She picked up the bag that had fallen off her shoulder, and slowly crept backward, away from him. She had to get free. Her father’s life depended upon it.
“Listen,” he said slowly, although she could hear the rising frustration in his voice, that deep, warm voice with the Scottish lilt and charming vibration that she was sure had charmed many a lady. “I willna hurt you if you simply come with me. We’ll return what you stole, you give me the names of who you work with, and you can maybe even go free. All right?”
She would never agree to his terms, and apparently, he saw it in her face, for he launched himself at her again, coming over top of her, pinning her arms with his hands, his weight on her legs so that she couldn’t move them. Damn it, she thought. She was well and truly trapped.
Roderick cursed as the man moved underneath him. How had he not seen him enter the building? Had he fallen asleep and let the man get by him? Callum would never let that go, and he wasn’t sure Angus McLaren would forgive him for it either. Would he still have a job? His attention returned to the thief as the man tried to bite his hand. What sort of man bit—
“Oh dear God,” he said, his mind suddenly processing what — or rather, who — lay underneath him. Big green eyes filled with contempt stared up at him, and he looked down the soft contours of the face, the high cheekbones, the rosy lips overtop teeth that were not quite perfect, but a bit crooked … he swallowed hard, for it was not a man he straddled but a woman. And not just any woman, but the woman he had felt himself so attracted to when she walked up the stairs.
“Something surprise you?” she asked, lifting an eyebrow, the rest of her face a mask of innocence.
“Not at all,” he said, pulling her into a sitting position and tying her hands behind her, although with a little less force than he would were she a man. His mind worked furiously. She was as strong as she was tall, but now that he took a closer look, he saw the swells of her curves, the delicate lines of her face — and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with her. Were she male, that would be an easy decision. He might rough him up some to convince him to not try to escape, then he would put him on the horse — hands tied — and lead them back to the station. But a woman, now, that was something else entirely.
He realized he was still straddling her lap, and he felt a stirring in his loins. She might be a thief, true, but that didn’t make her any less alluring. He looked up and found her staring at him, and a flare of recognition at his desire came into her wide eyes, which reminded him of the color of the grassy stretches of his Highland hills on a beautiful summer day, and made him unexpectedly long for home.
She smiled coyly at him. “Yer a Scot, are ye not?” she asked, her Scottish lilt suddenly much more pronounced, nearly as much as his own.
“Aye,” he said warily.
“I made a mistake, true,” she said, looking up at him from underneath long lasses. “Do ye think perhaps you could make an exception — let me go, just this once? You can tell whoever yer working for that I escaped. No one would be the wiser.”
He snorted. “I’m an officer of the North-West Mounted Police. We’ve been looking for you for some time. And I’ll not let any think a woman bested me.”
“No one needs to know I’m a woman. You nearly didn’t.”
He shook his head. “Anyone who has seen ye up close would know.”
There was truth to his words, for despite her build, she was striking. Her nose had a slight curve to it and a bit of a bump, making him think perhaps it had been broken at some point — his cousin Gregor’d had the same happen to him as a child. She had freckles covering her face, clearly from spending a great deal of time in the sun, and her full bottom lip was a rosy pink that drew him. He had never been so attracted to a woman at first sight before — and clearly, she recognized his attraction.
Strong, lean legs came up around him where he sat in front of her, and she bit that lower lip and looked at him. “What will it take to get you to release me?”
He pushed back in disgust at how easily she had ascertained his feeling toward her, and stood abruptly, pulling her with him, her hands now firmly tied in front of her.
“There’s nothing ye can do but come with me,” he said, and she pouted, tilting her head to the side. “Perhaps ye can make a deal with the sergeant if ye give up the rest of your gang.”
“Never,” she said, her head held high as he led her to her horse.
“You’ll have to help me up,” she said, holding up her tied hands, and he sighed but did as she asked, cupping his hands together as a step. She put her foot into them, resting her hands on his shoulder, and warmth flooded through him where they touched. She gave a bit of a hop and swung her leg around the horse. He reached to gather the horse’s reins, but as he did so, the woman gave a “hi-ya!” and squeezed her legs around the horse, who shot forward. The leather reins burned his hands as they slid through and dragged behind her.
“Bloody hell!” he shouted as he ran to his own horse to chase after her.
Roderick’s Purpose
