by Donna Grant
Then had come a tour of the castle and the surrounding land.
“I was wondering when I’d get to see you again.”
With a smile, she whirled around to find Ian leaning casually against the doorway, but not even his nonchalant attitude could hide the unease in his beautiful sherry eyes.
“They’ve certainly kept me busy. I think it was because they knew the men wanted to talk to you, and they didn’t want me to feel left out.”
“They did want to talk to me,” he said, and pushed away from the door. His light brown hair was disheveled, as if he’d sent his fingers through it multiple times.
Danielle turned her back to the wall, curious about what had occurred. “What happened? Things were tense when I left.”
“They didna come find me because they couldna. There was something that blocked Broc from being able to use his powers to find me. Or Deirdre. Which was a first for him.”
“Do you feel better knowing they didn’t forget you?”
Ian nodded. “Four others allowed the Druids to move them through time. To search for me.”
“It’s obvious these people care greatly about you.”
“I should no’ ever have questioned it.”
Danielle closed the distance between them. “Ian, you may be immortal with a powerful god inside you, but you are still just a man. You have feelings and emotions that are normal for anyone.”
“I shouldna have questioned them,” he repeated, his eyes blazing with self-loathing and a need for comfort that nearly made her knees buckle.
Danielle rose up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck. As soon as she touched him, he enveloped her in a crushing embrace.
“I would have questioned it as well,” she whispered.
Ian buried his face in her neck and just held her.
“You’re home, Ian. You’re home,” she said.
Many moments passed before he lifted his head and inhaled deeply. He pulled out of her arms, but didn’t release her. “There’s more. I wasna transported through time by Deirdre.”
“Then by whom?”
“Another drough. A man named Declan Wallace.”
Danielle raised a brow, then burst out laughing. “Declan Wallace? The Declan Wallace? He’s a playboy, Ian. All he cares about are fast cars, fast money, and fast women.”
“Doona be fooled, Danielle. That’s the man I was told of. The others fought him and rescued Saffron from him.”
“Ah,” Danielle muttered. “It makes sense now.”
“What does?”
“Saffron. She keeps herself apart from everyone. I thought it was because she was blind, but now I know it’s because of Declan. Do any of them know what he did to her?”
“He blinded her and kept her chained in a dungeon.”
“Shit.” Danielle rubbed her forehead and began to pace the tower. “And I thought my life was bad. What does Declan want?”
“Deirdre, it appears. He’s the one who brought her through time. They also think Declan held Deirdre for a while, which is why no one saw much of the wyrran.”
Danielle halted. “With the wyrran running loose, that means Deirdre is free of Declan.”
“Aye. We doona know if they are working together or no’.”
“And the only way to find that out is by getting close to them.”
“Doona even think about it,” Ian stated, and took her hand before she could pace once more. “Cara said you made a call today?”
Danielle nodded, not surprised Ian changed the subject. “I called my flatmates to let them know I was fine. And to get my car. Whitney told me she got engaged to be married. We were supposed to celebrate, but I’ve put her off for the moment. They had many questions that I answered as best I could.”
“Is that what’s bothering you?”
“It’s not what is bothering me, Ian, it’s what’s not.”
He frowned. “I doona understand.”
“Whitney told me my boss called. She gave my biggest client to another guy at work. I’ve also been told if I don’t come in tomorrow I’m sacked.”
“Sacked?”
“I’ll lose my job. It’s a job I worked years to get.”
She saw Ian’s face harden a fraction as he released her hand. “Fallon can have you home in a blink.”
“That’s just it,” she said with a smile. “I don’t care about that stupid job anymore. What is going on, what we’re fighting, is much more important than my job with an architecture firm.”
“You’re … staying?”
“I’m staying.”
The smile started slowly, then pulled at the corners of Ian’s mouth until it brightened even his eyes. “Just what I wanted to hear,” he said before he pulled her against his chest and kissed her.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
Danielle finished blow-drying her hair as she remembered the kiss in the tower. The taste of Ian was more delicious than she remembered. She loved the hard feel of him, the heat of him. And the need driving him.
They’d been interrupted by the arrival of supper, and all through the meal she’d found she couldn’t look away from Ian. He’d been seated across from her so that their gazes met constantly.
The small smile she’d seen on his lips had made her stomach feel as if it were full of butterflies. But it was the desire she saw in his eyes that made her clench her legs together.
He’d disappeared while she and the other women cleaned the table. She’d wanted to go looking for him, but he needed time alone in the castle where he’d spent time with his twin.
Danielle shut off the blow-dryer and looked at herself in the mirror in the small bathroom connected to her room. She’d been fascinated to discover the MacLeods had modernized the castle through the years.
The bathroom might not be large or extravagant, but it had everything she needed. And that was enough.
Danielle opened the door to the bureau where she’d unpacked her clothes. Clothes that Larena and Fallon had retrieved from her flat for her.
Whitney and Claire hadn’t wanted to pack some of her stuff, but Danielle had managed to convince them. With Fallon’s power of teleporting, though they called it jumping, it took him but seconds to get from one place to another.
