Binding Vows(15)
She watched the water flow down the stream.
“You looked miserable.”
“I was,” she grumbled.
“But you’re not miserable now?” Duncan put the forgotten food to the side and stretched out alongside her. “No.”
“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 41
Catherine Bybee
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.”
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“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.”
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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.