Everything after that was pure, untouchable oblivion. Daggers of searing ecstasy shot through her over and over. There seemed to be no source of origin but a full-body experience. An event that involved not only her flesh but her soul.
Deep.
Thick.
Consuming.
A transcendence of epic proportions.
It was impossible to know how long she drifted, caught in a whirlpool of near incoherency. What was this? Sure, it was one hell of a multi-orgasm. But somehow it was more. Better.
Addictive.
When she at last came down from her high, she realized he was kneeling. His forehead rested against the rock next to her and he had the back of his forearm braced above her head. From the sounds of it, he was as winded as her.
Head leaned back against the rock, she chuckled softly. “Looks like more than just a pinch can bring you to the ground.”
Niall’s lips again came close to her ear, his words low and hoarse. “Ye can bring me to my knees in such a way anytime ye like, lass.”
She almost said the same but bit her tongue. It seemed like, what? Commitment? Or not. He didn’t strike her as the type to want that sort of thing. The whole ‘me not Darach’ comment was just him going all alpha on her. Nothing more. No, she remained silent because she didn’t just want to be a booty call. Did she? Maybe she had gone down that road here and there with guys in the past but not anymore.
Almost afraid to look and trying to be discreet about it, she sort of stretched and lifted her hand. The Claddagh ring remained unchanged. Phew. At least that was her initial response. Then she felt a little something else. A nugget of surprising disappointment. Uh oh. Not good. Not when it came to a guy like Niall. Or a girl like her for that matter.
She was about to lower her hand when she spied some red.
“Oh, damn,” she muttered. “Blood.”
“Aye.” He squeezed her backside and she jolted. Zig-zags of fresh pleasure shot through her. There was a chuckle in his voice as he stood and set her down. “Ye’ve got some bite to ye, lass. In more ways than one.”
Nicole flinched when he stepped away and put his back to the water. A total of ten scratches lined his shoulder blades. Five on one side. Five on the other. “Well, I’ve never done that before. Holy shit.”
Not seemingly bothered by it in the least, a cocky grin curled his lips. “Battle wounds well earned.”
Nicole rolled her eyes and leaned back against the rock. While tempted to say, “Hell yeah they were,” she figured he didn’t need the ego boost. Even if he had earned it. So she shrugged and offered her own cocky grin. “Consider yourself lucky. Crème of the crop here, baby.”
“Crème of the crop?”
“Best of the best.”
His brows perked and for a second she thought he was going to make a smartass comment. But something stopped him. Instead, she swore he whispered, “Aye,” before he headed for his satchel.
Why was he so compliant?
“No witty comeback?” she challenged, then joined him.
Niall handed her a dress and started wrapping his plaid. “Were you hoping for one?”
She shrugged and frowned at the satchel. “No pants in there?”
“Nay.” He ran a hand through his wet hair and she sensed that he was struggling with something.
“What's up?” Nicole pulled on the dress and eyed him. “You seem off all of a sudden.”
Not bothering to answer her question, he pulled on a tunic then started to tie up her dress. “We need to rejoin the others.”
“Obviously.” She batted his hands away and continued tying. “I don’t like being ignored. Especially after what we just did.”
“’Twas just sex.” He rubbed the mark on his neck from her teeth and somewhat relented. “Good sex.”
Her brows shot up. “Wow, I pegged you for a few things, Niall but not a total douche.”
She yanked on her boots and conveniently set aside the fact that she tended to treat guys like he was treating her right now.
“Was it more than that to you then, lass?” he said softly as he pulled on his boots as well.
“No,” she shot. Damned if she would say otherwise now. But it hurt and that irritated her to no end. “Like you said. Just sex.”
Once she was ready, she didn’t bother looking at him but strode back in the direction they came. Before she got too far, he grabbed her upper arm and spun her back. “’Twas a good exchange betwixt us. I dinnae ken your anger now.”
“Exchange?” She kept frowning. “That’s a hell of a thing to call what we just did.”
