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“I looked at my bloody hands, at his face beaten to a pulp, and I hated myself.” He closed his eyes, willing to swallow the next words, regretting that he’d said this much out loud. “I became him.”

Silence fell between them, thick and palpable, like an invisible wall. Planets could’ve been born and died in the seconds that passed by.

And then she broke it with one word. “Never.”

“He was not the first man I’d hit. I was violent after my mom married him, even as a kid Colin’s age. If I hadn’t gotten into soccer—it’s a team sport—I would’ve kept on getting into fights and stealing stuff. Then I enrolled into the Marines. I’d always wanted to because my dad was a Marine.”

He swallowed a painful knot. “As a Marine, I didn’t hesitate to kill people, Marjorie.”

“Neither did my grandfather, my father, my uncle, and my brothers.” She swallowed. “Neither will I when the MacDougalls come. ‘Tis the way of a warrior.”

“But—”

“Have ye ever raised yer hand to a woman or a child?”

“No.”

“Then ye dinna have a thing in common with him.”

Konnor exhaled shakily. Her words seeped through him like a cool balm on a burn wound.

“Disgusted by my actions and afraid I’d finish him, I left the house,” Konnor said, “He was alive when I left. I later found out that he made it to his car and tried to drive—probably to a hospital. But on his way there, another car hit him, and he died.” His gut churned. “Had I not beaten him, or had I taken him to the hospital, he might be alive today.”

The words and the guilt burned his gut like acid.

“I believe ‘tis destiny that brought us together,” she said. “We share this darkness, this experience with violence. Mayhap because of your care for an abused woman, ye’re the first man I’ve felt safe with besides my brothers.”

She lay her hand on his chest, and Konnor’s heart thumped against it. Did she think of him as a brother? His shoulders dropped with disappointment. He wanted her to think of him as a man. But she felt safe with him. That mattered more.

“Ye make me want to have a normal life.” She stepped closer so that their hips and stomachs touched. Konnor sank into the depths of her slanted eyes. In the twilight, they were the color of a forest after the rain, and he lost his breath, mesmerized by their magic and mystery.

“Ye make me want to love someone,” she whispered. “To kiss someone.”

Konnor’s blood buzzed. “Do you want to kiss me?”

She exhaled. “Aye. Verra much.”

Konnor lifted his hand and cupped her warm, smooth jaw. “I’ve wanted to do this from the first moment I saw you.”

Her eyes sparkled with excitement, anticipation, and desire.

Slowly, to give her the chance to jump back if she changed her mind, he leaned towards her without breaking eye contact. Then gently, he covered her lips with his.

They met him with such softness he thought he would lose his mind. She smelled like a field of wild flowers, of wind and of freedom. He touched her lips softly, then again and again. The silk of her warm mouth and her scent made his head spin and his blood boil.

She gave a barely audible sweet moan.

Damn it.

He wrapped his arms around her, bringing her closer, and pressing his lips against hers harder. She didn’t run away. In fact, she wrapped her arms around his neck. He stroked her lips with his tongue, and she parted them.

With a groan, he dipped his tongue into the depths of her mouth to meet her tongue and lick it, play with it. She tasted like magic, like the uisge and her own sweetness.

She responded as he teased her. But then suddenly, she stepped away, leaving him empty-handed with coldness spreading in his core.

Chapter 19

Marjorie panted. Her heart beat like an army of Celtic drums. Her cheeks flamed with heat, and her breasts ached with longing. A slight warm breeze cooled her cheek, and she inhaled the air hungrily, hoping it would calm her down.