Highland Lover

HIGHLAND LOVER

Gregor watched the tip of Alana’s tongue move over her full lips and felt his insides clench with

desire. He suspected she was too innocent to realize the invitation she had just offered him, but he

intended to accept it. There was little chance he would gain all he hungered for, but need and

curiosity made him eager to take whatever he could right now and hope there were no heavy

consequences for doing so.

Gregor brushed his lips over Alana’s again and felt her shiver faintly. Slipping his fingers into her thick, soft hair, he began to kiss her. Very quickly he needed more than the sweet, restrained closed-mouth kiss he was giving her, and he lightly nipped at her bottom lip. Alana gasped softly and he

took quick advantage of her slightly parted lips.

Alana nearly shoved Gregor away, but the urge proved a very fleeting one. The way he stroked the

inside of her mouth soon had her clinging to him, silently demanding more of the same. Desire

swept through her body. She was not so innocent that she did not know where such intoxicating

kisses could lead her…

Books by Hannah Howell

Only For You

My Valiant Knight

Unconquered

Wild Roses

A Taste of Fire

Highland Destiny

Highland Honor

Highland Promise

A Stockingful of Joy

Highland Vow

Highland Knight

Highland Hearts

Highland Bride

Highland Angel

Highland Groom

Highland Warrior

Reckless

Highland Conqueror

Highland Champion

Highland Lover

Published by Zebra Books

Hannah Howell

HIGHLAND LOVER

ZEBRA BOOKS

Kensington Publishing Corp.

Chapter 1

Scotland, Spring 1475

“Oof!”

Oof? Dazed and struggling to catch her breath, Alana decided she must have made that noise herself.

Hard dirt floors did not say oof. It was odd, however, how the rough stone walls of the oubliette

made her voice sound so deep, almost manly. Just as she began to be able to breathe again, the hard

dirt floor shifted beneath her.

It took Alana a moment to fully grasp the fact that she had not landed on the floor. She had landed

on a person. That person had a deep, manly voice. It was not dirt or stone beneath her cheek, but

cloth. There was also the steady throb of a heartbeat in the ear she had pressed against that cloth.

Her fingers were hanging down a little and touching cool, slightly damp earth. She was sprawled on

top of a man like a wanton.

Alana scrambled off the man, apologizing for some awkward placement of her knees and elbows as

she did so. The man certainly knew how to curse. She stood up and stared up at the three men

looking down at her, the light from the lantern they held doing little more than illuminating their

grinning, hairy faces.

“Ye cannae put me in here with a mon,” she said.

“Got noplace else to put ye,” said the tallest man of the three, a man called Clyde, who she was

fairly sure was the laird.

“I am a lady,” she began.

“Ye are a wee, impudent child. Now, are ye going to tell us who ye are?”

“So ye can rob my people? Nay, I dinnae think so.”

“Then ye stay where ye are.”

She did not even have time to stutter out a protest. The grate was shut and that faint source of light quickly disappeared as the Gowans walked away. Alana stared up into the dark and wondered how

everything had gone so wrong. All she had wanted to do was help to find her sister Keira, but none

of her family had heeded her pleas or her insistence that she could truly help find her twin. It had

seemed such a clever idea to disguise herself as a young girl and follow her brothers, waiting for

just the right moment to reveal herself. How she had enjoyed those little dreams of walking up to

her poor confused brothers and leading them straight to their sister. That had kept a smile upon her

face and a jaunty spring in her step right up until the moment she had realized she had not only lost her brothers’ trail, but also had absolutely no idea of where she was.

Feeling very sorry for herself and wondering why her gifts had so abruptly failed her just when she

needed them most, she had been cooking a rabbit and sulking when the Gowans had found her.

Alana grimaced as she remembered how she had acted. Perhaps if she had been sweet and had acted

helpless, she would not be stuck in a hole in the ground with a man who was apparently relieving

himself in a bucket. Maybe it would be wise to tell the Gowans who she was so that they could get

some ransom for her and she could get out of here. Appalled by that moment of weakness, Alana

proceeded to lecture herself in the hope of stiffening her resolve.

Gregor inwardly cursed as he finished relieving himself. It was not the best way to introduce

himself to his fellow prisoner, but he really had had little choice. Having a body dropped on top of

him and then being jabbed by elbows and knees had made ignoring his body’s needs impossible. At

least the dark provided a semblance of privacy.

He was just trying to figure out where she was when he realized she was muttering to herself. Clyde

Gowan had called her an impudent child, but there was something in that low, husky voice that

made him think of a woman. After she had landed on him and he had caught his breath, there had

been something about that soft, warm body that had also made him think of a woman, despite the

lack of fulsome curves. He shook his head as he cautiously stepped toward that voice.

Despite his caution, he took one step too many and came up hard against her back. She screeched

softly and jumped, banging the top of her head against his chin. Gregor cursed softly as his teeth

slammed together, sending a sharp, stinging pain through his head. He was a little surprised to hear

her softly curse as well.

