As the new chief of Clan Mackay, Gideon Sinclair knows the importance of maintaining order at any cost. To keep the conquered clan in line, Gideon must mete out ruthless justice or risk losing their precious new peace. But from the moment he meets Cait Mackay—aye, from the moment the sweetness of her lips captures his—all of Gideon’s careful objectivity is well and thoroughly compromised.
Cait knows that kissing the brawny Highlander is a dangerous game. It was bad enough she picked his pocket to feed the children in her care, but sometimes a desperate woman must disguise her crimes any way she can. Only her act of deception has made things worse…Because one kiss with the Highland’s most brutal chief leaves her breathless and out of her depth.
Now Gideon must choose between his duty and his heart when his lovely thief is accused of treason against the king himself.
EXCERPT:
The crashing footfalls silenced, and she sucked in a soft gasp. Gideon Sinclair had stopped. The small crunch of a footstep came from a few yards beyond her. She’d scoot around the tree to the opposite side, but she dared not move. Instead, she concentrated on becoming a part of the trunk. If only she could grow bark and moss along her back.
“I know ye are here somewhere,” Gideon said. “Your footsteps pounding through the brush went silent.”
Damn. In a full-out sprint, she couldn’t keep quiet any more than he could. Cait looked at the limb above her. Could she reach it with her rope? Climb up there before Gideon descended upon her like a bloodthirsty wolf?
No. Perfect stillness and a miracle were the only ways to outsmart the infamous Sinclair Horseman. When stars started to spark before her eyes in the darkness, Cait parted her lips and drew in a silent stream of air and released it the same way.
She listened to his footsteps as he walked along the trail on the other side of the tree. “Your kiss was cold and hard, lass. And it didn’t distract me enough for ye to escape.”
You are a cold fish of a woman. Benjamin’s words sneered in her memory.
“If ye come out, ye can give it another try,” Gideon said, his voice just on the other side of the thick tree. When she didn’t answer, not even with the crack of a twig, he went on. “What were ye doing up in my room? Did I interrupt a robbery? If you had braved my bedroom for a tryst, ye wouldn’t have jumped out the window.”
He walked a little farther up the trail. Could he make out her tracks in the dim light of the moon? Damn snow made them stand out. It seemed God wasn’t interested in trying to save her from this mess. It was all up to her.
Cait let her breath out slowly, listening to his footfalls crunch in the mix of snow and dead leaves. She nearly jumped when she felt a tug on the coil of rope that she held. Damn. The end had uncoiled several lengths on her run and lay on top of the leaves before the tree.
Cait tried to inhale, but her breath kept stuttering in her chest as Gideon slowly coiled the loose rope, which had become a trail directly to her. He rounded the side of the tree and stopped. The darkness cloaked him in shadow, making his solid form look even larger. Gideon Sinclair stared directly at her.
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