Even though it was dark, she could make out the glistening water of the loch that was all around them. She was up very high in a stone castle, and the woodland around it was lush and stunning. The moonlight shone down around her and she smiled. Loch Awe certainly lived up to its name.
There was a knock at the door behind her and she turned around.
“Yes?” she called.
The door opened slowly and Colin stood there in the dark hallway, smiling at her from across the room. Zoe’s heart skipped a beat as their eyes locked in on one another’s.
“Are you well?” he asked.
“Please, come in,” Zoe smiled.
Colin bowed into the room and closed the door behind him. Zoe caught a brief glimpse of the guards who were flanking the doorway and could see that they were in full armor with weapons.
“Why do I need the guards?” she asked as she sat down on the edge of the bed.
Colin looked down at the floor and sighed. He had leaned against the mantle and the light from the flames were casting beautiful patterns on his skin.
“Douglas,” he said with resentment. “He is not to be trusted.”
“In what way?” Zoe felt herself tense.
“He thinks you are a sorceress, a witch… Sent here to bring down Clan Campbell,” Colin half laughed. “I know he’s wrong, I know what I saw when I found you today. It was pure innocence and helplessness.”
Zoe nodded. “I can assure you, I’m no witch.”
“I fear he may come down here and take you to trial,” Colin said. “I have told him to leave you be, that he doesn’t have the final say in this castle, but it would not be the first time he has gone against me.”
“So I’m not safe here?” she asked.
Colin looked up at her but didn’t answer. Zoe swallowed down the fear and wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly cold.
“I won’t let him hurt you,” he said. “Which seems so strange to me, seeing as I don’t even know your name.”
Zoe looked up at him and smiled. “My name is Zoe.”
Colin’s eyes seemed to light up the instant he heard it. “I’ve never heard such a beautiful name,” he smiled. “And it suits you perfectly… A beautiful name for a beautiful girl.”
Zoe felt herself blushing. “Thank you.”
It was such a strange set of events, but she found herself feeling exactly the same way… She had only known Colin for a few hours, but it was as if they had some underlying connection, like something was pulling them closer together and joining their souls. Every time she looked at him, her heart seemed to melt a little more. Ross hadn’t even entered her head since she had woken by the loch, and it wasn’t just because she was experiencing something bizarre. It was because of Colin. He was everything she had ever wanted in a man, and so much more. He was different and so unbelievable sexy, she could feel the tingle of desire burning through her.
“Colin?” she decided to be brave. “Will you come to the bed?”
His eyes darted up to meet hers, and he seemed as nervous as she was. She didn’t know where she had gotten the courage to be so forward, but after such an intense meeting and unexplainable circumstances, she felt the need to be even closer to him still. She wanted him, all of him. Right then and there.
Colin walked slowly towards her, not taking his eyes from her even for a second. Zoe felt as if she had stepped out of her body and was acting out her wildest fantasy. As he neared her, she rose to her feet and reached up to run her fingers through his thick, red hair.
When Colin kissed her, it was as if they had been joined together forever, and as if they were always meant to be together. As he lifted her dress up over her head and exposed her breasts, he gasped as he saw her naked for the first time.
“You are so beautiful,” he whispered. “I have to have you.”
In an instant, his demeanor changed. His mild manner was overcome with pure animalistic lust as he picked her up and held her around his waist. He threw her down onto the bed and ripped off his armor. Beneath his clothes, his muscles heaved and rippled, and as he removed his underclothes, his huge manhood sprang free. Zoe’s sex twitched and gushed with need.
Colin climbed on top of her and pulled her over so she was on top of him. Even though she wanted him to ravage her, she also wanted to be in control, and as she straddled him and positioned his helmet at the opening of her sex, he gripped onto her hips and powered himself into her. As he penetrated her, the wave of pleasure was like nothing she had ever known. Their bodies fit together so perfectly, and as she rode him and grinded herself up and down on his shaft, Colin grunted with lust.
Zoe threw her head back as he reached up and cupped both of her breasts. She had never felt more liberated or desired. He held onto her and flipped her over onto her front, and she bit her bottom lip as he drove his hard cock into her again from behind.
As he pumped himself in and out of her, Zoe knew she wouldn’t be able to hold on any longer and came hard and fast. She unraveled beneath him, her orgasm rocketing through her and her thighs trembled. As Colin saw her in a mess of pleasure beneath him, he too exploded and shot his load right up inside her, collapsing onto her back and grunting into the back of her neck.
8.
Zoe trembled with pleasure as she rolled onto her back and Colin swept her up in his arms. He nuzzled into her, breathing in her scent and kissing the soft skin of her shoulders.
“Are you sure you’re not an enchantress?” he laughed as he turned her face to his and kissed her softly on the lips. Zoe smiled and giggled.
“I don’t know what just came over me,” she whispered. “I’ve never done anything like that before. It just felt so… so right.”