“Jesu, lass,” he muttered, “ye have inflicted more bruises on me than those fools did when they

grabbed me.”

“Who are you?” Alana asked, wincing and rubbing at the painful spot on the top of her head, certain

she could feel a lump rising.

“Gregor. And ye are?”

“Alana.”

“Just Alana?”

“Just Gregor?”

“I will tell ye my full name if ye tell me yours.”

“Nay, I dinnae think so. Someone could be listening, hoping we will do just that.”

“And ye dinnae trust me as far as ye can spit, do ye?”

“Why should I? I dinnae ken who ye are. I cannae e’en see you.” She looked around and then

wondered why she bothered since it was so dark she could not even see her own hand if she held it

right in front of her face. “What did they put ye in here for?”

Alana suddenly feared she had been confined with a true criminal, perhaps even a rapist or

murderer. She smothered that brief surge of panic by sharply telling herself not to be such an idiot.

The Gowans wanted to ransom her. Even they were not stupid enough to risk losing that purse by

setting her too close to a truly dangerous man.

“Ransom,” he replied.

“Ah, me, too. Are they roaming about the country plucking up people like daisies?”

Gregor chuckled and shook his head. “Only those who look as if they or their kinsmen might have a

few coins weighting their purse. A mon was being ransomed e’en as they dragged me in. He was

dressed fine, although his bonnie clothes were somewhat filthy from spending time in this hole. I

was wearing my finest. I suspect your gown told them your kinsmen might have some coin. Did

they kill your guards?”

Alana felt a blush heat her cheeks. “Nay, I was alone. I got a little lost.”

She was lying, Gregor thought. Either she was a very poor liar or the dark had made his senses

keener, allowing him to hear the lie in her voice. “I hope your kinsmen punish the men weel for

such carelessness.”

Oh, someone would most certainly be punished, Alana thought. There was no doubt in her mind

about that. This was one of those times when she wished her parents believed in beating a child. A

few painful strikes of a rod would be far easier to endure than the lecture she would be given and,

even worse, the confused disappointment her parents would reveal concerning her idiocy and

disobedience.

“How long have ye been down here?” she asked, hoping to divert his attention from how and why

she had been caught.

“Two days, I think. ’Tis difficult to know for certain. They gave me quite a few blankets, a privy

bucket that they pull up and empty each day, and food and water twice a day. What troubles me is

who will win this game of ye-stay-there-until-ye-tell-me-what-I-want-to-know. My clan isnae really

poor, but they dinnae have coin to spare for a big ransom. Nay when they dinnae e’en ken what the

money will be used for.”

“Oh, didnae they tell ye?”

“I was unconscious for most of the time it took to get to this keep and be tossed in here. All I have heard since then is the thrice-daily question about who am I. And I am assuming all these things

happen daily, not just whene’er they feel inclined. There does seem to be a, weel, rhythm to it

all. ’Tis how I decided I have been here for two days.” He thought back over the past few days, too

much of it spent in the dark with his own thoughts. “If I judge it aright, this may actually be the end of the third day, for I fell unconscious again when they threw me in here. I woke up to someone

bellowing that it was time to sup, got my food and water, and was told about the privy bucket and

that blankets had been thrown down here.”

“And ’tis night now. The moon was rising as we rode through the gates. So, three days in the dark.

In a hole in the ground,” she murmured, shivering at the thought of having to endure the same.

“What did ye do?”

“Thought.”

“Oh, dear. I think that would soon drive me quite mad.”

“It isnae a pleasant interlude.”

“It certainly isnae. I am nay too fond of the dark,” she added softly and jumped slightly when a long arm was somewhat awkwardly wrapped around her shoulders.

“No one is, especially not the unrelenting dark of a place like this. So, ye were all alone when they caught ye. They didnae harm ye, did they?”

The soft, gentle tone of his question made Alana realize what he meant by harm. It struck her as odd

that not once had she feared rape, yet her disguise as a child was certainly not enough to save her

from that. “Nay, they just grabbed me, cursed me a lot for being impudent, and tossed me over a

saddle.”

Gregor smiled. “Impudent, were ye?”

“That is as good a word for it as any other. There I was, sitting quietly by a fire, cooking a rabbit I had been lucky enough to catch, and up ride five men who inform me that I am now their prisoner

and that I had best tell them who I am so that they can send the ransom demand to my kinsmen. I

told them that I had had a very upsetting day and the last thing I wished to deal with was smelly,

hairy men telling me what to do, so they could just ride back to the rock they had crawled out from

under. Or words to that effect,” she added quietly.

In truth, she thought as she listened to Gregor chuckle, she had completely lost her temper. It was

not something she often did and she suspected some of her family would have been astonished. The

Gowans had been. All five men had stared at her as if a dormouse had suddenly leapt at their throats.

It had been rather invigorating until the Gowans had realized they were being held in place by

insults from someone they could snap in half.

It was a little puzzling that she had not eluded capture. She was very fast, something often marveled at by her family, could run for a very long way without tiring, and could hide in the faintest of