Part 37 (1/2)
Her fingers wrapped more securely around the pendants in her hands. ”Ia I'm sorry, Liam,” she said. ”I can't return it. I needa”” She lifted her chin a notch. ”I need them both to get home. Back to my own time.”
”So you did discover the way to get back.”
”You do finally believe me. Don't you?”
He pushed away from the wall and circled her slowly. ”I see you got Perry's pendant as well. Did you tell him the story of your remarkable travels?”
”I didn't have to. He gave it to me without question.”
”Good old Perry. He knew you were leaving and didn't bother to tell me until you were on the s.h.i.+p.”
”He wasn't supposed to tell you anything.”
”Were you that afraid of me?” He stepped closer to her, so that she had to look up to meet his gaze. ”Afraid I'd extract some terrible revenge for your revelations at my sickbed?”
”I wasn't afraid,” she said, jaw set.
”Then why did you go?”
Mac was silent, as distant as if she'd wrapped a transparent coc.o.o.n about herself.
”Why, Mac?” He moved closer still, forcing her by sheer will to return from her inner seclusion. ”Why did you leave while I was gone?”
”Ia couldn't risk tampering with history beyond what I'd already done,” she said. ”And you'd made it pretty clear that you wanted me gone. There wasn't any point to having a scene like this one, was there?”
Liam knew she was right. He'd been angrya”angrier than he'd ever been in his life. He'd let her feel the full brunt of his icy rage. It had taken him a few days to realize the anger wasn't at her.
And then a few more days to accept the real cause of his anger, overcome the shame and self-contempt that had overwhelmed him. He'd been able to think in the wilds of Napa. Think clearly for the first time since he'd met MacKenzie Rose Sinclair.
But he hadn't recognized the truth until he returned and found Mac gone. The memory of that terrible realization still clutched at his heart.
”So you were afraid of changing the future,” he said. ”What would you have done, Mac? Led a feminine revolution and become the first female mayor of San Francisco? Browbeat the entire male population into giving women the vote?” His tone dropped to an intimate near-whisper. ”Become an advocate of free love, perhaps?”
She looked away. ”Love is never free.”
”But you gave it willingly enough when it served your purpose.”
”I gave you my reasons for what I did. What I had to do. I can't undo it and I wouldn't if I coulda””
”Not even if you could have stopped yourself from coming to the jungle?”
”No. I swore to Homera”my grandfathera”that I'd come. I just hope he's satisfied.”
”Promises can be terrible things, Mac.”
She understood him perfectly. ”It's hard to see,” she murmured, ”when a promise shouldn't be kept.”
”You freed me of one that would have ruined at least three lives. You also saved my life not once, but twice.” He smiled crookedly. ”I won't thank you for that, Mac. You can't expect a man to be grateful for that kind of disgrace.”
She stumbled back a step. ”Why did I think for a second that you might have changed?”
His grin widened. ”I fibbed a little before, darlin'. I didn't come just to return your watch. I came to find the other thing you'd stolen from me.”
”Whata””
”All the way here I wondered if I'd ever get it back.” He strolled another tight arc around her.
Above the loose collar of her peasant s.h.i.+rt, the tanned column of her neck quivered. ”I don't think I understand.”
”You will.” He took her chin in his hand. ”What I need won't take much time. You see, Mac? I'm admitting I need something from you. You should be pleased.” He trailed his fingers along her arm, grazing her breast. Her nipple puckered under the s.h.i.+rt, and he felt his body responding.
”d.a.m.n it!” She snapped out of her stillness and spun away, stomping across the overgrown clearing and nearly tripping over a buried stele. ”No more. You're not going to win this game, O'Shea. I know what you're trying to prove, and it's not going to work. The war's over, and I'm going homea””
A few of his longer strides made up for ten of hers.
He caught up and grabbed one wildy flailing hand. With a sharp, swift motion he swung her around. She opened her mouth and he kissed hera”a thoroughly earnest kiss befitting the situation. Her palms slammed into his chest, and the pendants fell to the ground. She pushed him violently away, but he had what he wanted.
It took her all of an instant to realize that he had both the pendants in his hand.
”Give those back!”
He pushed the pendants deep into his pocket. ”Not until I have what I came for.”
”And to think I felt sorry for you,” she spat, all wild Mac again. ”I thought I'd hurt you, but you're still an arrogant, impossible, recklessa If ever a man deserved a good kick in the seat, it's you!”
Liam listened to her enumeration of his faults and felt immense pleasure. It wasn't indifference she was showing him, but something far warmer.
”I wouldn't know what to do without you here to insult me,” he said.
”You don't know a d.a.m.ned thing about insults. I know a whole catalog of them that haven't even been invented yet!”
”In that future of yours?” He backed away and set his feet wide apart on the verdant earth. ”I think I'd like to hear them for myself.” He made a show of thinking it over. ”Yes, I think you'll take me with you toa 1997, was it?”
”So you do believe about the tunnel!” She glared at him.
”I'm willing to risk that you're finally telling the truth. With you gone I'd find life entirely too tame here. I'd resigned myself to a quiet life in San Francisco, and you took that away.”
”So now I'm supposed to provide you with a new life? Just because I saved your hidea””
”Twice.”
”a”doesn't meana You were the one who said I had to stop being your guardian angel.”
”Ah, yes. My p.r.i.c.kly angel.” He c.o.c.ked his head at her. ”I've always wondered why the tunnel carried you back to the year and day I was in this jungle. Almost the very day I was to die. Can you tell me the reason for that, Mac?”
The martial light went out of her eyes. ”Ia don't know. I've never known why.”
”It was something of a miracle, wasn't it? Sent from heaven above, perhaps.”
”You aren't the kind of man who puts faith in miracles.”