Stolen by the Highlander
Kidnap in the Highlands!The morn of her wedding, Arabella Cameron is filled with dread. But if marrying a man she doesn’t love will end the feud between the Cameron and the Mackintosh clans she will do her duty. That is until outlaw Brodie Mackintosh arrives in her bedchamber and steals her away to the mountains!Brodie knows Arabella has every reason to hate him, but a forbidden kiss soon makes these sworn enemies question everything. And when Arabella’s intended reclaims her Brodie must fight with all his strength to make her his once more!A Highland Feuding: rival clans, forbidden love…
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Arabellaâs body throbbed.
Her lips were swollen. Her skin tingled. A place deep within her ached for something she could not identify. Well, if she was honest with herself, she could.
More. More of him.
The kisses sheâd had with Caelan had never caused this wanting within her. They had been tepid, unmoving kisses. Just between two friends, with no air of intimacy or longing.
Brodieâs kiss had been possessive and enticing. He had tasted her and shown her how to taste him. He wanted her. She could hear it in his breathing and feel it in the way he held her and in the way his body ⦠changed beneath her.
Scotlandâs history is filled with stories about feuds between the clans. When I was researching a previous book I discovered a feud between the powerful Mackintosh clan and the smaller Cameron clan that went on to last more than three hundred and fifty years!
It began in the early 1300s, over claims to a piece of land, and expanded over generations and across the lands of both the Mackintoshes and the Camerons. It eventually even involved the King of Scotland. Since the Mackintosh clan led the larger âChattan Confederationââa group of several clans and septsâit drew in large and small families over time.
After thousands of deaths, dozens of battles and attempts at truces and treaties, it ended in 1665, when the Camerons paid a fee to the Mackintoshes for the lands they claimed!
I have taken some liberties with the timing of some of the battles and the names or locations of some of the keeps, changing them to accommodate my story a bit, but the animosity between the clans is real. For when lands and titles and power and wealth are involved the truth can sometimes be stranger than any fictional story created to explain it all!
I hope you enjoy Stolen by the Highlander, the first book in my A Highland Feuding mini-series, and especially the sexy, brave Highlanders who seek to control their destinies and the strong women who tame them in the end!
TERRI BRISBIN is wife to one, mother of three, and dental hygienist to hundreds when not living the life of a glamorous romance author. She was born, raised, and is still living in the southern New Jersey suburbs. Terriâs love of history led her to write time-travel romances and historical romances set in Scotland and England.
I dedicate this book,
the first in my new series, to my editorial âteamâ at Mills & Boon>® Historical Romances in the Richmond UK officeâespecially Megan Haslam, Kathryn Cheshire and Senior Editor Linda Fildew. They constantly push me to make my work better and stronger for my readers, and though we sometimes disagree on how to accomplish that (LOL!), they always do it in a kind and supportive way. Itâs been great working with you over these last several booksâthanks for all you do for me!
Contents
Arabella Cameron understood how the layer of ice on a frozen lake felt. The smile she held on her face as another Mackintosh offered a poem about her beauty would crack soon, just as that brittle ice did when hit by a stone. She did not hold out much hope that she could keep smiling as the words reached a new level of ridiculous praise. The tip of her nose tingled and the worry over her face cracking disappeared when presented with the larger concern of laughing.
Drawing in a slow breath, she blinked several times, hoping the danger of being impertinent or disrespectful would pass soon. As she raised her eyes, Arabella was horrified to meet the dark and brooding gaze of Brodie Mackintosh. Seated at the end of the table to her right, the older of the two men who were possible heirs to The Mackintosh stared back at her, not flinching and not looking away. In the short time since theyâd met, she did not ever remember him smiling.
Nothing in his mahogany-brown eyes gave her any indication of how he felt about these men regaling their clans with tales of her beauty and graciousness. Or how he felt about her. Or the possibility that they might, within a few months, be man and wife. Distracted by his intense stare, she had not noticed the poem had ended or that the room silenced in anticipation of her reaction.
Until he turned his glance away and angled his head towards... Towards the Mackintosh bard who had stopped speaking and now looked expectantly at her, awaiting her reaction to his words. Arabella nodded and clapped her hands.
âI am honoured by your kind words...â She could not remember his name.
âDougal was not being kind, Lady Arabella,â Caelan Mackintosh interrupted. Seated to her left, he met her gaze and winked, knowing sheâd forgotten the bardâs name. âHe was speaking the truth as we all see it to be.â She turned back to the man whoâd spoken and nodded.
