Star Crossed

by Christine Young

  "Now, now, Moya, settle down. We arrived in the nick of time, if I don't mind saying so myself. I be thinkin' the pagans haven't done too much damage yet. At least nothing we can't fix with a little ingenuity and determination."

  ~ * ~

  "I--why Casey O'Connell, how could you be thinking such a thing." He felt as if the love of his life, his soul mate had just kicked him in the gut. He meant to protect her, not take advantage of her. He wanted nothing more than to kiss her again, to make love to her, and more--so much more. "I have only your best interest at heart. Now you are accusing me of--using you of--not considering your feelings to be important."

  "Why did you kiss me," Casey asked, "then push me away?" Her expression bordered on furious and hurt. Kelly didn't like that look and was making vows to himself to rectify this as soon as possible and to never see the expression again.

  Damn, but she had every right to ask him and to feel hurt. Maybe he was taking advantage. No, he meant to protect and cherish. If he'd kept kissing her, he wouldn't have stopped and he had the strange feeling Casey would not have told him no. Of course she would not have told him no, she has no idea what kissing will lead to.

  "Casey, darlin', you've got to learn something." He was sweating bullets as he pushed his hair from his eyes then searched for a diplomatic way to talk to her.

  She pointed a long slender finger at him, tapping him on the chest, once, twice then three times. "Don't be tellin' me, Kelly Shaunasey, I need to learn how to kiss. That just wouldn't be very nice now, would it? You be knowin' I haven't done a lot of kissing…" She tapped him again and his heart fell to the pit of his stomach. He felt a large lump in his throat. To no avail he coughed to clear his thoughts as well as his throat.

  He placed both hands on her shoulders and tried not to draw her close and seek that kiss she was wanting. "You've got to learn how to say no," he told her, feeling a smile radiate upward from his core, understanding the word no was not what he wanted to hear. He needed to hear the soft throaty sounds of pleasure emanating from her when he kissed and touched her.

  "No? No! I don't want to tell you no. See, I can say the despicable word. I just don't want to." She placed her hand on his chest. He felt the warmth. An inferno of heat and desire swept through him.

  "Therein lies the problem, sweetheart. If you don't say no, I might ravish you right here in this gazebo and that might be a little embarrassing if someone were to discover us--" Ravish? Where did that thought come from. In the male parts of you she knows nothing about. She has a brother, he tried arguing with himself.

  "Then you want to kiss me." She was all smiles and coquettish looks. She blinked and peered at him from beneath long dark lashes. God, she has the longest lashes. Well, she has learned to flirt and quite appealingly. Anymore and she might just get her wish fulfilled--lord, he might have his wish granted. Then the guilt would wash through him. No, Kelly Shaunasey, if she can't say no, you have to. This is not the right place or time.

  "And so much more," Kelly admitted, knowing he shouldn't. There was so much to settle between them before he could make her his very own. If the century old feud wasn't a formidable road block, the religious issues would make the journey far too difficult to imagine. He knew he had to wait.

  "More?" she asked. "Tell me what more means." She quirked a delicate eyebrow upward and flashed him a heart-melting smile. "Please?' she seemed to beg and he was hard-pressed to resist the gorgeous eyes staring into his.

  Kelly groaned inwardly. "If I have to tell you, then you really must learn to say no." How does a fella resist this siren's call? She was everything he had ever yearned for in a woman, in a soul mate.

  "I want you to kiss me and I think I want the more part too. And I'm really not that innocent or ignorant. I know there is more. I just don't know what more feels like and exactly what more entails. So you will be my teacher. Yes," she paused, "you will teach me all about more and kisses and sinfully decadent things. After all, it is your job." She appeared absolutely happy with herself as if she had solved all their problems.

  He wanted nothing more than to teach her everything about love, about making love and anything decadent she wanted to explore. Lord, but he could start right now--this very instant--he would be a well-satisfied man. "Maybe we can keep to the kissing and not find too much trouble." Lord, was he a stupid man. He wanted to make everything right. He needed her in his bed, not in the gazebo.

  She looked up and slanted him an all-knowing grin as if she'd just won the first battle. Hell, this wasn't a battle. He wanted this as much as she apparently did. He wanted to surrender to her. The only battle he waged was with his conscience. Hell, his whole body ached to admit defeat. A kiss, what would another kiss be like, and could they both come away unscathed from it? Could he keep said kiss under control, not allowing himself to ravish his lady fair on this very spot. After this morning's events, he knew he would have a lifetime with her.

  He pulled her into his arms, holding her tight against him so afraid to carry this further but wanting another kiss from her more than life itself. He knew better. He'd already presented all the arguments against another kiss, but he didn't want to let her go--could not let her go--if he had a choice, would never let her go.

  "Kelly…" His name was a breathy whisper in the sultry air inside the gazebo. Did she know what she did to him when she said his name that way? No, imbecile, of course she doesn't. She is an innocent.

  "What?" He could barely breathe, let alone speak. He asked a question he wanted desperately to know the answer to but was terrified of that answer. What if she had a change of heart? He didn't believe he had ever been as unsure of himself as he was at this moment.

