Now and Forever:: A NEW ADULT TIME TRAVEL ROMANCE NOVEL (RAVENHURST SERIES Book 5)

by Lorraine Beaumont

  “I remember Raven,” he said, watching her expressive face. It stirred something deep inside of him and did not want to think on it but at the moment Marguerite was not the person he was remembering, no, it was her, and the sweet way she tasted against his mouth and how badly, even now, he wanted to spread apart her milky thighs and make her his.

  “Hello…Earth to Reed,” she called. What was he doing?

  He exhaled loudly, banishing the thought from his mind, before he did something he may regret. “You are right, I suppose,” he said returning to the moment at hand and gave her a slight smile. “Yes, Raven, I know. If there was anyone who could understand my predicament, it would be you.”

  “Well, thank you. I am glad to hear that,” she said and gave him what she hoped was a reassuring smile.

  “I assume you are going somewhere with this…” He adjusted his seat, his eyes gliding back to the book in front of him.

  “Yes, I am,” she said, blowing her unruly hair from her face, exasperated. “That is my point. Obviously there are forces far greater at work here than a simple legend. We have to assume the legend is in fact real. We both saw her disappear.”

  “I didn’t see her vanish…did you?”

  “Well not exactly,” she said, her face flushing hotly. “I was um…preoccupied.”

  “Yes, so was I.” Reed leveled her with a hard look.

  “So what are you saying?” She squeezed the pillow tighter. “Do you think it was some kind of parlor trick? And what of Milford’s involvement, not to mention the incredible story Marguerite told us?”

  Reed shoved his hand through his hair, making it stick up. “I don’t know what to believe. It is just so…unbelievable”

  “That is true,” she readily agreed. “She did go somewhere though so if not to the past, then where did she go?”

  “Damned if I know.”

  “Well I don’t know either.” She sighed loudly, twisting the pillow in her lap absently.

  The room fell silent, both lost in their own thoughts. A clock ticked and in the distance, a cart rattled in the hall, dishes clinking together.

  Reed was the one that finally broke the silence. “What did that pillow ever do to you?”

  Startled, Raven looked up at him and then down at the pillow she had twisted into a ball. “Sorry,” she said, releasing her iron grip, smoothing the soft material with her hand and gave him a sheepish smile. “I was just thinking.”

  “About what?” he asked.

  You. “Your brother and father and how everything seems to be connected, you know.” She wrinkled her brow, thinking.

  “Yeah, I think so too.”

  “So what do you think happened to your father?”

  “I think he found out the answer to the very questions we are trying to figure out now.” He closed the book in front of him and smoothed his hand over the tooled leather, patting it with his hand.

  “And…

  “I think he may still be here…”

  Her eyes boggled. “What?”

  “Let me finish,” he said, glancing down again at the book and then he brought her eyes back to hers. “I think he is here but in another time all together.”

  “What?” She gaped at him. “How is that possible?”

  “How is any of this possible?” He placed his elbows on the desk and rubbed his temples.

  “What of your brother?” she asked. “Do you think he is in the past as well?”

  “No.” He dropped his hands and shook his head. “I think my brother wants me to find the treasure of Ravenhurst so he can get his greedy hands on it and use it to pay off whoever he pissed off with his gambling depts.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “So where do you think he is?”

  “Not far.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “Just a feeling I have.” He didn’t mention that he knew where Lucian went when he needed to hide. Old habits die hard, especially his brothers.

  “Well since you seem to have it all figured out care to elaborate how you are going to find the treasure?”

  “I am going to use this.” He flipped open one of the ancient books he just closed and pulled out a solitary piece of paper.

  “What is that?”

  “This,” he held a piece of paper aloft, “holds all the answers to our questions.”

  “What is it?”

  “It is a map to the treasure.”

  “Oh shit!”

  “Oh shit is right.”