“I made you feel good. You made me feel good. Is that not an exchange?”
“I guess,” she muttered and tried to yank her arm away.
“Answer my question, Nicole.” She was going nowhere fast as he held her shoulders firmly and searched her eyes. “Why are you so upset?”
“I’m not,” she spat. “But if you don’t let me go that’ll change.”
“Mayhap I asked the wrong question before.” She couldn’t quite pinpoint the look on his face as he continued. “Were you hoping that I wanted this to be more than just sex?”
Now he was cutting too close to something she had no desire to scrutinize. So she narrowed her eyes and played it safe. “Are you getting sappy on me, Niall?”
“Sappy?”
“Overly emotional with your feelings toward me.”
Something close to alarm flashed in his eyes before he scowled and brushed past her. “I dinnae get sappy over lasses.”
At least he had let go. “Yeah, same here when it comes to guys. Total turn-off.”
The truth was the only type of sappy she had dealt with were guys going all mushy when they learned she had issues with her hearing. It was pathetic. If she wasn’t going to be soft about her affliction, then they shouldn’t be either. Yet one way or another, all the guys she had dated ended up treating her differently when they found out.
And she did not want to be treated differently.
So she kept looking for the guy who understood her. Who would realize that she was strong and be strong alongside her. She didn’t want or need to be coddled.
“Can you climb well enough?” Niall asked as she followed him back down into the oak’s cave.
“Yeah, why?”
“There’s a wee bit o’ a climb ahead.” He checked on Vika and Nicole patted her.
“Feel better now, lass?”
Nicole frowned and eyed Niall. He hadn’t said that. And it certainly had not been little Robert. Tentative, she responded within the mind. “Who is this?”
“’Tis me. Vika.”
“Oh, damn,” she said aloud by mistake. Nicole had started to give up hope that Vika would speak telepathically to her.
“What?” Niall asked.
“I think I’ll keep you my little secret for now,” she said to Vika as she rubbed her muzzle. “Nice to meet ya by the way.”
“Ye as well,” Vika said.
“Nothing,” Nicole responded to Niall’s question. “Just stubbed my toe.”
Niall tossed her an odd look and shook his head. “It typically takes hitting the toe on something for that to happen, aye?”
Nicole made a loose gesture over her shoulder. “Back when we were screwing around.” She gave him a pointed look. “It got pretty rough there.”
“Aye.” Apparently that was enough of an explanation because he nodded and gestured for her to follow him.
“You have everything you need?” she asked Vika.
“Aye, lass. Dinnae worry over me.”
Nicole rubbed her muzzle one last time and followed Niall down a narrow hallway before they arrived on a ledge.
“Holy fuc….fudge,” she murmured, staring at the massive cave they entered. Mist swirled down from above until it vanished below. A massive, twisting stalactite wrapped from the ceiling to the ground.
A ground that was way down there.
“Fudge?” he as
ked.
“Huh?” She tore her eyes from their surroundings.
“You just said fudge.”
“Oh.” She shrugged. “I’m trying to work on my swearing because of Robert. It’s not cool to do around kids.” Nicole sighed. “And I tend to have a filthy mouth on occasion.”
“Aye.” Niall’s eyes dropped to her lips and it seemed he understood the twenty-first century saying this time. His words were very soft, but she heard them. “’Twould have no time to be filthy if put to good use.”
“Keep dreaming, buddy.” Yet she found herself imagining the possibilities. Before he could catch on that she wasn’t opposed to his innuendo, she said, “I spent a lot of time growing up on the streets. I guess that’s where I learned to curse.”
“Why were you on the streets so much?”
She was so busy trying to evade talk of oral satisfaction that she had introduced something she never meant to. Her upbringing. “Just tends to happen when you’re raised in the city.” Peering over the edge, she changed the subject. “Please tell me this isn’t what you were talking about when you mentioned climbing.”
But she knew it was because everyone else was down there.
