by Donna Grant
And now she was gone.
“Gary is dead. We found his body floating in the sea,” Robbie said. “All the men left on Eigg are dead.”
“And Deirdre?”
Robbie shrugged. “There was no trace of her. I did find several dead wyrran.”
“Gwynn and Logan?”
“Gone.”
Declan turned the ruby cuff link over and over. “I’ve lost Saffron. Gary is gone. There’s no trace of Deirdre. And Gwynn and Logan have gotten away with the artifact. Have I got it all?”
“We doona know if they retrieved the Tablet.”
“Oh, they have it. But no’ for long,” Declan vowed.
He turned on his heel and left the dungeon. He had plans to make.
* * *
December 23rd
Gwynn came awake to find herself at the castle. After the battle with Deirdre, Gwynn had been so cold and her head pounding so badly she had passed out. At least she was warm, and judging by the way her body no longer ached, Sonya had healed her.
She blinked at the ceiling a couple of times before she turned her head and found Logan sitting beside the fire. His gaze was on the flames, his fist propped against his chin as he leaned on the arm of the chair. Gwynn wondered what he was thinking. He looked so pensive, so unlike the Logan she had come to know.
She stirred and his head swiveled toward her.
“You’re awake,” he said as he rose to his feet and came toward her.
“I am. And warm now.”
“Thankfully,” he said. “I told them my secret, Gwynn.”
She smiled. “I told you they wouldn’t care.”
“So you did.”
“How long did I sleep?”
He shrugged. “A few hours. I figured you deserved it after all you’ve been through.”
Gwynn wrinkled her nose. “I’d rather not repeat anything like that again. I didn’t think I was going to come out of that alive.”
“I’d rather no’ have you scare me like that again either.”
She looked into his hazel eyes. “You seem … lighter. The darkness is gone.”
“It is. With my secret out, I’m no’ weighted down as I was. You helped with that.”
“Good.”
Logan glanced at the window. “It’s snowing again.”
Gwynn knew she shouldn’t take the chance and get hurt by him again, but she lifted the covers. “I’m cold.”
A slow, seductive smile split Logan’s face. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
A giggle escaped her as he shed his shirt and jeans and climbed into bed. His arms wrapped around her as their limbs tangled together.
The smiles melted away as their gazes locked and his head lowered to hers. The kiss was unhurried and leisurely and full of such hunger and longing that it made Gwynn’s stomach plummet to her feet.
The kiss was filled with need and desire, but unlike the kisses from before it was slow. Sensual. Powerfully arousing.
She could feel the longing within him, sense the hunger rising each time their tongues met.
She reveled in the kiss, met him stroke for stroke as the intensity increased. He rolled her onto her back, his hands touching her everywhere.
The second time his mouth fit against hers, she was in a maelstrom of hunger and urgency. Her hands slid over the hard sinew of his shoulders and around his neck.
“God’s teeth! I can think of naught but you,” Logan said.
Gwynn leaned back her head as he began to kiss down her throat, leaving a trail of hot, wet kisses that made chills race over her body.
Her hands roamed the breadth and width of his back, his muscles moving and bunching beneath her palms. He kissed her again, a fiery, frenzied, soul-stirring kiss.
He took. He claimed. He seduced.
With one kiss she was aroused. Needy. Hungry. For Logan and the passion his touch wrought. She clenched her legs together and moaned at the spike of desire that filled her.
Without warning, Logan rose on his elbows and looked down at her. His fingertips brushed the undersides of her breasts, which instantly swelled and ached for his touch.
“I want to feel your skin,” he said between kisses.
She sighed as Logan’s weight settled over her. The feel of him, the way he felt against her, over her, in her was the only thing she needed.
The one thing she would beg for.
His hot, hard arousal rested against her stomach while he kissed her again and again, making her throb and tremble for more. When his fingers skimmed over her already hard and aching nipple, Gwynn cried out and arched her back, seeking more of his touch.
He cupped her breast and teased the tiny bud until Gwynn was rotating her hips against him, seeking the release she knew he could give her. When she could stand the torment no more, he shifted to her other breast.
Gwynn’s skin felt as if it were on fire. She burned for Logan, for his caress. And when his hot, wet mouth fastened on her breast, she plunged her hands into his hair and held on as he took her higher.
He shifted and began to kiss down her stomach, his hands holding her thighs apart. Gwynn forced her eyes to open and watched as he fit first one shoulder then the other beneath her legs.
Logan rose up on his knees and moved her calves until they rested on his shoulders. His large hands gripped her hips as he rubbed the swollen head of his cock against her sensitive flesh before he pushed inside her. Once. Twice.
Gwynn gripped the sheets and cried out at the pleasure that pulsed through her. His erection slid into her slowly, his body straining above her.
“So damned tight,” he said.
With one last thrust he was seated to the hilt. His hazel gaze seared hers as he began to move.Short, quick strokes, and long, hard thrusts. The alternating feel of him knotted her desire tighter and tighter.
She reveled in the sensation of his hard, steely length plunging inside her again and again. Harder. Faster. An instinct, primal and fierce, took her, plunged her in a wild and intense ride.
