Bold (The Handfasting) - By Becca St. John Page 0,35

I do."

She snorted. “Know me or no, you dinna' get my kin last night.”

“You said you would handfast, you gave your word.”

She lashed out. “Oh, aye, I had no choice. You wouldn’t listen, would you? You had to keep going.” She shoved him aside, freed herself of his hold. “Like a boulder down a mountain, you are. But I told you, over and over. Know me or no, I don’t want you.”

“You don’t know what you want.”

"Ach!" Maggie rose, twitched her plaid straight with trembling hand. “I do know what I want!” She railed. “That's how little you know me because I have always known what I wanted. I want my home, I want my family, I want a simple life without all the complications of a man like you.

"I don’t want to fight to be heard, fight to be listened to, fight to be believed or to have my way.”

“You want to be in control.” Talorc nodded, he understood the desire, not that he was going to let her have her own way.

He stood, towered over her.

“Aye, I want control of my life, no one else’s, just mine.” She dragged her hair from her face. “Is that so much to ask for?”

Talorc shook his head, caught a stray lock of her hair with his finger and tried to push it behind her ear. She slapped his hand away.

Her sigh was weary and old as the mountains. “Lord knows, you're a fine enough looking man, and you have an uncanny way with a woman's body," she granted, "There are plenty of women who would want you. Why does it have to be me? Why, when you are nothing like what I want?"

Frustrated, and knowing there was no hope for it, Talorc snorted, “I’m not scrawny enough for your tastes? Is that it? You won’t be able to rule me as you might a lesser man.”

“Hah.” She snuffed, rose to his bait. “Of course you would think that just because a man is of lesser build he would be a lesser man.”

“He’d not be able to protect you as I would.”

“I have brothers enough for that. And I know how they are, how they try to bombard my wishes for their own. I've known you less than a day and already you ignore my wants, my cares.”

Talorc smiled, “Every man will try to have his way, in his own kind. Don’t underestimate a male’s hunger for control, just because he’s closer in height to you.”

She looked as sorrowful as a wee lamb tangled in the bracken. He had torn her from her home, her family, but he had a home and family to offer her. With time, she would understand that. “It is a brave thing you do lass, leaving everything that's familiar to you. I mean to make it up to you, to prove that it will be worth the pain you are feeling now.”

She turned to him, trails of tears long since dried, lined the length of her face. "The only comfort I have to that pain is knowing I will be home this time next year. My ma promised me, if I don’t give you my heart, then we would not be wed. And that, you can be sure, will be easy.”

Startled, he moved, to better see her. She was a lusty lass for one who wanted to walk away from a handfast. This explained that. “Is this what she told you?”

“Aye,” her eyes narrowed, “is that not the truth of it?”

"Oh, aye," he mumbled, certain her heart would rule her body. She just didn't know that. But he was coming to understand her openness to his touches. She didn't fear their passion because she didn't consider it a threat to her singleness.

Now that he had her attention, Talorc wasn’t certain he wanted it. She didn’t know that should she share her body with him, should they mate, they’d be wed. The chance of a child was enough to bind the least likely of couples.

The attraction was strong. The past moments were proof of that. It wouldn't be long before he slid between her thighs, no cloth to bar him, and slid into the core of her, toppling their handfasting into marriage.

They belonged together. Their passion was his strongest weapon against her denial of their bond. Her mother would know that. She had played his hand for him.

Intriguing.

“Do you not think you could give me your heart?”

Maggie was still fighting to right her plaid, the MacBede cloth. Not