Claimed by a Laird by Laura Glenn

her chest warmed briefly. It had become
hot when she had swooned after first entering the dungeon antechamber. If the
pendant was responsible for transporting her back in time, didn’t it stand to
reason that it could take her back home too?
    Anna pursed her lips in determination and wrapped her free
hand around the pendant, closing her eyes to concentrate. Instead of wishing
for passion and love as she had done upon entering the antechamber, she
fervently wished for home and everything that went with it—stability, safety,
routine and the absence of a certain hard-bodied, sexy-as-sin man who had the
uncanny ability to make her nipples hard just by looking at her.
    The rope suddenly dragged hard back and forth against her
palm, scratching her skin. Startled, she jumped, momentarily forgetting where
she was and what was happening. Her eyes flew open and landed on the body of
the Graham guard at her feet. The pendant went strangely cold in her hand.
    Damn it. She had half a mind to yank the stone off her neck
and fling it over the rampart. Sighing in resignation, she peered over the edge
of the wall and attempted to convince herself everything would be all right if
she descended into the darkness and met the stranger waiting below.
    With one last quick glance at the unconscious man, Anna
threw her purse around her neck so the strap lay crosswise over her chest,
clambered onto the rampart and over the side. Gripping the rope tightly and
finding a decent foothold, she carefully eased herself below the battlement.
    Her palms burned and her biceps strained as she steadily
lowered into the darkness, daring to look neither up nor down. Her hand slipped
and she gripped the rope tighter, halting her descent. Tears stung her eyes as
she silently cursed Neil Campbell for bringing her the pendant. Had he known
what it might do to her? Was this all just some cruel joke?
    “Anna!” came a hoarse whisper from below. “Do not stop now!”
    Galen’s voice cut through her gasping breath and renewed
enough of her strength to propel her into making her way down. Soon, however,
she reached the end of the rope.
    “Galen,” she quietly cried.
    “It is fine, lass. Just let go. I will catch you.”
    “I-I can’t!” Her foot slipped from the stone wall. A small
whimper escaped her lips.
    “Trust me.”
    For whatever reason, those two little words from this man in
particular calmed her and caused her to do something, which under normal
circumstances she would have never done.
    She let go.
    After a mere second of free-fall, she landed with a thud
against something that, for a moment, seemed not unlike the stone wall she had
just been descending. Galen’s arms quickly curled around her torso and legs and
she curved into him, gasping for air to relieve the tension bursting from her
lungs.
    “You are all right,” he whispered into her hair, clasping
her tightly against his chest. With a quick, deliberate turn he strode toward
the river with her tucked snugly in his arms.
    His warmth permeated her clothing, sending comforting
tremors through her skin. She tucked her head underneath his chin, taking
solace in the steady thud of his heart beating soundly against her. Flattening
her palm against his chest, she slid it toward his shoulder, reveling in the
sharp contours of every muscle. His closeness was so male, so restorative and
oh-so reassuring.
    Galen stopped and the roar of rushing water broke through
her brief dream-like state. He tilted her forward, placing her feet upon the
uneven ground, and she took a reluctant step back from him.
    He grasped her shoulders, forcing her to bend her neck
nearly all the way back just to look at him. How had she missed that he seemed
nearly as tall as the Caledonian pines surrounding them? She was by no means a
short woman, but for the first time in a long while a sense of awe overcame her
as he towered over her.
    “Can you swim?” he asked.
    Anna nodded absentmindedly, distracted by the tough,