Page 79 of My Brave Highlander

"But I have no say over it. I have no say over who touches or claims my body. So it must not be mine own. In truth, it is my brother's to give to whomever he sees fit."

"I didn't make the laws," Dirk muttered.

"I wish…"

Silence reined.

Isobel's words gutted Dirk. To hear her hopes and dreams laid bare before him, such intimate thoughts. No one ever spoke to him this way. He knew not how to respond, especially since he wished more than anything that he could be the one to give her everything she wanted.

Though it made him daft, he could not resist asking. "What?"

"I wish I could do what you did… pretend I died, change my name and become someone else. Someone that no one would look for. I could be free to do what I wished."

He shook his head, letting the obvious go unspoken. She couldn't disappear and change her name without wealth of her own… or a man to take care of her.

He muttered a curse under his breath. Aye, he wanted to be the one to take care of her but… Apparently he was begging for an attack from the MacLeods. And they'd be well within their rights since he'd absconded with the chief's bride. Aye, 'twas a rescue but they'd not see it that way.

He couldn't send her back to them, especially with the brutal Nolan still alive. Not only that, he couldn't imagine her marrying the MacLeod chief, or any other man for that matter.

From the first moment he'd seen her, his gut instincts told him that she should belong to him. But he knew not how that could be. If only he'd come back earlier, or gone to her father years ago. But he hadn't, and it was too late now.

Damnation, he still craved the taste of her mouth, so sweet and feminine, like milk and honey, food of the gods. He had never tasted anything so spellbinding and addictive. Dirk squeezed his eyes closed and muttered a curse. He wanted naught more than her silky bare skin brushing against his. He grew harder, imagining how it could be with her. Like heaven on earth.

"I can see what I want matters not to you either," she said.

It mattered to him a hell of a lot, but she need not know that. "You belong to another man." That was the bottom line.

"I belong to no man," she growled, her fervent words inflaming his need even more, awakening his possessive instincts he was fighting so hard against.

"The betrothal. The contract," he said in a firm, harsh tone. Anything to restrain himself, when all he wanted to do was carry her to his bed, toss her smock aside and ravish her lush body.

The door opened and he spun to face it, even as his body instinctively launched into an attack stance. His sword lay by the bed, too far away to grab if he were to remain standing between Isobel and the intruder.

Chapter Fifteen

Dirk glared at the person who dared to enter his bedchamber at midnight without knocking. Any leftover arousal drained away, leaving icy warning in its wake.

Aiden stood just inside the closed door. What the devil was he doing bursting in at this hour?

His young brother's wide-eyed gaze darted between Dirk and Isobel. "Pray pardon," he mumbled. "I knocked but 'haps you didn't hear."

Dirk inhaled deeply, trying to calm his rapid heartbeat and forcing his warrior side back into submission. He was now glad he hadn't obeyed his instincts where Isobel was concerned or Aiden might have seen something truly shocking, considering Dirk had forgotten to bar the door. And now, thankfully, Isobel again had the blanket wrapped around her.

"What is it, Aiden?" Dirk asked.

"'Tis mother. She's sent Haldane to find McMurdo and bring him here."

McMurdo, the murderous highwayman. "Why?"

"She didn't say, but she wants to meet with him behind the church. And it has something to do with you."

"When?"

"Whenever Haldane finds him and brings him back. I know not how long that will take."

"Damnation," Dirk muttered. "What else did she say?"

"That she would not allow the imposter—you—to take my inheritance."