The Highlander's Haunted Kiss Read Online Free Page A

toward a far corner of the room. Tugging aside a threadbare tapestry, he revealed a plank door on one wall. He would have to duck to enter. Yet, pulling up on an iron ring, he cracked the opening so she could see inside. The scent of stale, earthy air floated toward her as a shadowed tunnel was revealed.
    He’d entered through a secret corridor.
    â€œBut you can’t be real,” she protested, unwilling to relinquish the explanation that fit this situation best. “My footman couldn’t see you when I did. Then, when I looked away for only a moment, you disappeared into the forest.”
    Perhaps when she awoke tomorrow the hidden passageway would be gone and she could go back to thinking this had all been a dream. At this point, she would prefer to think she was going mad than that she had entertained wanton ideas about this virile stranger in her bedchamber. How far would she have let those brazen thoughts take her? Perhaps she really was losing her grip on her sanity.
    â€œAye.” He did not deny his vanishing act earlier. “Nevertheless, I am very real.”
    He released the passageway door, allowing the tapestry to fall back over it. They stood staring at each other in the firelight, his green eyes locked on hers.
    Sweet, merciful, heaven, she wore no more than her night clothes. In her haste to see the hidden passage, she had left her armful of linens on the bed, so she no longer had that added concealment. Her nightcap had long since abandoned its task and her unbound hair fell around her shoulders, a sight for no man save a husband.
    â€œThis cannot be.” She did not trust her instincts anymore. “You are naught but a thought in my mind’s eye.”
    Her whispered hope seemed to lure him closer.
    â€œIs that how you explain it?” His gaze grew bolder, dipping lower to her mouth. Her shoulders. Her breasts.
    She felt it as sure as a touch and her body reacted instantly, a tight ache making her breath hitch.
    â€œA ghost, perhaps.” If this were a penny novel, he would most certainly be a wraith of some sort. A dark figure conjured from maidenly fears.
    His eyes lifted to hers again as a hint of amusement twitched one side of his mouth.
    â€œTell me, Lily Rothmore Desalles.” He moved so close she stopped breathing. “Could a phantom do this?”
    He cupped her jaw in one warm, broad palm, his thumb lightly caressing her cheek. Her eyelids fluttered in shock at the intimacy. The irrefutable proof that he was very much a living, breathing man.
    â€œOr this?” His voice hit a deeper note.
    Tipping her chin up to his, he sketched a touch along the fullness of her lower lip, the action so blatantly sensual she felt an answering touch in the most private of places. Her whole body tingled in answer.
    She was all but swaying on her feet when he dipped his head to capture her mouth in a kiss not even a fevered imagination could have conjured.

Chapter Three
    He’d stolen the kiss by surprise.
    Iain guessed Lily would recover herself in a moment and he’d have to contend with some form of maidenly outrage. A backhand to the face, perhaps. Or another round of shrieking until her aged servant finally roused from his tired stupor and came to her rescue.
    Until then, Iain took unfair advantage. What healthy male, abstinent as long as he had been, would lay blame at his feet? She hadn’t refused.
    Her parted lips were soft and yielding, the tentative kiss of an innocent. Even more innocent, in fact, than he’d imagined. He had thought her a virgin by her stunned surprise when he’d warned her that he wanted her. She’d been utterly unaware of the spark between them.
    Of course, he hadn’t known she was a widow or he wouldn’t have guessed as much in the first place. But he’d been right about her innocence. Her marriage had obviously been a sham. She even kissed like an untried maid.
    Now, cupping her chin, he angled her face