“Since the second I laid eyes on you down by the loch, I knew I would take you to bed,” he said as he ran his hands through her hair. “Maybe I just didn’t believe it would be so soon.”
Zoe blushed and cuddled into him again. She felt so safe with him. It was as if they were the only two people in the world and nothing else mattered.
As the fire crackled away and the embers burned down, they both fell soundly asleep.
As dawn broke Zoe was woken by the loud squawks of birds and she reached out her arm to discover she was alone. Disappointment filled her and her stomach dropped.
Where is Colin? she thought as she sat up and looked around the room.
She was certainly alone. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and walked towards the door. She was about to reach out and grab the handle when she heard the loud clattering of footsteps and armor hurtling down the corridor towards her room.
She backed away from the door and reached for the dress Colin had given her the day before. She pulled it down over her nightie and rushed up against the back wall. There was nowhere for her to hide. She was trapped.
The footsteps came to halt outside of the room, and she prayed to any God listening that she would be saved. There was a loud hammer on the door, but she didn’t dare speak. After a second, the door came crashing open and Colin stood there with fear in his eyes.
“Come, now!” he shouted as he dashed towards her and grabbed her by the wrist. “You must run! Douglas and a mob are coming for you!”
Zoe and Colin ran down the castle’s cavernous hallways, followed by an army of armed guards. They split off in different directions throughout the castle to try and throw Douglas off the scent and disappeared down a thin corridor and into a long forgotten room.
“I don’t think he will look for you here,” he whispered. “This room was our parents’.” He looked down with sorrow. “How I wish they were still here to stop him from going mad like this.”
“He thinks I’m a witch,” Zoe said sadly. “Which means I can’t stay here.”
Colin shook his head.
“I’ll sneak you out of the castle tonight,” he said, “and I’ll come with you. We can run away and be together.”
Zoe liked the sound of that more than she ever thought p
ossible, but she knew she couldn’t take Colin away from his life, and she didn’t want to be back in ancient Scotland without him. Her heart began to race with panic.
She turned and looked around the room, and with complete shock she saw something familiar. Something she had seen before and was more relieved than ever to be in the presence of again.
“That door,” she said, her finger pointing to the small, carved door in the side of the room. “I know that door.”
“Impossible,” Colin said. “No one has ever been in this room apart from my parents, myself, and my brother.”
Zoe reached up and touched his cheek. She wanted to kiss him and tell him everything, but she knew he wouldn’t understand.
“If I go through that door, I’ll be safe,” she said. “But I believe I will be able to return to you… We could meet here every night, and that way you don’t have to worry about Douglas trying to kill me or your position here at the castle.”
Colin looked confused, but he also seemed to understand.
“I trust you,” he said. “Just promise you will come back to me.”
He swept Zoe up in his arms as Douglas’s rage thundered through the halls not far from their hiding place. Their kiss was magic and it roused something in the room. When they parted, Zoe looked to the door and the familiar bright light was shining out from behind it.
“Wait for me,” she whispered as she let go of Colin’s hand and knelt by the door. She reached out for the handle and opened it just in time before Douglas charged into the room with his own armed guards ready to take her to trial.
She woke up on the floor of the archive feeling battered and bruised but full of love. Rebecca was standing in front of her with a look of horror on her face, and she dropped the clipboard that held the notes for their inventory.
“What…the…fuck?” she said, her mouth gaping open. She looked at Zoe up and down and looked at her dirty feet and the tattered brown smock she was wearing.
“Oh my God,” Zoe smiled. “You’ll never believe it…. But you were right when you said there were things down here that the world didn’t know about.”
“Where the hell have you been?” Rebecca put her hands on her hips. “And what the fuck is that door? How have I never seen it before?”
“Are you ready for the wildest adventure of your life?” Zoe raised her eyebrows. “Inventories are about to get a lot more interesting. How do you feel about journeying back to ancient Scotland and getting yourself a hot highlander boyfriend?”
Rebecca looked at her as if she was insane. “I guess I could think of worse ways to spend the afternoon,” she shrugged.
“Well,” Zoe began, “I’m about to tell you one hell of a story…”
As she recounted to her new friend of where the door had taken her and of who she had met, her heart beat solely for Colin. She knew she had met someone who was going to change her life, and she now knew she had the means to reach him whenever she needed to. The library had shown her the path her life was meant to take, and she couldn’t be more excited. Existing in two different times was going to be challenging, but it would be worth it.
She had tasted love, and she was never going to let it go…
THE END
Into the Highlander’s Realm
Samantha Leal
Copyright ©2015 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
1.
Moira looked up at the clock and watched the second hand tick, tick, tick slowly around until it rested on the twelve. Four minutes, she counted in her head. That’s how long she had been sitting there watching it, and that’s also how long she had left to go until she could switch off her computer, gather up her things and get the hell out of there.
It hadn’t been an easy week. Or an easy month. In fact, when Moira really thought about it, her whole year so far had been nothing but trouble and even now, on the eve of her escape to freedom for two weeks, she was sitting there completely weary and dreading the exit from the office.
