Banished

by Tamara Gill

  Cian lifted her chin to gain her attention. It wasn’t necessary, he had her full attention.

  “Chloe?”

  Chloe touched her lips, swollen and tingling after their kiss. A kiss she never wanted to end. A pain jabbed in her skull again and she winced. “I must go. I think I’m getting a headache.” Not to mention what else was aching with no reprieve in sight. “Goodnight, Cian.”

  This time she jumped out the car before he could call her back. Should he kiss her, touch or look at her again, Chloe wasn’t certain she could keep her hands to herself. What was wrong with her? Never had she acted in such a forward, needy, sex-starved way.

  She fumbled with the key and walked inside, shutting the door quickly behind her. How on earth was she to get through their nature walk tomorrow without her jumping his bones and having him on some wilderness footpath?

  Chloe stood in the dark. How indeed.

  Chapter Five

  Chloe stepped over a fallen tree log and all but melted into a puddle of desire when Cian clasped her arm. She thanked him and walked on. The dense trees obscured the sunlight at times. A nearby stream trickled and the odd bird call was the only interruption in the quiet forest. Other than her ragged breaths at having such a specimen of a man so close to her.

  Her phone rang and, recognizing Eddy’s number, she quickly answered. She spoke to him about him moving out and what he’d left at her apartment in London. Chloe turned away from Cian’s penetrating stare, his intense attention toward her making her uneasy.

  “Are you all right, Chloe?” he asked when she hung up.

  Chloe nodded. “It was Eddy. He’s moved out of our home. He was just telling me where he left the keys and some other stuff.” She pushed away thoughts of guilt. Eddy sounded happy. Happier than he’d sounded in a long time. Their break up was a good thing.

  “He’s back in London.”

  Chloe pushed away a low lying fern and continued on. “Yes.”

  He stopped. “So, you’re here alone and single?”

  “I’m here. Alone, yes. And single is how I’d like to stay,” she said.

  “You’re not making this very easy on me are you lass?”

  Chloe heard the frustration in his tone and dismissed it. She didn’t want to start another relationship, be it a one night stand or a lasting one. She turned at the sound of crunching leaves only to find Cian not a foot away from her.

  “Answer me, Chloe?”

  She strode on not bothering to look and see if he followed. “I’ve answered you already. That you choose not to believe me is your problem.”

  She cast her eyes down over the littered walkway. The last thing she needed was to fall over and have the laird pick her up. The thought of his hands on her body unnerved her and not in a bad way. She wasn’t herself when around him and that point scared her most of all.

  Cian pulled her to a stop. “What does that mean?” His eyes swept her face and Chloe felt a prickling under her scalp. She instinctively cleared her thoughts.

  “It means I don’t need another man in my life. Not right now and maybe not for a long time. I broke up with Eddy only two days ago for crying out loud. He is right at this moment shutting my apartment door and slipping the key under it.” Chloe pulled her arm free from his clasp. “Is there anything else you wanted to know, Laird? My cycles, my bank balance? Or perhaps, my childhood, half of which was spent travelling around with English hippy parents with no fixed address.”

  His eyes clouded in sympathy before he took a step back. “Forgive me, Chloe. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  Chloe huffed out a disbelieving breath. “Could’ve fooled me.”

  “I’m interested in you, that’s all. I want to get to know you a little better.”

  Chloe sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be sharp. I just don’t want to talk about it. And, well—”

  “Well what?” Cian asked a slight frown on his brow.

  Chloe looked up and met his gaze, his eyes the darkest gray she’d ever seen before. “Well I don’t understand why a man who owns a castle and is titled is interested in an unemployed waitress.”

  She stilled as a finger ran down her cheek. “Is that a trick question?”

  His voice deep and husky would tempt a nun. Her skin burned where his finger had stroked and she could not for the life of her not wish he had touched her in the same way somewhere else on her body. “No trick. I want to know the truth,” she said.

  “For now,” he said and pulled her along, “the truth is that I want to spend time with you and get to know you. Nothing more than that.”

