He closed the door, planted the log beside her, and sat. Without saying a word, he sipped his coffee to judge the temperature, then held her cup to her lips.
She sipped, then took a long pull. “Thank you.”
He stuffed half a rasher in his mouth, then broke another piece off for her.
Her mouth might have thanked him, but her eyes burned with anger. Her calm was all a show. If he let her go now, she’d find the blades he’d hidden with the boxes atop the shelf, and slit his throat, sure. Despite what that blasted time traveler expected her to do.
Another bite for each of them, then a drink.
He noticed a drop of grease on her lip and reached over to wipe it away, but the move only brought a shine to her entire bottom lip. She watched his mouth as he licked his own lips insome sort of sympathy, then they locked gazes and froze, both of them. A breath later, they glanced away.
“Ye said, last eve, that ye’d mistaken the place for a bothy. This morn, ye reckoned ye’d been spirited back to another century. I cannae wait to hear yer next tale.”
“So, your brother told you? He’s probably freezing. Don’t keep him out there on my ac…ac…” Horrified, she studied his eyes, his nose, then she leaned back so she could look at his leg. Not the boots that had made her so happy, but his leg.
He could almost hear the words as if they still hung in the air.
Where are your pants?
She rolled her eyes, groaned, and dropped her chin to her chest. After a heavy sigh, she shook her head and looked him in the eye. “You’ve been laughing at me the whole time.”
“Now and again, aye. But I sobered the instant ye mentioned traveling through time. I reckon ye meant to bring that up later? Let it slip a little early, did ye? Gave the game away?”
“What game?”
He pulled off another wee bite of rasher and stuffed it in her mouth whilst it hung open. “Come, now, Matty, is it?”
He enjoyed the shock on her face, reveled in his ability to surprise her. He’d read her name on the inside of her coat that still hung in the stable, beside her skis, where she wouldnae find them without braving the storm.
“Yer friend should have tried harder to find me more thanshek blee-uh-nuh air ash.But I’ll no go back. I have no intention ofuh koor soo-yl airthat battlefield again. And by the time he comes for ye, I shall be far away from this place.” He downed the rest of his coffee and lifted her cup to her lips, but she shook her head.
Her blinks were irregular. She shook her head again and again, as if trying to understand someone who was speaking toofast. “I haven’t got any idea what you’re talking about. You want to try it again in English?”
“Abandon the pretense, woman. If the traveler didnae trust ye with the whole of the story, ye ken it now. So.” He pushed the plates and cups away and folded his hands on the top of the table. “When should we expect ‘im?”
“I do not know what in the freak you are talking about! And I don’t remember telling you my name!”
He chewed the side of his lip for a moment whilst he thought matters through. Then he came to an obvious conclusion. “The witches hired ye then. They vaguely promised happiness, so I reckon ye were to seduce me at some point. To occupy me until the devil arrives?”
He stood and moved behind her to untie the rope that secured her to the chair. “I reckon now is as good a time as not.”
“For what?”
He leaned close to her ear, pulled her loosening braid aside, slowly, and grinned when she shivered. “Fer the seduction.”
Cian’s nose exploded into a thousand painful stars that crashed, pointy bits first, into his brain, bringing tears to his eyes and blood to his mouth. He felt the hard floor come up beneath his arse, but he could see nothing but lights shooting from the pain centered behind his screaming nose. When he dared lift his fingers to touch it, he found the bloody thing off kelter!
She’s broken it!
The painful pricking of stars continued to disrupt his vision, so he had no ken what the lass was up to. Freeing herself, most likely. And running for the door.
Auch, but why would any lass do otherwise when a man whispers such a threat in her ear?
“Woman? Matty? Where are ye?”
He heard not a breath from her.
“Forgive me,” he groveled between sputters of blood pouring past his lips. “I own that it was a cruel thing to say, but I’ll not dishonor ye, I vow it.”