“Aye.” He eyed her feet. “But now I dinnae know with your sore toe and all.”
He was trying to call her bluff. So she went with it. “You’re a wizard. Can’t you snap your fingers or something and get us down there?”
“Nay.” He offered her a devilish grin seconds before she realized his intentions.
But by then it was too late.
Chapter Nine
NIALL GRINNED AS Nicole muttered, “You suck,” approximately twenty-seven times on the climb down. She was a wee enough thing so it wasn’t especially treacherous save for the few times she wiggled in defiance. But then there was the bonus of her perfect arse doing all the wiggling. By the time they made it to the bottom, she had started to mix in some especially creative alternatives to her typical array of curses.
“I can’t believe you flung me over your shoulder and climbed down, you ass…sertive person,” she growled as he lowered her. Nicole shoved him away. “Darn dangerous.”
Niall chuckled as she strode, limp-free, toward his kin. He called after her, “’Tis good that your toe doesnae seem to be bothering you anymore.”
“It was a stubbed toe, Brute.” She shook her head. “Everybody knows the pain doesn’t last long.”
He knew damn well she had been lying and he knew why. Vika had spoken to her within the mind. What he hadn't been able to figure out yet was why Nicole didn’t just say as much. But if there was one thing he had learned about her it was that she was more guarded than most. And fiercely protective of her privacy.
A sense of privacy she still had no idea she shared with him.
The sense that he should tell her the truth only grew stronger and stronger. He might find Nicole to be one of the most exasperating lasses he had ever met, but she was also, by far, the most exciting. There was so much about her that drew him closer. Not just her rebellious nature but the layers beneath that were slowly but surely being revealed.
Her concern over Robert.
Her unwavering devotion to her friends.
The endless courage that existed at the root of her.
“So ye couldnae manage the climb on your own, aye lass?” Machara taunted Nicole as they joined everyone around a fire. Tucked beneath a plaid, the Bruce slept.
“More like your meathead cousin can’t keep his hands off me,” Nicole retorted and plunked down on a log beside Darach. He wondered if she did that on purpose to make him jealous.
Niall sat across from them, stretched out his legs and nodded his thanks when Logan tossed him a skin of whisky. Eyes still on Nicole, he said, “All you have to do is say no, and I’ll keep my hands where they belong, lass.”
It wasn’t quite saying they had enjoyed each other’s bodies, but it wasn’t quite saying they had not either.
Malcolm’s eyes narrowed on Niall. “’Tis best you both keep your hands where they belong on this mountain and well you know it, Son.”
As if he could have walked away after she said yes. He had never wanted to be inside a lass so much…needed a lass so much. It had been an unthinkably powerful experience made up of not only extreme lust but something far more.
Something that could be life-altering if he were not careful.
“That sounds serious,” Nicole said in response to his father’s statement. But her eyes didn’t narrow on Malcolm. No, they narrowed on Niall. “What does he mean?”
Darach’s eyes were narrowed on Niall as well.
Logan simply had a ‘you’re on your own with this one’ look on his face.
Machara chuckled. “Och, have ye not heard of the mystical fertility powers of this mountain, lass?”
Nicole’s eyes widened and swung her way. “Come again?”
“’Twas only said to be because of the Baby Oak,” Niall assured.
“Yet Alan and Catriona Stewart conceived their twins, Brae and Cullen on this mountain before the Baby Oak was born,” Darach said.
“Oh, shi…ship,” Nicole stuttered, eyes growing wider even as she navigated around swearing.
Malcolm sighed and frowned at Niall, clearly getting the answer he sought based on her reaction. “Some say it was the power of Torra embracing her dragon for the first time here that turned that acorn into a tree but others have long speculated that the mountain helped.”
“Aye. Nobody else got around to testing the theory after that.” Machara winked at Niall then arched a brow at Malcolm. “Until your lad was conceived.”
