Seduced by a Highlander Read Online Free Page B

hot breath up the column of his throat—“do not let that stop you.”
    Closing his arms around her middle, he hauled her hips against his and whispered over her lips before he kissed her. “I wouldna’ think of it.”
    “Pricilla!” A man’s shout cut through the air like an arrow.
    “Hell,” Tristan swore, letting her go.
    “It is my husband!”
    He cut her an irritated scowl as he went to meet justice. “Ye didna’ tell me ye were married.”
    “You did not ask me.”
    True. He hadn’t.
    “My good Lord Hollingsworth. I—”
    He ducked when the beefy statesman pulled a sword from its sheath with surprising dexterity and slashed it across Tristan’s throat.
    “There is nae need fer that,” he said, avoiding another jab to his guts. “Put doun yer sword and let’s discuss this like—”
    Hell, that one was close. Speaking his brand of sense into the enraged fellow’s head clearly wasn’t going towork. He would have accepted a punch to the jaw as his penance for kissing the man’s wife, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to die for it.
    The fourth swipe whistled over Tristan’s head an instant before his fist landed on Hollingsworth’s fleshy cheek. An uppercut to the chin next wobbled the nobleman’s knees and gave Tristan an instant to snatch his weapon from his loosened grip.
    He tossed the sword over the gate and into the street beyond, then turned angrily to Lady Hollingsworth’s husband. “If ye ever raise a sword to me again, I will kill ye with it. Look to yerself fer the cause of yer wife’s indiscretion and no’ to me or the next man ye find her with.”
    He stormed back toward the gate entrance, swung open its heavy door, and disappeared down King’s Street, leaving Hollingsworth’s sword where he’d thrown it. He passed a dozen women hanging about the shadows, offering him pleasures beyond his expectations. He stopped for none of them. He wanted no company, no needy fingers clutching at his clothes, no pleas to return when he knew he wouldn’t. Tonight, he didn’t want to be reminded of what he had become.
    Tristan glanced up at the afternoon sky, then gave the stone sundial a curious look. How the hell did anyone tell the time of day by looking at an arrow on a slab of rock? An even better question was what in blazes was he doing here waiting for a lass with a freckled nose and the sound of music in her laughter? He’d thought about her all night, and by the time he fell into his bed he was quite perturbed with her for not leaving him alone. But this morning, he had wanted to see her again.
    Unfortunately, one of the disadvantages to a palacewith fifteen hundred rooms was that people were difficult to find. He was glad they had planned where to meet the night before.
    “Greetings, Sir Tristan.”
    He didn’t hear her come up behind him and smiled despite himself at what she called him. He turned to her and gathered her hand in his. He was surprised and a bit moved to find calluses there. “Lady Iseult.” He dipped his head and swept a kiss across her knuckles. “Were yer brothers worried aboot ye yesterday as ye feared?”
    She shook her head, and he watched the way the sun played over the rich reds and deep golds of her hair. “Their attentions were otherwise engaged by two French ladies who spent the evening giggling at words I’m sure they did not understand.”
    “They say love needs no words.” Tristan crooked his arm and was surprised by the catch of his breath when the warmth of her hand touched him. “I say the right words are true love’s adornment.”
    “Ye know much about true love then?” she asked him, with humor dancing across the vivid green of her eyes.
    “I know nothin’ of it,” he admitted, leading her away from the crowded lawns. He thought of Lord and Lady Hollingsworth. “But it doesna’ take a supremely intelligent man to know that the lady he loves enjoys it when he tells her that all he has is hers. His body, his mind, his heart. That