“Rush me?” Outrage turned on him. “Is that what you think is going on here? Are you just biding your time until I succumb to the great, irresistible charms of Niall Lamont? Have you heard nothing I’ve said?”
Now she wasn’t the only one who was angry. Niall’s pent-up frustration caught up with him in one fell swoop. “I’ve heard every word you’ve said. For two bloody years I’ve been waiting to hear you talk to me again. Do you think I’d miss any of it? But I should have known that you would be needlessly stubborn. You’ve been that way for as long as I’ve known you, and whatever else has changed, that sure as Hades hasn’t.”
She flushed and straightened her spine as if she could span the nearly twelve inches that separated their heights. “Needlessly? What do you mean by that? Do you think I don’t know my own mind? And if my faults bother you so much, why are you here?”
“I didn’t say it was a fault,” although it was sure as hell bothering him right now. “I said it was who you are. Like your brothers and most of your clansmen, you are stubborn, tenacious, tough, and loyal. You are a fighter and a survivor even when the odds are against you. You are every inch a MacGregor, and that’s why I’m here. Because I know that, no matter how much I hurt you or what hell you suffered at those bastards’ hands, you are too damned stubborn to quit. I know that the girl who gave me her heart is too loyal to take it away no matter how much of an arse I’ve been or whether I deserve it or not.”
He lowered his voice, realizing he didn’t need to shout anymore. She was definitely listening, hanging on every word, as a matter of fact. She blinked up at him, and he didn’t think it was the sun in her eyes that was making them shiny. For the first time, it seemed he’d penetrated the iron shield that she’d erected around her heart.
“I know the woman who has been out here practicing the same drills over and over for days with a wooden knife is tenacious and isn’t going to give up no matter how hard I try to bore her to death.”
He probably should have quit while he was ahead and not added that last part. The burgeoning emotion in her eyes was a lot harder to see through her suddenly narrowed gaze.
“God’s teeth, I should have known something was going on! Did you and my brother come up with this together, or was it your brilliant idea to train me at such a snail’s pace?”
“Your brother didn’t have anything to do with it. But I wouldn’t really call it an ‘idea.’”
Forgetting that she’d just pushed him away a few moments before, she came right up to him, toe-to-toe. “Oh yeah, then what would you call it?”
He winced a little sheepishly. “Being careful?”
Her eyes were so narrow now they’d turned into two sharp points. “And the running this morning. Was that ‘careful,’ too?”
He made another face and had to fight hard not to laugh. But some things never changed; he loved seeing her riled up. “I believe you said something about me running once?”
He didn’t think he’d ever seen her get so mad. She looked as if she were trying to think of the most painful ways to kill him. He was glad that wooden knife was still lying on the ground. Ever so slyly, he moved his heel to stand on the handle and felt a crack.
“You are a despot of the worst kind, Niall Lamont. What kind of man takes his petty grievances out on a woman under his control?”
He laughed aloud at that one. They both knew how ridiculous that characterization was. Annie MacGregor would never let any man control her. God pity the poor fool who tried.
“Oh no. You don’t get to play the ‘weaker vessel’ when you want to, love. Not when I’m teaching you how to stick me with a knife. And two years is a long time to make me wait for being an idiot. But just because I took a little pleasure in it doesn’t make anything I asked you to do not important. Runningwillmake you stronger and improve your endurance.”
She looked marginally—marginally—mollified. “Well, at least we agree on one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“That you are an idiot.”
“Was,” he corrected. “Wasan idiot. I should have gotten down on my knee after that kiss at Dunvegan and asked you to marry me.”
“So now that you can no longer be chief, I’m good enough for you?”
All jesting fell by the wayside. He was very sober when he responded. “I never wanted to be chief, Annie. That position belonged to Malcolm, and now it belongs to Brian. But you were always good enough for me, and I’m sorry if I ever made you feel differently. I thought I was doing my duty. I was the second son; an important alliance through marriage to secure my future and better our clan was expected. I knew my father was trying to arrange an alliance with a Gordon heiress, and I thought it was my duty to go along with it. But I forgot something important.”
“What?” She was doing her best to make it seem as if the answer wasn’t important to her, but he could sense it was.
“I forgot how much my father adored my mother. He would have understood if I’d told him I loved you and wanted to marry you.” He took a chance and reached down to cup her small chin in his fingers. He didn’t want her to be able to look away. He wanted her to know he meant every word he said. “What we had was special, and I should have known that—especially after that kiss.”
His words seemed to be penetrating until he said the word kiss. A shadow cast over her gaze before it shuttered completely.
She shook off his hold and stepped back. “It won’t work, Niall. No matter what you say. What we had is gone, and it can’t be put back by pretty words and apologies.”
His frustration got the better of him. “Why the hell can’t it? The way I see it, the only thing standing in the way is your damned pride.”
She flushed. “Well, you don’t see everything.”
She was just being ornery now, and Niall’s cool slipped a little further. “So why don’t you tell me what I’m supposedly missing?”
