Free A Highlander Never Surrenders by Paula Quinn Page B

be safe anywhere but with James. None of the generals knew about Ravenglade. Though Connor trusted Monck, he hadn’t given him the location of his army. Still, her brother had trusted him enough, and it had cost him his life. She would not make the same error.
    Getting out of Edinburgh alive and with Anne was going to be difficult enough. How the hell was she going to rescue her sister from these brutes? She looked down at her hand, still coiled within Graham Grant’s. Those fingers closing around hers had near shaken her to her core. She was used to the feel of a hilt in her hand, not the warm, calloused strength of a man’s fingers. She didn’t like how his touch affected her. It made her feel defenseless. She could handle herself on a battlefield, but a mere smile from this man made her limbs go weak. She couldn’t think with him holding her so intimately. But she had to, for Anne’s sake.
    She smiled as a way of delivering her sister out of the hands of the MacGregors hatched in her mind. She did not have to trust them. She simply had to make them trust her. And the best place to begin was with their commander. She would give him what he wanted. What he had wanted since he’d come upon her in the hands of Lambert’s men; time to try to seduce her. She simply had to stay focused on her task, ignoring what he did to her insides.
    “Let us travel to Edinburgh together, then,” Claire offered, lifting a veiled gaze to Graham’s. Her plans had changed, and she made the adjustment as needed. Grant was a man, and growing up around men who tried to deny her every wish had taught her how to get what she wanted using tactics other than force. “I will do as you say until we discover where the true treachery lies.”
    A hint of amusement crossed his features at her unexpected compliance. He rubbed the pad of his thumb over her knuckles, sending a sizzling lick of flame to her belly. “Ye have naught to fear from these men. Once ye return to Skye with them, ye’ll be convinced.” He turned to two of the men sitting near Angus. “Andrew, Donel, ye’ll leave with the lady now. The rest of us will continue to the city and get Anne.”
    Claire yanked her hand free of his. What had just happened? He’d been eager to follow her since they’d met, but now that she agreed to spend days with him, he was casting her off? He was daft if he thought . . . “I’m not going anywhere without my sister.”
    His eyes met the stark, raw determination in hers and she blinked as his gaze seemed to penetrate her garments, her flesh, her very thoughts. Her eyes darted to Andrew and Donel rising to their feet, readying to leave and take her with them. God’s fury, a fight with these men could possibly injure her, leave her helpless to save Anne. She remembered the first time James had refused to let her join an ambush on a group of English soldiers. He’d even fought with Connor about it, but in the end she was victorious. A simple kiss and a few softly spoken words to stroke his male pride was all it had cost her. Biting back a scathing oath, because she had a feeling Graham might cost her more, she placed her palm on his thigh. “I would prefer to remain with you. I feel . . . safer.”
    The wry curve of his mouth made her doubt her own words.
    “Hell, that had to be difficult.”
    Not as difficult as it is maintaining the control not to punch you in the nose right now
, Claire thought. “On the contrary,” she said, softening her voice to a rich murmur and moving an inch closer to him. “Is it difficult to concede to a man who is clearly stronger, quicker, and more intelligent than I?” His eyes narrowed, but och, she could tell by the elusive spark of satisfaction in them that this was what he wanted to hear. “I have no other choice but to place myself entirely in your hands.” His green eyes grew dark with intensity. She had the rogue. “But
only
in yours,” she added to clinch his agreement.
    His sensual lips pursed,