity
as he drew her wrists out over the packed earth and rinsed the blood from them
with the clean, cold water from his skein.  She winced, but the chill of the
water seemed to dull some of the raw sting.  This behavior was absolutely
incongruous with what had transpired between them before.  Yet this was the lethal
warrior who’d slaughtered twenty men on his own.  Here sat the sensual incubus
who’d seduced her beyond her wits.  Though now he treated her with careful
tenderness and gentility. 
    She watched the firelight play off
his brutal, enthralling face.  His brows drew down with concern as he
finished.  Some of the cuts still oozed, so he ripped strips of clean linen
from his own shirt.
    “I cannot marry you, you know,” she
tried to tell him, keeping her mind off the pain.  Perhaps the Demon was more
reasonable than the man.  “I’m betrothed to another.  And even if you do kill Angus,
my uncle would never allow our union.”
    He placed a soft kiss to her
forehead and nuzzled her hair with his nose as though she were an adorable
child, then proceeded to dress her wrists with the torn pieces of his shirt.
    Lindsay could have laughed,
really.  Never in her life would she imagine this absurd situation.  All but
naked in the lap of a lethal reaper who tended her with gentle fingers, explaining
why she couldn’t become his demon bride.  In spite of herself, a wry smirk played
with the side of her mouth. 
    Once finished, he lifted her wrists
and pressed the lightest of kisses to each one, as though offering a
benediction.  His lips paused above the line of the linen and kissed the
sensitive skin on the underside where the pulse furiously leapt beneath his
touch.  Then he trailed kisses higher, and higher still.  His full mouth worshiped
her flesh.  That predatory rumble vibrated through his great body and
reverberated through her. 
    He pinned her with his unsettling eyes. 
She’d thought them fathomless and unreadable the first time they’d met.  How
wrong she’d been.  Emotions and needs, primal instincts and a bottomless desire
swirled within the pools of volcanic ebony.  And her face reflected in their
depths.  Only her and never another. 
    The rumble intensified.
    Lindsay broke contact by squeezing
her eyes shut and shaking her head.  How could she know that?  What were these,
desires of her own?  Nay.  She was merely frightened and weary.  Finding
meaning where none existed.
    His lips touched hers.  Not claiming
or demanding, as they had before, but laced with a comforting, probing languor. 
She should have pushed him away, but didn’t.  Not because of the soft warmth
that spread through her at his kiss.  Not because his tender strength made her
feel protected and treasured, which she hadn’t experienced in a long time.  But
because he was a deadly hell-beast and she couldn’t risk his ire.  She was his
captive.  At his complete mercy.
    And he could do whatever he wanted
with her.  Aye.  Of course that was the reason.
    To her absolute shock, he didn’t
press her further, but pulled away and wrapped the cloak more tightly about her
body.  Repositioning her, he stretched out on his side and nudged her to do the
same.  He created a pillow out of his bent arm and folded the fur upon which
they lay over both of them.
    There was no way she’d sleep
tonight, Lindsay thought as her wrists began to throb.  Fears of the coming
dawn and what it would bring would surely keep her awake.  As would plots of
escape.