Donna Grant: Midnight's Surrender

Rennie felt as if the ground had been yanked out from beneath her. She began to shake, unsure how Dale knew she had magic and what he intended to do about it.

“I’m no’ here to harm you, Rennie,” he said matter-of-factly. “If I wanted that, I’d have left you out in the snow.”

True. That didn’t mean she had to trust him though. Even if some part of her she didn’t recognize told her she could. He would have to earn her trust.

“When I lifted you to bring you inside, I had … a vision.”

Rennie turned her face away and gave a shake of her head. Damn. Why did it always have to happen? “It’s one of the reasons I stay away from people. When people touch me they see things.”

“What kind of things?”

She faced him, squaring her shoulders to give herself more courage she didn’t feel. “Tell me how you knew I had magic.”

“I felt it.” He said it so straightforwardly, as if they were talking about the weather.

“Felt it?” she repeated, confused. “How is that possible?”

“I’m no’ sure you want to know.”

“Oh, I assure you I do.”

His chest expanded as he took a deep breath. “I’m a Warrior.”

Rennie knew how the Warriors came to be and why. She had even heard rumors that some still existed, but to have one sitting in her living room seemed so unreal. She was both excited and frightened at the same time.

What would bring a Warrior to their small corner of the world? Even as that question flitted through her mind she had a million others to ask him about his god, his powers, and his abilities. All of which she wasn’t sure she was brave enough to ask.

“You know what a Warrior is.” It wasn’t a question Dale posed.

“I do.”

“Do you fear me?”

She swallowed and realized he hadn’t threatened her. He had saved her, and he continued to keep his distance between them so as not to frighten her. “No.”

“Good,” he said and visibly relaxed. “Now, will you tell me of your magic?”

Rennie would rather continue talking about him being a Warrior, but he had answered her questions. It was only fair that she do the same. “It doesn’t happen all the time, but on occasion people touch me and see things. Sometimes it’s the past, sometimes the future.”

“Do you have the same visions?”

“I see nothing. I have magic, and I can use it for simple things. But I have no control over the visions others have or who gets them.” Then he stared at the floor, disappointment radiating from him. “What did you see?”

“Myself. I was old.” He hadn’t bothered to try and be coy about her question. He lifted his dark gaze to her. “I hoped you might tell me if it was a path that I could’ve taken had I no’ had my god unbound.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and slowly shook her head. “I’m sorry. I can’t. I wish I could, but I don’t even know what you saw.”

“It shocked me, is all. I know I’ll never age. The only way I can die is if someone takes my head. If they find me.”

“Is that why you’re here? To hide?”

He lifted his wide shoulders encased in a black long-sleeved thermal shirt showing every rippling muscle. “I want to get lost for a while. I was forced to do things I wish I hadna, and I doona want to be in that position again.”

Rennie didn’t want to feel sorry for him. In fact, she wanted to tell him to leave. But she couldn’t. There was something about the man that tugged at her heart—and made her body heat in ways she didn’t think was possible.

It had been so long since she’d even looked at a guy with interest that it promptly set her back on her heels. In a short time, her orderly world had turned into absolute chaos.

Dare she admit that it was exhilarating and terrifying?

Rennie ran a hand through her long bangs that kept falling into her eyes. The aspirin was finally dulling the pounding of her head, but it was doing nothing to calm her heart. Or the fire raging in her body.

She couldn’t stop looking at Dale. He was imposing and handsome and commanding. He drew her gaze, but to make matters worse, she had to fight to keep her distance from him. An unexplainable need to be near him, to touch him kept intruding in her thoughts, drowning out everything else and adding to her desire.

“I make you nervous.”

Dale’s statement made her inwardly wince. Mostly because it was true. Her reaction to him was new and frightening. “Aye,” she admitted.

“Now that I know you’ll be fine, I’ll leave.”

Rennie glanced outside to see nothing but sheets of snow falling rapidly. “In this weather?”

“It willna kill me, lass.”

“I can’t let you,” she said hurriedly as he got to his feet. It was all that came to mind, but she wanted—no she needed him to stay.

Rennie bit her lip when he narrowed his gaze. She was making a muck of it. She wanted to be near him, and God help her, but she wanted him to touch her. Even if disaster ensued, she craved—no, she hungered —for him to touch her. He had carried her into the house, and she hadn’t even gotten to experience that contact because she had been unconscious.

She took a deep breath and tried again. “I’m used to being by myself, but it’s no excuse for bad manners. Besides, you saved me. The least I can do is feed you.”

After several tense seconds, Dale lowered himself back into the chair. She found herself gazing into his dark eyes wondering what secrets he kept hidden away.

More than that, she wondered what it would feel like to be in his arms.

Rennie stirred the pot of soup, her attention on anything but the food. Dale had asked to take a shower. That’s where he’d been for the past thirty minutes, and her mind had been with him.

She could almost picture how he would look nude, and it caused her heart to pound. She couldn’t stop thinking of Dale, of the way he looked at her with such loneliness and … heat.

It made her stomach flutter just thinking about it. How long had it been since a man touched her with passion? Five years? Six?

Always the stupid visions would get in the way and ruin things. It got to the point that even if she wanted human contact, it was better for everyone if she didn’t.

But sometimes she longed to walk down the street and hold hands with a man, to have his arm wrap around her. She dreamed of waking up in the arms of a man, of having someone there she could lean on.

“It smells good.”

Rennie jumped and turned to find Dale in the doorway. He filled up the space with his broad shoulders and tall form. Her gaze landed on his face, and she sucked in a breath.

Where his beard had hidden him before, now he was clean-shaven. With the beard gone, she saw his strong jaw and square chin mixed with the hard angles of his face that made her all too aware of the man himself.

His eyes watched her carefully, and Rennie had the insane urge to run her hands through his damp, wavy locks before caressing over the hard sinew of his chest and shoulders.

How could a man look so damn good and she not be able to touch him? The unfairness of it all made her hate her magic.

He ran a hand over his clean-shaven jaw and gave her a lopsided grin. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been free of any facial hair.”

“It suits you. You have a face women would swoon over.”

“But no’ you?”

For a moment, Rennie couldn’t breathe. Surely he wasn’t interested in her. Yet, there was no denying she was attracted to him. He had a bad boy attitude, a look that spoke of danger and an untamed spirit.

It was the opposite of everything she was. And she found that more than appealing. “I didn’t say that.”