The Virgin's Pursuit Read Free Page A

couldn’t suppress a shudder of pleasure. “Tell me to go.”
    He seemed to want her to refuse him, and she had no idea why. He’d claimed to love no other. What else would stop a man from what she so freely offered? Aye, what she was growing frantic to offer? The delicious pressure between her legs made her weak with desire, her whole body melting into his as her fingernails scraped lightly down his chest and then up underneath his tunic.
    He was hot and hard everywhere, his whole body fiery and fierce. She had never imagined she could feel so wanton with a man she did not know—would never see again. But the hunter was different. Special.
    â€œWe cannot do this.” He made a rough sound and jerked away from her, leaving her swaying on her feet. If not for the tree at her back she might not have stayed standing. They stared at one another in potent silence, each of them breathing hard with frustrated passion.
    â€œI do not understand.” She shook her head in confusion and hurt, her whole body aching with unfulfilled need.
    He swung toward her, his gaze as dark as ever, his nostrils flaring.
    â€œI will have you, Isolda.” His words rang through the quiet woods with the finality of a vow sworn on a knightly sword. “But first you will promise to wed me.”
    The idea was so ludicrous she could not hold back a startled laugh.
    â€œWhat hunter passing through his overlord’s forest wishes to wed the lowly maid he finds there? This is no royal court, sir, and I am no titled daughter.”
    â€œAre you not?” The cool challenge in his voice took her by surprise.
    But no more than the aloof, assessing gaze.
    At that moment, she saw something more in the hunter’s eyes than his gentle respect for the land and his easy skill with a bow. She spied the warrior within.
    This was no simple tradesman. Underneath that quiet, steadfast demeanor beat the heart of a proud and arrogant knight of the realm.
    â€œYou knew .” Her skin chilled with the realization that this man had hunted her as surely as he’d flushed out other reluctant creatures. She reached for her surcoat and hastily slid it over her head. “This whole time, you knew me?”
    Her heart pounded as furiously with this mortifying betrayal as it had earlier with attraction. She could not believe the gravity of her mistake. What if she’d unwittingly conceived a child by some man who purposely sought to control her family legacy through the babe?
    â€œI have sought you since the spring—”
    â€œAll those hunting trips have been—” she could scarcely speak around the sting of his falseness and her foolishness “—ruses to make me trust you?”
    His brow furrowed. “Nay. I have merely hunted after spending long hours searching for you. It seems you have known of my presence longer than I have known of yours.”
    He appeared vexed by the idea, while she still reeled with the revelation. Her hands fisted at her sides.
    â€œAnd who are you, truly?” she prodded, determined to know all at once. “You do not dress like a Norman, but are you one of my enemies in disguise? Or perhaps you are some ambitious Scot who wishes to use my unfortunate circumstances to gain a hint of legitimacy to retake Iness.”
    She could already picture the betrayer dragging her and her babe to the Scots king to plead for her lands—lands he would control as the father to her child.
    â€œI am Cormac of Glenmore.” His jaw tightened in irritation. Perhaps he did not care for the depiction of himself as a manipulative opportunist. “And I have no need of your name to retake Iness.”
    â€œNay?” She knew of Glenmore. Remembered the holding was not half so grand as her family seat had been before the Normans arrived.
    â€œNay. It is already done. I drove the Normans from Iness last spring. The lands are mine, as is the restored keep.” He spoke clearly