by LAURA HARNER
She tried to turn in his arms but he tightened his grip and deepened the kiss, his tongue dancing with hers, and she tasted the sweetness, felt the heat. He held her close against his body, pressing his hard shaft against her backside, dominating her with his size. She responded by pressing her hips back and it was his turn to moan into her mouth.
The kiss took on a life of its own; he stole her breath one moment and returned it the next. She thrust her tongue deep into his mouth and reached her arms around his neck, pulling him even further into the inferno of their kiss.
He slid his hands under her shirt and traced a pattern over her flat stomach. She savored the feel of his rough hand against her skin. Silk and sandpaper, he roughened her edges, she smoothed his. They were destined to mark each other forever.
His words had touched a secret place within her soul, igniting a primordial fire, repairing another chink in their bond. When he said words like that, Elena felt the power of them at the very core of her being. She felt filled with hope for the future, cloaked in a sense of destiny, her earlier despair vanquished through the power of their love.
His light touch raised goose bumps on her flesh and she shivered under the heat of his kisses and the lightness of his touch. Never had he kissed her like this, with such demanding possessiveness, with such molten heat. Her knees felt wobbly, yet he wouldn’t let her turn to face him, wouldn’t even let her suggest they go elsewhere. He was keeping her right where he wanted her.
He kissed her to the very depths of her soul, as though making up for their lost time, sealing their fate for eternity, proclaiming her as his. She wanted him to claim her, she realized, as she reached back to put her arms around his neck to pull him closer. Threading her fingers into his hair, lightly scraping his scalp with her nails, she pulled his hair loose from its customary thong and it spilled around her, curtaining her in waves of russet silk.
She pulled his head down, sealing their kiss even tighter. She found his tongue with hers and drew it into her mouth, thinking of what she would do to him once he let her go. She felt her knees weaken, threatening to give way completely when he pushed his hard cock against her. He began a gentle thrusting rhythm with his hips, and she pushed back, resenting the clothes that separated them.
He pushed his knee between hers, forcing her to move her feet wider apart, and the hand that had been holding her chin moved to her breast. Oh yes. He pinched and rolled a nipple, then his other hand reached the vee of her thighs and palmed her mons, pressing the seam of her jeans against her clitoris. Her orgasm was explosive. Her legs collapsed completely, and in this position she was helpless to do anything but experience the pleasure he gave her, just as he intended.
He took all her weight, and continued to move his hands, wrenching wave after wave of pleasure from her, swallowing her moans, making throaty growls of his own.
Faolan swept Elena into his arms and turned toward their bedroom. As they entered the hallway, a knock on the back door startled them. Then without pause, the door flew opened, and a very familiar voice cried out.
“Faolan, Elena, you’re home!”
****
It seemed like hours later, they were all seated at the kitchen table, and stories had been exchanged bringing everyone up to date on each other’s adventures. Lilly had served tea and scones while they sat at the big kitchen table. The brother cats, Rascal and Shadow, had reunited in an impressive show of raised fur and hisses, before sauntering off together, tails straight in the air.
Faolan looked at Elena and saw her lips were still swollen from his kisses, and he longed to pick her up and carry her off to their bed, manners be damned. When Lilly had burst through the door, followed more slowly by Red, Faolan nearly groaned aloud with frustration. He’d stolen a glance at Elena’s face and saw she hadn’t yet grasped the fact they’d been interrupted. Eyes closed, lips parted, and lightly panting, she was still experiencing residual shudders from her orgasm.
He gave her a little shake in his arms and returned Red and Lilly’s greeting before setting her on back on her feet. He held on to her while she came out of her sex-induced stupor enough that she was able to support most of her own weight. Keeping his arm around her waist, he’d led her toward the kitchen so everyone could talk.
Red, tall, thin, with a graying crop of short red hair must have noticed the look on Elena and Faolan’s faces, for he suggested they come back a little later.
“Oh nonsense, Red,” Lilly had overridden his suggestion. “‘Tis plain to see they are happy to see us.”
Truth be told, other than the timing of their arrival, he was happy to see them. With Red and Lilly living back in their flat, he and Elena back at the farm, everything felt right for the first time in a very long while.
****
As they neared Inverness, Lissa felt the tension between them start to rise again, and she knew the cause of their discord. He wanted to drive straight through to the Gailtry Farm; she wanted to stay in Inverness for the night. It was late, she was hungry, and there was no telling what they would find when they got there. It quite likely was a ruin, long since abandoned, another crumbled pile of stone on the Scottish countryside. Even if someone lived there, who knew what type of reception they’d receive.
The other concern was Gabhran’s physical condition. They had stayed up late talking the previous night, and this morning it had taken Lissa quite a while to pack suitcases and load his SUV. Gabhran simply did not have the strength to carry anything; he was still shaky on his feet from his injuries. Unfortunately, he’d had to drive as Lissa had not learned during her time in Louisiana.
