Playboy's Challenge (Highlander's Series) Read Free Page B

you?”
    One of her slim dark brows arched sharply. “Aye, ’tis me.”
    “God, you were just a skinny little thing, all arms and legs,” he said, unable to contain a chuckle. How he’d missed the resemblance between her and Erin could only be due to how her beauty had knocked him for a loop. It was that or the dunk in the fountain, but these were his childhood friends. Friends he’d missed sorely, he suddenly realized.
    “Aye, and you tormented her to no end,” Erin said with a laugh.
    “That I did. I don’t suppose you ever forgave me for it, either,” he said, looking at Deidra with new appreciation, and a good dose of disappointment.
    He couldn’t get tangled up with her. She wouldn’t be the type of girl he spent his time with these days, the just-for-fun type. Oh, no. She was the daughter of his parents’ dearest friends, his godparents and surrogate aunt and uncle. You couldn’t paint a bigger “do not touch” sign on the woman if you tried. And they were friends. He had a clear rule about that, although he had few friends these days to apply it to.
    “Hardly.” She turned her cool gaze to her brother. “What else did that idiot, Bran, say?”
    Erin’s smile fell. “That he had caught you with a mon, and he could no longer consider you marriageable.”
    “That lying bastard!” She snatched up her skirts and stormed around the corner.
    “We’d best follow or she may kill the whoreson,” Erin said.
    “Agreed, but I have to tell you, he deserves whatever she dishes out.”
    Erin paused in midstride. “What did you interrupt?”
    “Nothing like you’re thinking,” he said, urging them onward in Deidra’s wake. “He just thought he could have the upper hand. When he grabbed her by the arms, I stepped in. Now that I know it was Deidra, I don’t doubt she would’ve handled it,” he grinned, remembering what a little spitfire she was. “But he’s an ass of the first order.”
    They caught up to her where she stood in the courtyard, and stopped beside her as she perused the area for Bran.
    “Dare I ask what you intend to do with him when you find him?” Adam asked, remembering her earlier threat.
    She shot him a look, then returned to her search. “His future will be bleak,” was all she said.
    Just as Adam was about to suggest they ask around if anyone had seen him, the bastard came flying out of the hall, down the steps to land on his face in the dirt, not far from her feet. She rested her hands on her hips as she stared down at the man, animosity pouring from her in waves.
    A shout, more like a roar echoed from the open door, and the three of them looked up to find Amelia Tucker MacLean, the lady of the clan MacLean, or Aunt Tuck to Adam, standing at the top of the steps, her arms akimbo, with fierce hot fury spiraling around her flaming red hair edged with gray.
    It was a beautiful and yet terrifying sight. Adam had to consciously close his mouth, the picture before him was beyond amazing. Two strong, powerful women, like bookends in their stance and stature, only their coloring was different. No man stood a chance when caught between them.
    Colin MacLean appeared behind his wife, a scowl on his burly face. His hair had streaks of gray as well, but he was still a man you thought twice about before going up against.
    “You be lucky, Bran. I’ve a mind ta take your head for your lies, but I doona care ta upset my wee wife any more than she be already.”
    The pathetic man lifted his head, and Adam clearly saw a good deal more damage to the man’s face than what he’d received from the fall.
    “Then again, with what she has wrought on you herself, perhaps you no’ be so lucky after all,” Colin said with a humorless chuckle. “Deidra, do you wish ta decide his fate? ’Tis your name he has cast aspersions on, lass.”
    Sadness crept over her features for a mere second, and yet long enough for Adam to wonder about her true feelings in all this.
    “Let him spread his dirty lies