  "You're smothering me. Can you just kiss me and teach me everything I want to know? You wouldn't want someone else teaching me, now would you?" She flashed him another coquettish grin as he loosened his hold on her just enough to look down at her and watch her breasts rise and fall with the deep breath she inhaled.

  Good God, no.

  Smoothing Casey's soft bottom lip with one finger, Kelly stared into the night--into the dance hall. "Patrick," he whispered as a knot formed in his gut. By all that is holy, what is he doing here? He felt Casey's jump of surprise and the trembling of her body. This wasn't something he could make right. "As much as I would like to take you up on all of your sweet offers, the timing could never have been worse. I think I see your brother and a few of his friends in the dance hall and if I'm not mistaken, things are heating up in there."

  A loud crash and the noise of fists hitting flesh resounded in the air. Casey swirled in Kelly's arms to capture the scene he was looking at. "He's brought his friends. This is not Sunday. You never fight unless it's Sunday."

  He felt the shiver of apprehension in Casey, flowing from her into him and sending misgiving spiraling out of control.

  "No, we don't," Kelly said.

  A young man tumbled from the back door. Another followed in a leap, landing on top of the first. Fists flew furious and fast. Kelly ached to join the ruckus, but knew he needed to stay with Casey. Liam was hit by a punch and landed outside with a few of the other brawlers. Kelly held his breath, pulling Casey into the shelter of his arms. He felt her heart beat and the rapid escalation of her breath.

  "What on earth are they all fighting about now?" Casey stepped forward, attempting to push from Kelly's arms, but his hold on her tightened.

  "I be thinkin' you know the answer to that," he said, voice calmly resigned. "Your brother and his friends are here for one reason. At that is you."

  "Well, tarnation…"

  Kelly felt the realization of her statement as she stiffened in his arms. He felt her withdraw from him one vertebra at a time. The knifing sensation in his heart penetrated every dream he just had about Casey. Perseverance had never been so underrated. He would have to hang in there a bit longer. He would win her hand and would convince his family as well as hers they would work out their differences.

  S
he pulled away, shaking her head and turning to him. He saw the tears fill her eyes then slip down her cheeks. "I can't believe he would do this to me. I thought the two of you had just agreed to disagree. What on earth could be wrong with the lot of them?"

  Her once smiling face turned serious, shoulders stiffening, he knew he wasn't going to like what he was about to hear. The moments passing between them, the unspoken words, seemed to last an eternity.

  "Kelly Shaunasey, I don't believe we can be together until we can figure out how to make our families understand."

  ~ * ~

  "Oh my God. Oh my, oh my," Moya fluttered up and down, her insides churning. "Everything is falling apart. Cary, you are wicked, wicked, wicked, but I'm not going to quit. You haven't won this war yet. You will rue the day you messed with me." Moya shook her delicate little fist at the wicked pagan.

  "Calm down," Oran said watching Moya fall apart at the seams. If you go up then down one more time, you're going to make me sea-sick." Oran searched for a way to calm Moya. She would not do anyone any good in this state save the fae pagans, Cary and Conn.

  "I know, I know." She wrung her hands and wailed, making a soft keening sound as she calmed a bit. "But Oran, what are we going to do? We cannot stop the fight. There is no amount of dust that will do such a thing. And Casey, how could she have ever said such a thing?"

  "You must understand, those two cannot stay apart. Something draws them inexplicably to each other. She is speaking in the moment. You be noticin' Kelly doesn't appear to be agreein' with her." Oran knew he had to think fast. Somehow he had to end the Catholic versus Protestant war without anyone winning and keep Patrick from haulin' his little sister home never to see her beloved again.

  Moya huffed. "It's called faerie dust, you big oaf. And I've plum used up more than half of my month's supply. What about you? Do you have any faerie dust left?" She wrung her hands again; the depression he had seen earlier had seemed to vanish. For a moment Moya looked more like her old self and if that was so, Cary beware of his Moya.

  "Tons," but as he looked in the little bag he carried at his waist, Moya must have been able to see he had very little left. Lying to her was out of the question. "Well, I had tons yesterday before you made me sprinkle and sprinkle and sprinkle most of it on Kelly. It seems he wasn't acting up to snuff."

  "So we are nearly helpless. We cannot go on…" Suddenly, her keening grew in volume, her distress reaching through to her core. She stiffened then as if she had come to some momentous conclusion.

  "Moya, you are never helpless." She needed to boost her ego and find a way to take charge of this quickly turning situation. He had thought she had done just that. Apparently he had been dead wrong.

  "Ha, ha, ha!"

  The laughter emanating from the top of the gazebo sent a shiver of apprehension down Oran's spine. The chuckle sounded demonic in nature, coming from the pits of hell. He looked to Moya to see how Cary's devilish laughter had affected her.

  "You lose something?" Cary's taunt, malicious in nature seemed to give Moya more backbone than she'd had. Oran prayed she would never let Kelly and Casey fall into Cary's conniving hands.

  "None of your business, little witch," Moya said, her back stiffening she sped toward Cary in a death defying dive, pulling up just as she reached the pagan.