His face was pinched and gray, even in the dim lights of the dashboard and Lissa knew he was at the end of his capacity for any further adventure. She started to appeal to his common sense, when he spoke first.
“Nay, lass, doona say anything. You are right, I am in no shape to go farther. We will stop for the night and reevaluate in the morning. Can you get by with room service?” he asked, as they pulled into the large hotel drive. “I fear I canna help with much tonight.”
“Gav, go inside and sit. I will register us, the bellman can take our things up and park the car.” By the time she had arranged for a suite and finally gotten Gav to the room, he was leaning on her heavily and shaking. She took him straight to his bed and helped him to sit. She got his medication and removed his shirt. The good news was they were stopped for the night, they were safe, and they were together. The bad news was, his wounds were tender and hot. She gave him two each of his antibiotic and pain tablets, and by the time she finished cleaning and dressing his wounds, Gav was sound asleep.
There was so much to tell him, so many details he didn’t know yet. It broke her heart to think of telling him his brother had been lost at sea. He needed to be stronger first. She still didn’t believe deep in her heart that Alex was dead. Lissa closed the door to his room, and took care of her own needs, with food and a shower, before going to her own room and falling into a deep and dreamless slumber.
It took two days before Gav was able to function normally. His fever was gone, the wounds were a healthier pink, and his eyes had lost that sunken look they’d had when they checked in to the hotel. He still looked pale and his hands held a slight tremor as he drank his coffee, but Lissa knew he wouldn’t accept waiting another day.
The car was finally loaded and they were on the way to the Gailtry Farm, less than an hour away.
“What do you think we’ll find?” Lissa asked for what seemed like the hundredth time.
Gav smiled. “You did some good research yesterday, lass. We know the title is registered to a woman named Elena MacGailtry, but she is probably some ancient relative of the Gailtry clan. Perhaps she can tell us what became of the books and artifacts. I doona know if she will talk to us at first, so we will need to stay in Fairth or return here tonight. I doubt we will find much, but ‘tis the only place I can think of for the moment to start looking for answers.
“You know �
��tis strange to have such partial memories,” he continued. “I know deep down that the things you tell me are true. I remember some bits of them. I remember that I attended Druid training. For the life of me though, I canna remember anything about my training. Do you think those memories will come back? I think we need them to help us figure this out.”
“Aye, Gav, I believe you will remember. I have to believe you will.” She placed her hands on her stomach.
His look was stricken. “Och, lass, I have paid scant attention to you since we—” He stopped, as if to search for the right word, but gave up after a moment. “What did we do? Did we arrive? Anyway, I apologize. How are you feeling? Has a doctor checked you and the baby?”
“Nay, Gav, I was pregnant at the Lachlan Castle, I had yet to see the midwife.”
The doctor in him took over, and he peppered her with questions, determining she was twenty-four weeks into her pregnancy. He wondered aloud if he still had access to his medical offices and the ultrasound machine.
“You are too thin. We must get you started on some vitamins and a healthy diet, today. And you need more rest. That is my niece or nephew you’re carrying, after all.” Gav reached over to cover her hand with one of his. “Lass, did Alex know you were pregnant?”
“No,” she answered looking out the window at the heather fields stretching over the gently rolling landscape.
He turned his head sharply to look at her. “What is it lass? What aren’t you telling me?”
*
Lissa sighed. She’d known this moment was coming, but it still wasn’t going to be easy. “Alex went to serve the king, sailing south to seek support for Scotland’s independence. His ship was lost at sea. ‘Twas assumed he was killed along with the crew. You were…are the Laird now…uhm…then…in Alex’s absence.”
Gav stared at the road ahead and silence filled the SUV. His brow furrowed and he pursed his lips. Then with a small shake of his head, he said, “I canna feel him. I suppose that’s not surprising since I didna even know I had a brother. Do you believe he’s gone, Lissa?” he asked, his voice gentle.
Her voice choked with tears and her brogue was nearly as thick as Gav’s when she answered. “Nay, I would know in my heart. I doona know what happened yet, Gav. But no, he is somewhere. We just have to find him.”
“I believe you,” he said quietly. “We will find him.” They had arrived at the Gailtry Farm.
They parked and Gav hurried to help Lissa out. He looked around and she wondered if he was seeing the stone farmhouse, the rundown barn, the rolling hills that seemed to stretch forever. Or did he see something from his buried past? “Everything feels familiar, even the ground seems to hum under my feet. I canna remember any of these buildings, yet I feel connected.”
He took a step toward the north end of the barn, but Lissa’s hand on his arm stilled him. Dragging his attention back to the house, and still holding Lissa’s arm, he led her to the back door, which began to open slowly at their approach.
Chapter Thirty-five
Randi was examining the hearth in the library or study or whatever you called this room in the fourteenth century. She’d finally found out the date. Apparently she and Gabhran had traveled back so that their arrival was the day after Beltane. Meaning according to this reality, their wedding anniversary would be May first, technically before the date she gave him her virginity. She vowed not to let Gabhran escape that memory.
