“The best kind of compliment.” He brushed a brief kiss over her lips before he moved away. “We should head back. We don’t want Gra...Gwen’s men to send a search party to look for you.”
Nerves rapidly replaced passion. Duncan stood up and gave her a hand, bringing her to her feet.
“It’s getting late.” Tara fidgeted with her dress, smoothing invisible lines in an effort to act natural.
Tara admired his muscular body from lowered lashes while he packed their things. His broad shoulders narrowed to great hips and an even nicer ass. She rolled her eyes and looked away. She shouldn’t be thinking about his ass.
Duncan’s horse snorted when Tara approached him. She spoke calmly and stroked his cheek. “He’s a beautiful animal. Is he yours?”
Duncan secured his bag before rounding the animal to catch the bridle. “Aye, I’ve owned Durk for many years now.”
“So, you live close by?” She hoped.
“I wouldn’t say close.”
He was being evasive. Why? “Where is your home?” Best way to get a direct answer was to ask a direct question.
He paused. “I told you I was from Scotland.”
“Oh, right. You brought your horse on vacation?”
Her heart sank in her chest. Scotland. Too far for any chance of a relationship. But he hadn’t asked for a relationship, had he?
He said nothing.
Disappointed, Tara looked up to see him watching her. “So, you and I...” She waved a finger between the two of them. “…would have ended up being a weekend affair, if we didn’t stop?”
Duncan hesitated. Before he could answer, she held up a hand. “No, please don’t lie. I’d like to believe there is honor amongst some men.” She swallowed hard trying to remove the dryness, which crept into her throat. “When are you planning to go home?”
He searched her eyes, then said, “My brother and I will leave after the fair ends.”
“I thought so. Since you’ve been so honest to me, I’ll be perfectly honest with you.” She took a calming breath and looked away. “If I were into casual sex, I wouldn’t have remained a virgin for twenty-five years. I’m not sure if the man I marry will be my first. But, it needs to mean more, to me and the man I’m with, than just a fling. I hope you can respect that.”
Tara scratched Durk’s nose to look more confident than she felt. She had said similar words to other men in the past. Some would outright lie in an attempt to get her in bed. Others would say they understood, but never called again. Either way, Tara was glad she didn’t sleep with any of them, even if it meant she spent her Saturday nights alone.
Duncan took her trembling hand, the one stroking the horse, and brought her fingers to his lips. “Tara, you are more a Lady than any I have met.”
She sighed. “We should get back.”
Tara rode in front of him, but kept her body stiff, fearful of getting too close after refusing him.
This proved impossible. Duncan pulled her frame to rest against his and told her quietly, “I didn’t take you back there. I won’t do so while riding a horse.”
Tara relaxed and enjoyed the strength of his body holding hers. The burnt orange and gold of the sun was low on the horizon. Tara couldn’t stop from thinking they were riding off in the sunset.
Get a grip, she scolded herself. He’s going back to Scotland in a few days. Romantic imagery won’t change that.
Now what was he going to do? He failed at seducing her, and didn’t imagine he would have another chance before the solstice. He considered deceit in an effort for making her angry enough to leave the fair. Yet there was no guarantee Grainna wouldn’t follow her and take her against her will.
Nay, he thought. I’ll stay close to her side, for her safety. To keep Grainna from breaking her spell.
Maybe if Grainna could be fooled into believing Tara was no longer chaste, she would look elsewhere. He didn’t think it was possible, but what choice did he have? He couldn’t come right out and tell Tara the danger she was in.
She wouldn’t believe him.
Duncan’s thoughts turned to Grainna’s curse and the purpose for his visit to this time.
She had been born, like he and his family, from Druid descent. Magic permeated their blood. With magic however, came responsibility, honor and respect for the gifts they had been given.
Grainna followed the sacred ways until she met a man whose beauty mystified her, and she fell in love. She thought Elic a perfect match for her as a husband. His blood was also Druid, not as untainted as hers. Nor as powerful.
But Elic’s intentions were anything but pure. He looked at her as a conquest. An innocent no man had taken before. During the course of one summer, she gave him her virginity. He fell in lust and took it. As the summer wore on and his attention waned, Elic set up a meeting where Grainna would find him in the arms of another woman.
Grainna heard their cries of passion. All she could do was stand by and watch. Trembling with tears of pain streaming down her face, she pleaded with him to stop. On bended knee, she begged him to go away with her.
Elic laughed and scorned her for thinking she was the only woman in his life.
Bitterness and pain fueled the revenge she took on the man she loved and the woman he flaunted.
Grainna used her gift, the one she used to speak to animals. She cast the bats and rodents from every corner of the barn to feast upon Elic and his lover.
With wicked delight, she watched their slow and painful death. Their cries for mercy went unheeded.
Her heart, the one he had so carelessly shattered, had completely closed off.
With Elic’s death, Grainna felt a Druid’s power sliding into her for the first time. It was a drug more powerful than seduction.
Using her gifts for revenge was forbidden by the Ancients. To avoid persecution from her own people, she fled the country of her birth.
For years, she practiced the dark arts and searched the land for people with powers. Druid or witches she didn’t care. Those souls she could turn to her evil ways she let live. Those who refused, met with untimely deaths.
Her quest for blood and revenge on anyone who loved was insatiable. Her power grew as the years went on. In a final act of defiance, Grainna used the blood of her dead in a potion of immortality.
The Ancients who had watched and waited, gathered to stop her evil. They cursed Grainna to an eternity in an aging and powerless body. They bound her Druid powers and those she had gathered, making it almost impossible for her to return to her former self.