“I just…it’s not you. It’s me.”
“I don’t like this you,” Tavis said.
Anna sighed. “I don’t either. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“I think I do. You’re frightened.”
“What would I be frightened of?”
“The same thing I am. This thing between us.”
She looked up then. “What do you mean?”
“It’s overwhelming. I’ve never felt this way about anyone.”
Her eyes were wide. She swallowed. “That scares you?”
“It scares the hell out of me.”
“So what do we do about it?” she asked.
“Stop ignoring me, that would be a start.”
“I’ll work on it.” She glanced at him with the beginnings of a smile. “Let’s call a truce.” She stuck out her hand.
A truce sounded good. He took her hand, and they sealed the pact. “You’re not really intending to fight Voltar are you?”
That led to another heated discussion which lasted until she approached a white house with black shutters. “Forget about Voltar for now,” she said. “Let’s find the book. We have a truce. Remember?”
They parked, and by the time Tavis figured out how to get the damned door open, Anna was standing in front of the car waiting for him.
“Do any of these bloody car doors open the same?”
“I forgot you hadn’t been in this car before. You’ll get used to it. Before long you’ll be driving.”
“I doubt that.”
“Bree said Faelan thought the same thing. Now he’s hooked on driving. Bree’s working on getting you an ID. Legal papers that prove your identity,” she explained. She stopped before she knocked on the door. “What are we going to say? That we think something is hidden here? Do you even remember which room it is?”
“No. Could we say we’re thinking of getting a room soon and wanted to see each one? I’ll see if anything looks familiar.”
“I came here once,” Anna said. “I was retracing Angus’s steps, and Bree had seen him here. But she didn’t have any rooms.”
An elderly woman answered the door. She had white hair and a dress with lots of little flowers. He didn’t remember seeing her, but Angus had said he’d sneaked him in. “You don’t have to knock,” she said, and then her gaze fell on Tavis. “Faelan. You’re back. How lovely to see you and…” She frowned at Anna.
“I’m not Faelan,” Tavis said. “I’m his brother.”
“Well then, come inside. Do you need a room? I have one room left.”
“Just one,” Anna said.
She looked at the two of them. “Did you need two?”
“Yes, but I suppose one will do,” Anna said. “I mean we are getting married.”
She frowned, but her wallet won out over her morals. “I suppose that would be fine. I get a lot of nice comments about this room. It’s cozy. You’ll see.” Mrs. Edwards took them upstairs to the room. “Your brother stayed in the room at the end. What a lovely couple. Now what do you think about this room?”
It had a big bed. That was all Tavis cared about. He didn’t care about covers and furniture. He just pictured himself and Anna in the bed.
“Very nice.” Anna raised her eyebrows at Tavis.
He shook his head.
“We’ll take this one,” Anna said.
Tavis gave her a surprised look. Had she misunderstood? “We will?”
“It’s perfect.”
“Right. Perfect.”
“Good. Come with me, and we’ll get the paperwork all sorted out.” After they had finished, they went upstairs to the room.
“What are you doing?” Tavis asked. “This isn’t the right room.”
“We have to check the other rooms. We can’t wait until they’re vacant.”
“What are we going to do, sneak inside?”
“Of course. We’ll wait for the guests to step out, and if they don’t…”
Women warriors. How had the clan to come to this? “We can narrow it down a bit. It isn’t this room or the one where Faelan stayed. And it wasn’t on the other end,” Tavis said. “It must be the one across from us or beside us.”
They slipped into the hall and listened at each door. All the rooms were occupied. They went back to their room to wait. Anna sat on a chair near the window. Tavis took a chair across from her.
Anna checked her watch. “They’ll have to go out to dinner sometime. Are you listening?”
“What?” He couldn’t stop looking at the bed, imaging him and Anna there, sheets twisted, bodies slick with sweat. Blimey, it was hot in here. He shifted in his seat and wiped his forehead.
“I know what’s bothering you. I can help if you’d like.”
Surge! He shifted again, wishing he had on his kilt and not Faelan’s jeans. He cleared his throat. “What did you have in mind?”
“I’m a good listener. It can’t be easy coming back to the place where an ancient demon kidnapped you—” Anna frowned at him. “That’s not what’s bothering you, is it?”
“No.”
“You were thinking about sex, weren’t you?”
He looked at the bed again and considered lying. “Aye.”
She started laughing. He’d never heard her laugh, and he was stunned. The lust he’d felt changed to something so strong, it felt like a hand crushing his heart.
“I shouldn’t laugh. I should be offended, but Bree said the effects of the time vault are very strong. Hunger in every way.”
Tavis was still trying to find his voice. “You have a beautiful laugh.”
“Weren’t we just talking about sex?”
“Aye. We can talk about it some more if you’d like.”
“Or you could take a cold shower while we wait.”
“Or we could eat.”
“I bet you’re hungry.”
“I could eat my boots if I had some salt.”
“Then let’s go to dinner. Do you like Mexican?”
“I’ve never eaten one.” He grinned, and when she smiled in return, it took his breath.
“Pizza. Let’s have pizza.”
They walked a few blocks, and he tried to observe the other people without staring. He wasn’t always successful, and he decided that there were some strange people in this time. But pizza was a blessed thing. Or maybe it was just his raging appetite.
“Do you want another slice?”
He nodded and took one. “Good,” he mumbled.
She rolled her beautiful eyes. “I never would have guessed.”
“You have a good appetite for a woman.”
“You think I’m eating too much?”
“Not at all. I like watching you eat.”
“Are we back to the sex again?”
A woman at a table near them looked over at them. He grinned. “I think we’d better change the subject.”
“How about clothes?”
“Clothes?”
“You’ll need some. I don’t imagine you’ll want to wear your brother’s all the time.”
“That’s a good idea. I don’t have any way to pay until I find my sporran. I had a few coins with me.”
“They wouldn’t work now anyway. Don’t worry. I have money. You’ll get some too. I don’t know how it was done back then, but the clan pays warriors. It’s not like we can have regular day jobs. We do have buffers. They’re not warriors, but they help us, provide services, help keep our secrets.”
“We had people like that, but not many, and we didn’t call them buffers. Strange name.”
“It’s just a nickname because they’re buffers between us and the rest of the world. Officially they’re called coordinators now.”
Tavis leaned back and rubbed his stomach.
“Ate too much?”
“Aye.”
“You’ll be happy we have these fancy toilets later.”
He grinned. It was very strange but appealing to have a woman speak so bluntly. And it was pure heaven to have her not ignore him. “I reckon I might at that.”