Esme’s Warrior Laird by Tessa Murran

She made a deal with the Devil. Now she must pay his price.

Esme Govan is burdened by a wanton temperament and a past folly she is trying to live down. When that folly returns from war, in the shape of her stepbrother Slaine, old passions ignite. With him comes Bastian MacNeil, a sword-for-hire as dark as the Devil. Bastian’s mocking smile makes Esme nervous, and she is relieved that he is just passing through.
One winter’s night, Slaine’s twisted devotion takes a sinister turn, leaving Esme and her sisters Cara and Sorcha cast out and separated. Esme swears to find her family, and there is only one man who can help her – brutishly handsome Bastian MacNeil.

When Bastian demands payment for his services, a shameful bargain is struck. Soon Esme must confront Bastian’s secrets, and choose vengeance or love, for her body is not the only thing that she has bargained away. Esme’s heart is also in danger of succumbing to Bastian as they come together with the passion of the truly sinful. But enjoying him won’t get her sisters back, will it?
When Bastian MacNeil is hired as bodyguard to Slaine Govan, he expects to earn a fortune in gold. What he does not expect is Slaine’s stepsister Esme, the object of an obsession that has not dimmed while Slaine has been in exile. The raven-haired lass may spark Bastian’s desire, but he thinks her a vain little fool with a bad character.

But Bastian is about to find out just how determined a lass can be when Esme makes him an offer no red-blooded man could refuse. If Bastian agrees to find her sisters and take vengeance on Slaine, he can have her virtue.