Entangled With You

by Knightley, Diana

  Our car turned, crept along for a moment, turned again, and finally stopped. Our door slid open. Magnus stepped out then Lady Mairead said, “Follow me,” and left before I was all the way out of the car. A total bitch move.

  Magnus put his hand on my back to help motivate me to actually want to follow her at all through the parking garage, every space occupied by a similar self-driving car with darkened windows. We went through a fancy door into an elevator and zoomed up to, my guess because it was so fast, the third floor, but my stomach dropped like we were much much higher.

  The elevator opened onto a large, luxurious apartment that was full, like every other space in Lady Mairead’s life, with a hoard of art and antiquities on every square inch of floor. She said, “I needs be removin’ some of this tae my store house, but in the meantime enjoy it. It has been a chore gettin’ it here.”

  The ceilings were very high. There was a wall of glass that probably looked down on the whole mysterious kingdom, or at least a city of it, but the windows were a solid white. I wanted to sit down, but stuff was piled on all the furniture except the small sofa and two chairs meant to be a sitting room in the middle.

  She waved an arm and lights went on, blinding me. We all winced. Tyler said, “Fuck, that’s bright.”

  Lady Mairead stopped in mid-walk as if she had only just then noticed he was there. “And you are?”

  “I’m Tyler Wilson, I’m a friend.”

  Lady Mairead’s brow went up. She looked directly at me. “Oh? Really?” She humphed and leveled her gaze at Magnus.

  He said, “He traveled with us tae the past and was captured and brought here. I intend tae take him home verra soon when we have a vessel tae spare. I consider him a friend and need for his life tae be guarded as Kaitlyn’s and my own until then.”

  Lady Mairead humphed again. “If you say so Magnus, though I daena understand how ye run your household. Things that would send most men intae a fit of rage ye take as acceptable. I canna under—”

  “My ability tae control my rage is the only thing keepin’ ye alive right now.”

  She wove her way through paintings and sculptures and cloth-draped furniture to the far end of the room. “Down this hallway you’ll find your room, Magnus.” She opened the door to a room that was luxuriously decorated: a four-poster bed, Persian rugs, silk sheets, antique furniture with a silver cast, silver covering the windows.

  She walked farther down the hallway and gestured toward another room. “This will be your room, Tyler Wilson.” She added, “If you would like tae get some rest and freshen up, ye may. We will discuss going forward during dinner in three hours.”

  “I daena want tae rest! We need tae speak of what has happened — how are ye ensuring our safety here? We have been followed, I am sure of it.”

  “First, Donnan left me this apartment. Tis mine and Samuel daena ken of it. Second, we were followed, but I have friends high up in the government who will help me hide ye until ye are ready tae fight for your throne. They daena want a spent, wounded prince. Tis crucial that ye be ready tae fight. Third, Samuel is nae smart. He winna find us.”

  “What is my next move?”

  “You are too tired tae discuss it now. Ye have traveled far and must rest. We will talk of it at dinner.” She left us standing in the hall.

  Tyler asked, “Who the hell is that?”

  “Tis my mother,” said Magnus. “Daena trust her.”

  “She hates me,” I added.

  He chuckled. “I can see. Where did she get those scars on her face? They match yours.” He pointed at my cheek.

  My hand went to it. It was healing fairly well but was still long pink line down my cheek. I had been rubbing vitamin E oil on it twice a day.

  I said, “Her’s were given to her by her second husband. Mine was, um—” I shook my head.

  “No worries, sorry I mentioned it. I was struck that they looked similar. All right, I definitely need that nap.”

  Magnus said, “Aye, knock on our door when ye are ready tae go tae dinner, we’ll accompany ye. You daena need tae dine with her alone, tis too much tae ask of a guest.”

  Chapter 44

  We turned into our room. The whole left wall should have been panes of glass, but instead was solid, silver metallic.

  I located a button on the wall and pressed it. The windows instantly changed to clear and, holy crap, we were on like — I peered over onto the sprawling, chaotic, mostly glass and metal, city. We had to be on the 150th floor. There were other towers all around us, their points vanishing into the sky and the ground so far away it was impossible to see. Vertigo inducing. “What city is this?”

