Read Online Scottish Brides by Christina Dodd - Free Book Online Page A

very well. “I don’t know that loving you is noble, since I have no choice, but it is challenging.”
    Her hand hovered over his chest, touching down several times before settling on the place over his heart. “I didn’t mean—”
    â€œThe thing is, I couldn’t comprehend why you had rejected me in such a callous manner, but now that you’ve explained, I see the problem.”
    â€œI explained?” Her fingers clutched the hair on his chest.
    Gently, he loosened them. “So—references. I’m willing to get you references.”
    â€œFor what?” Her voice rose a pitch.
    â€œTo say that I am a steady man, not given to flights of fancy nor fits of infatuation.” The darkness of a Scottish night in the midst of the Highlands was blacker than any Hadden had ever encountered, and that darkness cloaked the tower now. He could see nothing but the square of star-bespeckled night sky through the window, but he read Andra’s confusion and fear without difficulty. “Lady Valéry, who has known me since I came into her household at the age of nine, would give me such a reference.”
    â€œLady Valéry.”
    Andra’s parrotlike performance made him grin. He’d turned her upside down. Now he was shaking her, and if he were lucky, when she regained her balance she would see their future as he saw it. Discreetly keeping all amusement out of his tone, he said, “You’ve met Lady Valéry, I believe, on one of her jaunts through the Highlands, and would admit that she is a woman of honor.”
    She squirmed. “Of course, but I don’t understand why you think these references would be important to me.”
    He ignored that. She did know, and if she wanted to play the dunce, then he could do the same. “I can also offer Sebastian Durant, Viscount Whitfield. Now you might not know him, but I assure you—”
    â€œI met him at the christening of the MacLeod son.”
    â€œAh.” She knew Ian and Alanna. Another link between them. “Ian MacLeod is my cousin.”
    â€œHe’s charming.”
    Hadden could hear the smile in her voice, and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit. “Only if you like dark-haired, handsome men with a shade too much seductiveness.”
    She slid one leg across and nestled her calf between his. “I didn’t think he was too seductive.”
    â€œI had to thrash Ian once when he tried to take advantage of my sister.” Hadden caught her thigh and pulled her tightly against him. “I can do it again.”
    â€œSo you’re given to violence.”
    She still wore her garters, he realized, and he untied the one. “I defend my own.”
    She gave a funny little trill, and he realized she was giggling. “He’s married, Hadden, and he can’t take his gaze off his wife. If you trounce him, he’d likely wonder why.”
    â€œHumph.” He knew she was right. Ian didn’t give a damn about anything except Alanna and their children and Fionn-away Manor. But, damn it . . .
    â€œViscount Whitfield?” she prompted.
    He couldn’t allow himself to be distracted by an absurd surge of jealousy. Not when his goal loomed so close. “Sebastian.” He rubbed his chin on the top of her head and tried hard to focus. “One introduction to Sebastian, that’s all it takes, and you know he is a hard man with very little tolerance for injustice.”
    â€œHe scared me,” she admitted. “He’s too intense, and he watches his wife—”
    â€œMy sister.”
    Andra’s head came up so fast, she cracked his jaw with her skull. “She’s your sister?” She rubbed her head. “Ow.”
    â€œYes. Ow.” He rubbed his chin. She was communicating, talking about his family, his friends, and not resisting him with every fiber of her being. A cracked jaw was a small price to