She moaned, her head thrashing side to side as she heard their bodies meeting, felt the slide of his body as sweat glistened along their skin.
He filled her deeper than before. Yet it wasn’t enough. She couldn’t get enough of him, of this raw, untamed desire that had overtaken them.
She grasped the need that held her and let it take her where it would. It compelled her, urged her to let Logan pull her ever higher.
Her breaths came in panting gasps. Each time he pounded into her, penetrating deeper, her body tightened and tightened.
With her muscles locked, the release came suddenly and with such intensity that she screamed. Wave after wave of glorious release wracked her, her senses shattered and her body forever Logan’s, eternally linked.
But even then he wasn’t done with her.
Logan wanted her to remember this night, he wanted it emblazoned on her memory—and his.
She had the most magnificent body he had ever seen. Skin had never felt so soft, hair had never been so silky, and no touch had ever burned him as hers did.
Logan filled his hands with her breasts as he continued to move within her. He teased and pinched her nipples before he ran his hands down her body.
He shrugged her legs from his shoulders and leaned over her. He cupped her buttocks and felt the hot, dewy essence of her against his cock. Then he pulled out of her until only the head of his rod remained. With one hard thrust he filled her.
She moaned his name. Her mane of black hair was tangled about her, her fingers clawing at the blankets while he withdrew and thrust.
Holding firmly onto her hips, he set a driving rhythm. Her sheath clutched him, holding him firmly as he filled her. He held her pinned beneath him. Her legs locked around his waist, her hands touching him everywhere. And she moaned for more, called out his name as he filled her.
He drove into her relentlessly, carrying them both to an apex of unthinkable pleasure, of carnal delights of which he had neve
r experienced.
And never would with another woman.
“Logan,” she cried.
He felt her body stiffen. Knew she was close to peaking again. Desire erupted swift and true. It swept through him, consuming him with the need to brand Gwynn as his own.
She tightened around him a heartbeat before she screamed his name, her back bowed and her skin flushing with her climax as her amazing violet eyes glowed as she met his gaze.
While her sheath spasmed around him, Logan kept pounding into her. The feel of her scorching wet body clamping around him, caressing his cock pushed him over the edge.
He released her hips and fell over her, his breathing harsh, ragged. His hips pumped desperately, urgently, as she clamped around him one last time.
She pulled him into a chasm of never-ending pleasure, of bliss so blinding, so pure it made his chest ache with emotions he didn’t dare try to name.
Logan’s forehead lowered to Gwynn’s as they held each other. Safe. Secure.
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
December 24th
Gwynn tied the bow on Logan’s present and looked at the silver paper and red bow. She hoped he liked his gift. Marcail had also gotten another shirt, a new sporran, and even boots. But those would come from the others.
Gwynn ran her hand over the package and rose from the floor of her chamber. She walked out of her room and into the hall to the tree.
It had been two days since their return from Eigg. Many times she’d tried to talk to Logan about their relationship, but each time he would change the subject.
Gwynn knew when a decision had been made. As much as she wanted to be with Logan, she needed more than their nights together. For too long she had refused to get close to someone, but now that’s what she wanted.
She wanted more than the sex. She wanted a relationship. She wanted a future.
She wanted love.
Gwynn put his gift under the tree behind other gifts and stood. Everyone was supposed to draw names, but by the sheer number of presents, many more had been bought.
“Are you sure?” Fallon asked her as he walked up next to her.
Gwynn inhaled and slowly let out the breath as she faced him. “I can’t stay and ignore what’s between me and Logan. If I remain, things will continue on as they are.”
“Maybe that’s a good thing. Maybe that will develop into more.”
“The thing is, I need to know it will develop into more.”
“I think you’re making a mistake, Gwynn. You belong here. No’ just because of Logan, but because you’re a Druid.”
She swallowed past the lump in her throat. She wanted nothing more than to remain, but if she stayed without Logan talking about whatever was between them, she knew she was going to get hurt.
“I can’t.”
He nodded and looked at the tree. “I wish you would wait until tomorrow.”
“Another night of him evading my questions about us will destroy me,” she confessed. “I love him, Fallon. I love him as I thought I would never love a person.”
“He’s going to be furious when he returns and you are no’ here.”
Gwynn shrugged and pulled on her coat. “I’ve left him a note that explains everything.”
Larena walked out of the kitchen and hugged her tightly. “We will miss you. I hope you return soon.”
“Me, too,” she said and wiped her eyes. “I’ve said my good-byes to everyone. I cannot linger anymore. It’s time to go.”
Fallon sighed and shared a look with his wife before he turned to Gwynn. “Are you sure you want me to jump you to the airport? I can jump you home with Galen’s help.”
“I already bought my ticket, and after everything I’ve been through, I’m not afraid of flying anymore.”
Gwynn looked once more at the castle that in a short time had become her home. Her gaze landed on the huge Christmas tree, and she smiled. When she blinked she stood in the middle of Edinburgh Airport.
She looked around, astounded that no one noticed them.
Fallon chuckled. “They doona pay attention. Godspeed, Gwynn Austin.”
