“I remember.”
“It would serve ye best to listen.”
“Or what?” She stepped away from the hearth, eyeing him with cool interest.
“Are ye a spy?”
“Jesus have mercy…” She rolled her eyes. “I know I took ye by surprise. Imagine how I felt coming back here to speak with John and finding ye instead. Had I known ye were here, I would’ve stayed away.”
“The feelings are mutual, lass, believe me.”
“I am no spy, Alex. Just a woman who wishes to reunite with her family.”
Was she daft? If she wanted to go home, why’d she ride so far northwest? Her sire’s lands were in the opposite direction. “Did ye forget where yer da lives? Twould have been a much shorter journey to yer home.”
She huffed out a frustrated breath. “I am not stupid, Alex MacKay. And I have a keen sense of direction. My intention was to gain John’s forgiveness first, and maybe even an annulment before I faced my father.”
“Annulment?” So she could reclaim her life and find happiness with another man? He strode across the room, angry that she’d even suggest it. “John wouldna have agreed to such an arrangement. The MacKay’s are a proud clan, Keely.”
“Annulments are common enough.”
“Not to the MacKay’s.”
“I doona understand?”
Alex stared at the woman like he’d never met her before. “An annulment suggests failure, Keely.”
“My failure, not John’s.”
“Spoken like a woman who doesna understand what a man is made of—what drives him.”
Keely blinked at him. “Aye, I understand. Ye call it pride and honor, but I consider it pigheadedness.”
Alex pumped his hands closed several times, hoping to alleviate some of the building pressure in his chest. The she-devil had openly insulted him. “Pigheadedness?” he repeated as he stepped even closer to her. “Ye destroyed John’s life.”
“Aye, I played a part in his misfortune, but so did ye.”
Almost forehead to forehead, he gazed down at her, not missing the spark of anger in her fathomless eyes or the soft fragrance in her hair. Keely Oliphant might represent everything he wanted to forget, but she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Which only made his rage run that much hotter, for she once belonged to him. “Be careful where ye point yer finger, lass. I played no part in yer deception. If anything, I am the unluckiest of all. Ye promised yerself to me, then went behind my back and accepted my brother’s offer for marriage.”
“We were young,” she said.
“Ye were wanton, Keely. Ready to surrender that maidenhead to me.” He reached for her hands and she flinched. Why? In his experience, women who winced like that were victims of abuse.Has someone hurt her?Regardless, he pulled the twine off, freeing her. “Ye were mine.”
She retreated a step, rubbing her wrists. “I belong to no man.”
“Every female on God’s green earth belongs to a man, lass. Whether her sire or husband, brother or uncle, doesna matter.”
Very slowly she raised her head and met his gaze. “What do ye want from me, Alex?”
Alex curled his fingers under her stubborn chin, turning her face side to side. “I doona know yet, lass. But until I do, ye’re to stay here.” Satisfied he’d made his wish clear, he turned on his heel and headed for the door.
“Alex?” she called.
He dinna stop until he was in the hallway with the door shut. Curse God for bringing her back into his life. In the short amount of time he’d been back in the Highlands, everything that had happened gave him every reason to want to leave. He only needed to ride for the beach where his ship waited to take him home. Twenty of his best warriors were with him, men who had pledged their allegiance to him in Constantinople. Men he trusted more than anyone.
He closed his eyes and imagined he was back in the desert, riding one of his stallions through the endless sand dunes, nothing on his mind but speed and freedom. That world seemed more like a fantasy now. “Damn this place.” He stormed off, ready to drink himself into oblivion.
Chapter Six
