Shades of Pink

by 33 authors

  * * *

  It had never been like that for Declan. Breathing hard, he rolled his weight off her and wrapped her in his arms. Christ, he’d just broken about a dozen rules the Eclipse Agents were supposed to follow. There was no going back. But the scary thing was that he didn’t want to go back.

  He’d known the moment their lips met that he would never be the same. Something big was happening, something monumental. Declan was falling in love. He wouldn’t have taken her virginity otherwise. But this was new to him. He wanted to do nothing but hold her and bask in the newfound love, but if he was to be any sort of husband to Fiona, he had to plan.

  He would speak with her father immediately, and he’d have to talk to MacRae as well. But first he’d have to jump back to his time and set things in motion. He knew how to go off the grid, so when he got back to Fiona’s warm arms, waiting for him in her bed, there would be no way for the Eclipse Agents to track him. Or the Cleaners. Declan would make things safe for her.

  “Fiona love?” He couldn’t keep his fingers from her naked back, so he stroked her like a cat.

  “Hmm?” Her sleepy voice stirred his desire once more, but now wasn’t the time.

  “I have to speak with your father, but first I’ll need to head back to my time for a moment. Do you believe me that I’ll be right back for you?”

  She lifted her head to meet his gaze. “Of course I do. I love you, Declan Wallace, so you’d better come back for me.”

  Her trust was as beautiful a gift as her innocence.

  “I’ll no’ lie to you lass, I have no lands. I have plenty of money, but I doona have a place to call home. Can you live as my wife knowing I’ve naught to bring to the marriage?”

  Her heart in her eyes, his beautiful Fiona smiled and said, “Oh Declan, the lands to the north are part of my dowry. My father would never see us turned out with nowhere to go.”

  “You’ve a lot of faith in your father, lass.”

  She laughed, “He likes you. He’ll be pleased to have you as a son.”

  Declan wasn’t so sure, but kept it to himself as he began pleating his plaid. First, he’d speak with Jackson. He might be disappearing into the past, but Declan would never leave something unfinished.

  * * *

  CHAPTER 7

  The advantage of time travel was that although almost a full day had passed for Declan, he was able to return to Fiona at almost the exact time he’d left her arms.

  “Laird McClure, I’m in love with your daughter and I’d like to ask for her hand.”

  The chief’s eyebrows knit over the bridge of his nose. “Shite.”

  “Beg pardon?” That wasn’t the reaction Declan had expected. “I have money, if that’s the problem. I have a lot of it actually. I’m an excellent warrior, I’ll protect her with my life.”

  “Daughter, what say you?”

  Declan looked around, confused, but he saw Fiona slink out from behind a tapestry. He hadn’t even noticed she was there.

  “How did you ken I was there?”

  “Lass, you’ve been hiding there since you were a bairn.” Fiona blushed, but held her head high as her father continued. “What have you to say about this?”

  “I love him Father, and I’d like to marry him.” Declan puffed up. He knew she loved him, but she had just said it to a room full of people! Hearing it aloud made him want to beat his chest and shout Look at that! She loves me!

  The McClure dragged his hand over his face before repeating, “Shite. Did you two plan this out when I came across you at the loch? Was your hare-brained scheme to swim the loch for this man?”

  Fiona’s eyes widened, “Nay. Father, I swear, I had just met him.”

  “Aye? You’ve just met and now you’re in love? Fiona, this is madness.”

  “Da, you said you took one look at Mother and you kenned she would be your wife. I canna tell you how oft she spoke of it. Why is it so hard to believe this?”

  The McClure’s eyes softened. “Ach, lass. If you’re sure?”

  “I am, Father, I truly am.”

  His heavy sigh was that of a father realizing his daughter was full-grown. “Wallace, you’ll take care of her…” the laird was interrupted by a commotion at the entrance to the Hall.

