by Glenn, Laura
Anna wrenched away and glared at him, incensed by his sudden anger and ungratefulness. “What the hell, Galen? I did exactly what you wanted.”
He ignored her and pushed her purse into her chest before turning to secure the rope on the battlement. He yanked on the rope, testing his weight against it, before throwing the end over the side of the wall.
“I will make my way down first. Hold the rope so when I pull on it you will know I am ready for you to climb down,” he brusquely commanded.
All the blood drained from her face. The mere idea that he actually expected her to descend a castle wall was more than enough to distract her from his anger. “You want me to climb down that rope?” Her voice shook as painful memories of the fake rock wall in ninth grade gym class flew through her head. “How do you know it’s long enough?”
“I do not know for certain,” he snapped. He glanced around for any sign they had been spotted before pushing himself on top of the battlement.
Anna grabbed his forearm in desperation, distracted for a split second by the sheer solidity of his muscles. “You don’t know? Are you crazy? What do I do if you don’t pull it?”
His gaze finally met hers and the features of his face softened. He cupped her chin in his hand, his thumb brushing the corner of her mouth. “If I do not pull on the rope then that means I am unable to. You will need to find another way out on your own.”
Galen paused for the briefest moment before dropping his hand and bending down. He reached into his boot and pulled out a dagger. “Take this. You may need it.”
Her hand shook as she accepted the weapon, her eyes nervously darting back and forth between the blade and his face. “You will pull on the rope, won’t you?”
Galen’s lips curved into a soothing smile. “Yes, lass. I will. Just as long as you do not cut the rope and send me to my death.”
“I would do no such thing!” she insisted, hurt that he could think she was capable of such duplicity. “I cannot believe—”
“Anna.” He smirked.
“What?”
“I will pull the rope.”
The sincerity in his tone melted her bluster. She nodded, chewing on her lower lip as he hoisted himself onto the rampart and disappeared over the wall into the darkness below. She closed her eyes momentarily, allowing the crisp evening air to fill her lungs, before tucking the knife into her purse.
Thinking the unconscious man at her feet had twitched, she stared at him in paranoia for several long minutes before she grabbed the thick, gnarly rope and carefully listened for any sound from below.
How on earth had she gotten herself into this absurd situation? The pendant lying against her chest warmed briefly. It had become hot when she had swooned after first entering the dungeon antechamber. If the pendant was responsible for transporting her back in time, didn’t it stand to reason that it could take her back home too?
Anna pursed her lips in determination and wrapped her free hand around the pendant, closing her eyes to concentrate. Instead of wishing for passion and love as she had done upon entering the antechamber, she fervently wished for home and everything that went with it—stability, safety, routine and the absence of a certain hard-bodied, sexy-as-sin man who had the uncanny ability to make her nipples hard just by looking at her.
The rope suddenly dragged hard back and forth against her palm, scratching her skin. Startled, she jumped, momentarily forgetting where she was and what was happening. Her eyes flew open and landed on the body of the Graham guard at her feet. The pendant went strangely cold in her hand.
Damn it. She had half a mind to yank the stone off her neck and fling it over the rampart. Sighing in resignation, she peered over the edge of the wall and attempted to convince herself everything would be all right if she descended into the darkness and met the stranger waiting below.
With one last quick glance at the unconscious man, Anna threw her purse around her neck so the strap lay crosswise over her chest, clambered onto the rampart and over the side. Gripping the rope tightly and finding a decent foothold, she carefully eased herself below the battlement.
Her palms burned and her biceps strained as she steadily lowered into the darkness, daring to look neither up nor down. Her hand slipped and she gripped the rope tighter, halting her descent. Tears stung her eyes as she silently cursed Neil Campbell for bringing her the pendant. Had he known what it might do to her? Was this all just some cruel joke?
“Anna!” came a hoarse whisper from below. “Do not stop now!”
Galen’s voice cut through her gasping breath and renewed enough of her strength to propel her into making her way down. Soon, however, she reached the end of the rope.
“Galen,” she quietly cried.
“It is fine, lass. Just let go. I will catch you.”
“I-I can’t!” Her foot slipped from the stone wall. A small whimper escaped her lips.
“Trust me.”
For whatever reason, those two little words from this man in particular calmed her and caused her to do something, which under normal circumstances she would have never done.
She let go.
After a mere second of free-fall, she landed with a thud against something that, for a moment, seemed not unlike the stone wall she had just been descending. Galen’s arms quickly curled around her torso and legs and she curved into him, gasping for air to relieve the tension bursting from her lungs.
“You are all right,” he whispered into her hair, clasping her tightly against his chest. With a quick, deliberate turn he strode toward the river with her tucked snugly in his arms.
His warmth permeated her clothing, sending comforting tremors through her skin. She tucked her head underneath his chin, taking solace in the steady thud of his heart beating soundly against her. Flattening her palm against his chest, she slid it toward his shoulder, reveling in the sharp contours of every muscle. His closeness was so male, so restorative and oh-so reassuring.
