Chapter 15

The highlander sat back in the footed tub and let the warm water relax his arm and back muscles. With a deep breath in and then out, he let his eyes close for a moment. Immediately his thought started to drift to a different reality.

Without warning, Celeste came into the bathroom. MacLeod sat up quickly and tried to hide his manhood with his hands. She didn't say anything. She was wearing a silky red robe that she slipped off her shoulders. It fell in slow motion and puddled on the floor around her feet revealing all of her natural beauty. The Scot's eyes grew big and he held his breath as she stepped into the tub with him. She didn't sit, but got down on her knees and leaned forward, stopping only a few inches from his face. Neither of them moved as if frozen for a few moments until the anticipation was too much for both of them. Moving in unison, their lips met and melted together. She relaxed and let her body sink deeper into the water as he brought his hands up to wrap around her shoulders and kissed her more passionately. The Scot let himself lay back more as he had been before she came in. She strattled him under the water and let her hips settle over his body as she moved her mouth down the side of his neck. With a fire now awakened in him, he pulled her closer, surrendering completely to his desire.

MacLeod's eyes flew open when he heard the cabin door close in the next room. Celeste was gone. Of course she was never really there, but even the vision of her being there disappeared once he focused on the realization that she was actually in the next room, fully clothed. With a deep breath held, he let his whole head go under water for a moment. When he came up he let out a slight grunt as he accepted his reality. He tried to remind himself why he was here with her and that he still didn't know anything about her. It was time for answers, for both of them. At that he stood up and pulled the drain in the tub. Grabbing a towel he passed it over his body a few times before getting dressed.

When Duncan came out to join her on the porch, he could tell she was nervous. Her smile had faded and she looked like the scared woman he had tried to comfort the day before. She looked up just as he went back inside.

When he came back out, he was carrying an opened bottle of wine and two glasses. He noticed that she looked briefly annoyed by the sight of the wine. But after he poured her a glass, she gladly accepted it.

Duncan sat on the porch step beside her and pored himself a glass before setting the bottle down between them.

"What should we toast to?" He held up his glass to hers?

Celeste shook her head not knowing what to say.

"How about, to new friends?" Duncan clicked his glass with hers and they both began to sip their wine. Sensing that this was not going to be an easy conversation for her, he tried to break the ice a little.

"I still feel bad about what I said when we first met. I didn't mean for it to sound like you were….a….uh…"

"A stripper?" she frowned at him.

He looked down at his wine, "Yeah, sorry about that" He looked her right in the eyes as he apologized. "Richie has a tendency of falling for the kind of girl that needs to be rescued."

"You mean like the movie Pretty Woman?" She smiled.

"Yeah, just like that. Only, there is rarely a happy ending. I try to steer him in the right direction, but he's not the best at taking advice."

"I understand. Apology accepted."

"So, you said you studied dance."

"Yes, all kinds from all over the world. I love how you can express yourself in so many ways just by the way you move your body."

Another provocative image popped into Duncan thoughts when she said that, of the two of them moving together, expressing their feelings. It's just like dancing. He pushed the thought aside. Can't think like that, She is Richie's. "I bet you're very good." Should I have said that?

"I was until I gave it up." She suddenly looked sad.

"Why would you give it up? It sounds like you loved it."

"I did, I still do. But that's where my nightmare began." Celeste looked out toward the lake. Between the scotch and the wine she felt the courage to begin her story.

A faraway look took over her face, a look that told Duncan that he need do nothing but listen.

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Where did he find that? Celeste looked annoyed for a moment when Duncan came out with wine and two glasses, but considering the scotch did little to calm her nerves, she was happy to accept the glass from him. He wanted to toast, so they did. Then the small talk started, but she had no time for that. It was time to get down to business.

As a child, I was raised in what I can only describe as a type of convent. It was not a religious facility, more like a special school for girls. I shared a room with seven other girls. We were like sisters, we did everything together. We had a very strict education program that included everything from ancient languages to fine arts. We took dance, wrote literature and poetry and created every kind of art you can imagine. As we got older, we were slowly separated. We each began to focus more on what we liked the most. For me it was dance. I was taught by the finest teachers, and learned dances from around the world.

On my 17rd birthday, my teachers had scheduled a performance. Hundreds of people came to see me dance. I had never been so happy in my life, as I was when everyone stood and applauded. Everything I had worked so hard for was finally paying off.

A few months later, I had finished my studies. My time at the girl's school had come to an end. I had no idea how drastically my life was about to change. Until now I had never left the campus of the school. I had no idea what the outside world was like. We were not even taught about the passage of time the way outsiders were. I didn't know what year it was and even though I was told that I was 17, I learned later that I was 25 in years calculated by a traditional calendar.