Danielle touched the white nightgown she’d worn the night before when she and Ian had made love. It had been the only thing at the store other than a flannel one with a high neck and long sleeves that reached to the floor.
The castle was a bit draftier than the inn, so Danielle opted for one of her favorite sets of pj’s. She tugged on the red short-sleeved shirt and the long black pants with red, pink, and white hearts all over them.
She was finishing brushing her teeth and combing her hair when she caught what sounded like a scream. The castle stayed quiet, so she didn’t fear an attack, but something was obviously going on.
When she heard the faint cry again, Danielle cracked open her door and poked her head outside. She stepped out into the long corridor and looked first one way and then the other.
The sound of the cry again had her jerking her head back around. She started toward Saffron’s room, a sneaking suspicion that the Druid was having a more difficult time than she told anyone.
She was just steps away when a hand covered her mouth and pulled her into the shadows and against a hard, warm chest she knew all too well.
“Shh,” Ian whispered and jerked his chin toward Saffron’s door.
Danielle gripped his hand and pulled it from her mouth as she saw a man appear out of nowhere and silently enter Saffron’s room. She looked at Ian.
Before she could ask, he put a finger to her lips. “Come.”
They moved quietly down the hall. Danielle leaned her head over and was able to see through the crack in Saffron’s door to find Camdyn smoothing his hand over her forehead, soothing away the nightmare that had overwhelmed her.
For long moments she and Ian watched Camdyn. Camdyn said not a word, simply put
one hand on Saffron as if he really didn’t want to touch her but couldn’t help himself. His body was rigid and turned sideways away from her and the bed, as if he couldn’t stand to look at her.
That one simple touch helped to calm Saffron, however. Even when she drifted off to a peaceful sleep and Camdyn had removed his hand from her forehead, he didn’t leave. There was something in the way he stood by Saffron’s bed, still as a statue, silent as the night, that pulled at Danielle’s heart.
She didn’t want to go when Ian tugged her away from the door, but she’d spied on them enough. Neither said a word until Danielle closed her door and turned to look at Ian.
“How did you know Camdyn would go to her?”
“I didna,” Ian admitted. “I heard something and feared it was you. I was on my way to your chamber when I spotted him. So I waited.”
“He didn’t want to be with her.”
Ian sighed and slowly shook his head. “He never faced her. He kept his body sideways to the bed.”
“If he didn’t want to be there, why did he help her?”
“That is a good question, is it no’?” Ian asked. “One I doona believe we’ll have answered anytime soon.”
“His eyes. They seemed so haunted.”
“Lucan told me it was Camdyn who carried Saffron out of Declan’s dungeon. That could be the reason he feels he must help her.”
“No.” Danielle shook her head. “I may not know a lot about men, but it’s more than that. Any of the women could have gone to comfort Saffron.”
“Is that what you were doing?”
“I was. She didn’t speak much today, but I was told she was from America. We have that in common.”
“And her family?”
“Reaghan is trying to discover where they are. Apparently Saffron comes from a wealthy family who likes to travel.”
Ian looked around her chamber. “Are you comfortable here?”
“I am. I sent my boss, Isabella, a message tonight. I quit my job.”
“Will you be able to find another?”
Danielle shrugged as she walked to the bed. She pulled back the covers and fluffed her pillow. “I don’t care anymore. I have a little money saved if it’s needed. But I need to see what brought me here carried out. Not just delivering the key, but seeing Deirdre’s end. And Declan’s.”
Ian came up behind her and stilled her hands with his. Danielle closed her eyes and let his heat wrap around her. She felt herself grow damp at his nearness. Her breasts swelled and her nipples pebbled.
All because he touched her.
“Have you given the MacLeods the key?” Ian whispered, his breath warm against her neck.
“N-no,” she managed as goose bumps rose along her arms.
Ian moved his mouth to her other ear and nibbled along the delicate, sensitive skin. “Why no’?”
“I don’t know. It won’t let me.”
He spun her around so she faced him. With his forehead furrowed and his eyes searching hers, he asked, “And why no’?”
“It’s odd really.” She sank onto the bed and shrugged. “The key was in such a hurry to get here. It wouldn’t even allow me to wait out the storm I got caught it. Even when we reached MacLeod land it was ecstatic to find them.”
“Then?” Ian urged.
“Once we were inside the castle, it stopped. It kept telling me ‘Not now.’”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It doesn’t want me to give it to anyone now.”
Ian rubbed his hand over his forehead and twisted his lips. “Is it because I’m here?”
“Nay. There’s something odd in the castle, Ian. Like an undercurrent of … something. I cannot name it, but it’s there.”
He nodded. “I thought it was just me because I’m fighting Farmire for control still.”
“No, I think it’s more than that. I wouldn’t feel it otherwise. Have any of the other Warriors mentioned it?”
“Nay. The Druids?”
She shook her head. “Not a word. The longer I’m in the castle the more I feel it.”