  Chloe eyed him with some cynicism before allowing herself to enjoy the wildlife around her. They walked for some time before they crossed a creek and headed into a dense copse of trees. Chloe slowed her steps when a feeling of foreboding settled about her. She let go of Cian’s arm and absently watched him stroll into a clearing ahead. Old piles of stone lay scattered, the only surviving remnants of an old building that was once there.

  And yet, she knew exactly what it once looked like. Could picture it in her mind’s eye as clear as Cian was whenever she thought of him. Which was a lot.

  He turned and the breath in her lungs seized.

  He was clad in trews, sweat glistened on his pecs and down toward a tightly corded abdomen. An overwhelming urge to lick his skin, to taste the very essence of him assailed her. He stood with an axe of some kind in his hand, the chopped wood laying scattered about his feet.

  Sensing movement to her side, Chloe looked to her left and froze when she watched herself but not herself. A woman who looked the same as she stood silent in the grove, her fluorescent eyes a multiple of colors burning a path toward her highlander. Chloe watched the woman disappear then reappear before him, touching the skin with her own fingers. Chloe clenched her fist as sensation sparked up her arm.

  “Chloe?” Cian’s touch on her arm removed the vision playing out before her. She looked past him but the woman and Cian were gone, the building once more a pile of rubble. The prickling sensation under her scalp came back and Chloe stepped back.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  Cian took a step toward her and clasped her arms. “What did you see?”

  Chloe calmed her ragged breathing not entirely due to his touch, but his gaze was wild and seeking. Seeking what she didn’t know and at this point didn’t really wish to. “I asked first.”

  Cian released Chloe’s arms and walked toward the rubble that was once his home. He ground his teeth at his inability to tell her the truth, not because he did not wish to but because he could not. Zeus had ensured his eternal silence when he’d uttered those fateful words to seal his fate those many years ago. Chloe deserved to know the truth of his life. That after reaching a certain age where he could no longer hide his youthful appearance from his townsfolk, he had to leave, fake his death, only to return as the prodigal son. And all the while look for her.

  He turned around and watched the wind send wisps of hair over Chloe’s face. Had she not been dressed in jeans, trail boots and jacket he could almost picture her all those years ago when they’d first met. Right here.

  She had the most perfect creamy skin he’d ever seen, and eyes that still shone with an otherworldly light that would never diminish. Chloe was beauty personified.

  “I can’t tell you. It’s impossible for me to do so.” Cian kicked a stone with his foot. “I want to tell you. You have no idea how much it pains me not to be able to but I cannot. You must remember your memories on your own.”

  Chloe frowned and pulled her jacket closer around her. “You won’t even tell me who you are? There is something more going on here.” She paused and looked around as if searching for someone hidden in the forest. “I know you from somewhere, but I don’t know where. And what memories? I have no memories of you and me that do not date back a few days.”

  Cian frowned and thought back over the many years and previous lives Chloe had. Never before had memories com
e back to her so quickly. Centuries would pass and the Chloe he found sometimes never remembered at all. And yet here she was again, and this woman after only three days had remembered more than he could ever wish. Even if she denied what her mind was showing her.

  “Stop doing that,” Chloe said, pointing at him.

  Cian stepped back and ran a hand through his hair. “You can feel that?”

  “I can. What are you trying to do, read my mind? You did it to me yesterday as well. I felt you probing around in there. What are you, Cian, and don’t go telling me anymore bullshit about being a laird or a history geek.”

  Cian laughed. Hope rose in his chest that Chloe the goddess he loved was strong inside this woman and about to be reawakened after a thousand years. “All I can tell you is I am laird of Durness and that I have been for many years.”

  She walked up to him, her hips unconsciously swaying a seductive swing. Cian rubbed his jaw in attempt to keep his hands off her.

  He shut his eyes when her hands glided up his chest and clasped his shoulders, her sweet breath whispered across his cheek, “You are something special, Cian McKay and I’m going to find out what.”