  Several men rushed in, covered in blood, one of whom had an arrow in his chest. Declan had his arm around Fiona and his hand on the hilt of his sword before he consciously thought to do it. Her gasp had him glancing back at her.

  Through bloodless lips, Fiona whispered, “Ian.”

  Declan whipped his head back to the injured man. Ian? The man he would save thus setting the Cleaners after him? Sheathing his sword, he turned Fiona in his arms and pressed her head to his shoulder not allowing her to watch. The laird shouted for a healer, while the men surrounding Ian were saying they’d been set upon by reivers. Ian had been shot after a brief scuffle. And Declan could do naught but let his love’s brother die.

  He didn’t know if that would set the timeline to rights, nothing was ever that simple, but he and Jackson had spoken at length about the new developments in the London case. More worrisome than allowing his woman’s brother to die was the fact that someone from the future was selling them out. Several of the Eclipse Agents had been taken out by the Cleaners under the guise of future crimes.

  Declan was going to stay in the past, but he wasn’t going to go off-grid just yet. At this exact moment, Jackson Tremaine was infiltrating London’s Haute Ton, and Declan was going to do everything he could to help. If anyone could find out the secrets of London’s elite, it was Jackson. And Declan would be ready with any assistance he could offer.

  Looking down at the woman sobbing quietly in his arms, Declan knew he would do anything to keep her safe. Anything. If that meant he gave up his life and his time, so be it. His life paled in comparison to the idea of marrying the woman he loved. Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, he squeezed her tight, and held on knowing that there might be harder battles to come.

  But for now, he was going to hold his woman, and devote the rest of his life to making her smile. This was love. This was how it felt to truly love someone more than yourself. And Declan wouldn’t let this chance pass him by.

  ~~~

  Award Winning writer Laura Hunsaker writes both Time Travel Scottish Romance and Paranormal Romance. A hybrid author, she is both traditionally published and self-published, as well as a member of Romance Writers of America® Cactus Rose Chapter.

  After earning degrees in English and German, with a specialty in British Literature, she taught for a few years, but is now lucky enough to write full-time. Look for more adventures in the Highlands with her latest stories Highland Games and Highlander Reborn.

  www.laurahunsaker.com

  IN SEARCH OF PINK CORAL

  Sabrina Garie

  Bara, a Norse sea goddess spiritually connected to the dying reefs, blasts a scuba diver out of the water for tampering with her coral. Too late she discovers he might hold the key to her survival, if she’s willing to risk her heart.

  ~~~

  Bara traced her finger along the rough edges of the coral, bleached ghost white and so frail it crumbled into her hand. Pinpricks of pain coursed through her heart each time a fragment separated from the larger reef. Her parents, Aegir and Ran, the Norse gods of the seas, had tied her spirit to the coral reefs that spanned their oceans in the vain hope that her power could restore their life essence. But the ancient gods were forgotten, no longer worshiped. Their magic diminished without a steady diet of prayer and offerings.

  A vibration rumbled through the reef and tickled her hand which still rested on the living structure. Quicker than the human eye, she swam toward the source. A scuba diver, with a rectangular tablet looped around one wrist, tapped his finger along the coral, almost as if he were counting. Enraged, she opened her palm, expelled a flash of sea energy and sent him flying out of the water onto the beach. In a blink, she landed on the shore. She wasn't done with him, not by a lon
g shot. While she may not kill like some of her sisters who had started to go mad from the destruction of the seas, she needed to make sure this man would never damage her reef again. She knew it was a man by the way the wet suit molded against a muscular body she might have admired under different circumstances.

  The coastline was devoid of any other inhabitants except for the splayed body of the man, unconscious from her blast. His chest rose and fell in steady breaths. The scuba mask had been thrown to the side to reveal a face of sculpted lines and angles so handsome it would have outshone any god in the Norse or Greek pantheon if not marred by a thin scar. It ran from his cheekbone, grazed the corner of his mouth and ended at his chin.

