Free Amethyst Destiny by Pamela Montgomerie

a certainty. He enjoyed a challenge as well as the next man, but rarely had his body risen as quickly and as thoroughly as it did with this lass.
    The thought of her ultimate surrender brought a smile to his lips. For the first time in as long as he could remember he was tempted to put off seeking whatever the ring had sent him for, at least for a few days. Because once he found it, he feared the lass would be gone. And he was loath to see that happen yet. Not only did he fully intend to bed her, but she intrigued him mightily.
    She followed behind him as he lifted the lantern and lit their way up the tower stairs, the very ones on which she’d first appeared a night ago. As they passed the spot where he’d first seen her, he reached back and took her hand, half-afraid he might lead her through a hole from which she’d return to her own time unless he held her tethered.
    To his surprise, her cool hand closed tight around his.
    “I hate these stairs,” she murmured, as if feeling the need to explain her sudden willingness to accept his touch.
    He didn’t care why she didn’t pull away, only that she didn’t. Her hand in his felt small and delicate, yet surprisingly strong. Surprisingly right.
    They climbed the stairs without incident and he led her into the passage at the next level. As soon as they were off the stair, she tugged her hand from his and he released her. He hung the lantern from a wall post and led her into the large lady’s chamber beside the one where he’d hidden her last eve.
    “You don’t want to bring the light?” Julia asked.
    “’Twouldn’t do for the guards upon the wall walks to see it. This tower is supposed to be closed until the marquess returns. The moon is already risen and nearly full and will provide adequate light.”
    “This room is huge,” she breathed.
    Though he’d been in this guest chamber several times already, on the pretense of blessing it, he looked around, trying to see the space through her eyes. Though it was now draped in colorless shadows, he knew it to be adorned with wealth and beauty, expensive red and green papers covering the walls, the high, curtained bed draped in the finest red satin.
    How he would love to lay Julia Brodie on that bed and lift her skirts to her waist, parting her thighs . . .
    Heat rushed through his body as the thought took on a life of its own inside his head. He could almost feel the silken skin of her inner thighs against his fingertips. Could almost hear the racing of her heart. Heaven knew he could feel the pounding of his own.
    “This isn’t the room where you took me last night,” Julia murmured.
    “No. You’ll forgive me for hitting ye, lass. I couldna let you draw attention to yerself until I had a chance to figure out who and what you were. And explain to you why you were here.”
    She turned to him sharply. “You could have broken my jaw.”
    “Perhaps. But you were far from the first I’ve sent into an unnatural sleep. I knew where to hit you and how hard. You were in little danger.”
    Silhouetted as she was in moonlight, he watched her lift her hand to her jaw. “Easy for you to say.”
    Talon tried to close the distance between them, but she backed up a step.
    “Let me feel it, Julia. I would know how badly I injured you.” He would take any excuse he could find to touch her.
    As if she understood that all too well, she replied, “I’m fine.” But she didn’t fight him when he slid his fingers along the line of her face, cupping her soft skin.
    “Does it pain you, still?”
    “No, not really. Only when I touch it.”
    “Or I touch it”
    She shrugged and stepped away from him again, then turned to roam the room.
    “Dinna step into the moonlight, lass. The guards may see ye.”
    Her low, determined voice floated back to him. “I need to figure out why I’m here. There has to be something I know, or something I can do, that would help you. Can you read?”
    “Aye. Well enough.”
    “So you don’t need