The loss of Alaxandar hurt worst of all.
She would never forget the way his lips felt on her skin or the desire in his eyes. Her fierce warrior. The dream was so real. "Goodbye, Alaxandar," she whispered before gathering her stuff to exit the plane.
An old college buddy, Rusty, waved excitedly when she entered the terminal. He'd been the one to contact her and ask if she'd be interested in working with his crew at Hawaii's Volcano Observatory. At the time, she'd jumped at the chance. Now, no matter how hard she tried, Kara couldn't sum up the enthusiasm she once had for the job.
Rusty hugged her tight and kissed her cheek. "How've you been, doll?"
"Good, great, you know, the same."
He laughed. "You'll love it here. It's the most beautiful place."
You should see Scotland. "It's crowded. Everybody on vacation, I guess."
"Probably."
It felt as though the walls were closing in. Her lungs fought to breathe in the stifling air. She felt flushed. The noisy airport sounded muted and her limbs grew heavy. A flaming headache squeezed her temples. She really wanted to get out of the building and into the fresh air. Maybe the ocean would calm her. "Do you have a car waiting?"
"Yeah."
"Can we go outside then? I really need to get some air." She started walking toward an exit, any exit.
"There," Rusty said, as he dug the keys out of his pocket. "It's over there." He pointed to the third row.
Rusty opened the car door so she could get in and dropped her luggage in the trunk.
Kara felt strange, sad, but with a renewed hope. At least she'd had the chance to love Alaxandar and she had returned the stone to Carrick. Those were things she could hang onto.
Memories to keep forever.
Rusty stopped at the toll booth and paid the clerk. While they drove, he brought her up to speed on what they had done so far.
Kara barely heard any of it. Instead, she relived every minute she'd spent with Alaxandar, unwilling to forget anything.
He pulled up and parked at the Lava House.
"Our ferocious leader is just returning."
"He's been away?" she asked, to show that she had been half-heartedly listening.
He nodded. "A month ago he was gathering samples when a tremor hit causing the ground on the slope to shift. He tumbled several feet and cracked his head. We thought we'd lost him."
"But he's okay now?"
"Yes, and anxious to meet you.
Kara looked at him, he shrugged. "I might have gone on a bit about how wonderful you are."
Kara shook her pounding head. "Oh, Rusty."
"What?"
"Am I going to be able to live up to what you've told these people?" She got out of the car and drew the backpack over her shoulder.
"You don't need to live up to anything. You're good at what you do." He said to her over the roof and winked.
She conceded that point. She prided herself in her work. "Okay." Scanning the groups of people around the hotel she asked, "Where to?"
Rusty grabbed her arm. "This way." He led her to the lobby. "Oh, here he comes."
Kara glanced in the direction Rusty gestured. The backpack fell off her shoulder and dropped to the floor. Her teeth clinched her bottom lip. Tall, dark and handsome walked directly toward them. With short brown hair dusted in blonde highlights and electric blue eyes, the man approaching had to be a dream—her dream. She swiped her hand across her mouth and chin to make sure she wasn't drooling.
With a cocky grin and an arm around her shoulders, Rusty said, "Hey, boss. I'd like you to meet my old college bud and your next genius on the lava-caked slopes, Kara Malone."
Her new boss extended his hand. She hesitated before grasping it. The minute they touched, the look on his face changed from friendly stranger to something more. "It's nice to finally meet you, Ms. Malone. I'm Alex, Alex MacLeod."
Her legs buckled and she withered right at his feet. Alex wrapped his arm around her waist. "Hey, you okay?"
Blinking to make sure she hadn't fallen asleep again or perhaps lost her mind, Kara smiled. "Sorry. It's been a long trip."
Without letting go, Alex turned to Rusty. "Bring her stuff."
She tried to walk but the legs wouldn't cooperate. "I'm sorry," she apologized to him again.
"No problem," he said before scooping her into his arms.
Kara shrieked.
"Relax, lass. I'll not drop ye."
Kara gaped at his perfect smile before winding her arms around his neck and laying her head against his chest. Déjà vu.
He made a beeline for the elevators. His breathing hardly labored, as if she weighed nothing.
"May I ask you something?"
