Duncan stood and crossed over to the hearth.
The fire had burned down to an orange glow. “Fire is the first ability Druids have control over. It is the first they learn. The first to come and the last to leave.” He reached both hands toward the hearth, flames leapt three feet high and out of the embers.
“Oh my God!”
Duncan lowered his hands. The flames died in the hearth.
Air rushed from her lungs. She gaped at the man who she scarcely recognized from the days at the fair. “This is too much.” She stood and paced the room. “I don’t know what to believe.”
“Accept we are both Druid, and the rest will fall into place.”
Stressed, she ran her hands through her hair.
“Fine, I’ll play along. I’m a Druid. You’re a Druid.”
We are all Druids... I’m losing my mind. “I’m a virgin of consensual age, and blood shed from the loss of my virginity would give Grainna her youth and powers, yadda, yadda, yadda. Do I have it right?”
“’Tis correct.”
“You and Fin were what, sent to California to 111
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stop her from finding me?”
“Or others like you.”
“Like there are hundreds of Druid virgins running around Southern California.” Tara laughed at the thought.
“Not hundreds, but a few. Most lack true Druid blood making Grainna’s curse almost impossible to break.”
Dear God, he’s serious. “So, you whisk the young virgins away when you find them?”
“You are the first to come to our home.”
Tara sent him a questioning look. “If I’m the first one to come here, then how do you get them away from Grainna? You couldn’t leave them.
Otherwise, her curse would have been broken by now. How did you keep them away from her?”
He didn’t answer her question. He didn’t have to. A picture of the two of them, laying together and kissing, flashed in her head. Her eyes widened in panic, her mouth dropped open. “You have got to be kidding! You were sent to deflower the virgins?”
Tara’s laughter verged on hysteria. “Then why didn’t you?”
“I have never forced myself on a woman.”
“How noble of you. Really, you should be given a medal.” Anger overpowered her hysteria. “So, because I didn’t fall into bed with you, you brought me here. Where she can’t get to me? Is that it?”
Tears started to fall. And to think she liked this guy! Really liked him. All six foot four, two hundred plus pounds of him.
“Aye.” Duncan watched as her rage consumed her. “Fine,” she bit out before heading toward the stairs. “That’s just great.”
Duncan touched her arm to stop her. She shrugged him away. “Where are you going, Tara?”
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you’ve had your laugh, you can send me back.” She put much needed space between them.
His eyes lowered to the floor. “I can’t.”
“Then you can drive me to the airport, and I’ll catch the next flight home.” She would have to max out her credit card paying for a flight, but she didn’t have much choice.
“’Tis not possible.” He dared another look at her.
“Why? Because I’m still a virgin? A threat? I’m sure I can find some stud willing to rid me of that, so don’t spend any more time worrying about me.”
His eyes snapped at hers in alarm. “Nay, Tara.
That you will not do!”
She reached him in two strides. Her finger poked him in his chest with every word she spoke.
“Who do you think you are? It wasn’t your choice in California, and it isn’t your choice here.” She lifted her nightgown and fled his side.
Duncan reached her half way up the stairs. “You cannot leave.”
“Watch me,” she shouted at him and pulled away.
“There are no planes to take you home.”
“I realize your home is remote, but I’m sure I can find an airport somewhere.”
“No, you can’t. There are none.”
She dropped her hands at her side and released an exasperating sigh. “What are you trying to tell me? I’m tired of this game.”
“The stones do more than move you from one shore to another. They move you through time. Even if you could go back to America, there would be nothing there for you.”
She stopped, turned, and her eyes searched his.
“You can’t be serious?”
“Look around you, Tara. Is this a home of your century?”
She stopped struggling against his grasp and 113
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considered his question. She remembered how his mother was dressed. Her gown would have seemed perfect at the fair they’d left. Tara studied him now as if seeing him for the first time.