The Highlander's Haunted Kiss by Joanne Rock Page B

have made her unusual.
    But taken with the fact that she took up residence within the walls of his fortress, Iain had an urgent need to discover everything there was to know about this lace-wrapped enemy.
    Speaking softly to his horse, he guided the animal down toward Loch an Eilein, where his tower stood watch in the night. This trespasser would not be the first outsider he had driven off in his years as guardian to these lands. And although the thought of a woman in his bedchamber caused old ghosts to drift over his skin, Iain could not deny that he had a few ideas about how to unsettle a female guest.
    He’d had so little company these past years. Would it be wrong of him to savor the chase for a few hours with this one intruder? After all, the woman could go on to a normal life somewhere else once she left the Highlands. For Iain Darroch, his lonely duty to watch over these lands would only continue.
    Not just for another year or two.
    Forever.

Chapter Two
    The woman in his bed was a restless sleeper.
    Two nights after he’d first spotted her, Iain watched the lady intruder wrestle with creamy white linens in the tower chamber that had long belonged to him. Firelight flickered in the hearth to cast an orange glow over her. He’d stirred the logs to life moments before, his leather boots soundless on the worn stone floor while the intruder continued her fitful slumber.
    Did she toss and turn because she sensed his presence? She had proven far more aware of him than most mortals, catching sight of him when her companions had not. Still, he did not think she’d heard him enter the room. Highlanders knew how to hunt, stalking their prey alone rather than riding out with twenty horses and hounds the way the foolish Brit gentry preferred. Now, Iain made himself comfortable on a huge wooden chest at the foot of her bed to observe the brazen lass up close.
    Eventually, he would chase her away. For now, he wanted to take her measure. Brown hair the color of a fawn’s coat spread out over the pillow where she lay, the tresses escaping from a white linen nightcap that was half-crushed from the weight of the hair it should have restrained. He guessed the silky brown mass would be just past her shoulders when she stood, the ends curling in soft waves. Her face was narrow, with pale skin and thick dark eyebrows. Her pink bow of a mouth seemed the most classically pretty feature. Dark lashes fluttered uneasily against high cheekbones as she sighed and murmured unhappily in her sleep.
    Here lay a great beauty. Even if he
hadn’t
been without a woman for too long to reckon, he would have thought her lovely. Beneath the covers, her body curved generously in all the right places. She did not possess the long, lean frame that other women coveted in her era. But men from any time period would appreciate the lush sensuality of the feminine form that wriggled between the sheets, so close he could reach out and touch her. Iain did not dare to look his fill, lest he develop too much heated interest.
    Rising from the trunk, he walked stiffly about the chamber to weigh his options for learning more about her. He would not let his clan accuse him of doing his job poorly. Why would a lady wealthy enough to travel with servants and sleep in fine linens make her home in a deteriorating ruin?
    Drumming his fingers against the window’s ledge, he pondered how to obtain the answers he needed.
    Until the woman screamed.
    The blood-curdling shriek tore straight through him. The sound set his teeth on edge and made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He turned to see the maiden clutching her sheets in a white-knuckled grip.
    In her other hand, she gripped a small blade.
    The intruding lass obviously saw him clear as day. Not as a fleeting shadow in a corner, the way some had perceived him over the years. But as a living, breathing man. Her eyes locked on his, in fact. The revelation blindsided him. Not until that moment had