Locking gazes, he winked. "Sure."
"Did your family originate somewhere in the Highlands?"
Alex grinned and trotted down the few steps to a sunken part of the lush lobby. "Aye, lass. Deep in the Highlands."
Kara watched as rays of sunlight twinkled in his eyes. More than anything she wanted to push the stray hair across his forehead and kiss him. "Have you ever been to Scotland?"
He laughed. "Once, when I was about ten. The family has a castle there."
"Dunvegan," Kara murmured.
With a devilish look, he said, "I be the first-born MacLeod."
She couldn't breathe. How could he look the same, sound the same, feel the same?
Alex slowly came to a stop at the first set of elevators. Rusty dropped the suitcase right behind him.
"What do you have in here?" He leaned over Alex's shoulder. "Did you bring your own rocks?"
Kara chuckled. Rusty always managed to make her laugh.
"I can probably walk now," Kara offered.
Alex readjusted his grip with her still in them and walked the short distance to the next group of elevators. Nope, that hasn't changed. She smiled, welcoming a familiar tingle.
"So what does a ten-year-old boy do with a castle?"
"He rides a trusty steed, wields a massive sword…"
Alex pushed the up button. He released her legs and let them slide to the ground while keeping her body pressed tightly against his. She gulped some air and swallowed hard. Kara raised her eyes to his. They turned deep blue and burned with fire. A look she recognized all too well.
"Ahem." Rusty coughed.
Alex put a little more distance between them, but kept his fingertips touching her arm.
The elevator arrived and they stepped inside then she said, "You didn't finish."
"Finish what?" Rusty asked.
"His story."
"What story?"
Kara wrinkled her nose at Rusty's perplexed expression. "He was telling me that when he was ten, he went to the family's castle where he rode a trusty steed, swung a massive sword, and…" She looked at Alex expectantly.
They arrived at her floor, the doors whooshed open, and the bell dinged. As he stepped out, Alex smiled. "And rescued damsels in distress."
The heat rose in her cheeks. "Were there many damsels in distress?" she asked following him down a long hallway and around the corner.
"A few but my exploits were not nearly as interesting as the ancestor I was named for."
This piqued Kara's interest. She assumed it was her Alaxandar he spoke of. Licking her lips and finding her voice, she begged him to tell her.
"Alaxandar was not yet the chief of the MacLeod Clan when a woman appeared out of nowhere. He nearly ran over her with his horse."
Kara envisioned the day as it had actually happened. Her heartbeat sped up.
"Anyway, he took her to the castle so his mother could tend to her. They invited her to stay until she was better and during her stay, Alaxandar fell in love with her."
"Did she fall in love with him too?" Rusty had been listening and seemed to be intrigued.
"Yes," they said in unison.
Alex glanced at her. "Yes. At least that's what the legend says."
Legend. I'm a legend?
"The word had been that he would take her for his wife, but one morning, on the steps of the castle, she disappeared right before his eyes."
Rusty blew out his cheeks. "Wow."
Kara held her breath. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear what came next.
"No one could explain it," Alex finished. He slid the card in the door lock then pushed it open for her to enter.
Kara released a breath.
He flashed that MacLeod smile.
"Interesting story," Rusty hollered from the other side of the room where he deposited her suitcase.
Kara stared out the windows. "Yes."
Rusty cleared his throat. "Well, I'm gonna go to my room and get cleaned up for dinner." At the door, he turned a curious gaze on them. "I'll see you then."
She couldn't look at him.
"Are you okay?"
She knew his voice—the timbre, the tone. If she closed her eyes, she would see Alaxandar. But he wasn't here in this century. He died a long time ago. Only to her did it seem like just last night when they'd made love. "I'm fine."
Alex ran the tip of his finger down her arm. She shivered.
"Are you—fine?"
The concern in his voice coaxed her to turn. She reached up with tentative fingers and touched his face. She saw the similarities in the profile and the differences. "Is it you?"
He grabbed her hand and kissed the palm. "Aye, 'tis me, Kara."
Her heart skipped. Overwhelmed by his declaration she said, "But how?"