  Magnus remained sitting on the bed. “I think tis mine.”

  My eyes went wide. “Shit, this is huge.”

  There was a sign on a building opposite. A woman with her arms around a man. The words said, “For when you’re ready for anything,” the brand name was ‘Notwen’. I had no idea what they were selling, but the words were English. Could this be an American city? New York? A drone, similar to the ones that had been terrorizing us in the eighteenth century buzzed up the side of the glass on the floor below. I pressed the button and instantly the glass tint returned to solid silver.

  The bed was ornate, antiqued silver. I tried without success to pull at my laces while Magnus took off his now-empty sword belt, sporran, and shoes.

  Magnus pulled me over to stand in front of him while he loosened my lacings. I looked down at the bare ring finger on my left hand and tears welled up in my eyes. “I don’t have my ring, Magnus, I left it in Lizbeth’s bedroom and it’s gone…”

  Magnus was quiet as he worked on the laces. “Tis nae matter in it, mo real-iuil, I—”

  “There is a matter in it. There is. That was the ring you gave me when we married.”

  “Twas too small though, ye need a larger stone such as Emma—”

  “Magnus, you hush, that is not what the situation calls for. That is my wedding ring and I love it. It’s from the 1600s the same as my husband. It has an eternal knot around the band and the garnet might be small but it was a stone passed down through your family — it symbolized everything about us, and now my hand is bare in your mother’s house. It seems really really awful that it’s gone now.” My lower lip trembled and full-blown tears were sure to come next.

  “Tis nae gone, Lizbeth has it.” He had my laces loose enough and turned me around to face him.

  “What if it’s lost?”

  “Madame Greer will keep it for ye. She kens the worth of jewelry. We will return for it as soon as we can.”

  I took a deep breath and pouted. “But how will people know we’re married? It’s the symbol of—”

  Magnus gave me a sad smile. “Tis the symbol of my love for ye, but tis nae my love, mo reul-iuil. Tis only a reminder. There is nae magic in it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Aye. I am sure. And if ye need a reminder, ye just ask me tae tell ye. I will say it. I mayna be as pretty, but I will say it louder.”

  I sighed and joked, “You are plenty pretty enough.”

  He chuckled as he helped me pull the bodice up and off over my arms. My breasts, my ribs, my lungs, my whole self went phew and relaxed downward. It had been days of wearing it. I hung forward. “I may never be straight and perky again.”

  He joked, “Tis a shame, ye were quite nice when ye were perky.”

  I stood up straight and released my skirt and pulled my shift off over my head and then started peeling off my long underwear. Until I was naked standing before him. “I want you to know this isn’t an invitation. This is me getting comfortable for a nap. My birthday suit is the only pajamas I have.”

  He grinned. “Your birthday suit — och, I understand the words now.”

  The bed was covered in fancy pillows. I plowed them off to the fancy rug-covered floor and pulled back the blankets and started to slide in between the sheets, except I was probably completely filthy, having been in the eighteenth
— I sighed and climbed off. “I have to take a shower first. I don’t want to get out of bed but I have to, and this totally sucks. But you have to too, the thread count on those sheets is too high for us to be this disgusting.”

  Magnus followed me into the giant bathroom. I used the bathroom, remembering I didn’t have any period products with me, because those assholes stole my bag when they kidnapped me away from Lizbeth’s bedside. God, she was going to be so worried. Madame Greer would be so worried. I hoped they wouldn’t have repercussions for helping me, for hiding my things.

  I checked, though, and it looked like my period was basically over, which was good.

  While Magnus used the bathroom I turned on the shower, warm, very warm. I climbed in leading him behind me. We stood together under the water, arms around each other, not speaking, just holding each other as the water rained down.

  After a while I wondered if we might both be asleep. I pulled away by a step and poured shampoo in my hand. He dutifully leaned forward. I rubbed the citrus scented shampoo around, massaging his scalp, working it through his shoulder-length hair. He moaned happily.