  She circled his body, stubbing her toe on the tablet he dropped in the flight. With a curse, she rubbed her foot and then picked up the culprit—a waterproof slate with numbers jotted across them. He’d been taking notes underwater. Humans were strange creatures, an opinion her sisters voiced ad nauseam. Still, something about the pattern of the numbers tugged at her. She flipped the tablet over to find an image of a sea strawberry—pink coral—and the words Reef Runners etched along the edges of the design. The humans called it a logo.

  A quick glance around the beach and she found two bags pushed together. Probably his. She rifled through the contents. One held the expected—clothes, water bottle, trail mix, snorkeling equipment, keys and a wallet. The other was stuffed with sample containers—dead or dying bits of coral, anemone, seaweed and other reef inhabitants. Her curiosity piqued she opened the wallet. His name was Dylan Elliott, he only lived a few blocks away and he had a parking pass to a university. Maybe he was a scientist? She always thought of them as the enemy. They ruthlessly wielded rational thought and experimentation to poison faith in the ancient magic. Without believers, the old ways waned and dragged the world down with it in an onslaught of disease, rot and decay, which was consuming her ocean. Rage pulsed through her body, sapping her energy, weakening her. Calm down, Bara. Before she doled out punishment, she needed to know exactly what this man did to the reef. Unlike many others of the pantheons, she would try not to prejudge.

  With the strength of the god-born, she lifted him over her shoulder, grabbed his things in her other hand and raced them to his home, her speed on land only a fraction slower than in the ocean. A snap of her fingers made quick work of the door lock, a second snap removed his wet suit. She placed him on a queen-size bed that took up most of the space in the first bedroom she found in his one story cottage. A bamboo chair that would have looked more at home on a deck and a flea market dresser nestled in opposite corners. When she looked at him, sleek muscle everywhere, tight abs and gold hair smattered across his chest sent her mind wandering off to places it had no business going. It had been a long time since she’d taken a lover—finding ways to strengthen the reefs had demanded all her time. Too many of her pantheon had given up, losing themselves in decadence or insanity as the world faded around them. That was not her way. Bara was a fighter and vowed she would once again see the reefs glitter with pink coral. She threw a faded blue comforter over his body to quell the temptation and returned to the living room to dig into the life of the man who dared to trespass on her domain.

  His love for the ocean projected throughout the room. Photos of sandbanks, sea creatures, whales and the sunset over waves covered his walls. From the sheer numbers, she guessed he had to be the photographer. And from the quality of them, an artist as well. Shells and coral that must have been collected over a lifetime covered the bookshelves that hung over the fireplace. Only one shelf held any books, all about the ocean, from textbooks to mythology. Against her will, the shrine the room made to the ocean softened her heart. She felt a small jolt to her magic—heat weaved through her bloodstream. It strengthened her, energized her. Interesting. This was not worship in the old ways, but respect for the magic was here, in this house. But how?

  She wandered into a near-empty kitchen. The cupboards held only a few protein bars, shake powder and pint glasses. Only the mug collection hanging on hooks above the sink, each with a different whale painted on white ceramic in bold colors, added some playfulness to the room. She lifted the one with a blue whale, her symbol, painted in bright fluorescents, turning it around in her hands.

  “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

  Surprised, she dropped the cup on the tiled floor. Shards flew around the room. Without thinking, she snapped. The mug was once again on the hook, whole.

  “How the hell did you do that?”

  Still shaken, she glanced at the nude man in the doorway. His eyes were deep green, like the color of kelp, his skin bronzed gold from the sun. By the gods, he was beautiful.

  He scanned her from head to toe. A shrewd intelligence shone in those eyes that seemed to take in her every detail. “Why aren’t you wearing any clothes?”

  “You ask a lot of questions.”

  “I wake up to find a gorgeous, naked stranger snooping around my house. It would be odd if I didn’t.”

  “A better question to ask would be how you got here.”