  With a will of their own, Cian’s hands clasped her hips. He pushed at the denim willing the pants to undo so he could take her. She pulled back and stared at him, her eyes widening when she recognized the want and need in his soul. Her breasts grazed his chest and blood flowed quick and fast to his groin. His hands tightened further.

  She smiled a knowing confident womanly smile. “I don’t think so, Cian. Until I know what you are and why I need to know, you’ll be keeping your hands to yourself.” She stepped away and walked back toward the path.

  He pulled his eyes away from her arse and saw a deer standing nearby. The animal’s gaze locked with his and did not shift. Unease crept along his spine, his druid soul telling him something his human mind wouldn’t pick up. He looked about the grove but noticed no similar animal. Then again, he could not hear any animals either.

  He started toward Chloe. A deep sense that he should be beside her assailed him. He started to run when Chloe stopped and started to back up as if something before her was dangerous and untrustworthy.

  Gods could be both.

  Chapter Six

  Such an animal should not frighten her, but there was something very wrong about a deer that stood staring at you without fear but wonder. Chloe took another step back and halted against a wall of muscle. “What is it doing?” She looked up at Cian and her blood froze in her veins by the menace she recognized in every line of his body.

  “Show yourself,” he said to the animal.

  Chloe looked back to the dear and frowned. What was going on here? The animal was already showing itself, what else could it do?

  “Oh my god,” Chloe murmured when the deer stood on its hind legs and made to stand. Then somehow the form changed shape to that of a woman before her eyes. Feet now stood where once there were hoofs. A woman in a knee-high, golden silk gown stood looking at her, a hunting bow and quiver of arrows on her back. Chloe moved behind Cian not believing what she had just seen. This isn’t real, she repeated but the form stood steadfast, her gaze never wavering from her.

  “Artemis,” Cian said with a slight nod of his head.

  Chloe clasped the back of Cian’s shirt. The woman was beautiful; her long dark hair falling to the back of her calf and when she smiled the forest seemed to sigh in contentment. Chloe included.

  “Has it been so many years, Chloe? I have missed you at court.” The lady’s voice although quiet reverberated about the forest in a multitude of voices loud enough to hear.

  “Who are you?” Chloe asked meeting Cian’s gaze. Well aware this was the second time today she’d asked such a question.

  “Ah, I see she has not remembered all, yet.” Artemis’s eyes blazed then settled to a light golden color. “I am Artemis an Olympian goddess. I have come to see for myself if what is being whispered in the hallowed halls of home is true. It fills me with delight to see it is so.”

  Cian stole a look at her than back at Artemis. “Why should you care? You never stepped in to help when—”

  “Do not finish that sentence, druid. I looked over Chloe through all her lives and welcomed the wrath of Hera and Zeus by doing so. I have not failed in my duty.”

  Chloe stepped away from both of them. Cian was a druid? Were they not supposed to be men who practiced beliefs against those of the Christian man? Had sacrifices. Human sacrifices. And what did this woman mean by saying she looked over her through all her lives, she’d only had one.

  “Nor have I,” he said.

  Chloe fought to calm the fear that rose in her throat. No human man’s voice sounded like that, as if menace itself crawled along every letter.

  Artemis looked at her. “Do not fear me, Chloe. I do not come to harm you. Only to warn.”

  Chloe stepped further away and looked around. The forest had eyes, she was sure of it. “Warn me about what?”

  “I do not have long before Zeus will know where I am. Hera, your stepmother has become a powerful force in Olympus and she is ever vindictive and sly. With her wiles she has convinced Zeus that this will be your final life. Most at court disagree having thought you have paid penance for bestowing immortal life upon a human,” Artemis said throwing a dismissive glance at Cian.

  “On what grounds will I be forgiven?” Chloe asked, dread stabbing at her innards.

  “That you take place in the royal court and forget this mortal plane. Marry a god of your father’s choice. In fact, he has one already chosen. You would not favor him.”

  A chill ran down Chloe’s spine. “But I’m not a god.” She looked at Cian. “Tell me this isn’t true. That what this woman says is not what you couldn’t tell me.”

