A bold, seductive laird meets his passionate match in a scintillating Highland romance from New York Times bestselling author Lynsay Sands.
Sword fighting, swearing, and riding astride come naturally to Saidh Buchanan. Simpering and holding her tongue-definitely not. Raised alongside seven boisterous brothers, Saidh has little interest in saddling herself with a husband…until she glimpses the new Laird MacDonnell bathing naked in the loch. Though she’s far from a proper lady, the brawny Highlander makes Saidh feel every inch a woman.
She has an angel’s looks, a warrior’s temper, and seeks out his kisses with wanton eagerness. Little wonder that Greer is intrigued by his comely guest. When reckless desire overtakes them, he’s more than willing to make an honest woman of her. But Saidh is the target of a hidden enemy, and Greer faces the battle of his life…to safeguard the woman he wants above all others.
“Which is so unladylike,” she lectured herself under her breath. Her mother would be most disappointed in her, she knew.
“What is so unladylike?”
Saidh stiffened at the amused question from very close behind her. She instinctively started to turn, but her mother’s voice in her head made her stop. Sighing, Saidh shrugged in a way she hoped appeared nonchalant, and confessed, “I am. Or so me mother always told me.” Wry amusement filling her voice now, she admitted, “I fear being raised with so many brothers made me less o’ a lady than I should be. Me mother did her best to rein me in, but me father and brothers were o’ little help in the endeavor and in the end …” She shrugged. “She was fighting a losing battle.”
“Ye seem ladylike enough to me.”
The voice had moved away again and she could hear the rustle of material. He had no doubt laid out his plaid on the ground and was now crouched beside it, pleating the cloth in preparation of donning it. At least that was her guess, and she imagined him in her mind’s eye doing so, the rising sun glinting off his wide back. Shaking her head to remove the image, she cleared her throat and said, “I fear ye’ll no’ say that, once ye’ve heard me cursing like a warrior.”
“Cursing?” he asked, sounding startled at the very suggestion.
Saidh grimaced, but nodded. “Aye. ’Tis a bad habit I learned from me brothers. And they ha’e taught me the most foul curses.”
A sudden chuckle nearly had her turning again, but again she caught herself. Lifting her chin defiantly, she added, “I also wear English braies under me gowns so that I can ride astride. I ken no ladies who do that.”
“English braies?” This time he sounded rather bemused.
Saidh nodded and then caught a bit of her gown in hand to lift it to knee level and reveal the bottom of the braies she wore beneath.
“Where the devil did ye come up with that idea?” he asked with what might have been shock.
“It was me mother’s idea,” Saidh admitted as she let the gown drop back into place. “First she tried to stop me from riding astride and running about, climbing trees and rocks with me brothers, but when that did no’ work, she had the braies made for me.”
“Yer mother sounds a clever woman,” he decided, still sounding amused.
“Aye, she was,” Saidh said sadly.
LYNSAY SANDS is the nationally bestselling author of the Argeneau/Rogue Hunter vampire series, as well as numerous historicals and anthologies. She’s been writing stories since grade school and considers herself incredibly lucky to be able to make a career out of it. Her hope is that readers can get away from their everyday stress through her stories, and if there’s occasional uncontrollable fits of laughter, that’s just a big bonus. Please visit her on the web at
www.lynsaysands.net.