  “How I…” His brow furrowed in thought and he glanced at the paper calendar held to the refrigerator door with seashell magnets. It had the same logo as the underwater slate—Reef Runners—over the photo of an orange and blue spotted coral grouper. “I was scheduled to do a reef check today.” His gaze drifted to the dirty blender and glass in the sink. “Looks like I had breakfast.”

  “Your wetsuit’s in the bathroom and beach bags on the couch in the living room.”

  Those sexy eyes of his widened. “I did the dive.” At the couch, he rifled through his things to find the slate. “I started my observations…I remember now. You were there, at the reef. What’s going on here?” The water tablet back in the bag, he edged towards her, his gaze skating slowly up and down her body like a heated caress.

  Flames licked up her spine. Heat pooled in her core. Damn. That was unexpected.

  “Why are you so white, like the bleached coral? And your eyes, the stormy blue of the ocean? It’s as if I can see the waves in them.” He hovered over her and inhaled deeply, then did it again. “You smell like the sea.”

  “I’m of the sea.”

  His thumb ran gently over her lower lip. Her body shivered in anticipation, of what she wasn’t quite sure. “You’re cool to the touch.”

  “I can be warmed.” Where did that come from? She was supposed to be figuring out what he’d been doing at the reef, if he was a threat to her ocean. But his nearness threw her off.

  His hand cupped her cheek. His lips touched hers for a brief moment. Her cheeks went hot. “Why did you do that?”

  “I’m not sure. You’ve broken into my house. I should be throwing you out, but I’m drawn to you in ways I can’t explain. It’s like I’ve been waiting for you all my life.” His forehead creased again as if he were considering something. “Your skin, it’s a little pinker. Come, look.” He wrapped his hand around her wrist and led her to the bathroom mirror.

  Her coloring did look rosier. “Who are you that you can do this?”

  “You’re the interloper in my house. You answer that question first.”

  “I’m Bara.”

  “Well that’s helpful. Bara who? I think I need a little more to go on, don’t you?”

  Instead of answering him directly, she hunted out a book on water deities she'd noticed earlier on the bookshelf and handed it to him.

  “Of course. Silly me, you’re a water deity. I should have guessed.”

  “A wave maiden actually.” Sarcasm and doubt were somewhat common reactions to her parentage. She dipped her head towards the book. “Go ahead. Humor the crazy pale chick.”

  After he checked the index, he skimmed to a page. “Bara, one of the nine daughters of Aegir and Ran, Norse god and goddess of the seas. The wave maidens, like the Nereids of the Greek pantheon, have a reputation for kidnapping sailors to use them as lovers.” He looked up from the book. “Is that what I a
m, the afternoon’s entertainment?”

  “The idea does not displease you.” She didn’t mind it either as she eyed his erection, hard and eager, banging against those oh, so very tight, abs. It had been a long time and he looked so lickable. “But keep reading. That’s not why I’m here.”

  “Bara guards over the sea’s relationship with the land and is endowed with the gift of persistence. The endurance of the water falls to her.” He searched through a few additional pages. “That’s all of it.”

  “Hmm, that’s an old document. Several decades ago, my father tied my spirit of endurance to the coral reefs in the hope that the tighter connection with the magic of the pantheon gods would reinvigorate the reefs, and make the coral pink again.”

  “Is that why your skin has lost its color? Does the continued destruction of the reefs drain you? Bleach your spirit like the coral, instead of you reviving it?”

  “Yes.” She couldn’t stop a tear from running down her cheek. It was rare for a human to see and accept the truth of her.

  He wiped the tear away with the back of his hand. “My memory is returning. You blasted me out of the water.”

  “I thought you were destroying the reef. But now I’m not sure. What were you doing?”

  “I’m Dylan. Like you, I'm searching for pink coral. I run a global network of volunteer divers who regularly collect data on reef health around the world, and help out in any way we can. We’re called Reef Runners.”