  Forever and always

  THE PASTTHE HIDDEN GLENN

  MARGUERITE leaned forward. “Are you sure you remember everything?” she asked expectantly, hating the sound of desperation in her voice. “You swear?”

  Darias smiled. “Yes, I do.” He lifted his hand to her face and looked deeply into her violet eyes. He said the words that had eluded him until this very moment. “I love you.”

  She let out a gusty breath. “You are sure?” she asked, afraid something would change.

  A leaf tumbled across the clearing. His lips twitched. “Mayhap,” he said.

  Marguerite’s shoulders slumped and she pulled blades of grass up and tossed them to the side.

  Darias watched her for a moment. Then leaned forward and cupped his hands on the sides of her face. “How can you doubt my love for you?” he asked, his voice

  Marguerite shrugged. “It seems destiny has been against us from the start. Each time we get together and get comfortable something terrible happens and rips us apart.”

  “I am not going anywhere.”

  She pursed her lips. “I wish that were true, but I feel like something bad is going to happen.”

  “Like what?”

  “I do not know, maybe you will forget me again or tire of me all together.” She shoved her hand in her hair. “I don’t know.” She released her hair and began pulling clumps of grass up again.

  He reached out and lifted her chin up with his fingers so she would look at him. “Do you not know by now that I am nothing without you?” he said. His eyes misted with passion as he leaned closer. “That I cannot breathe without you,” he murmured against her lips and then lifted her in his strong arms, pulling her up onto his lap. “I will love you forever and always,” he whispered and then gently pulled her long hair aside and kissed her neck, nibbling the delicate flesh. “What of you?” he murmured, placing soft kisses up neck.

  “I love you too, with all my heart and soul.”

  His mouth found hers again. “And I you,” he breathed, and then deepened the kiss, ravaging her anew.

  She took it all in, his pent up passion and met it head on. Her hands were all over his body, feeling every muscle, every hard plain, her fingers twining in the curling length of his hair.

  “I want you,” he breathed. His hand stilled on the length of her gown.

  “I want you as well,” she murmured, kissing his strong jaw, his neck. When her lips touched the scar, he flinched. “Did I hurt you?”

  “No.” His eyes glittered in the darkness, lingering on her face as though he was trying to memorize what she looked like. “I don’t want this…to end,” he declared, his voice hoarse… rough.

  She lifted her hand to his face, smoothing the crease from his brow. “I don’t either,” she whispered.

  His mouth came down on hers. His tongue sliding slowly over her lips, and then dipped inside.

  The wind whispered around them both, stirring the leaves above. Darias lifted her off lap and laid her back onto his cloak that now covered the mossy floor of the forest—his long hair tumbling down, as he hovered above her.

  She reached up and brushing the length away with her hand. “Are you sure you feel up to this?”

  Darias responded by emanating a low growl in his throat and then covered her mouth with his own once more. His warm strong hand slid up her leg, as his mouth moved lower, down her neck, to her breast and then closed over her taut nipple, suckling it.
r />   Marguerite moaned, clasping him tightly. Her hands slipped under his tunic, pulling it off. “That’s better,” she said rubbing her hands over his muscular back.

  In turn, he yanked down her bodice. “That’s better.” He lowered his face and kissed the delicate flesh on each breast as he nudged her legs apart wider, urging her legs around his back with his free hand. “You are mine,” he rasped, letting out a feral growl and then thrust his length into her body.

  “Darias,” she cried out in pleasure, her nails biting into the sensitive flesh on his back.

  “Say it,” he demanded, drawing back, staring intently into her eyes. His calloused hand slid between them, touching the sensitive flesh between her thighs, making her quiver and clench around him.

  “I am yours,” she panted, writhing underneath his body.

  “I am yours,” he breathed, sliding deeper into her body, pushing his hips against hers. “And you are mine,” he growled, squeezing her hips. He lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her hungrily, deeply, passionately as though they were the only two people that mattered left in the world.