"I don't know." He released her and moved toward the windows. "When you disappeared I was lost. I searched for days but found no sign of where you'd gone." He rested his hands on the window sill. "I drank, heavily." He hung his head. "One night Carrick came to me and told me about the stone and his sister." Spinning around, his biting gaze pierced her. "The same story you had told him."
She stepped toward him. "I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you everything but I was afraid of what would happen."
He clenched his jaw. "I understand." He forced the words through tight lips. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he continued. "The tale convinced me that you were gone forever, so I quit looking."
Kara yearned to hold him. The pain he had gone through radiated through her as well because it was the same pain she'd felt after waking up on the plane and realizing she had returned.
"A fortnight had barely passed when word came to us there be trouble on the northern boundaries. My father sent me and Iain to investigate."
Enthralled by his telling, she couldn't help but smile at the way he kept slipping into the Highland brogue. "What happened?"
"We were attacked by renegades."
She inhaled a sharp breath and clasped her fingers tight with his.
"My clansmen fought them back but we'd lost three men and I was wounded."
Her stomach churned, remembering how horrible it had been to see those men come back from battle. She wondered about the men who were lost and hoped none were men she had known while there.
"By the time we returned to Dunvegan, I had lost too much blood. There was naught they could do. My will to live had withered the day you disappeared."
The catch in his voice brought tears rushing to Kara's eyes and overflowing. "Oh, Alaxandar." She wrapped arms around him and rested her cheek on his solid chest, atop the place where the heart beat strong. "But how did you end up here?"
"I don't know. My máthair cried at the bedside, my bráthairs held the women. I closed my eyes but I didn't fade. I felt warm and comfortable, not at all how I expected dying to feel." He grinned then reached out and took her hand in his. "The next thing I knew, you were falling at my feet."
She slapped him on the shoulder. His grin widened.
In a thoughtful gesture, she frowned. "What about Alex?"
He tilted his head. "Parts of him are here as well. I seem to know the things he knew. I remember his childhood, his family. I have his body and his face."
Kara placed her hand upon his cheek. "It's a good face. But it is you?"
"Aye."
"This is so bizarre." She swept hands through the air. "I don't understand how it could happen."
He hugged her close. "We are meant to be together, in this life—in every life."
"Yes," she whispered.
"I won't let you go again. We will be married immediately. You will bear the MacLeod name and my children."
She sighed. "There you go ordering me around again."
"And what do you have to say about it?" His brow hiked questioningly.
"I can only say… yes." She jumped into waiting arms. "I love you Alaxandar MacLeod."
###
About the Author
Sloan McBride is a multi-published romance author who lives in the paranormal. Her current otherworldly fascination is the Time Walkers. These stories blend Sumerian Mythology with the past, present and future. This army of warriors battles the King of the Underworld, demons, and some fallen gods. Check out Book One, "The Fury." It will entice you to beg for more.
Sloan currently has five books in the making, three of which are for a new trilogy. These heroes are sexy daredevils, who will steal your heart and leave you breathless.
She belongs to a critique group with two other writers. They are known as the Sassy Scribes.
She lives in the Midwest with her husband of 30 years, two children and two dogs.
"If I had to choose one word to describe me it would be CHAOS. I never stop doing. Hyper you say? Perhaps, but not the kind that needs medication to control it. I am a life junkie. I want to experience everything life has to offer and go about it in my own way. My way generally involves music and dancing.
When I was young, I created stories in my head taking me to all the places I dreamed of visiting, and I always had a handsome someone to go with. As I got older, the places got more exciting and adventurous, and the someone became more rugged and gorgeous. What can I say, I'm a dreamer. I'm also a hopeless romantic. In that vein, my stories took on a romantic flare and though I never wanted them to end, they always ended happily.
In between my regular jobs as legal assistant, mother of two kids, wife, cook, washer woman, chaperone, taxi driver, computer tech, and part-time creative designer for homework jobs and school projects, I write full length romance novels with strong heroines and fractured men who need a good woman to heal them."
Connect with Sloan online:
http://www.sloanmcbride.com
http://www.facebook.com/sloan.mcbride
http://twitter.com/#!/SloanMcBride1
http://sloanmcbride.blogspot.com/
Table of Contents
Scotland 1356
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
About the Author
Connect with Sloan online:
Highland Stone Page 19