“Telling her now would send her fleeing in the night.”
“If that is what worries you, then lock her in her rooms.”
Duncan shook his head. “Have our trips to the future left no impression on your brain? If you bind women from her century, they will despise you for a lifetime. No one wants to feel trapped.”
“And you, brother, are daft if you don’t realize Tara is already trapped. Both of you are duly trapped.”
Still, Duncan wasn’t going to tell her anything about their binding vows. Instead, he would woo her like he’d been doing in her time.
Of course he would have to wait for her to stop yelling, and throwing things at the walls. He had to stop picturing the imaginative ways she conjured torturing him, even if it was only in her head, before he could implement his plan.
Unlike Fin, Duncan was a patient man. He would wait as long as it took for Tara to see they were meant to be together.
Just as he started to relax, a tremor of dread went through him. Duncan stood abruptly, startling his brother.
“What is it?” Fin jumped around to see what caused Duncan to move so quickly.
“Damn it,” Duncan cursed. Adding nothing in the way of an explanation, he ran out of the room at an alarming speed.
Not needing an invitation, Fin followed.
The more she paced, the angrier she became. He’d lied. Over and over again, he had lied to her.
God he had made her want him. She desired him more than any other man she had ever dated.
Ever kissed.
Disgusted with the way her skin tingled thinking about being in his arms, Tara tossed a heavy tray at the wall.
Duncan had used her. What made him so different from the woman he called Grainna? Worse, Duncan had used her emotions and feelings, tossed them at her for his needs. Maybe that wasn’t a fair assessment of the situation, but Tara didn’t care.
She was hurt and angry. She hadn’t even begun to consider what life in his time would mean. She did realize she would never see Cassy or her sister and nephew again.
She yelled her frustration and noticed the heat of anger building all over again. With all that fury, the need to get outside overwhelmed her.
She grabbed her sweater off her bed and stormed out of her room. She didn’t notice her own strength when she slammed the solid wood door behind her and it bounced off the wall.
The hallway was clear. Not that it mattered.
She would likely punch anyone who blocked her path. She almost dared Duncan to get in her way.
She found the main hall where she had confronted Duncan and his parent’s only hours before. The massive double doors towering over fifteen feet tall had to be the way out of the house.
Not that the MacCoinnich’s residence resembled a mere home. The place was a friggin’ castle! One she might appreciate, if she was on tour in Scotland with a bunch of old people enjoying their retirement.
But no! She wasn’t on tour. That fact was confirmed further when she crossed over the front door threshold.
She stepped into a huge courtyard where several men dressed in armor and kilts all stopped participating in their daily chores to gawk at the new arrival. A few horses were tied to posts, while others had riders on their backs.
“Take a picture!” she yelled before storming past them all.
She had no idea where she was going. Sunlight pooled down on her from above, through another set of doors, looking very much like they belonged on the set of a movie.
The doors were large enough to allow six or seven men to move through, side by side on horseback. It was obviously the way in and therefore her ticket out.
She tossed her hair over a shoulder, sucked in a deep breath, and damn near ran to her freedom.
The front doors were left open, and by the look on the men’s faces Duncan knew she had already crossed their paths. “Where?” He barked the question to all who stood staring.
Several men pointed in the direction of the gate.
He could hear her curses in his head and knew she hadn’t gotten very far.
Duncan held up a hand to his brother with an unspoken request to leave him alone.
He spotted her marching away and sighed in relief. He watched her for several minutes before shortening the distance between them.
Tara didn’t turn to look when he came up behind her. “Where are you going, Tara?”
“Out!”
“I can see that, but where?”
She stopped and turned. “Far away from you.”
He almost collided with her. But before he could react she was storming off again.
“A lady is not safe out here by herself.”
She stopped again. This time he didn’t stop in time and fell into her.
Hands at her sides, her chest thrust up next to his, she gritted the words between her teeth. “A lady isn’t safe around you, either.”
“Now, Tara.” He tried pleading with her.
“Oh don’t you even, ‘now, Tara’ me.” She stepped to the side and started off in a different direction.
Walking in circles.
He let her walk for several minutes before attempting to talk to her again. “I would be happy to escort you on a walk. But we need to get you more properly dressed.” He knew the effect watching her walk was having on him. He could only imagine what his men must have thought when she had stormed the courtyard in her shorts.
“You’re a bastard, you know that MacCoinnich?”
He wanted to counter what she said but cautioned himself against it. “Still, we need you in more fitting clothes. If someone were to come along, questions would be raised which would be most difficult to answer.”
“You should have thought of that before you brought me here.” She waved a hand in his general direction. “Right now I don’t give a crap what questions you might have to answer.”
“I told you how necessary it is for secrecy.” He turned to the Keep and noticed some of the men watching to see what would happen. He needed to put a stop to this and soon.
“Bite me.”
A completely inappropriate image of him doing exactly that popped in his head. A slow lazy smile inched over his lips.
Unfortunately for him, Tara read his thoughts.
She didn’t find them nearly as entertaining as he did. “You ass...” She raised her hand to slap his face.
He caught her hand before it made contact. “I’ve had enough of this.”
Without warning and in complete disregard for what she might think, Duncan bent down and unceremoniously tossed Tara over his shoulder and started back to the Keep.
Once she caught her breath, and realized what he was doing, she started pounding on his back, demanding he let her down.