  I said, “I saw you had your eyes open in the car when your mother was driving us here... That was new.”

  He chuckled. “One of them.” Then he added, “I kent I had tae watch where we were goin’ tae protect ye. I will do anything’ tae protect ye.”

  “I love you.”

  “Aye, mo reul-iuil, me as well.”

  I lathered up my own hair and we stood smiling, looking into each other’s eyes with piles of lather on our heads, steam all around, and it was lovely. Like being at home in Florida in my time, that kind of lovely.

  I rinsed his hair, bubbles sliding down his muscles, and rinsed my hair, and we both waved the shower wand around our bottoms. I conditioned our hair and rinsed that, too. Toward the end it was getting kind of hot, temperature and sexy-wise, but still — tired. Magnus ran his hand down my back and then caught sight of his fingernails, dark with blood. His focus changed to scrubbing his hands.

  We just needed to take a nap. This was all to get us to be able to go to bed without mucking up our sheets with blood and dust and dirt and grime from the past.

  “Perfect.” I declared. I grabbed towels from the pile and Magnus and I wrapped them around our heads and our bodies and finally we crawled onto the bed and slid into the sheets. I climbed in under his arm, across his chest. He adjusted my hair-towel, so it wasn’t smothering his face.

  His skin was fresh, steaming, warm, faintly smelling of citrus and spice. I hugged my arm across his chest. My body went heavy. I was very close to sleep but right before — before I even knew that I planned to say anything, I said, “Lizbeth had a baby — it was...” I nuzzled into his side. “I don’t know...”

  Magnus’s body stilled with listening.

  “It was scary, and overwhelming but happy also, plus crying and...” I wiped the corner of my mouth. Gravity was dragging my lips down and I was drooling on Magnus’s chest. “I just...”

  I dragged a finger back and forth down his bicep. “I was thinking we should, I don’t know... like try again. I mean, I know it’s not a good time, that there are a lot of reasons.... but I want that and maybe we could talk about it, soon — trying, I mean.”

  Magnus asked, “Tae have a bairn, Kaitlyn?”

  I nodded up against his chest. “Yeah.”

  “Aye, I would like that.” He tilted my face up and found my lips and kissed me. Sweetly and softly. “Aye,” he said again. “Just nae today, I am verra sleepy.”

  I tucked my head back onto his chest. “Yeah, me too. I just meant we should talk about it. Make a plan. But I would like to.”

  He said, “Me too,” and then we both fell asleep.

  Chapter 45

  I woke up a bit later totally disoriented. We were in Lady Mairead’s apartment, at some strange hour in some unknown century, and we slept in total trust that she wouldn’t kill us.

  Why was she still alive? Oh right, because even though she wanted to kill me she was also keeping us alive. The thread-count on her sheets was quite nice though. Like I could live in this bed.

  Magnus rolled onto his side and pulled me close, groggy and not fully awake. He pulled my leg up to his waist, and yes, he was fully awake. I tucked in and wiggled closer and nuzzled into his neck. My lips pressed on the thrum of his heartbeat. His fingers dove between my legs, pulled me forward, drew me closer — he slid inside. It was all so urgent but also sleepy, insistent yet lazy. Wake up sex was awesome like this, familiar, and necessary, but then my excitement was building as he pushed and pulled against me and I held on around his musclebound back, moaning into his neck, breathing this moment, him, into my lungs. This brought clarity — Magnus. Waking in his arms, meeting the future together. He rolled onto his back pulling me up and on him. His hands rubbed down and held my ass, close, tight, firm, I arched back — ohgodohgod —

  There was a soft knock on our door.

  I collapsed down on Magnus’s chest. I whispered, “Is the door locked?’

  “Aye.”

  Another soft knock. Magnus’s hands tightened against me pulling me closer.

  He answered, louder, “Aye?”

  Tyler’s voice came through the door, “Checking if you guys are awake, I’m starving.”

  “Aye, we are just awake. Give us a few moments we will come for you in your room.”

  “Cool.”