Nicole’s eyes went to Niall and she whispered, “You were conceived here?” Then her eyes slowly swung to Malcolm and it seemed she wasn’t concerned in the least that she addressed his father. “You ended up with Leslie’s sister, Cadence. A woman from the twenty-first century.” She swallowed and kept going. “Was she on birth control?”
“Nay,” Malcolm said and Nicole slumped with visible relief.
“Wasn’t that because—” Machara started.
When Malcolm shook his head sharply, her words trailed off.
“’Twas because it was her decision not to be,” his Da said.
Niall almost took the escape his father seemingly offered after drawing him out to begin with but truly didn't believe what they said about the mountain. So he looked at Nicole and told her the truth. “My Ma was told by doctors that she couldnae conceive so there was no reason for birth control.”
Nicole blinked several times as she processed the information. “Yet she did on this mountain.”
Darach being Darach tried to ease her evident discomfort. “Are doctors not often wrong about such things? Miracles happen.”
“Oh, you’re a miracle all right,” Nicole said softly, eyes narrowing even further on Niall. “It’ll be a fuc…fudgelike, God-da-dang great, miracle if I don’t frigging kill you—”
“Fudge-like?” Machara interrupted.
“She’s trying not to swear in front of the Bruce,” Niall muttered and took a hearty swig from his skin.
Nicole started to swig from the one Darach handed her but stopped, cheeks turning red as her anger grew. Och, the bloody lass was already worried about being pregnant. Niall set aside his skin and frowned.
If she was not going to drink neither would he.
Obviously she was on birth control and they had nothing to worry about. He had yet to impregnate a woman and he had lain with his fair share. Even so, something took root in him at the notion. At the idea that he and she might have…
“What is that look on your face, Niall MacLomain,” Nicole said, voice rising as she stood.
“Until Fionn Mac Cumhail makes himself known, I’ll not have the wee Bruce awoken,” Malcolm warned.
Darach stood and pulled Nicole after him. “Come, lass. Let’s talk, aye?”
She muttered a whole stream of half swear, half made up words and reluctantly let him lead h
er away. It took just about everything Niall had not to stop them…to tell Darach to get his bloody hands off her.
“The lass doesnae need this extra strife right now, Son,” Malcolm said softly. “Ye werenae wise to lay with her here.”
Logan looked between them before his eyes landed on Malcolm. “Ye know as well as I, Uncle, that when the time is right with our lasses, the time is right. It cannae be helped.”
“Mayhap not,” Malcolm said. “But ‘tis always truth we give our lasses before such things. ‘Tis unfair otherwise.”
“If I believed in the fertility rumors about this bloody mountain, I would have,” Niall defended. “But I dinnae so willnae apologize.”
“Nor should ye if ye truly believe such,” Machara agreed, trying to detour the conversation as only she knew how as she looked at Conall. “But dinnae ye get to thinking I want yer cock anywhere near me.”
“If I wanted it near ye, it would already be there,” Conall muttered under his breath.
“Och, ye’ve had me so often in yer thoughts ye dinnae know the difference anymore,” she scoffed.
As she likely intended, all eyes swung her way.
“It sounds as if ye’ve given this far too much thought yerself, Cousin,” Niall said.
Conall kept muttering under his breath as he pulled the game that had been roasting off the flames.
Machara was about to respond when something shifted in the cave. Cool, then warm wind blew around them before a glow flashed then vanished. A tall, golden warrior strode forward.
Fionn Mac Cumhail.
All stood and bowed, but he shook his head. “Nay, enough with that.” His eyes scanned them. “Are we not all equals, then?”
Equal to a god? Not likely. But none argued as Fionn sat on a log, a frown on his face. “We’ve a grave problem.”
Fionn had just finished saying that he compelled Darach to join them when his cousin and Nicole returned. Though she was clearly still upset with him, Nicole said nothing as she and Darach sat next to Niall. When Fionn introduced himself to her, Nicole managed a weak hello. Niall didn’t blame her. It wasn't every day you met a Celtic god.
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