  A pained looked crossed Cian’s face and Chloe didn’t need for him to speak the answer to know what he was about to say. “It’s true, lass.”

  Chloe walked toward Artemis, anger replacing the fear thrumming through her veins. “Why are you telling me this? From what I know of the gods, you could face punishment at such treachery. Why should I believe your words?”

  Artemis smiled and the forest sighed once more. “A promise made many years ago ensures I keep you safe. I do not care for Hera and her cruel ways. And although I do not care for your druid, I know you do, in here,” the god said, pointing to Chloe’s heart. “He is bound and unable to tell you the truth.” Artemis shrugged. “I am not.”

  Chloe turned her back on them both. This could not be true. She was Chloe Smith, an unassuming Australian girl who only just graduated high school. She was not a goddess. Perhaps she had drunk too many whiskies last night. Perhaps she was going mad. Maybe they’d drugged her …

  “I can see you do not believe me,” Artemis said in her haunting voice. “But you will. In time.”

  Chloe shook her head. She would never believe any of this. “Zeus could not be my father. This is all absurd. I’m going home.”

  Artemis smiled as if Chloe’s answer was the best news she had ever heard. “I will see you again, our Chloe.”

  Chloe gasped and stepped back and fell when the woman disappeared before her eyes. She had not just seen that. Cian walked over and bent to help her up. Chloe slapped his hand away and stood. “Get the hell away from me. Don’t come near me.”

  She started to walk back the way they’d come and refused to turn and see if Cian followed. Didn’t want to see him or that strange woman ever again. Tears welled in her eyes. It was all too absurd to believe and she wouldn’t. Not ever.

  Later that evening Chloe sat on the settee in the cottage’s lounge and read the book on mythology from cover to cover. So many gods with bizarre names and fables. And yet the unease and itching sensation in her mind would not abate. Somewhere deep inside she knew every one of them, their flaws and abilities, their fickleness. Zeus could not be her father. He was the father of the gods and men and lord of Olympus. He could never be Chloe Smith’
s dad.

  A hysterical laugh bubbled up inside. Why was she even looking them up? What she should be doing is getting the hell out of this strange town. Away from the weird women who walk the woods and disappear and the strange druid laird who she ached for with every passing moment.

  Chloe pushed away the prick of guilt she felt at his disappointed and hurt face when she spoke to him last. But what did he expect. Daughter of a god with a druid boyfriend was a lot to take in on one day. And so the thoughts and inner turmoil continued until she fell asleep, book on lap and the lounge her bed.

  The hard lines of a masculine body warmed along her back and legs. Chloe undulated and welcomed the muscled arms that clasped her waist. She moaned into her pillow when the clean scent of soap assailed her senses. Cian ran his hand across her quivering stomach then ventured toward her heated core.

  His ragged breaths tickled her neck and Chloe looked at him over her shoulder. His eyes, shadowed by the longest eyelashes she’d ever seen, looked down at her with unbound desire.

  “I want you.”

  She pulled him into a kiss. The glide of Cian’s mouth over hers sent her senses reeling. His fingers delved between her wet aching folds and he fucked her with his hand. Chloe broke the kiss on a gasp. His manhood pressed firm between her arse cheeks made her all the hotter. Needier for him.

  She pulled his hand from her slick heat and pushed Cian back. Turned over and straddled his hips. His shaft, fully erect sat against his stomach. She licked her lips, his sex like the sweetest candy she wanted to lick and savor. Cian moaned when her fingers circled his thick shaft and stroked downwards.

  He was large. Larger than she’d ever had and an excitement bubbled up inside her. Not usually one for foreplay, she had already changed her mind because of his teasing. She wanted to prolong this time, wring every ounce of pleasure she could.

  Chloe wiggled down his legs and licked the end of Cian’s cock. He shuddered beneath her and she clasped his tightly beaded balls in her hand. The salty tang of him was the sweetest she’d ever known. Cian’s hands clasped her hair and Chloe took him deep into her mouth.