Galen stopped and the roar of rushing water broke through her brief dream-like state. He tilted her forward, placing her feet upon the uneven ground, and she took a reluctant step back from him.
He grasped her shoulders, forcing her to bend her neck nearly all the way back just to look at him. How had she missed that he seemed nearly as tall as the Caledonian pines surrounding them? She was by no means a short woman, but for the first time in a long while a sense of awe overcame her as he towered over her.
“Can you swim?” he asked.
Anna nodded absentmindedly, distracted by the tough, lean nature of his broad shoulders. Power radiated from every inch of his body, causing tiny ripples of pleasure to course through her.
His massive, square hands gripped her shoulders tighter. “Anna?”
She shook her head to regain control of her thoughts, pulling the front edges of her cardigan across her chest. “Yes, I can swim.”
“Good,” he replied as he released her. “We must cross this river in order to reach safety.”
She nervously stared at the rushing, moonlit water and then at Galen, already stepping into the river. Glancing over her shoulder, she prayed for those familiar ruins to appear instead of the darkened, foreboding castle, but her hopes were dashed. She was left with no other alternative than to blindly follow this strange man.
Anna didn’t give herself time to change her mind once she faced the river. She rushed to Galen’s side and grabbed his hand. He looked down at her before pulling her into the frigid river behind him. The water swirled into her boots and wrapped her skirt around her legs, the cold temperature chilling her to the bone. They slid down into the water until she was submerged to her chin.
Galen turned to her, his lips moving as though he were speaking. The roar of the rushing water all around them completely drowned out his voice.
“What?” she shouted.
Her foot slipped on a rock in the river bed and she went under, her hand ripped from Galen’s by the current. Pitch-black cold surrounded her as she fell ba
ckward in slow motion. The river picked her up and swiftly carried her downstream. Fear gripped her heart and she desperately fought to push herself toward the surface.
With her lungs screaming for air, Anna finally caught a foothold and used it to propel herself up. She broke the surface, gasping as she struggled to remain above water. She wasn’t certain which side of the river they had been heading toward, but she no longer cared.
Shouts from somewhere to her left cut through the thundering river and she plowed forward despite the weight of her water-logged clothing. It didn’t matter who or what was waiting for her at the river’s edge—only that she got there in one piece.
Anna stumbled forward, her knees scraping the rocks of the riverbed as her palms broke her fall. Her wrists screamed in pain upon impact, but were quickly forgotten as she reached the embankment. Relieved, she planted her feet on the ground and slogged the rest of the way to shore. Her lungs burned as she gasped from the exertion. She was about to fall to the ground when, from out of nowhere, a strong, roped arm encircled her waist.
Galen’s voice was her salvation. “Lean into me. I have you now.”
She shook her head, her jelly-like legs threatening to collapse underneath her. “I just want to sit down for a little while,” she pleaded between breaths, leaning the side of her face against the warmth of his hard chest.
“No, we must get out of the moonlight and into the cover of the forest.” He guided her away from the river.
A strange lightness on her shoulders caught her attention, as if something was missing. Panicked, she patted her body and looked down. Her purse was gone. Pulling away from him, she grasped wildly at her shoulders, searching for the strap.
Without thinking, she turned back toward the river. “My bag!”
“There is no time.” Galen yanked her toward him. “It is gone.”
“But—”
He ignored her and roughly pulled her forward.
Twigs crackled beneath their feet as they made their way into the quiet cover of the forest. Tears of exhaustion and fear stung her eyes and she bit her lower lip to fight the sobs threatening to spill forth.
Galen seized her hips and withdrew her through the dense underbrush until the rough bark of a tree pressed into her back. Brushing wet clumps of hair out of her face, he gruffly asked, “Are you all right?” He worriedly glanced up and down her body.
She nodded as one tear escaped down her cheek.
His expression darkened. “I am so sorry, Annie. I am so sorry,” he whispered over and over as he smoothed her hair away from her cheeks.
She shook her head. They had to keep moving or risk Galen becoming recaptured by the Grahams. Or the Campbells. Or was it the Gowries? How was she going to keep all of these clans straight?
Her head swam and trepidation rippled through her. There was no way Galen would escape his captors if he had to worry about her clumsy, slow-wittedness. Besides, if she could make it to the castle, maybe she could find a way back to her own time.
“I don’t know if I can do this, Galen,” she whispered with a desperate push against his chest. “You need to go on without me.”
“No, the worst is over.” He cupped her face between his large, roughened palms.
Anna shook her head again, determined to make him understand. “I’m only slowing you down. You’re going to get caught.”
“I will not abandon you!”
The urgent, sincere tone in his voice pierced her heart. He could not know what such words meant to her. She lifted her eyes to his in complete surrender, inexplicably and instantly ready to do whatever this stranger asked of her.
A spark ignited in his gray eyes as though he could read her thoughts. Galen’s mouth swooped down to capture hers. The back of her head hit the tree as his hard, searching lips covered hers. All thoughts of home and her brush with death left her mind as searing heat traveled through her abdomen. She parted her lips, lightly whimpering as her whole body melted into his.