  I giggled, stifling my mouth into his neck as Magnus rolled us over, climbed on and finished, fast, quiet, done. He collapsed onto me. This had become my favorite moment, okay, one of them, him, strong yet weakened. His back taut from holding himself up above me, now spent, on me, his arms collecting me safe, his body holding me down, warm, still inside me, soft and gentle, his breath close to my ear reminding me of him, his heartbeat against my mouth, alive.

  All of it. I loved.

  He whispered into my ear. “Twas terrible timin’.”

  I giggled again. “It was. But you still finished strong, my love.”

  He turned his head to see my face and grinned. “Did I tell ye today that ye are a verra good wife?”

  I raised my brow at him. “Isn’t that what you were saying with your big manly cock?”

  “Och, now ye are definitely the verra best wife.”

  “By calling your cock big and manly I went up a notch from good to best? Now I feel challenged to see how far I can go.”

  “Ye can go as far as ye want, I will nae complain.” He smirked and rolled off me and disappeared into the bathroom. I heard the familiar sound of him pissing into the toilet. He came back, tossed me another towel. And then we both realized we had to put on our 18th century clothes again. Muck and mire and...

  I sighed and pulled the shift over my head and dropped it to the ground.

  Magnus put on his kilt while I pulled up my skirt and yanked on my bodice. I stood in front of him so he could tighten my lacings.

  He tightened them and tied the knot and then like every time, put his hands on my waist and paused. I gathered that this created big feelings for him, me, from his future, bound up like someone from his present, or past, because he was in both worlds now. He had a tendency to sit there and think on it, possibly enjoy it.

  I turned to face him and his expression was less enjoyment and more worry like he wanted to stop time, hold us here forever.

  I looked down at him and he met my eyes. His brow creased with worry. I gently rubbed my thumbs along the ridge of his eyebrows, massaging it away. And then I put my hands on his shoulders. “Did you kill those men?”

  He nodded. “Aye. While they were collapsed from the pain of travelin’. Tyler helped me on it, but twas my decision.” He winced. “I daena like myself much because of it, mo reul-iuil.”

  I nodded.

  “But I couldna let them take us through those doors. Twould have been end of us. I ken tis true, but I am nae the kind of man who wants tae kill like that.”

 
My mouth turned down and I sighed. “You aren’t that kind of man.” I massaged his forehead and ran my fingers through his hair, pushing it from his face, making it lay down after the damp sleep had riled it up. “You are a gentle man.” I pushed up his chin and pressed my lips to his forehead. “The gentlest man I know. You are also ‘Master Magnus’ and you handle shit when it needs to be handled. And that shit needed to be handled. So you did. Like this needs to be handled. And guess what? On that rooftop you took step one, get off that rooftop. That’s what you had to do.” I squeezed his shoulders. “I’m very glad you got me off that rooftop. I’m not sure how glad I am to be here, in Lady Mairead’s house. But if there’s food involved, I’m willing to deal with just about anything.”

  Magnus kissed me on the lips and stood. “I am terribly hungry too.” As if to punctuate it, his stomach growled. And he and I both laughed.

  Chapter 46

  I should have recognized trouble ahead when I saw the empty seat, with the place set, but we all sat down without noticing it or forgot to remark on it when we did. Lady Mairead was dressed in a suit dress, a little like something a First Lady might wear, but of that filmy material, and accented with fur and with jewelry that looked gold and sparkly like diamonds. I was of course wrapped in filthy wool. She winced when she saw me.

  “Remind me tae have your clothes laundered and suitable clothes brought tae ye, Magnus.”

  Apparently she wasn’t speaking to me. She took her seat at the head of a very long lavishly set table, and her staff, numbering at least eight from what I could see, began buzzing back and forth to the kitchen.

  She gestured for Magnus to take the seat to her left and gestured for me and Tyler to sit across from Magnus. Tyler tried to put me close to Lady Mairead, but I dodged for the chair farthest away. I sat down, relieved at my strategy: I would use Tyler to block my view of Lady Mairead, or better yet, block her view of me.

  I swear every time she looked at me her brow raised and her eyes flashed maliciously.