“Godspeed, Fallon.”
As she waved, he disappeared. Gwynn pulled up the handle to her bag and started toward the ticket counter.
* * *
The small box in Logan’s pocket was burning a hole through his jeans. He had been trying to get out of the castle to shop for Gwynn for two days without being obvious.
He’d had his chance this morning and taken it. Yet, a sense of foreboding almost had him staying behind. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something had happened.
“Hurry,” he urged Hayden.
“If you tell me that again I’m going to make you walk home,” Hayden said through clenched teeth, his hands gripping the steering wheel tightly.
Logan drummed his fingers on his leg, thinking of the gift he had purchased. He didn’t know what a Badgley Mischka was, but Gwynn had wanted it. “Do you think she’ll like it?”
Hayden rolled his eyes. “For the thousandth time, aye, I think Gwynn will love the purse. She told Isla it was the one she wanted.”
“Did I spend enough, though? There was a bigger one.”
“Logan,” Hayden warned.
Logan threw up his hands. “I’m in knots, Hayden. She’s been trying to talk to me about what’s between us for days. I have no’ known what to say, so I’ve put her off.”
“No’ a good move.”
“I know. I kept telling myself I should let her go, but with every hour we’re together, I find it more difficult, until I realized I can no’. I may no’ be good enough for her, but I want her. If she still wants me.”
Hayden chuckled. “There’s no’ a question of that, my brother. I’ve seen the way she looks at you. When are you going to give her the ring?”
“I guess it depends on how things go tonight and tomorrow morning.”
Hayden slowed as he turned off the paved road to the dirt road that led to the castle. “She’s a good woman, and you are a good man. Everything will be all right, Logan.”
But as soon as Logan walked into the castle, he knew nothing was all right. It was the way Larena looked at him.
“Where is she?” he asked. “Where is Gwynn?”
Fallon rose from the table, his face grave. “She left a note in your chamber.”
“Where. Is. She?” Logan demanded again.
Isla shifted in her chair before the hearth. “At the airport. She’s going home.”
Logan felt as if the floor had been snatched from beneath him. He shook his head, unable to believe what he was hearing.
“Nay. She wouldna go. No’ on Christmas Eve.”
“Read the note,” Broc said. “I’m sure it will explain her reasoning.”
Logan turned to glare at Fallon. “Take me to her. I want her to tell me why she’s leaving. I’ll no’ read it from a letter.”
Fallon raised a brow, a hint of a smile appearing as he lifted his hand. “If that’s what you want.”
“It’s what I want.”
In an instant he and Fallon were in a crowded building, people milling about everywhere.
“I’ll wait here,” Fallon said. “Good luck finding her.”
Logan rolled his eyes and looked around. He tried to recall everything Gwynn had told him about airports. A gate. She had to leave through a gate.
“But which gate?” he mumbled.
After several questions, and with his speed, he was able to get around security to the terminals where the gates were. He paused beside a huge screen that listed all the flights to determine which gate was hers.
“Gate six,” he repeated as he read.
Logan’s strides ate up the floor as he stalked to gate six. When he found Gwynn sitting alone staring at her hands in her lap he didn’t know whether to laugh or shake her.
He walked over and stopped in front of her. It took a moment, but her head lifted. When she saw him, her beautiful violet eyes widened
in surprise.
“Logan,” she whispered as she slowly stood.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
She looked around. “What does it look like? I’m going home.”
“Why?”
“Why?” Her voice took on a hard edge. “You dare to ask me why after not talking to me about us, about what’s between us.”
He clenched his fists at his sides. “I didna know what to say.”
“How about say what you’re feeling? Something like, ‘I like you, Gwynn. I’d like to see where this goes,’ or ‘Sorry, Gwynn. I’d rather not see you anymore.’ See how that works?”
“It’s no’ that easy.”
She snorted. “Don’t talk to me about easy. Do you have any idea what it cost me bringing it up every day and night to try and get you to tell me something, some hint about how you felt?”
“I thought you knew. I would no’ have been with you if I didna care.”
“I have to be told, Logan. I have to hear it. Showing it is great, but I need the words. I put my love out there for you time and again.”
Logan itched to take her in his arms and wipe away the tears he saw gathering in her eyes. “Did you tell me you loved me?”
She blinked. “No. Why would I?”
“Then why would I? You asked about us, Gwynn, but you didn’t tell me how you felt either.”
“Oh, but I did, mister. Don’t you dare turn this on me. On Eigg, after we found the Tablet, I told you I wanted to see where this would lead, that I wanted to be with you.”
Logan glanced at the floor. “Aye, you did, and I was taken off guard by it. I didna answer then because I was trying to convince myself I wasna the man for you.”
She slapped her hands on her legs. “You’re right. I don’t need a man thinking for me. Let me make those decisions.”
“I love you.”
Gwynn opened her mouth, ready for another retort, when his words penetrated her haze of anger. She closed her mouth as the tears she’d been holding back fell.
“I love you with all my heart, Gwynn Austin.”
She swallowed past the lump in her throat and looked into Logan’s hazel eyes. “You’ve had my heart from the moment I met you.”