“Did I hurt you in any way?”
He couldn’t begin to know how he was hurting her.
“Say yes, m’love, and I’ll call you a liar. Our greatest danger here tonight was that one of us might have shrieked out loudly enough in pleasure to have given us both away.”
She gasped, ready to hit him. He gave her no chance to do so, drawing her to him.
“You had every chance to deny me,” he told her.
“You’re wrong. You seldom give me a chance at anything.”
He stared at her in the darkness, then his knuckles brushed her cheek, and his thumb moved over her lower lip. “Maybe I don’t dare give you any more chances!” he whispered softly.
“We can’t—let this go on,” she said fervently.
He shook his head, frowning. “You think that you can take back what happened between us.”
“You don’t understand?—”
“Nor do I care to.”
“There can be—consequences!” she told him.
“Not this time. I will not be taken this time!”
Shawna lowered her lashes, but she couldn’t hold her tongue. “I don’t mean you!” she lashed out.
“What, then?”
The truth she couldn’t bear to share with him retreated within her. “Nothing.”
“Damn it, what are you talking about?”
She shook her head vehemently. “Nothing!”
“Nothing,” he murmured. “Nothing will change the fact that one of your kin is guilty, and I will discover who. Sleeping on the floor will not help you. My spending the night awake on a window seat will not change anything for anyone either.”
In the flickering light of the fire, she saw him looking at her, his eyes filled with anger and passion and determination.She trembled, wishing that he could not feel her every little movement.
“If you intend to continue to accuse my family and expect my help, you’d better intend as well to keep me advised about what is happening, what you’re doing!”
He smiled. “You know I’ve been with you every night.”
“Aye, the flowers, the necklace, left upon my pillow.” She tried to study his face in the firelit shadows. “Why?” she asked very softly. “Part of your revenge?”
His teeth flashed in a white smile. “Most definitely,” he told her.
She studied him gravely. “Five years ago—I did not mean to seduce you. I—perhaps that isn’t exactly true, but I didn’t intend?—”
“You intended to seduce me, you simply didn’t intend to consummate anything you started,” he said bluntly.
She shook her head, then twisted away from him, lying with her back to him when she spoke again. “I didn’t intend to seduce you into the hell you discovered. And I do fear your revenge?—”
“Perhaps my revenge, my lady, is partly to make you want me as I wanted you when that fire began.”
His husky tone sent warmth cascading down her spine. She swallowed hard, fighting a strange surge of tears once again. He couldn’t know how she had wanted him. How she had missed him. How she had longed for him. How she had needed him with her.
“Perhaps, Laird Douglas,” she whispered in turn, “I am determined not to let you take revenge so easily. Perhaps I shall refuse to want you—I didn’t seek to seduce you now, and so help me, I will not do so?—”