She should have listened. They had all warned her about him and she had even known that she was setting herself up for a fall, but the moment Jack Tranter flashed his glistening baby blues at her, she had been sucked right in.
“He’s a player, Moira,” her colleague Erica had told her over lunch one spring afternoon as the girls sat outside their local coffee house flipping through magazines and snapping pictures of their Caesar salads.
“He’ll only hurt you,” Claire had confirmed.
“But I think I can change him,” Moira had said naïvely. “I think we have something special, and I’m pretty sure he can’t be faking.”
Erica and Claire had both looked at each other as if they didn’t have the heart to burst her bubble any more, but Moira dismissed it because she hoped she was the one who was right. After all, neither of the girls had had firsthand experience with Jack. They had just been told various bits of information from one or two other secretaries from around the office. And when Moira asked for more details, they couldn’t even tell her. For all of these reasons she was skeptical, and she and Jack were having such a great time together, she just couldn’t imagine it going any other way but up.
How she wished she would have listened.
After three months of amazing sex, deep conversations and grand plans, Jack had simply fallen off the face of the earth. When Moira finally managed to track him down, he had his arm around another woman, was cuddling up to her in plain sight for anyone to see and was nibbling her earlobe. When Moira had approached them, he looked at her as if she were a stranger and then declared at the top of his voice for everyone in a mile radius to hear, “What’s the matter with you, you psycho? We had one date. We were never exclusive.”
His companion had looked at her as if she were crazy and Moira had scuttled away, completely heartbroken and torn in two. How could he have done that to her? Less than a week earlier they had been planning on a trip over to Moira’s ancestral home of Scotland to discover a bit more about her roots and reconnect with her family’s past.
She had cried solidly for one week and then she got angry. No one was going to treat her that way. She was determined to pull herself together and move on with her life. As the sun set on a warm Sunday afternoon, she had curled up on the couch with a glass of red wine and opened her laptop.
She had never been to Scotland before, but after losing her parents several years earlier, she had felt a strange pull to go there and see what it was all about.
Her parents had always lived in the United States, but she had been told countless stories of their distant ancestors and the legends surrounding them. She had fantasized for a long time about taking the plunge and booking her flights over to Glasgow, but she had never had the nerve…
Until now.
She cradled the warm glass of wine in her palm of thought of the look on Jack’s face when he had so publically humiliated her. She was so much better than him, and now she was going to prove it. She opened up the British Airways website and booked her flight. Two weeks in Scotland and leaving as soon as possible. As she drained the rest of her glass and rested the laptop down on the couch beside her, her heart was racing and her palms were sweating. A part of her couldn’t believe that she had actually done it!
Now she was waiting for her work day to end, and finally, when she looked up at the clock again, her four minutes were up. She put on her “out of office,” closed down her workstation and slipped her jacket around her shoulders. Now all she had to do was get the hell out of there without Jack Tranter seeing her as she went.
She ducked out of her office and walked swiftly with her head down as she passed his room. She was sure she heard him call her name, b
ut there was no way she was going to wait and find out. She pushed her way out of the shining double doors, into the sunlight and out into freedom.
She was on her way!
2.
Back home at her apartment, Moira spent the evening ironing and folding clothes, gathering up toiletries and arranging outfits on the end of her bed. She went into her storage cupboard and wheeled out the biggest suitcase she had before hauling it up onto the bed and filling it with everything she could possibly need to see her through the next fortnight.
Before she had time to think, it was almost 10:00 pm, and she was getting tired. She flopped down on her bed and looked at her cell phone. In horror she realized that she had a missed call from Jack an hour earlier. To see his name come up on the screen made her stomach churn. A week or so before she had wanted nothing more than for him to call her and apologize, to tell her it was all a big joke or misunderstanding. But that phone call had never came and she knew that it would all be a lie, anyway. She covered her face with her hands as her heart raced in her chest. Could she even contemplate calling him back?
Deep down she knew the answer, and so she rolled over and shoved the phone underneath her pillow. She didn’t want to or need to know what he had to say. He had done enough damage to last her a lifetime.
She got up and crossed her bedroom to her desk. She opened the top drawer and pulled out her passport and her Scottish pounds. She flipped through them with a childish smile on her face, as if she couldn’t believe it was all real. She had never thought that she would have the nerve to travel across the world on her own, with no one meeting her at the other side, but it was all so liberating.
After she dressed for bed and set her alarm for 5:00 am, she climbed underneath her duvet and hoped for a safe journey. She had never needed a break more in her entire life, but she had never been a confident traveler. As she drifted off to sleep, scenes of rolling green hills and historical castles swirled through her head. She was finally going to see what her parents and grandparents had told her so much about and she couldn’t wait.
Shifter Romance: BODHI (LOST CREEK SHIFTERS NOVELLAS Book 4) Page 120