“It seems we must have aged the eight months after all,” he said, running his index finger over the scar. “It does no’ even itch.” He shrugged and swung his leg over the side of the tub, wincing at the heat.
A newly formed bubble of anger burst inside her. She was glad to see he was fully healed, and she struggled to focus on that. But the loss of time enraged her so completely her jaw began to ache from her inability to let it go. What if they had gone fifty years too far and ended up at the end of their lives, their best years stolen from them?
Lachlan lowered himself all the way into the tub, causing a bit of water to slosh over the side. Running his finger across her eyebrows, he smiled sweetly at her. “Ye must no’ think of it,” he said quietly. “We are safe and together. That is something, aye?”
She forced her face to relax and bobbed over to him in the deep water. He could always tell her thoughts. “Aye,” she agreed, trying not to sound begrudging, and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling herself up next to him. Forcing the anger down, she shivered, not used to such ugliness taking over her.
Focus on the good things, she reminded herself. Like this delicious hot water and delicious hot man you’ve got.
He dunked himself under the water and shook his head like a dog when he emerged, getting drops of water all over the stained glass window she’d installed in place of a backsplash to the tub. It didn’t look out at anything, but she’d had it lit from behind and the lovely pastoral scene glowed. Before she’d renovated, the bathrooms were the worst rooms in the castle, all creaky and leaky and dismal. Now it was a soothing haven, one of her favorite places to relax at the end of each day.
“Oh, you’ll like this,” she said, reaching to turn on the jets and smiling a true smile when his eyes widened with glee as the forceful spray burbled against his shoulders and back.
“I would never leave ye, my love,” he said, sinking down, his deep blue eyes rolling back in ecstasy. “Especially now that I know what the baths are like in this time.”
She playfully punched him, her fist bouncing uselessly off his rock hard shoulder. He grabbed her hand and kissed the back of it, turning it to kiss her palm.
“I love ye,” he said, eyes serious. “I am glad to be home.”
His eyes grew darker as he took her by the hips and pulled her onto his lap. Yes, they were home. He had given up everything in his own time to make a life with her here and now. She traced her fingers over his collarbones and put her arms around his neck to kiss him.
She’d meant it to be little more than a peck, but when her lips met his, desire flamed through her tired bones, invigorating her as if she hadn’t spent the last three days on a horse or being pelted by rain, or both at the same time. His mouth made her feel renewed. For the first time since they’d returned and found out how much time they’d lost, she relaxed and her anger slowly slipped away.
He gently nipped her lower lip with his teeth, then ran his tongue along the spot as he ran his fingertips down her back, below the surface of the water to cup her bottom and pull her forward. Her senses blazed to life from his touch and she curled her body closer to him. If she were to turn and look in the mirror, she was sure her skin would be glowing with incandescent light wherever his hands had been.
His fingers slid lower, stroking the backs of her thighs. Her blood was boiling, her skin was on fire, she couldn’t get close enough to him. It was faintly alarming, as if her anger had shifted and morphed into this overpowering lust.
His tongue parted her lips and she opened her mouth, greedy for him to plunge inside. An urgent cry escaped her and Lachlan broke their kiss and smiled at her, causing her mind to go blank. There was nothing there but him.
She gripped his shoulders and drank him in, trying to get her fill of his beautiful face, his storm blue eyes so full of wanting her, the dimple that she could lose herself in, his raven black hair all wet and pushed back and curling just a bit at his shoulders.
The heat of the water and the heat of her desire pooled together at her very core and she was so full of yearning she thought her heart might stop. But if it did, she almost believed the strength of her love for him would keep her going. That his electric touch would revive her.
He blinked, breaking the spell she had fallen under. She gasped, realizing how fully she belonged to him and that she was no longer her own. She was frightened and exhilarated.
“Ye look different,” he said huskily, nuzzling her neck.
Her exposed shoulders had grown cold and he filled his big hands with water and poured it over her, causing a shiver as it ran down her back.
“Do I?” she asked, leaning closer to him, her mouth almost touching his. “How?”
He shook his head slightly, causing their noses to rub together. It made her smile.
“I canna say, exactly,” he said, leaning back to study her.
“Is it bad?” she asked with a frown as she reached up to touch her face.
He took her hands before she got them up high enough and smiled again, holding them against his chest.
“Ye are more beautiful to me than any flower,” he said and she closed her eyes, unable to stand the intensity of his gaze as it seared into her heart and soul. “More beautiful than any sunset, or precious gem.”
He shook her gently and she opened her eyes just as he claimed her mouth with his, nudging past her lips with his tongue.
Her hunger for him was as strong as if she had been torn from him, as if they had been kept apart for an endless time. She still missed him desperately even though he was right there in front of her. She grasped his shoulders and dug her fingers into his skin, trying to make the hard muscles give under her touch, force her senses to believe he was real. An ache coursed through her as she raked her nails down his chest and sides, only stopping at his stab wound. Flinching away so as not to hurt him or tear the stitches, she remembered with a fresh jolt that the stitches were gone, that time had healed him.
