Free The Highlander Takes a Bride by Lynsay Sands Page B

ground was no way to treat a sword as fine as hers, but she’d been desperate. She still was. Her gown was heavy, and the braies underneath were just weighing her down more. Aside from that, it felt like the waves washing around her were trying to take her out to the middle of the loch with them as they rolled away from her.
    “Do ye ken the proper way to clean and sharpen a blade?” Greer asked with interest.
    Saidh didn’t bother to respond but simply shook her head and staggered to her feet in the water. It was much harder than one would think. The ground was soft beneath her, shifting with her movement and her gown was hampering her horribly. But she got upright and immediately pulled her sword from the ground. The moment she’d returned it to its sheath, Greer was there, scooping her up into his arms.
    “I can walk,” she said with irritation as he turned to carry her back out of the water.
    “It did no’ look that way to me,” Greer said with amusement. He set her on her feet on dry land and then stepped back to look her over, before meeting her gaze and arching an eyebrow. “I think this means I trounced ye.”
    “Ye did no’,” she argued at once. “Me gown unraveled and tripped me.”
    “I tugged yer gown from its mooring so that it would trip ye,” he countered with not an iota of shame. When she gaped at him, he shrugged. “All’s fair in battle, love. Ye use what’s available to ye.”
    Saidh let loose with a string of curses that would have made even her brothers blush, though they were the ones she’d learned them from.
    Greer, however, merely smiled more widely, shook his head, and murmured, “That mouth o’ yers, lass.”
    “What about it?” Saidh barked, glowering at the man.
    “I like it,” he said so softly she almost missed the words.
    Saidh stared at him with bewilderment. She was wet and cold, but for some reason his words and his expression sent a warm shiver through her body, and she was aware of the rise of those bewildering sensations that only he seemed to raise in her. A strange want and need that culminated in frustration and aggressive action. Responding to it, she reached for him.
    Greer’s eyes widened and he reached for her too, then released a startled curse when she suddenly hooked her foot behind his ankle and pushed with her hands to send him crashing onto his back on the ground. At least that was her intention. However, Greer had already caught her arms when she pushed and rather than just send him to the ground, she was dragged down with him.
    Saidh landed on his chest with a grunt of surprise and then pushed herself up to glare at him, her damp hair hanging down, a dark curtain around their faces. But then she just lay there staring at him. She should be pummeling him with fists and words, berating him for cheating and making her trip and fall in the lake. Or alternatively, she should be getting up and leaving him lying there in the dirt while she rode back to the castle. Instead, she just lay there, staring into his beautiful dark eyes, her upper body half raised and her lower body flat against him, feeling every inch of heated flesh through their clothes.
    Greer stared back briefly, but then his gaze dropped and she gave a start as he ran a finger lightly along the neckline of her gown.
    “Ye must be cold,” he growled.
    “Aye,” she agreed, surprised to find herself sounding breathless.
    “I’ll warm ye.”
    “Aye,” Saidh murmured as his hand moved up to cup her head and draw her face down to his. His lips were warm and soft yet firm as they brushed over hers, and she held her breath at his first touch. When his tongue slid out to run along the seam where her lips met, she made a startled sound, her mouth opening involuntarily, and then gasped when his tongue immediately slipped past the open gates to explore her depths.
    This was uncharted territory for Saidh. She had grown up with seven bossy, nosy brothers who seemed to follow her everywhere. No