Free Highland Jewel (Highland Brides) by Lois Greiman

certain.
    "Let me go."
    "Anything but that."
    "I am meant to be a nun," she breathed.
    "Ye are na, lass. Ye are meant to be loved." He stared at her in some awe now, for he had tried to say she was meant to be a woman, but the words had not come out right. "Loved by me," he murmured, failing to correct his statement.
    "No." She shook her head vaguely. "I have promised to keep myself apart from human weaknesses, to fast and—"
    "The fast has been broken, wee one," he said huskily.
    Confusion showed in her eyes, so that he lowered his mouth to hers again, touching her lips with a brief, searing flame. "Well broken, lass," he breathed. "And there will be more. Much more."
    "No!" Her eyes looked as frightened as a fawn's. "Please."
    "Please what?" he whispered.
    "Please," she repeated, but could find no way to finish the plea.
    "I will, lass," he promised huskily, listening to her inner voice, ignoring her words. "But first ye must eat."
    Had she just begged for his favors?
    Did he believe she had? Was she losing her mind? Or just her struggle for purity?
    Hold, fast, pray. "No!" she rasped suddenly, and attempted to rise. "No! Let me up!" Her legs flailed and her arms pumped, but she went nowhere.
    "I have said," Leith rumbled, his lips close to her ear, "the fast is broken."
    "No!" She continued to struggle, though it seemed she was only falling more firmly into his grasp. "I must atone for my sins." And what sins! Cursing! Striking! And now this! Kissing! Good Lord, her sins were mounting about her ears like so many bushels of barley.
    "What sins now, wee nun?" he asked, seeming nonplussed by the commotion she was making— like a beached codfish in his lap.
    "Sins, sins!" she sputtered, still flailing wildly. "Hell, I have sins beyond number!"
    He laughed, both at her poor attempt to escape and her poorer attempt at piety.
    "Damn! I did it again," she wailed in feverish frustration. "Let me up before we're both struck dead by a bolt of righteous lightning. This is all your fault!"
    "Me fault?" With one large hand Leith captured her left arm, then pressed his body tightly up against her other, holding it firmly between them. Her struggles gradually decreased in violence, until only her eyes flailed him.
    "Of course, your fault!" she snapped. "You are constantly tempting... I mean…" she sputtered, feeling the heat rush to her face, "Provoking! You are constantly provoking me!"
    “To do what?" he asked innocently.
    He had the most perverse grin, and she wondered suddenly if she shouldn't wish to slap it from his face. But she did not and that was probably just as well, for the good Lord was likely getting weary of her striking him—even though he fully deserved it. "Provoking me to anger!" she said finally.
    "Ah." His brows rose. "I thought I provoked ye to do this ..." His mouth lowered toward hers but she scrunched back against his arm like a cornered hare.
    "Please don't," she whimpered.
    "Na?" His lips were only a hairsbreadth away.
    "No," she whispered. "Please no."
    "Then ye will eat?" he questioned softly.
    She remained silent for a moment, then, "Give me that damned saddle."
    Leith's brows drew together in question, but in a moment he remembered his boast of his brother's obedience and he laughed, tilting his head back slightly as he did so. "Na saddle for ye, me wee, clever lass," he crooned finally. "But venison." He leaned across her to lift a piece from a nearby plate. "From me own fingers."
    "No." She eyed the meat and drew back. "Please. I do not eat meat."
    "Ye will eat this," he ordered gruffly.
    She merely shook her head, however, making not a bit of fuss, simply refusing. "I will not. I do not eat the flesh of animals."
    "Why the hell na?" he asked, taken aback by her strange ways, but she only shrugged, feeling rather silly with his dark eyes so hard upon her.
    "Daniel and Meshach were not eaten in the lion's den."
    Leith stared at her. Was she suggesting that he was a lion or that she feared he might eat