Anyway, when you finish your studies, you are not just set free out into the world. You are auctioned off to the highest bidder. People who had been watching you grow up your whole life. The school was an observatory of sorts, and we never knew this until we were out.

A man named Preston Manson bought me. At first, I didn't like him, simply because I hated feeling like his property and his prisoner since I was not able to leave his mansion. But he was so good to me, that it wasn't long before I started having feelings for him. He started courting me a few months after I was moved to his estate. It was a very proper and old fashioned relationship, we were never alone and the only contact we ever had was holding hands. I became used to being considered his and not even a year later we were engaged to be married. I couldn't be happier.

We talked about our future together as if we would both live forever. He had always said, once I was ready, he would tell me everything I would ever need to know. We would leave the estate, move to our own home, just the two of us, out in the real world and live happily ever after. I had never seen the real world, and couldn't wait for this day. But he just kept saying it, month after month, when you are ready. Every time I'd even ask him a question about the outside world, he would say it wasn't time or that I wouldn't understand. I was starting to get impatient, and a week before our wedding we had a fight. I told him I was ready, that he was just too blind to notice. He got angry with me and locked me in my room that night.

I sat there on my bed for hours afterwards, regretting the whole thing. We had never spoken to each other like that before. I felt terrible, but I couldn't go to him to apologies because he had locked me in. Later that night, he came back. But he seemed different. I didn't know it at the time, and even if I did, didn't know what it meant, but he was drunk. He said he would forgive me if I did everything he told me to. So I did. He asked me to dance for him, right there in my room. So I did. Something slow and graceful and romantic was what he wanted. He watched me for a while then called me over to sit with him on the bed.

That's when, for the first time, he put his hand behind my head, and pulled me close and kissed me. It was like nothing I had ever felt before. Each time he moved away, I wanted more and would pull him close again. The kisses became more intense and he started to become rough. His hands were trying to go places that I was taught were unacceptable until after marriage. And I got scared.

Celeste paused for a moment and looked down at her empty wine glass. She took a deep breath and looked out to the lake again. I won't cry, I won't cry. The words kept repeating in her head.

Duncan put down his glass and took her empty hand in both of his. "It's alright if you want to stop."

Forcing a grateful smile she replied. "No, Its time I get this out and find out who I am. I hope that once you know what happened, that you can give me the answers I need."

"I'll do my best." He gave her hand a little reassuring squeeze before letting it go. Noticing the empty glass, the Scot refilled it and added more to his own.

The distant look returned to her saddened face as she continued her story.

I asked him to stop. That's when he took my face in his hands and told me to make love to him. I refused and tried to push his hands away. He let go of my face and grabbed the collar of my shirt and tore it off. Then he stood up, pulled me with him, and pinned me against the wall. He was a lot stronger than I thought. He held my wrists in one hand over my head, while he used the other hand to force himself into me.

Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she continued any way.

When he was finished, he pulled me back onto the bed and held me down with his knee in my stomach. He reached down under the bed, and came up with an antique sword. He held it in both hands high above his head. Then he said, it was time that I learned how to play the game. And then he put the sword through my heart.

Celeste swallowed hard and looked up at MacLeod. "There is no way I should have lived through that. But a while later, I woke up. The bed was covered in blood, and so was I. But there was no wound. I remember it all so vividly, it was like it was yesterday."

I tried to go for help. But I was still locked in. All I could do was wait. When one of the maids finally opened the door, she called me a whore, and said that no one would want me now. She pushed a servants dress into my arms, grabbed me by the neck and pulled me to a carriage waiting out front. She told the driver to get rid of me.

The carriage took off right away, and for the first time I was through the estate boundaries. We traveled for a few hours. When we stopped the driver pulled me out and pushed me into the woods. My hands and knees were scraped up badly by the fall, but before the carriage was out of sight, they had completely healed.

Her stare came back to the present as she watched the ripples in the lake. "I've been able to heal myself ever since." Then a long glance at MacLeod, "and I never danced again." The mix of emotions and trying to fight them back was unbearable. The topic needed to change for a while, and fast.

"So now, I teach dance at the university, and I do some tutoring on the side. I enjoy teaching."

The highlander looked at her, wanting to say something, but not knowing what.

"I'm only six credits away from my performing arts degree. Then I can teach at any level." She saw the pain on his face. She knew that he saw right through her attempt to move past the horrific memory she had shared. She also knew that if he said one word, she would be back in tears, back in that terrible moment she had just shared for the first time. Please, please don't say anything more about it. Not now. Maybe later but not now.

Somehow, her heard her thoughts and complied. "Six credits, that's nothing. You'll be there before you know it." He put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze, the kind you'd give to your best buddy.