Free The Highlander's Accidental Bride by Cathy MacRae Page A

routinely lost his patience with the woman he’d married, and succumbed to her tears and pleading with a complete lack of courage.
    Eaden doubted he would be granted a divorce simply because he’d been stupid. Marrying another to enhance a political advantage might garner approval from the king, but no other prospects for marriage came to mind. If Mary failed to provide him an heir, he could perhaps divorce her, though many men simply adopted an illegitimate son and avoided the trouble of a divorce.
    The problem remained; Eaden had no real reason to pursue divorce, beyond the fact she wanted to go home. He’d lost interest in the other women he’d taken to bed over the years. He couldn’t say if it was due to the overwhelming duties as laird of Craigievar and King Robert’s herald, or the green eyes and slender body of a certain lass he’d married.
    A splash reached his ears and he quickly righted himself. He opened his eyes, scanning the surface of the water for a hint to the source of the sound. Several long moments later, the object intruding on his thoughts surfaced. For the first time he could remember, he wasn’t pleased to see the fan of night-dark hair or the slender arms pulling the body he knew only too well across the water toward him.
    He waited as Isobel stopped before him and rested her feet on the bottom of the pool. They were currently eye-to-eye, but Eaden knew if he stood upright, the top of her head would reach no higher than his chin. He also knew if he touched her, she would allow him to do anything he wanted. Anything at all.
    Isobel’s slender fingers smoothed her hair back from her face, letting it pool in a shining curtain around her. She glanced down, and Eaden’s gaze followed hers to her breasts, tantalizingly visible just beneath the surface of the water. He lifted his gaze to meet hers and she gave him a mocking smile.
    “I understand ye have married,” she finally purred when Eaden made no move to speak or touch her. Her full lips pursed in a seductive pout.
    “As have ye, now,” he reminded her bluntly.
    Isobel flushed and looked away for a brief moment. “I’d not known ye would wed so quickly.” She dragged one arm back and forth across the surface of the water. Eaden caught himself staring at the smooth perfection of her skin. “And not knowing if I carried yer child or no’ . . .”
    His eyes narrowed. “What game is this ye’re playing, Isobel? We’d no’ been together for more than two months before my wedding. The whole castle, and likely the village, too, had been abuzz with the news I would wed Barde’s daughter. I’d sent for ye to explain, but your maid said you were ‘indisposed.’ A common response if ye were either bleeding or put out with me.”
    Isobel sighed prettily. “Of course I was put out with ye, my love. I’d no idea ye were finished with me.”
    “Dinnae make it sound more than two people using each other.” He saw Isobel stiffen to hear him dismiss their previous intimacy so brusquely. “Ye knew I wouldnae marry for love, but to serve the king. I was honest with ye from the beginning.”
    “So ye admit ye are no’ in love with yer wife.” She targeted quickly on his words.
    “Are ye in love with yer new husband?” Eaden countered.
    Isobel glided closer, the water swaying in seductive eddies between their bodies. “How could ye believe I would love anyone but ye?”
    Eaden stared at the woman before him. Only a few weeks ago he’d have readily sampled all she offered, and more. Only a few weeks ago he would have enjoyed their banter, knowing what would come of it. Now something held him back, kept him from reaching for the delights brazenly displayed before him, what his body remembered so eagerly.
    He watched her face, the pretty pout to her lips, the seductive tilt of her head, her incredible green eyes . . . Damn! Isobel’s eyes were brown, not green! He blinked and the vision faded as Isobel’s eyes returned to their proper