Read Online Highlander Unchained by Monica McCarty - Free Book Online Page A

What did marriage have to offer her? Stretching his legs out in front of him, he leaned back in his chair and took a long draught of ale. “Obviously you have no need of connections or additional wealth.” He wished he could say the same.
    She lifted a finely arched brow, surprised that he was taking her question seriously. “Obviously.”
    “Hmm…” He paused, considering. “May I presume that love is too trite a reason?” Although in his experience, young women—his sisters included—thought of nothing else.
    “It’s as good as any, I suppose. Though perhaps not a practical one. One may wait a lifetime for such an occurrence—if it happens at all.”
    Her answer surprised him. He would have thought her pragmatic like him. Romantic love had no part in his decision to marry, simply because he would never allow emotion to influence his decisions. Love was for other people. His devotion and loyalty belonged to his clan and to his family. No one woman would ever change that. And certainly not this one. He was too old to confuse lust with love.
    She would bring him much. But love wasn’t part of the bargain.
    But Flora was not wholly without illusions of romantic love. He filed the knowledge away for later, when it might be helpful. First he needed to understand the way she thought, before he decided how best to approach her with his offer. He hadn’t told her of his intentions from the first, because he knew she would be too angry to see reason. And he’d been warned of her contrariness. But he would do whatever it took to secure her agreement to marry. When he played, he played to win. He hadn’t survived the years of attack by shirking from doing what was necessary.
    He held her gaze. “Then what of passion as a reason to marry?”
    He thought a tinge of pink appeared upon her cheeks, but if she was embarrassed, her response gave no hint of the fact. “I do not believe one is a prerequisite for the other.”
    The flash of anger hit him swift and hard. Had she and that popinjay…? The mere thought filled him with rage and a feeling of incomprehensible possessiveness. Why the lass’s innocence was important to him, he didn’t know. Simply that it was.
    “What do you mean?” He held his voice even, though his knuckles turned white as he gripped his goblet.
    She shrugged. “I do not believe passion is confined to the marriage bed. In fact, from what I can tell, the marriage bed rarely holds much passion at all.”
    He didn’t like the cynicism of her answer—even if he happened to agree with it. Lack of passion in the marriage bed was one of the many reasons he’d delayed taking a wife. That and the fact that he’d been too busy defending his land from attack and his people from starvation.
    “Yet the marriage bed is the only respectable place for a woman of your position to find it.”
    She bristled. “I do not need to be lectured on respectability by you. A man who abducts women is hardly in a position to be casting stones.”
    He didn’t miss that she hadn’t answered him. He leaned closer and looked her straight in the eye. “And are you respectable, Flora?”
    Her eyes sparked with anger. “How dare you! It’s none of your damn business.”
    God, she provoked him. This woman possessed an uncanny ability to rile his anger. He wanted to grab her arm and shake the truth out of her, but instead he took another drink of his ale and allowed his blood to cool. It was his business, although she didn’t know it yet.
    But she would.
    She pushed back from her chair and started to stand up. “If you have run out of reasons—”
    “Protection.” He took her wrist, holding her in her seat. His fingers wrapped around bare skin. Incredibly soft, bare skin. Though tall for a woman and well curved, she had slim, delicate bones. Suggesting a fragility otherwise obscured by the outward strength of her character. “An unmarried woman, especially one with wealth and lands, is vulnerable without a husband to