  Moya's fury didn't seem to bother Cary. She held her ground, never flinching. "I can lend you some of mine," Cary daintily placed one perfect nail on her chin. "Hmmm, then you would be on my side. And doesn't that sound intriguing?"

  "Pagan," Moya's uttered word was soft but she knew Cary heard it when laughter floated high into the night air.

  "Did you know her name is the same as Conn's," she tossed that fact out and it made Moya gasp.

  "What lie would you be tellin' now?" Moya asked.

  Cary tossed her hair an all-knowing expression on her face. "Let me count the ways. Conn--Son of Connell--Casey O'Connell."

  Chapter Eight

  Casey marched away from Kelly, a tear in her heart. Desperation drove her to this as well as a burning need to find out why her brother was fighting Kelly's brother. Brothers fighting over…

  They can't be fighting over me.

  She stumbled but she kept on walking, fisting her hands as she strode toward the mess that had become her life, her back stiffening more with each step. Inside the dance hall the noise reached a deafening crescendo. "Patrick. Patrick O'Connell!"

  "Careful, Casey," Kelly said, rushing in a mad dash towards her, his strides long, eating up the distance between the two of them.

  Casey made her way to her brother and Liam, her hands outstretched in an attempt to wiggle her way between the two men. "Stop this. Patrick!" A random punch caught Casey in the chin. She flew backwards, landing hard on the grass. For a brief second she lay on the ground, gazing at the heavens above and wondering at the beautiful flecks of gold and silver floating down around her.

  "I'm fine," she said. "It's the rest of you who need help. Men…"

  "Casey," Kelly bent over her.

  "All in a day's life," Casey brushed Kelly's hands aside. "I'm fine," Casey said. "It's the rest of you who need help. Men…" she repeated, mumbling more than was considered polite for a lady.

  "Sorry," Liam said a bit sheepishly. "Didn't mean to hit a gal."

  More men tumbled from the brightly lit room. Sounds of punches and ooofffs resounded through the evening. Kelly lifted Casey, removing her from two men rolling on the ground, fists flying.

  "You two have to stop this now," Casey said to her brother, trying to appeal to his good senses and gentlemanly instincts.

  "Don't see how?" Patrick grinned at the two.

  "Patrick O'Connell!"

  "Alright, I'll give it a try, but I'm going to be needin' a little help from the two of you." He pointedly looked at Liam and Kelly.

  The two brothers nodded, Liam appearing to be having far too much fun at his brother's expense. But at least Kelly appeared serious. "Go on…"

  "Adrian, Clancy, Fallon…hold. The fight is over." In the middle of his friends, Patrick tried to pull them apart. Liam was doing the same, both taking punches while they tried to stop the brawl.

  "Keith, Padriac, Rory," Liam called out, his voice rising above the din of the fight. "Do as Patrick says."

  Slowly the brawl came to an end. The commotion inside the dance hall died down as well. The night breeze rustling the tree leaves was all that could be heard.

  "Why?" Casey asked, her emotions blazing. Her heart raced. She inhaled several long deep breaths in hopes of controlling herself.

  "You, my darling sister, do not have permission to be here." Patrick swept his arm out in a broad circle. "I'm taking you home. You will have a bit of explaining to do so think fast. A plausible story would suffice, one with the fewest embellishments."

  Emotions blazing, Casey stared at her brother for a moment. She didn't know what to say to the insufferable sibling. But she knew what she wanted to say. Instead she blurted something unbelievable, "You cannot be tellin' me what to do, Patrick O'Connell. Kelly and I are married--as of several hours ago." She suddenly felt sick to her stomach. She touched her once blazing cheeks with the palms of her hands and felt a chill sweep through her.

  A chorus of "What!" followed her statement. Pandemonium was on the verge of breaking out once more. She saw fists tighten and shoulders tense.

  Oh, my god, I've made everything worse. We weren't going to tell anyone until the time was right.

  Casey stiffened, her backbone as straight as a broom handle. Her mind was a muddled mess of crazy thoughts. "Padriac married us." She pointed a finger at Kelly's friend. She watched as Padriac's face paled. He appeared on the brink of denying her statement.

  "It isn't legal," Patrick said, looking to Kelly for confirmation. "No reading of the banns, Mother and Father will have the marriage annulled. Any stupidity you accomplished this day can be undone in a blink of an eye."

  "Casey," a weak word from Kelly wh
ose face had all but drained of color. "Casey, darlin', you need to stop talking."

  "Is this true?" Liam demanded of his brother. Liam seemed to be the only member of the group who was smiling. It was as if he enjoyed this too much.

  Kelly's Adam's apple bobbed as he must have swallowed hard. He closed his eyes and for a moment it seemed he would not open them. He began with a stuttered, "I--I--" but couldn't finish. He ruffed both hands through his hair then threw them up as if in disbelief. "Casey--" he began once more.

  "I didn't think so," Patrick said a smug look on his too handsome face. "You can't lie worth a darn, Casey. You should never try."

  "We've slept together," Casey forged onward. "The marriage cannot be annulled." Her ship was sinking fast. But thank God Kelly wasn't denying anything yet. She didn't understand why she kept blurting out things best left unsaid, things they had both agreed would remain secrets until the time was right.