He slanted his mouth over hers, taking advantage of her parted lips by gently slipping his velvety tongue between them. Shivers of desire coursed down her spine and her tongue darted into his warm mouth. He shuddered against her before breaking the kiss.
Galen released his hold on her face, leaning one forearm against the tree above her head. His ragged breathing filled her ears, drowning out the sounds of the forest and the rushing river as he stared down at her.
Anna’s cheeks heated as a familiar ache spread between her thighs. Embarrassed that she’d gone from fearing for her life to complete lust so quickly, she attempted to tear her eyes from his but he firmly held her gaze. The cloudy, unfathomable depths of his eyes mesmerized her, sending thrilling tremors of desire through her skin.
“Now you have been kissed by a real Highland warrior,” he announced. “That is the kiss you should remember. Not that of some inept Graham guard.”
His voice wrapped itself around her and warmth rippled through her belly. She inhaled deeply in an attempt to bring herself back to reality, but something had changed about him. The dank dungeon scent was gone, replaced by the fresh aroma of the river and an unidentifiable masculine scent that redirected her thoughts back to the growing moisture between her legs.
“You don’t smell like dungeon anymore,” she whispered in wonder as a hot ache grew in her throat.
He raised one eyebrow, clearly confused by her strange response.
Anna wrapped her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him forward, crushing her lips against his. Somewhere in the back of her mind was shock over her behavior. Leaping into physical affection with a perfect stranger was what got her into trouble in the first place with James and since then she’d always made a point to keep her distance from a man until she knew him better. But she couldn’t seem to find the will to care with Galen—especially not when those lips she had spent the past couple of hours fantasizing about were eagerly kissing her back.
Galen growled, picking up where he left off by hungrily forcing his tongue into her mouth. His kiss was demanding and her heart pounding in an erratic rhythm. The strength and warmth of his flesh assaulted her senses, overwhelming her. Throwing both arms around his neck, she ignored her tired muscles and leaped up, wrapping her legs around his waist.
His hands slid down to her backside, his fingers digging into her sensitive flesh as he pushed her against the tree again. Dizziness swept over her as his lips captured her bottom lip and gently tugged. The tip of his cock, hard and thick, strained against her pussy, blocked only by their river-soaked clothing.
Galen thrust his hips forward, luring a low moan from her throat as the ache in her core deepened. The headiness of the pressure of his hard cock sent her mind whirling in a mixture of desire and admonition. She knew she shouldn’t be encouraging this stranger to touch her so intimately, but the growing heat deep in her belly was raw and demanding.
He abruptly tore his lips away, dragging them across her cheek before leaning the side of his face against hers. “Not now, Annie,” he whispered, his breath heavy and rough against her ear. “It is not safe here. Besides, I need a proper meal first or you are likely to kill me.”
She stiffened and the full realization of what she was doing hit her. Her cheeks flamed in embarrassment. What had gotten into her? It shouldn’t matter how long it had been since she’d last had sex or that never in her life had a man who looked like he should be walking down the red carpet to the opening of his latest action movie had kissed her. They were in some serious potential danger and Galen had barely eaten in two days.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, struggling out of his grasp and planting her feet on the ground. She smoothed her soaked, rumpled clothing as best as she could and turned to walk away.
Galen grabbed her arm and whirled her to face him. “You are angry,” he stated with a frown.
She shook her head in exasperation. Unable to meet his eyes, she stared straight at his chest. Unfortunately, the moonlight filterin
g through the overhead branches spotlighted how his soaked shirt clung to the contours of every muscle.
She pushed her gaze to the ground. “Not at you. I’m mad at myself.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know you. That wasn’t like me back there,” she explained, finding it increasingly difficult to remain coherent in his presence. “I don’t do that sort of thing with men I’ve just met.”
He grabbed her chin and forced her face upward, his eyes smoldering with unquenched desire. “That is good to hear, but I will not be denied.”
Her eyes widened at the arrogance of his words. “Excuse me?”
He released her jaw and grabbed her by the hand. Walking in the opposite direction she had been headed, he replied, “It is simple, lass. I will have you in my bed soon enough.”
She shivered, partly in reaction to his words and partly because of the wind blowing straight through her wet clothing. As hard as she tried to shake off the ridiculous notion that she could be the Anna Campbell, Galen’s response sat in the pit of her stomach while the tour guide’s story swirled through her head.
She sidestepped some brush that almost tangled her feet. “What’s going to happen to me?” she asked, hating that her voice was shaking.
He clutched her hand gently in his, his voice clear and self-assured. “I will take care of you.”
Chapter Four
Anna shivered against Galen as they walked through the dark forest. He rubbed her soft, delicate hand, resting on his biceps, in an attempt to warm her cold skin. She hadn’t spoken a single word since they began their journey a couple of hours ago. His eyes were heavy, but he ignored his fatigue. He had to concentrate and keep his ears open for any indication his men were nearby.
Or his enemies.
She leaned into him, resting the side of her face on his upper arm. Her weariness was palpable though she did not complain. She tripped now and then, but he always quickly righted her. It was the least he could do since almost allowing her to drown in the river.