“Cursed stubborn female!” Jamie shouted. “My only crime is in wanting you. And if you would be honest, you’d be admitting that is no crime at all. You’re no’ as opposed to my desire as you say you are.”
“I am!” she cried. “I swear—”
“Sheena, ’tis time to have done with all this foolish fighting.”
He moved, and suddenly there was almost no distance between them anymore. “Come to me, Sheena.” His voice was soft. “Follow your heart for once.”
She didn’t. But she didn’t move away, either. She knew she needed only to stand there, and he would come to her and put his arms around her. She remembered the feel of those arms. She closed her eyes, recalling exactly how she’d felt when he kissed her. Her eyes flew open at the touch of his fingers on her back, pulling her gently to him. He made no further move. He just stared at her intensely, his eyes probing hers. Was he trying to see the truth?
“Sheena,” he breathed softly. “I know what happens when I kiss you, but mayhap you’ve forgotten and need reminding.”
“Nay, I’ve no’ forgotten. ’Tis your devil’s magic that makes me like your kissing, and only that.”
She said it with such conviction! “Magic, eh? How you delude yourself! The only magic is the pleasure that comes when two people want each other with equal intensity. The devil has nothing to do with this.”
“Why do you do this to me?” she cried in frustration.
“I have a need to be near you, Sheena, to hold you, to touch you. Now tell me,” he asked, “am Ihurting you? Nay, ’tis only holding you I’m doing. And a kiss or two I might steal.”
His mouth lowered to hers, but Sheena cried out in pain.
“What is this?” he demanded, seeing the slight swelling. “What caused this?”
“I…fell,” she said ineffectually.
He stared hard at her and then suddenly exploded. “By God, woman, you’re lying!” He shoved himself away, afraid he would strike her. “Only back one day, and you’ve already given yourself to another man!” he thundered. “Anyone but me, eh? Jameson was bad enough, but now one of my kin has been with you!”
“How dare you accuse me?” she shouted in outraged fury, reaching out to slap him as hard as she could. “First Jameson, now this! Mayhap you like thinking I’m a whore, to ease your own guilt, but I must disappoint you. ’Tis only a husband I’ll be giving myself to willingly. One of your kin indeed! I hate you all, for you’re all the same to me! Savage brutes!”
“Then how—?”
“I was attacked! But what difference does it make who attacks me, you or someone in your family? I’m no’ safe under your care, ’tis why I locked myself in here. And still I’m no’ safe—from you!”
Jamie fingered his face, his eyes glowering. Sheena backed away, appalled to realize what she had done. But the cause of his furious look wasn’t her slap.
“You were raped?” he asked in a deadly tone.
“Nay, it didna come to that—this time. But the fact is, you brought me back here and said I canna leave, yet you have done naught to protect me. Am I to live each day in fear of every man here, including you?”
Her accusation cut to the quick, because she was right. It was his fault. He and Colen both had brought her here without explaining her presence to the others.
“You’ll be telling me who it was attacked you, Sheena,” he said in a deceptively calm voice.
“Why?”
“An example will be made, to ensure your future safety.”
“Of course. A fine solution” she said sarcastically. “Punish the man for having the same brutish nature you have. Punish him because you are laird and he isna. Are you any less guilty than he is?”
“My intentions were made clear from the start.”
“And that excuses you?” she snapped. “Well, his intentions were made clear, as well, so you must excuse him, as well.”
“Sheena—”
“Nay, you’ll hear me out! I’ll no’ tell you who the man was, for he knew I was without laird here. I told him so.”
“Then you could have avoided the attack?”
