She had hurt him. He might never admit it to her or anyone else, but she’d hurt him in a way he wasn’t used to experiencing. The worst of it was that she knew she was about to hurt him even more, and when she was done, he might hurt her too, in a quite different way.
“What do you want? Haven’t you made it clear that you’d prefer to be without me?”
“I want to come in and talk to you, Olcan.”
“Nah. Not today. I think I’ve had enough of your nonsense for one day. I always thought women were trouble. I should have stuck with that thought.”
“There is no need to be hurtful,” she told him.
He scoffed and shrugged at her, still not moving to let her in, instead standing in the doorway as if he was waiting for her to leave on her own. She stubbornly stood her ground. She had no choice.
“Let me in, Olcan,” she told him.
“Don’t talk to me like I’m some sort of goddamned child,” he roared at her. “Just because I showed you some kindness and threw a few fucks your way doesn’t mean as much as I thought it might. Don’t forget who you are talking to, lass.”
She shrank back a little. She’d almost forgotten how aggressive he could become when he wanted or needed to assert dominance. Before she could say anything else to him, he shook his head. “Piss off, woman” he said, attempting to push the door closed in her face.
Niamh didn’t think. She just reacted, shoving her foot inside the door to stop it. The words came tumbling out before she could stop them, and she found the door slowly opening again, a wide-eyed Olcan looking at her with unbridled anger. This time, she didn’t shrink back, despite the terror she was feeling.
“I need to come in, Olcan,” she told him.
Finally, he stepped aside and let her inside, bringing her a few inches closer to the end of her life.CHAPTER TWELVEOlcan
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?” he asked once she was inside and the door was closed.
For a moment, she hesitated, and he was instantly on her, pinning her tiny frame to the back of the door with one hand pushed against the center of her chest. He looked down at her menacingly, for the moment, no longer heartsick. Instead, he was something else. There was a rage building inside of him, fueled from the anger he’d felt all evening.
“I said the Maguire Clan sent me here to find out what I could about your family,” she said.
“By seducing me?” he asked.
“Yes, but that’s not what happened,” she said. He could tell from her words that his pressure on her chest was causing her difficulty breathing, and he was fine with that.
“It isn’t? Because it seems to me that is exactly what happened,” he growled at her.
“Please, Olcan. Let me sit down. Let me explain. Whatever you do after that, I can’t change, but I . . . I can’t breathe, Olcan. Your hand is crushing my chest.”
He yanked his hand away so fast that she almost fell forward but caught herself. He stormed over to the kitchen table and took a seat, waving his hand toward the other side for her to sit there. She took a chair and faced him, swallowing hard before she began.
“My husband, Sean, was a Keeley by birth. He was the illegitimate child of Sorley Maguire. When Sean’s mother died, Sorley brought Sean into the fold and changed his name to Maguire, forcing his wife to accept his bastard son as her own. He saw no difference between him and his other sons. They weren’t pleased, but said nothing, wanting to please their father.”
Olcan said nothing, merely listening and biting at his lower lip, trying to stay calm while she spoke. He couldn’t decide if he wanted to kill her or fuck her at this moment. Perhaps both, but not in that order.
“My parents were poor, but they were well respected in the clan. When Sorley proposed a substantial position in the bear counsel to my father, along with a considerable amount of money, it was agreed that I would become Sean’s mate upon turning eighteen. I won’t bore you with the details, but it wasn’t a good marriage, and while I had feelings for him, they weren’t the sort a woman should have for a husband. Anyway, I was blamed for it.”
“Did you kill him?” he asked flatly.
Now, Niamh bit her own lip, no doubt offended, but obviously knowing she had no right to be under the circumstances.
“No. He had a tumor, a rarity for bears, but his mother was human, something not known to anyone but me prior to his death.”
“You never had children? Or are you hiding them away somewhere too?”
“I never had children. Um, Sean wasn’t interested in me, in that way. I mean, he did his best to consummate the marriage and attempted to produce an heir, but he was just never really interested and rarely ever managed to um, finish,” she said, looking embarrassed.