How to Marry a Highlander Read Online Free Page A

of kissing her and touching her for eighteen months. But now that he stood before her, big and muscular and handsome and studying her intently, he was again abruptly a real man and not only a distant fantasy.
    “What do ye have in mind, lass?”
    She didn’t know what she had expected him to say, but this wasn’t it.
    “I—” She cleared her throat. “I told you.” Her palms were so wet that her bonnet was slipping from her fingers. “I have marriage in mind.” And kisses. And touches of the most intimate sort.
    He lifted a hand to his chin and his fingertips scratched the whiskers skirting his mouth. “Yer an odd one to be sure, lass.”
    “I am not a lass. I am a lady.”
    He swept her figure briefly. She wore her green and ivory pinstriped muslin with the lace collar and tiny sleeves to draw out her mossy eyes and show off her arms. She had even artfully draped a delicate shawl of cream fringe over her elbows. Earlier when she departed Diantha’s house claiming she was going to the shops she’d felt perfectly fetching.
    Lord Eads did not appear impressed.
    “Aye.” He nodded. “I’ll no doubt yer a gentleman’s daughter.”
    “You needn’t doubt anything I say,” which was certainly a first for her with anybody and felt very odd indeed. “I am whom I have said and I wish only what I have indicated.”
    “Anly, hm?” His eyes narrowed. “Lass, a leddy that walks into a stranger’s flat an—”
    “You are not a stranger. Not—that is—a complete stranger.”
    He tilted his head.
    “You saw me at Lady Beaufetheringstone’s ball a year and a half ago.” Fire erupted in her cheeks. “You stared at me. And I . . .” She couldn’t breathe. “I stared at you.”
    “Did ye, then?”
    “I did. You don’t remember it?”
    His brow cut down and he searched her face. Her heart pattered.
    He shook his head. Her pattering heart plummeted.
    He stepped toward her. Up close he towered. Then he did what she’d been dreaming about for months: He touched her. Fingertips beneath her chin, he tilted up her face and his gorgeous eyes studied her. His touch was strong and firm and he smelled of exotic spices that made her feel heady and so good that her eyelids became heavy and her breaths deepened.
    “But yer a bonnie thing,” he murmured.
    “I’m glad you think so. I know this is all rather untoward. But . . . will you marry me?”
    “I’ll no marry ye, lass. But I thank ye for the offer.”
    She swallowed, but her throat was still arched and it was a rocky business. “Why not? Do you intend to wed a noblewoman, or perhaps an heiress?”
    He released her. “I dinna intend to wed anybody.”
    “Because you have already been married?”
    His brow dipped again but he did not respond.
    “I suppose with seven sisters to see wed you’ve no time for yourself until that is accomplished. Is that the reason you have no plans to wed?”
    Now he didn’t look amused. “The reason’s ma own.”
    “What if I help you to find husbands for them?” Her mind sped. “If I find husbands here in London for each of them, will you marry me?”
    He shook his head. “Yer mad.”
    “In fact I am quite sane. I am merely proposing to you a wager. I thought gentlemen understood that sort of thing.”
    A slight smile creased his cheek at the edge of the whiskers. “No that sort o’ wager.”
    “Well if one can wager on carriage races and elections, I don’t see why one cannot wager on this too. Will you accept my terms?”
    “No.”
    Teresa’s fingers were no longer damp and her heart beat hard. She had come too far and dreamed for too long and she was too desperate to easily admit defeat. “What if I found one husband? For one of your sisters?”
    Amusement sparkled in his eyes. It made her belly tingle with that wonderful warmth she usually only felt when she was thinking about the stories Annie told her.
    “Nou, why would I accept those terms when I wouldna accept better?”
    “Hm. Right.” She