Page 11 of Laird Of Her Heart

“Why have I never heard of this sept?”

“I told you. We’re from the west.”

“I know all the clans to the west.”

“We’re from across the sea.”

His eyes narrowed. “There is nothing across the sea.”

“There is.” Seattle, for one thing. Also, Vegas. But she didn’t see the point in mentioning that.

He was silent for a long while. When he finally spoke, his voice was low and somber. “All right. Assuming you are, indeed a Macintosh from Seattle…why are you here?”

Oh crap. How the hell was she supposed to answer that? She didn’t know. Not really. She decided to go with her gut. To give him the one answer that had been humming in her soul since she clapped eyes on his picture.

“I came to meet you, Dominic of Dar. I came to meet you.”

CHAPTER THREE

Something whipped through Dominic like a howling wind. He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was hot and needy. Certainly, she was a strange little thing. Certainly her story was suspect. But he couldn’t shake this sense of…recognition. The overwhelming sense of inevitability. As though the two of them were meant to meet. Meant to be together. Meant to—

And yes, his passion was high.

He wanted her with a hunger he had never known. He wanted to pull her into his arms and kiss her, ravage her, claim her.

But his brain overruled his hunger. It had to. He had hundreds of kinsmen beneath his banner and he was devoted to protecting them. He could not succumb to simple lust with a woman who could be a traitor. Who could be lying every time she parted those pretty lips.

But it wasn’t simple lust, was it? There was nothing simple about it.

He sat back and studied her, but in truth, he needed a moment to rally his resolution, his sanity.

“You say you have come from Seattle to meet me?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Her mouth opened. He fixated on it. He hardly even noticed the fact that she didn’t actually respond, that a flicker of befuddlement crossed her face. Would she not know why she had come to meet him?

At length, she burbled, “Well, to meet the great Laird of Dar, of course. Everyone knows of you in Seattle.”

Again, he had the sense her words were lies, but he didn’t dwell on the suspicion. There seemed little point. All that mattered here, all that should matter, was keeping his people safe from their enemies. There had been many raids on his lands of late, many treacheries from the Cameron Clan to the east. Whispers of betrayal abounded, especially now, with the forming of the Chattan Confederation. The Camerons had not been included in the federation of clans and—resentful of the exclusion, or worried the combined forces of so many families would become too powerful—were determined to scuttle the union.

More than one Cameron spy had been captured, and many Cameron lads had come to Dar to cause mischief. They were becoming a familiar nuisance.

But they’d not yet sent a woman.

Though he was certain she was lying, he was also certain she wasn’t a spy.

What she was, was a mystery.

One he was determined to unravel.

Declan pushed into his tent and when he saw Dominic and their prisoner enjoying a drink at the table, he glowered. He glowered a lot.

“You were supposed to wait for me before you interrogated her,” he grumbled.

“I’m no’ interrogating her. I just thought she might like something to drink…after her stroll.”