“Why don’t you leave? Why stay if you’re unhappy?”

“You remember my friend, the drunken one from last night? This was all her idea. Cassy’s having a ball. I couldn’t ask her to leave.”

“Loyalty. ’Tis a rare quality in a person.”

“Maybe, but Cassy would do the same for me if the situation were reversed. So I’ll stay and deal with all the stares and pointing for a few days. The tournament sounds interesting—should be fun.

Have you been to one before?”

“Aye, I’ve been to them once or twice.”

“What about after, the ceremony? Have you seen that?” She picked a flower and started plucking the pedals one by one.

“Aye, but not quite the way they have this one planned.”

“Gwen told us all about it. Handfasting is like an engagement ceremony right?”

He nodded. “Engagement to most, but ‘binding’

when the right words are employed by the right people. Does the ceremony worry you?”

She shrugged her shoulders. “How bad could it be? It’s not like I’m selling my soul or anything. I’ll pretend I’m acting in a play.”

Duncan’s smile faded.

“Gwen gives me the creeps.” Tara finished her wine and sat the glass down.

“Why?”

“First, is her name. Gwen. She doesn’t look like a Gwen. I’ll bet it’s some kind of stage name. Second, her smiles always look so fake. It’s as if she wants everyone to think she’s this great person, when under it all she’s doing all of this for some perverse reason. I mean, why single out virgins? I think if I could read people like her, I would use the gift for something good. Not to announce something as personal as one’s virginity to the world.”

“Do you think she has a gift?”

“Oh yeah, she has one! When Gwen looks at you, it’s like she is looking through you.” Just talking about Gwen turned Tara’s hands to ice. “You don’t believe in those kinds of things, do you?”

When he didn’t answer, Tara looked and found him staring. His eyes told her he felt the same way.

“I guess maybe you do. Which makes us both a little crazy.”

“It isn’t crazy to see beyond your own thoughts.

You called it a gift a moment ago, why change your view now?” Duncan watched her lips as she spoke.

“It sounds crazy, believing in a psychic ability to read someone else’s mind.”

“Do you think ’tis mind reading?” The wind blew Tara’s hair across her face. He reached out and pushed it back. Duncan let his fingers linger on the side of her cheek. Heat rose to her face with his gentle caress.

Duncan’s touch distracted her train of thought.

She had to force herself to answer his question. “It might be.” Her tongue moistened her drying lips.

He moved in closer, focused on her lips. His gaze drifted back to hers.

She should back away, but like two magnets, Tara sensed the pull and the unavoidable joining she knew would happen.

Duncan was going to kiss her. She was powerless to stop him and, in fact, didn't even want to stop him.

“What am I thinking, Tara?” He hovered inches away. His eyes shifted between her lips and her smoky eyes.

Tara caught her trembling lip in her teeth. “You want to kiss me.” Her words were only a whisper, as unsteady as her pulse.

He moved closer, only a breath away. “Will you let me?”

Her breath came in short gasps. Please, her mind screamed, when her heart and lips said, “Yes.”

Chapter 4

Duncan’s lips swallowed her answer. His gentle tasting liquefied her insides more than his words could. Shock registered in her brain, not because he was kissing her. That, Tara expected. But, the completeness of their connection staggered her.

He changed his angle, probed her lips with his tongue, requesting entry. She returned his kiss with a timid caress of her tongue. Her arms slid around his neck, drawing him closer with a moan of compliance.

Slowly he lowered her off her elbows until she felt the grass on her back. His glorious weight held her in place. Not that she was planning to go anywhere. His lips held her hostage in a wicked kind of way.

This weekend vacation was heading in a completely new direction.

His fingers traveled the length of her waist and burned a path of fire to the pit of her stomach. Little flutters of desire peeled away at her resolve.

Her world spun out of control. She had been kissed before, but never like this, leaving her desperately wanting to find what came next.

She should stop him. Tara was well practiced in the art of refusal. Any twenty-five year old virgin would have to be. But instead of halting his actions, she followed his lead. Her head tilted back when his mouth left hers and moved to her neck. Her body quaked, a new sensation, and she expected more if she let him continue.

God help her. She wanted him to continue.

“You’re so beautiful.”

Duncan’s lips sent tremors over the lobes of her ear. An ache deep in her stomach started to grow.

She dug her nails in to his back and arched toward him. Wanting. Needing. “Oh God,” she gasped, giving in to each new sensation. “This isn’t happening.”

“Aye, love. It is.” His mouth fused again with hers, giving no time to think and only time to feel.

His movements grew bolder.

She encouraged him with eager cries.

Smoke whirled around in her head with each new touch and taste. His hand captured her breast...

Instinctively she pushed it away.

“Let me, Tara. Let me show you how it can be.”

His words were so tender and tempting.

Her brain engaged. “Wait.” What was she doing?

Duncan told her he brought her here for seduction and here she was letting him. “No.”

Although he stopped with her first request, Duncan left his body where it was, glued to hers. He dropped his forehead to her shoulder and gasped for breath.

Embarrassed, Tara felt like a tease. She had always prided herself on keeping a man at arm’s length. Men weren’t switches who could be turned off and on at a woman’s whim. “I’m sorry.”

“No, lass, I’m sorry. You told me you weren’t ready for this. Here, I am pushing you.” Duncan looked at her and brushed the hair from her eyes. “I couldn’t seem to stop myself.”

“I suppose that’s a compliment.” She attempted a laugh to change the mood, but it came out as a soft moan.