Read Online The Highlander Takes a Bride by Lynsay Sands - Free Book Online

attention in the busy bailey so almost swallowed her tongue in her determination to still it. She sat unmoving and silent, very aware that his arm clasped her just below her breasts, the top of it rubbing against the bottom of those sensitive globes with every shift of the horse’s hooves. She was also excruciatingly aware of the heat of his chest against her back, and that she seemed enveloped in the clean, male scent of him. She was slower to realize though, that the hardness against her bottom appeared to be growing larger and harder by the moment.
    “Me laird?” she asked sweetly.
    “Aye?” he growled by her ear, his lips brushing the tender skin and sending a shiver up her back that just annoyed her.
    “I think ye might be enjoying this just a tad too much,” she informed him. “That, or I’m sitting on yer sword.”
    He chuckled, his breath brushing her ear again. “Yer just sore that I made ye turn away and ye didn’t get to see me tarse as I came out o’ the water.”
    Saidh flushed as she recalled the way she’d gawked at him earlier, but merely shook her head and snapped, “Ye’d like to think so.”
    “Oh, I know so,” he assured her and then reined in and lifted her down off of his horse at the base of the stairs. He also let his hand slide along the underside of her breasts under cover of releasing her, and Saidh gasped at the sensations the action sent racing through her. It left her weak kneed and unsteady so that she stumbled as she started up the stairs. Managing to keep her feet beneath her, Saidh hurried up the steps and escaped into the great hall with relief.
    The MacDonnell had an entirely bewildering effect on her. She had liked looking at him as he’d come out of the water, had told him things she’d told no one else, and yet every time he got near, these odd sensations rose up in her, heat racing through her body in a confusing rush that made her want to punch him. Well, okay, maybe she didn’t really want to punch him, but her feelings were definitely aggressive. It was most bewildering.
    “Saidh!”
    She glanced around the hall, surprised to note that the room was awash with people. Most of them were seated at the trestle tables, breaking their fast, but several servants were bustling about and Murine was on her feet at the high table, waving her over.
    “Thank goodness,” Murine said on a sigh, hugging Saidh when she reached her. “I was beginning to worry we’d leave before ye came to break yer fast. I thought ye were still abed,” she added with a frown as she released her.
    “Nay, I didn’t sleep well and woke just as the sun broke so decided to go fer a ride,” Saidh admitted as she settled in the empty space next to her friend. Frowning, she asked, “So yer leaving after ye eat?”
    “Aye. Montrose wants to make an early start. We’ve a long journey ahead o’ us,” Murine added grimly.
    Saidh eyed her friend’s pinched face with concern. She knew Murine was not looking forward to living in England with her brother, and could not blame her. She disliked the man a great deal and suspected he would make Murine’s life a misery without even trying. He had already proven himself to be a cold, heartless bastard by not sending for her when her father died so that she could attend the funeral.
    That was something Saidh couldn’t even imagine her own brothers doing. And not just because she’d have run her sword through them if they’d dared. They wouldn’t even have considered it themselves. But then her brothers were good men. Montrose just wasn’t, from what she could tell.
    “Mayhap you could stay here until I leave,” she said suddenly.
    Murine glanced to her with surprise. “What?”
    “Well, Lady MacDonnell seems to hate me, but she definitely seemed to like you well enough. Ye could stay and be a buffer between us until . . .” Saidh trailed off, a frown claiming her lips. She didn’t know how to finish that. She had no idea how long she would be