Page 14 of Scot of Seduction

It suggests the absence of a heart at all.

She stood, unable to bear this conversation any longer, though she caught sight of his expression as she turned away. His brow was furrowed deeply.

CHAPTER SIX

Tad locked the bedchamber door behind him. He could hear Catreena’s breathing become a little labored across the room as she washed her face in a basin of water. He didn’t turn to face her, feeling unable to do so, as he laid his pack in a corner of the room.

What did she mean by that?

Her words from dinner kept repeating in his mind. Try as he might, he could not forget them. It was the way she had looked at him for a second, as if she understood him, perhaps even accepted his rakish ways, then it evaporated in an instant.

“The way ye litter women around ye…”

He felt like those words had been added to one of his tattoos, stained across his skin. Was that what he did? Did she see him as a man who cast women aside as nothing more than dispensable rubbish?

“Ye can have the floor.” Her words drew his attention.

He was shrugging off his loose jacket as he turned to face her in alarm.

“What did ye say?” His eyes flicked to the bed. It was a good size, easily large enough for the two of them in this poky room. “There’s more room in the bed than there is on the floor. Have ye seen the size of me?” He gestured to his tall figure. “I can hardly curl up like that guard dog ye’d have me be.”

“Ye forget, ye are the one who cast yerself in that role. Nae I,” she said curtly. “I am nae sharing a bed with ye.”

“We could build a wall of pillows.”

“It would nae be enough.”

“I would never touch ye!” he said with sudden heat, angered that she still couldn’t trust him.

She stood beside the bed, her body frozen, her fingers half through the updo of hair she was taking down. He hadn’t realized just how long her blonde hair had grown. It reached past her shoulders and to her breasts, where it tangled loosely. An errant imagining of threading his fingers through those golden locks filled his mind, of gripping onto it as he kissed her neck, then he thrust the image away with anger.

“I made yer braithers a vow,” he spat hurriedly. “When are ye going tae start tae trust the fact I would nae dare touch ye?”

“I ken ye wouldnae touch me.” She matched his fierce tone. “Why would ye want tae touch the woman who is practically young enough tae be yer daughter, eh?”

He felt the rug had been pulled out from under him as she erupted in sudden movement. She grabbed extra pillows off the bed. The first one caught him off guard as she flung it at his face, but he managed to catch the next two.

“Tae make the floor comfortable,” she explained quickly.

“Ye heard me,” he muttered, more to himself than her. For a second, he was back in that study, persuading her brothers they could trust him. He’d had no idea her ear must have been pressed close to the door as she listened in. “I didnae mean it like that –”

“Oh, aye, ye did, nae that I should mind,” she said hurriedly as she flung back the cover and sat down on the bed, fully clothed. She reached down, pulling off her boots. “I was hardly standing there waiting fer yer good opinion, was I?”

“Cat – I’m sorry. But it is a fact.”

“Dinnae call me that,” she said with sudden fierceness. “Nay more ‘Cat,’ nay more ‘little Catreena’ either. I cannae stand any of it.” She flung her hands up as she dropped her boots on the floor. “This isnae about believing ye would go back on yer word if I did allow ye intae this bed. It’s about the fact that I dinnae want ye in this bed with me.” She turned to him with wild eyes. “I am being ordered from one clan tae another because men say so. I am sharing a chamber with ye on yer order. If I will have control of one thing in me life, it will be who I damn well let intae a bed with me.”

The fierceness made him take a step back. The way she put it, the way she described it, suddenly made him feel small indeed. He was like an asp in the bushes, waiting to pounce and make her do his bidding. It seemed that’s how she viewed all men at this moment, him and her brothers.

“Well, I cannae blame ye fer that thought,” he muttered. His acceptance made her sit up straight on the bed. “Ye can always control who sleeps beside ye, Cat… reena,” he added hurriedly, not wishing to offend her again. “Fine, I shall take the floor.”

He turned to wash himself as she climbed under the covers fully clothed and threw the blanket over her head. He caught sight of his reflection in the mirror, then of her beneath those covers. The ungentlemanly thoughts he’d had of her in his head all night, the way he had been tempted to kiss her as they ate their dinner, now filled him with utter shame.

She deserves better than that.

When he was done, he blew out the candles and retreated to the floor, sleeping fully clothed with his boots off, his head rested on the pillows she had quite understandably thrown at him.

Tad was there again. He couldn’t escape it. It was the perpetual reality for him now.