  “Yes,” she cried out, as he continued to make love to her.

  The past, present and future collided. They were lost in the moment. Nothing mattered but them.

  “Now and forever,” he breathed, thrusting deeply inside her body again and again until finally he pushed them both to their explosive mutual release.

  Marguerite wholeheartedly agreed, hugging him closely. They belonged to one another … now and forever.

  Eureka

  THE PRESENTRAVENHURST LIBRARY

  THE word treasure was such a solitary word and yet it had the ability to send Raven’s mind on a journey through time and had her heart racing right after it. She jumped from her chair. The pillow on her lap fell to the floor. In seconds, she was beside Reed, making a grab for the map. “Let me see that.”

  “Raven!” he scolded, and deliberately leaned across his desk giving her a reproving look.

  “Heheh!” She gave him a sheepish grin. “Sorry.” She bit her lip and pulled on her trapped fingers.

  He lifted his arm.

  She grabbed her sore pinky. “Can’t I see it?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “Yes,” he said.

  She reached out to take it.

  He pulled it back. “Don’t touch it,” he warned. “The page is fragile.”

  She exhaled. “Fine, I won’t.” She resigned herself to leaning over his shoulder. The illuminated page had details written both in dark ink and in shimmering gold. “Would you look at that?” She let out a low whistle. “It is beautiful.”

  “Yes,” he agreed, but he wasn’t looking at the illuminated page, he was looking at her face.

  “Where did you find it? Oooh and what’s that dark stuff right there.” She pointed her finger down to the blackish splotches on the paper. “It looks like blood.” She quickly pulled her fingers back.

  Reed looked down at the paper only now seeing the splotches. “You are right, it does,” he agreed.

  “Whose is it, do you think? Your fathers? The Knights? Or someone else’s?” Raven leaned in expectantly, trying to examine it closer, her skin prickled.

  Reed looked over his shoulder, half-expecting to hear ominous spooky music dum…de…dum…dum—dum blare out from the shadows “Damned if I know.” He shook his head.

  “It’s creepy, right?”

  “Yeah, it really is.”

  “So where did you get it?”

  “It was right here, all along.” He waved a hand toward the bookcase. “I can’t believe it took me so long to look inside it. My father always had these books with him, too.” He shook his head. “I had no idea.” He turned away from Raven to look back at the ancient page. Very carefully, he picked it up and placed it back inside the book.

  “Aren’t you going to try to figure it out?”

  “I will. But not until the lights come back on, I think.”

  “That makes sense,” she said, trying to catch sight of it again—although, if it was her map, she wouldn’t wait. “What are you going to do with it?”

  “I guess I will hide it for now.” He pushed back from the desk and lifted the book up, pulling it closely to his chest. He gave Raven a wary look.

  “What?” She asked noticing the look he was giving her.

  “Turn around,” he instructed sternly.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” She gaped at him in disbelief. “I am not going to take it you know.”

  “I know,” he assured her. “It is just a precaution.”

  “For…?”

  “For God’s sake Raven, for once, just do as I say…please.”

  Raven wrinkled up her face in displeasure and crossed her arms over her chest like an angry kid. “Fine,” she huffed out and turned around.

  The book felt unusually heavy in his arms as he looked around the room for a safe hiding place. The wall lined with bookshelves, overflowing with hundreds of books seemed like the obvious place to hide a book. There were so many it would be impossible to find the one he held but then again that would also be the most obvious place to look. “Shit!”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” said Reed. Slipping the page carefully out of the book, he lifted up the edge of the carpet and tucked it safely underneath. Straightening quickly, he glanced back at her to make sure she wasn’t looking and made his way over to the bookcase. Pulling out a few books, he moved them to different areas. Then he climbed up the ladder at the end of the case and put the book on the third row from the top, beside a book on medieval weaponry. Satisfied it was well hidden he climbed back down the ladder and walked over to stand behind his desk. “You may turn around now.”

