Part 13 (1/2)
”Toni!” David warned.
”No, really! Bruce, please, listen to me. I'm grateful that you're being magnanimous. But if we're going to make this work, you need to trust us.”
After a moment Bruce turned to Thayer. ”I'm not accusing you of anything, Fraser. I'm just curious, that's all. Naturally,” he said, addressing Gina, ”we will have to have some kind of contract written up, but we can work that out at another time.” He set his sandwich on a plate and turned to leave. They watched him in silence. At the kitchen door, he turned back. ”One last thing. Stay out of the forest. That's a must.” He stared at Toni. For a moment, it seemed that he was speaking only to her.
She felt almost as if they were touching. Her heart hammered, her breathing quickened. Kinetic energy seared between them, and she wanted to reach out and shake the man.
After he left, they remained in stunned silence for a minute, and Toni felt something deflate in her.
”I don't know about this,” she said. ”Every time I start to think he might be decent, he turns back into an a.s.s.”
”Toni, it's just you!” David said.
”He was on to Thayer!” Toni said.
”Hey, kinswoman,” Thayer said lightly, ”it's all right. This is Scotland. I can see where he was coming from. Aye, he got m'dander up! But it's all right. There was no revolution here, you know. There's still royalty, n.o.bility, peerage, the whole bit. They tend to think they should be known, though, as you've seen, old piles of stone like this one tend to be all about. The bloke probably can't quite admit that this isn't exactly Stirling or Edinburgh castle!” Thayer shrugged. ”We're at the base of the Highlands, you know. The Lowlanders and the Highlanders have always been a bit off. I'm fine with it all. Hey, I am a Scotsman. I should have seen to it that I knew more about the place, eh?” He walked to Toni, smiling ruefully, and gave her a kiss on the cheek. ”My fierce little American! I'm all right on my own, honestly.”
She nodded, liking him very much then.
Thayer's small dimples showed and his green eyes were light. With his fingers he shoved back a lock of sandy hair and said again, ”Toni, I'm all right, honestly.”
”Well, there you have it!” David announced. ”If s late.”
”Yes, if the lot of you will just get out of the kitchen, David and I will whip it all clean in a matter of minutes,” Kevin said. ”We can make more sense of things in the morning.”
”No, we'll stay and help,” Toni murmured.
”No, you will not!” David protested. ”You'll make it take longer.”
”You'll start breaking dishes,” Ryan said.
”I will not!” Toni protested.
David came by her side, hugging her. ”Toni, you're in b.i.t.c.h mode,” he said softly.
”I am not!” she protested vehemently. Then she looked around, they were all staring at her. ”I am not,” she said stubbornly, but far more softly.
”It's him,” Thayer said.
”You're right, it's him,” she agreed, thinking, that naturally, Thayer was on her side. Then she realized that he hadn't meant the words quite the way that she had taken them, because the others were suddenly grinning.
”You noted it, too?” Ryan said to Thayer.
”The sparks that are always flying?” Kevin suggested.
”Chemistry in the air,” David said.
”Oh, no!” Toni protested.
”I'd do him in a flash,” Kevin said, ”if I weren't taken.”
”And if he weren't reeking heteros.e.xuality,” David said pragmatically.
”Trust me--” Toni began.
”Oh, Toni! Quit being so blind!” Gina advised. ”Every time the two of you talk, I'm waiting for one of you to lunge at the other and grapple on the floor!”
”I give up,” Toni said, very aggravated and tense.
”You are free, white and female,” David reminded her.
”Hey, might be good for her,” Ryan commented. ”Look how calm and sweet Gina always is! And she can thank me for that!”
”Okay, I've had it--I'm out of here!” Toni said.
To her complete irritation, they all laughed as she departed.
Upstairs, she showered and was just crawling in for the night when she heard a tapping on her connecting door. She thought about calling out, but didn't. Instead, she rose, walked across the room and opened the door.
Bruce was there, in his bathrobe, his hair slick and black, slate eyes enigmatic. ”If you're not all right, just call out,” he told her quietly.
”If I'm not all right?” she murmured.
”If dreams plague you. Nightmares,” he said.
She met his eyes. There was concern in them, and she was amazed at the sudden sense of knowing him that leaped into her heart. Wanting him, she thought.
He touched her face, his thumb moving gently over her cheek, rounding down around her chin. ”You know,” he mused softly, ”it is just a matter of time.”
”Excuse me?” Her words were breathless. She should have just moved away to begin with. His touch was somehow extremely intimate. She felt as if her flesh was crying out to be touched by him. All of it. The length of him beckoned--his hands, the size of him, cast of his features, texture of his skin, even the slate of his eyes.
”A matter of time,” he repeated.
”Until...?” she managed with a smile.
”Well, until you jump me, of course.”
”Until I jump you?” she demanded, some sense of indignity coming to the fore. ”Laird MacNiall, I'm afraid that you do have a rather inflated opinion of yourself!”
He was still amused. He leaned closer to her and said softly, ”I won't be stopping you, you know, la.s.s.”
Then he turned and quietly closed the door between them.
Toni kicked it.
”Call if you need me,” he said.
She made a point of locking the door.
But later that night, the dream came again. She was sound asleep, or so she thought. Then she opened her eyes, and he was there. At the foot of her bed. In full war regalia, with his sword, at his side. Dripping blood.