“I can’t just up and travel to Scotland with some . . . some—” She broke off, sputtering.

“Thief?” he supplied lazily.

She snorted. “Okay, so you returned those things. So what? I hardly even know you!”

“Do you wish to? I’m leaving on the morrow. ’Tis now or never, lass.” He waited, watching her. “Some chances come but once, Chloe, and swift are gone.”

Chloe stared at him in silence, feeling utterly divided. Part of her was resolutely digging in her heels, ticking off on her fingers a thousand reasons why she absolutely could not do such a crazy, impulsive thing. Another part—a part that both horrified and intrigued her—was jumping up and down, shouting, “Say yes!” She had the sudden, strange desire to get up and go look at herself in the mirror, to see if she was changing outside as well as in.

Dare she do something so patently outrageous? Take such a chance? Put everything on the line and see what came of it?

On the other hand, dare she go back to her life the way it was? Go back to living in her tiny one-room plus bathroom-the-size-of-a-matchbox efficiency, making her solitary way to work each day, gaining solace only from playing with artifacts that would never be hers?

She’d tasted more, and—damn the man—now she wanted it.

What was the worst that could happen? If he had any intention of physically harming her, he could have done so long before now. The only real threat he posed was one she controlled: whether she would let him seduce her. Whether she would risk falling for a man who was, without question, an inveterate lone wolf and bad boy. A man who made no apologies and offered no comforting lies.

If she didn’t fall for him, if she was a smart girl and kept her wits about her, pretty much the worst that could happen was that he might leave her stranded in Scotland. And that didn’t strike her as completely unpalatable. If he did, she was confident that, with her waitressing experience in college, she could get a job in a pub over there. She could stay awhile, see her grandda’s homeland, her trip over paid for. She would survive. She would more than survive. She might finally live.

What did she have here? Her job at The Cloisters. No social life to speak of. No family. She’d been alone for years now, ever since Grandda had died. In fact, more lonely than she’d cared to admit. A little lost and rootless, which she suspected accounted for her determination to visit Grandda’s village, in hopes that she might find some remnants of roots there.

Here was her golden opportunity, coupled with the promise of an adventure she’d never forget, at the side of a man she already knew she’d never be able to forget.

Oh, God, Zanders, she thought, marveling, you’re talking yourself into this!

What if he was leaving tomorrow and hadn’t asked you to go with him? a tiny inner voice pressed. What if he’d made it absolutely clear that he was leaving, and you would never see him again? What would you have done with this last night with him?