Where had they been for eight months? Had time really passed, or had some strange aspect of the magic she called healed him? She longed for him as if they’d been apart that long, but what had become of that lost time? A strangled sob broke from her and Lachlan pulled free from their kiss, looking at her with concern. He shook his head and took her face between his hands.
“Dinna think of it anymore,” he said.
“Do you know what I was thinking?” she asked, still dizzy from her unsettling desire for him. He was so close to her, yet she couldn’t get enough.
He shook his head roughly, not taking his eyes from hers. “No,” he said. “But I know what ye are feeling, as I feel it too. I canna get enough of ye and feel as if my heart shall burst from my chest. I fear I may hurt ye.”
Before she could answer or process what he said, he took her mouth again, tongue thrusting as he held her tight.
She pushed down against the buoyant water and straddled his thighs, clinging to him with her hands and legs and whole being. Her entire world started splitting apart in bright bursts. She held on, desperate to stay with him as he filled her.
Perfect pleasure coursed through her even as she glimpsed something on the edges of her consciousness. It was dragging her away. A memory, or a vision, perhaps of the place they’d been during the lost time. It was dark and she was alone.
“Lachlan,” she cried, feeling she would be consumed.
He took her face in his hands. “I am here, my love,” he said, barely heard above the water churning around them.
Her breath came in short, labored gasps as she struggled against her fear. He blinked slowly, keeping his gaze locked on hers, anchoring her to him as he kissed her. She leaned forward to rest her forehead against the side of his neck, feeling his pulse racing near her cheek. Peace flowed over her along with the hot water and his strong hands.
He gripped her hips and ground into her, driving every last shred of the disquieting thoughts from her mind, replacing them with the exquisite sensation
she was happy to lose herself in.
“I am frightened of verra little,” he said after they rested together for a long moment. She nodded against his neck, knowing what he meant. The intense feelings she just experienced had nearly scared her out of her wits. “I dinna think we should try to travel again soon.”
“Or ever again,” she amended.
Losing months, years, their whole lives was a new fear she had to add to the list of things she already feared about her power. And now, this weird side effect that had caused them to almost tear each other apart, and the vision … she pushed it to the back of her mind.
“I think I bit you,” she said sheepishly, as she smoothed her hand over a red mark on his shoulder.
“I didna even feel it,” he assured her.
She wanted to get out of the water, its heat no longer soothing but suffocating when mixed with her heady feelings.
Without saying a word, he stood up and got out of the tub, leaning over and plucking her out and holding her close to his chest. He snapped one of the oversized plush towels from the rack and draped it over her, then carried her to her bedroom and put her on her feet in front of the bed.
“It’s been a long day,” she said as she briskly scrubbed herself dry and got under the covers, curling up into a ball when the cold sheets touched her overly warmed skin.
When she realized what she’d said, she laughed. An eight month long day. Before she could dwell on that and wind up her whole cycle of bad feelings again, he got under the duvet with her and cuddled close behind her.
The feel of his strong body all along the length of her was like a salve to her overwrought nerves and she nestled back with a truly content sigh. She gasped at his hardness against her.
“Again?” she asked incredulously. “Already?”
He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed the back of her neck. “It’s all your modern conveniences,” he said.
“They work you up, do they?” she teased, glad they were normal again.
“Aye, there’s that,” he said, his breath tantalizingly close to her ear. “And they leave so much time free.” He ran his fingertips down her stomach and along her thighs and she pressed closer to him. “But if ye’d rather just go to sleep, I shall oblige ye.”
She reached around and took hold of him, letting him know that there would be plenty of time for sleep later.
***
“You have to tell me everything,” Piper said the next morning, as she sat and stuffed her face with fresh croissants at the big plank table.
Lachlan was out on the estate doing a surreptitious once over for anything at all untoward or that might smack of a certain eighteenth century witch. So far they had done their level best to avoid the subject, and though guilt was gnawing at her, Piper hadn’t brought it up at all to Evie. She wanted to feel at home for a minute before she submerged them in craziness, and in fact, the craziness seemed a world away right now. Maybe Lachlan wouldn’t find any evidence that Daria had returned to wreak havoc on their lives. Maybe it was all going to finally stay in the past. It seemed a long time ago, the events that to Piper, should have seemed like just a day.
“Me?” Evie said, thickly spreading butter on one of Mellie’s scrumptious scones, then frowning and wiping a good bit of it off. “You have to tell me everything that happened while you were in 1729.”
“Sorry, but having a baby trumps time travel any day,” Piper said. “I want all the details of the birth. A minute by minute account.”
“Of the whole ten hours?” Evie asked with a laugh. She got up, got her phone off the counter and flipped through it, then scooted onto the bench next to Piper. “Here, I have some video which should cure you of that.”
She pressed play and a blurry image of a sweaty Evelyn screaming her head off ran on the screen. It only took a few more howls, followed by Sam’s nervous voice begging someone off screen to do something, and she snatched the phone out of Evie’s hand and stopped the video.
