the rocks had her jerking up her head.
She sucked in a breath, dashing her hands across her damp cheeks.
“What do ye want?” she demanded. “Can I no’ cry in peace?”
“I am sorry, Birdie,” he said simply.
She shook her head, looking out at the water. “Ye should have come to me first. Ye should have told me yer grand idea before blurting it out in the great hall.”
“Aye. But I was afraid…” He took a step closer. “Afraid that if I spoke to ye alone, I’d lose my nerve. That I’d kiss ye again and forget everything except how much I long for ye. That I wouldnae be able to take the idea of a marriage alliance to yer father, for I want so badly to keep ye for myself.”
Her red-rimmed green eyes snapped to him. “Ye would claim to want me, less than a quarter hour after proposing that I marry another.”
“Damn it all, lass.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Ye brought me here to solve yer clan feud. That is what I am trying to do.”
“Aye, and that is all this is to ye. A task. A chore to see done before ye can return to yer real mission.”
She shook her head, clucking her tongue softly. When she spoke again, her words were little more than a whisper, yet her tone was edged with frustration directed at herself.
“I am a fool.”
“Nay, Birdie.” He took another pace closer. “Ye ken that isnae true. I…I have come to care for ye. Deeply.”
His voice dropped off before he forced himself to continue. “But we both ken naught can come of this. Ye are a Laird’s daughter, and I am a warrior. When this feud is settled, ye’ll remain here, and I’ll return to building my army, then head for the Lowlands to face Balliol.”
She dropped her eyes to the rocks between them, her face threatening to crumple. She nodded, exhaling raggedly.
“Aye, I ken,” she murmured through trembling lips. “We dinnae have a future, ye and I. But…” Her voice unraveled, even as she pushed herself to finish. “…but then why does it hurt so much?”
In an instant, he’d closed the remaining distance between them, sinking to his knees. He pulled her roughly into his arms, burying his face in her windswept hair.
She gasped at his sudden, fierce embrace, yet she didn’t push him away. Instead, as her shock wore off, she leaned into him, yielding her soft, small body into the care of his arms.
When she lifted her chin to look him in the eye, he couldn’t help himself. He claimed her mouth in a slow, aching kiss. The salt-tinged sea air mingled with her tears on his tongue. She sank deeper into him, giving herself over to his hard embrace and the press of his lips.
Gregor nearly lost himself, too. It didn’t take much with Birdie. His wits turned to porridge and his willpower to dust having her tucked against him and under his mouth.
But his last thread of sanity called him back from the edge. The farther they went down this path, the worse the pain would be when it came time to end it.
He broke their kiss, panting in frustration against her temple.
“Ye need to ken something about me. I need ye to understand,” he said.
“What is it?” she asked tentatively.
“My father used to beat my mother.”
She drew back enough to look at him, her brow cinched in confusion at his unexpected declaration.
“And me when I put myself between him and her,” he continued. “When he drank, he became a different man. A tormentor. A tyrant. He was bigger and stronger than us, and he used that power to hammer us into submission. Might made right under his roof.”
“I…I am so sorry, Gregor,” she murmured, her hands balling against his chest.
“I vowed from the time I was a wee bairn that if I ever grew big and strong like him, I would never use my might the way he did. I would never hurt a bairn, nor a woman.”
Understanding washed over her features. “That was why ye reacted so strongly when ye thought my father was raising his hand to me. I couldnae make sense of it before.”
“Aye. I noticed ye seemed worried to face him when we first arrived at the castle. Then when he came upon us at the bog, I saw the motion for something it wasnae.” Gregor gusted a breath. “I was looking at it through the eyes of the frightened bairn I