  Raven was tempted to walk out of the room but finally decided against it. When she turned back around Reed was staring at the top of the desk. “What’s the matter now?”

  “I feel like…” he sighed. “ Never mind,” he said, shaking his head. What he didn’t say was that he suddenly felt like something very bad was about to happen. He sat down.

  “Reed it is going to be all right,” she said to him, as though she could read his thoughts.

  Startled he looked up at her. “How can you be so sure?”

  “I don’t know how, but I feel it, you know.”

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, I do,” she said, standing beside him now, and placed her hand on his arm.

  Reed glanced down at her hand, the ring on her finger sparkling in the dim light. Something swelled in his chest. He angled toward her, his gaze intent, unwavering. “Raven I…” The words he suddenly wanted to say caught in his throat.

  “Yes,” she prodded him to say more and when he didn’t it felt like the very air around them became charged.

  When he pulled her down on his lap, she went willingly. He lifted his hand and brushed her hair away from her face, his fingers caressing her cheek. He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I know things between us are not…” he exhaled, seemingly at a loss for words, his gaze slipping down to her lips.

  “What’s the matter?”

  “Hell, I am just going to say it.”

  “Oh—kay,” she said after a moment, bracing herself for the worst, her stomach suddenly twisting in knots.

  “I don’t know where our marriage will lead us or even if we will stay together… at the end of this…” He waved his hand in the air. “I cannot help the way I feel.”

  Raven was about to keel over from a mixture of curiosity and anxiety—each emotion mashing together into a giant glob of uncertainty.

  “I cannot make you any promises but…” He closed his eyes as though something pained him greatly. “Damnit!”

  She had a good idea where the conversation was headed. It led to a place she didn’t want to visit, at least not now. Her own little voice tried to cut in…what if blah…blah…blah—she ignored it—to hell with the repercussions.

  Right now, right this momen
t she didn’t care about the treasure or her fake wedding or if he would kick her straight to the curb after she helped him. Right now, right this moment, she wanted one thing and one thing only…she wanted the best sex she was sure she would ever have…she wanted movie sex.

  “Raven, I …” he started again.

  She cut him off, lifting her finger to his lips. “I don’t care.”

  “But…”

  “Reed…” She leaned forward. “Shut the hell up and just kiss me already.”

  A startled look came over his face. But it was quickly replaced by a slow wicked grin, his dark eyes flashing with something akin to hunger. Cupping her face with his hands, he pulled her forward.

  “I was hoping you’d say something like that,” he breathed and then his mouth seized hers, in a heart stopping, pulse-pounding kiss.

  She opened her mouth, letting him inside to explore, his warm tongue sliding over her own. Then, both their hands were everywhere at once. Yanking her t-shirt over her head and tossing it to the floor. His shirt landed on the desk. The fine leather of his Italian loafer made a soft thud when it hit something across the room. Her bright red Uggs tangled under her feet, pitching her forward but that did not slow Reed or the raging urgency they both were feeling.

  Books, papers, and pens clamored against the carpet and before she could react, or be embarrassed, Raven was butt ass naked and sitting on top of his desk with Reed standing between her legs, his rigid erection pressing between the warmth of her thighs.

  “So damn sweet,” he murmured, against her lips. Yanking her legs wide, he almost savagely thrust into her body.

  Raven cried out.

  Reed froze—not from her crying out exactly—but instead, from her extreme tightness gripping and squeezing the length of his rigid erection. The urgency that had been so explosive moments before evaporated. “Shit!”

  Still deep inside her body, he pulled back and looked at her face. “Raven…”

  “Don’t…” She bit back the tears. “Please don’t, okay.” She didn’t expect her movie sex to hurt so badly. “Damn you Benji Dobson,” she muttered, blaming him for fouling up her first encounter of the sexual kind so badly. It was either that or she had been officially revirginized from lack of action. Either way it still hurt.