“I’ll talk to the MacLeods tomorrow.” He leaned over her, causing her to recline back on the bed. “For now, I want a taste of you.”
“Just a taste?” she teased.
He smiled again, small, hesitant, but a smile nonetheless. Danielle rejoiced and slid her hands up his well-defined arms to the thick sinew of his shoulders.
“Much more than a taste,” he whispered, his voice low and seductive.
He kissed her slowly, languidly, as if he were putting it all to memory. Danielle threaded her fingers in his light brown hair to find it damp and cool to the touch.
Her body melted under his expert mouth. Did the man ever know how to kiss! He deepened the kiss then as his body leisurely lowered atop hers.
Danielle enjoyed the feel of him atop her. She ran her hands over his shoulders, loving the way the muscles in those shoulders and his back moved beneath her hands.
Undulating. Bunching. Straining.
Urgency entered the kiss on the sound of her moan. The hot, hard length of his erection pressed against her stomach, reminding her how good he’d felt inside her.
Danielle slid her bare feet up from his ankles to his jeans-encased knees, urging him for more, needing more. As if sensing her growing desire, Ian rocked his hips against her softness.
She tore her mouth from his and cried out at the utter pleasure that simple movement gave her. Danielle clawed at the white short-sleeved tee he wore. In a heartbeat Ian had it off and thrown to the floor.
Danielle moaned at the feel of his bare skin beneath her fingers. “You have the most beautiful body.”
He shook his head, but there was a smile on his lips. “Nay. It’s your body that leaves me speechless.”
Tears gathered in Danielle’s eyes. “No one has ever said anything so sweet to me before.”
“They were fools,” he whispered as he kissed across her jaw and down her neck. “Complete fools.”
Danielle hadn’t thought the night before could ever be beaten, but with every touch, every caress, every sensual, delightful kiss, Ian was showing her something so much more.
He was giving her a new world, showing her a new place that belonged just to the two of them. A place where nothing and no one could hurt them.
Danielle rotated her hips against his hardness, seeking more of him. Ian claimed her mouth in a hot, demanding kiss that sent her senses reeling on a ride that took her breath away.
She gasped into his mouth when he cupped her breast and rolled the nipple between his fingers through her thin shirt. Heat instantly filled her. When he pinched her nipple, she felt a flood of wetness between her legs.
“Off,” Ian muttered.
Danielle tried to grab her shirt to remove it, but before she could, she saw a blue claw lengthen from his finger. It barely registered in her mind before he had split open her shirt.
She was reeling from it all when his mouth found her nipple and began to suck while his other hand thumbed and rolled the other.
“Ian,” she whispered and clung to him as her body spiraled out of control.
Sweat glistened over her skin as he continued to tease and suckle her breasts. Danielle gripped the sheets in her fists and ground her hips against him. She could feel herself peaking, knew she was so close.
She’d always had a hard time reaching orgasm with a man, so for Ian to call forth one so effortlessly left her dazed, her body shaking and oh, so needy.
There was another ripping sound, and then she felt cool air upon her heated skin as her pants were jerked away. Danielle wanted to wrap her legs around Ian, but with one hand upon her thigh he held her still.
She whimpered, needing to move, to have that hardness against her.
Danielle’s breath locked in her lungs when his finger brushed aside her curls to touch her swollen softness. He ran his finger up and down her sex, spreading her wetness.
She rocked aga
inst his hand, her climax building so that she wound tighter and tighter inside. He dipped a finger inside her, filling her. He thrust once, twice, then pulled out.
Danielle moaned, her head thrashing from side to side as she sought more. His finger circled her clitoris, wringing a startled cry from her. Again and again he encircled the swollen nub until she shook with need. All the while he rolled first one nipple then the other with his tongue before nipping the hard peak.
Every nerve in her body trembled and shuddered. She was on the edge of a cliff, waiting to go over the side, but Ian held her, wringing more cries of pleasure from her.
Danielle moaned as one finger, then two filled her as his thumb stimulated her clitoris. His fingers pumped inside her as he took her to a new level.
“Come for me,” he whispered.
Danielle threw back her head and screamed as her orgasm claimed her, took her spiraling into an abyss of pleasure so profound, so utterly beautiful, she knew she’d never be the same.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE
Ian watched the emotion cross Danielle’s face as her body clamped down on his fingers and she peaked. She was glorious with her face flushed, her lips swollen from their kisses, and her body open to him.
He was enthralled. Fascinated.
Completely mesmerized.
By a woman with a smile that brought out the sunshine, silver hair, and the most amazing emerald eyes he had ever seen.
Ian had known he was in trouble the moment he held her nearly naked body against his after pulling her from the frozen loch. It had only gotten worse the longer he was with her.
She made him feel like a man again. She made him … feel.
It was a dangerous thing for any man, but most especially a Warrior. Deirdre was still out there, and now there was also Declan. How could Ian be the Warrior he needed to be to end them and still look Danielle in the face afterward?
He rose over her, tremors of her climax still racking her lithe body. She opened her eyes and smiled contentedly up at him.