“Okay, that was horrifying,” she said, looking sadly at her croissant, her appetite well and truly gone.
Evie laughed and turned to the bassinet where her tiny, adorable son Magnus was sleeping like the angel he was. “It’s pretty bad, for sure, but look at the prize I got.”
Piper’s eyes filled up with tears for the hundredth time that morning and she blinked them away. “Ugh, quit making me cry with your dang maternal bliss.”
Evie unnecessarily tucked the fluffy embroidered blanket closer around Magnus and then turned back to Piper, giving her an expectant look.
“Well, you bailed after six seconds of my ten hour labor, so I think it’s your turn to tell me what happened back there.”
Piper sighed and poured some hot tea. She and Lachlan had tentatively agreed to not share that Daria was alive and possibly in their time until they had evidence, but she didn’t like keeping something so important from her best friend. Especially when it could seriously impact Evie’s safety.
When she and Sam had been accidentally transported to 1729 after Evie touched a cursed amulet, they had been in direct contact with Daria. Evie thought she had managed to kill her before Piper did the spell to bring them back, and up until Piper and Lachlan had recently gone back and seen otherwise, they had all believed her to be dead. It was easier to keep believing it, but if she was back, they’d need to be ready for whatever evil she had in store.
Piper took a deep breath, deciding to spill everything to Evie, not able to keep such important information from her. But when she looked up from the tea kettle and saw that Evelyn had taken Magnus out of his bassinet and was now holding him close to her heart and gazing down at him like some sort of damn tear jerking greeting card, her resolve caved. With a fixed smile locked on her face, she sat back down at the table.
“How did you possibly manage to keep everyone thinking I was still alive after all this time?” she asked, sidestepping Evie’s question, and also really wanting to know.
The town was so full of well-meaning busybodies she couldn’t imagine them not prying. Just the times she’d gone to Edinburgh or London for shopping weekends had practically been cause for a news release and everyone, everywhere would demand to know where she’d stayed, where she’d eaten and what she’d bought.
Evelyn perked up at this question, successfully diverted for the moment from eighteenth century curiosity. “It was mostly due to Herb,” she said.
“My lawyer?”
“Yes. And your insane lists that you left behind,” Evie continued. “And the fact that you still use jigglypuff_timberlake as your email password. There were a few close calls, though. I had to fly to Saudi and do a video interview pretending to be you.”
“How?” Piper asked.
Evelyn was at least seven inches taller than her, a gorgeous busty redhead to Piper’s tiny dark haired pixie-like frame.
Evelyn put Magnus back in his crib and took out an old, terrible photo of Piper from her piles of notebooks and ledgers she seemed to constantly have spread out on the kitchen table. It showed her turned to the camera with a half startled look on her face.
“I held this up and then froze the screen on purpose right before the chat started. It looked really authentic, like you were having computer troubles for the whole interview. But the sound worked fine and I’ve always been able to fake your voice.”
“Oh my gosh,” Piper laughed and stuffed the awful picture back under Evie’s papers. “I forgot how good you are at voices. Remember how you broke up with all my boyfriends over the phone for me because I was always too much of a wimp?”
“Yes, of course. I still feel a little guilty about that.” Evie stopped laughing and reached across the table to take Piper’s hand. “I’m so glad you’re home.”
Evie went on to tell of how she was finally able to get her master’s degree and how glad she was that her almost four year long nightmare had ended. Even though she didn’t have a clue what she was going to do with it, she was happy she had per
severed and gotten the degree.
“You have too many irons in the fire with this estate,” Evie said after she showed Piper the accounts from while she was gone. “If it hadn’t been for Herb, I would have gone crazy trying to keep everything straight. He was really a rock this whole time.”
Piper didn’t like the overly fond way Evie spoke of her lawyer. Yes, he was a very nice guy and amazingly brilliant at his job, but she didn’t need to get all glazed eyed because of it. She was about to bring up the sticky subject of what had happened with Sam, when Mellie came in from the main house door looking harried.
“Sam’s just behind me,” she said, shaking her head and shooting an accusing look at Evie.
“Oh my God, Sam.” Evie made a face. “I completely forgot to tell him you were back! I was such a mess last night and then …”
Mellie made a judgemental grunting noise just as Sam came crashing through the door.
“Oh, Jesus, she wasn’t joking.” He dropped the blue and yellow circus elephant print bag he was holding and crushed Piper to his chest in a suffocating hug.
“Why would I joke about something like that?” Mellie huffed.
“I can’t breathe,” Piper said into his sweater, squeezing him back with all her might.
He let go and leaned back to look at her, his green eyes shiny with unshed tears and a huge grin taking over his handsome face. He shook his unruly brown curls out of his eyes and laughed.
“Where’s Lachlan?” he asked worriedly, looking around the room as if he could have missed the massive Highlander.
Piper told him he was just out looking over the estate and tried to get him to sit down, but it seemed he’d only come to take Magnus to a doctor’s appointment.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call you last night and tell you,” Evie started as he picked up the diaper bag.
Revenge (Book 3 of Lost Highlander series) Page 3