“I swear tae you,” he vowed deeply, making sure she felt the depth of it. “I will no’ let anything happen tae you.”

“B-but … you’re happening to me,” she said shakily. “You’re always happening to me! Every time I turn around you’re there doing something that pushes me and pushes me! I haven’t had a single second to catch my breath before you’re there again! Ihron wasn’t doing anything!”

“He was!”

“He wasn’t!” she yelled at him, suddenly forgetting about the door, forgetting all about her fear and lunging up into his face. “We were talking! I was upset. He touched me to reassure me, which is a hell of a lot more than I can say for you!”

To his shock she reached out and stabbed him in his chest with her finger to punctuate the accusation … right before she shook it out and muttered, “Ow,” under her breath. Apparently poking him hard had hurt her, whereas he’d hardly felt a thing. It just made him all the more aware of how fragile she was.

“I brought you here tae protect you!”

“I don’t need protection! I don’t want your protection!”

“You’re a damn fool if you really think that!” he shouted back at her. “Do you think I’d go through all this trouble for my own amusement?”

“Oh, so now I’m a fool, right? I’m trouble. And how am I supposed to know what goes on inside that thick skull of yours?” She scoffed at him. “Fool. You know what, I am a fool,” she agreed suddenly. “I’m a fool for ever trying to help you in the first place! I knew you were trouble the minute I laid eyes on you, but nooooo … I had to get all Good Samaritan. And now look at me!”

“You’re safe behind protected walls with nigh over a half-dozen immortals to protect you.”

“I—” She cut herself off and looked at him funny for a minute, clearly taking stock of the picture from his perspective for that minute.

“Aye, that’s it, lass. Go on and think on it for a moment. I canna help that you were the one tae find me in those woods, and I canna help that by helping me you’ve thrust yourself in the middle of a war. But I wouldna have left you behind for trackers tae find so they could torture answers out of you in order tae find me. Think what you like, but I couldna have that on my conscience. I’ve a damn site too much on it as it is. Enough blood has been spilt for my benefit already, and I’m sick tae death of it.” He turned from her and glared at Ihron. “Doona put your hands on her again if you know what’s good for you. We’re friends, you and I, and I’d like it to stay such. But doona touch her again unless ’tis to save her life. Am I making myself clear?”

“Crystal,” Ihron said. Then he turned his back on them both and left the room through the other door. He shut the door behind himself, leaving them closed into the room together.

She had her arms crossed under and over her breasts, in a kind of self-induced hug. Her eyes seemed so large in her delicate face and he was angry with himself for putting that fear in her life.

“I’ll be going, too,” he said quietly, turning to do just that.

There was something defeated in the sketch of his body and in the vitality of his normally bold presence in a room. It was as though something key to what he was had just abandoned him. She didn’t have to be especially intuitive to feel it.

“Wait,” she said, rolling her eyes, wondering why she was such a glutton for punishment. She should just let him go. She should just push him away and keep him away until she could figure a way out of the mess her life had become. “I’ll go. This is your house …”

“Our house,” he corrected clearly more harshly than he intended. “Damn it!” He ran a hand back through the thick, black waves of his hair, growling in frustration. “You doona understand! I canna … I just canna …” He floundered, looking so helpless that she felt another twang of sympathy for him. Then he looked at her hard, his fierce golden topaz eyes pinning her to the spot. “It’s no’ all about protecting you,” he said intensely. “I … you ken I’m … I’m wanting you fiercely bad, lass. In ways I have no right tae feel. If I had an ounce of sense or honor I’d leave off you and that would be the end of it, but I just canna seem tae make myself! I take one look at your bonny face or that delicious body you’re constantly trying to hide away from me and … you just doona get it. They’ve yet tae make an article of clothing effective enough tae keep your beauty under wraps. There’s nothing that’ll hide the lush scent of you from my senses. There’s no way for you tae erase the way you’ve felt in my arms, knowing that just a kiss can light you tae fire like kindling. How can I know all of that, feel all of that, and then just be expected tae walk away? I’m no’ that noble and I’ve never claimed tae be. I’m selfish, Kat. Selfish enough tae want you for myself. Myself and no other.”

He reached out, lifting a hand as if to push back that lock of hair that always seemed to catch his attention, but he stopped himself and drew back. When he turned she leapt for him, grabbing for the hand he’d just tried to touch her with.

“No, wait! Please!” She pulled on him, but he kept moving away from her.

“Just let me go now.”

“Ahnvil, stop!”

“Jesus, woman! I’m giving you your freedom! Do you bloody want it or no’?”

“No!” What?

“What?” he echoed, sounding equally shocked aloud as she had in her own head.

“I mean …” What did she mean? “I mean … I’ve never … I mean …” When he went to move again she said hastily, “I mean I’ve never had anyone think about me like that before!”

Well, that was true. All of her life she’d been “Little Kat.” Tiny, dwarfish, weird little Kat. Freakish. Sometimes sassy. Sometimes brilliant, given a good moment. But … desirable? Never. Irresistible? Absolutely not. But to listen to him say it, he thought she was the most desirable, irresistible woman on the entire earth. And as scared as he made her feel sometimes, it was nothing compared to how those words made her feel. That she made him feel strongly, that it moved him to make rash choices and behave irrationally. He scared her mostly because she didn’t know what in hell to do with that! What to do with him.