Alex walked into the room dressed in his Chieftain’s plaid, a billowy white linen shirt, and soft leather shoes. His beard was freshly trimmed into a goatee and he’d plaited the hair at his temples, then pulled all of his hair back and restrained it in a leather sheath. His face was pale beneath his golden complexion, black eyes dull, and deeply shadowed. He glanced at her, but his gaze held no real curiosity.
She’d not seen him for nearly two days, not since he’d told her his tale, and then abruptly walked away, unwilling to talk further, seeking solitude in his grief. She’d asked the staff where he was and been told he’d taken his horse and gone riding, and wouldn’t return that day. When she’d asked about Ian, she was told he’d returned to his home.
When she’d last seen Alex, Randi had been watching and listening to him carefully. He believed Lissa hadn’t survived the time travel. He grieved for the loss of his baby, of his never-to-be wife, of what could have been. He mourned the brother he knew to be safe but forever out of his time. He truly believed that none of them would ever be together again, and his heart had seemingly shattered into a million tiny pieces, right in front of her.
Yet he would not let her comfort him, preferring instead to storm out the door and remain alone, as he had lived much of his life, bearing his burdens in private.
Randi had been thinking about the situation for hours, in fact, ever since he had left, interspersing knowledge and conjecture, and liberally sprinkled with hope. Something about all of this didn’t make sense. Okay, almost nothing about this makes sense in context of the world I knew either a few weeks ago or seven hundred years in the future, depending on how you counted.
Seriously though, once you decide everything unbelievable is real, something about it still doesn't make sense. Why would Alex think Lissa would be harmed by traveling through time with Gabhran? After all, it's clear Gabhran had traveled several times, and I traveled without losing so much as a single memory. What part of the story am I missing?
Now that he was back and in the same room with her, Randi stopped fussing with the hearth and went to Alex, sat beside him on the couch, and took his big hand in hers.
“Alex, I’m sorry, more sorry than I can say. For the way we met, for the things I did. I truly do not even know how you came to be on the floor, I can’t believe it was something I did, but if somehow I had something to do with it, please know how sorry I am. The time for us to put away our suspicions and differences is here, though. We must work together to resolve this situation. You must be with Alysone and I must be with Gabhran.”
Putting his other hand on top of hers, Alex patted it, sighing. “Miranda, I know you want to have hope, but we must come to face facts. There is no easy way to say this. Gav and Alysone are lost to us. Forever.”
The tears welled in his eyes. “We will go on here, and I will celebrate you as my sister, and care for you and your wee bairn. I will keep you safe, and together we will be a family. Someday should your child be a boy, he will be Laird of the Lachlan, and I will see to his training. Och, lass, ‘tis easy to see why Gav must have loved you so. You are a strong woman, and will be a fine mother to my niece or nephew.”
Randi felt her own tears fill her eyes and spill. What a dear man. In his grief, he sought to give her comfort, to reassure her. Even though this wasn’t her time, he would care for her and her child, see to it they were protected. She was sure it was all unnecessary, and she needed to prove it to Alexander.
“Alex, I don’t believe they are lost to us. We must discuss this further, I have some ideas.” As he started to interrupt her, Randi talked over him, and continued with her thoughts of the last two days.
“You say it was you that pulled Gabhran through time, yet you seemed surprised that he moved this last time, and you were definitely surprised Lissa moved. Could they have moved when you were drugged on that island? Could the drugs and torture have broken whatever spell you had placed on them, and they moved inadvertently?”
Alex pulled his hands from hers and started to run them through his hair, stopping the gesture when the plaits made it impossible. He dropped his head in his hands. “Aye, it seemed from your story, the spell around Gav must have weakened for him to remember so much about past realities. He was in the correct era, I would not have returned him here.
“I told you I moved Lissa to another place in this time, I did not pull her memories other than to have her placed with a good family as governess, so I would know she was safe from me and my desire for her. I broke a vow to use the spell on her,” he added under his breath, s
o low Randi could barely hear him.
“The spell is only supposed to be used on Druids, and even then only on those of strong magick. ‘Tis of great danger to those pulled to a new reality. The magick of the spell can go wrong, and the person can be lost in the ether that surrounds time. Or the physical person moves, but their memories remain in the ether. Druids with deep magick of their own can tolerate such an event, but those such as my Alysone canna. ‘Tis how I know for certain she is lost.” His voice broke on the last word.
“Alex, look at me,” Randi insisted quietly. When he finally raised his eyes, she continued, “When Gabhran and I were together in New Orleans, he told me that he would wake in his new realities, and it was as though another story had been woven for him, that he would be in a new place and time, yet all of those around him believed he had always been there. No one thought it out of place, including him.
“He remembered, though, the last couple of times he moved, there had been papers or things in the house where he woke that identified him. Is that part of the spell?”
“Nay,” Alex said, looking startled. “The spell is sufficient to seamlessly fold memories around him.”
“That’s how it was when we returned here. Everyone believed he and I had been married the previous day, that he had been here all along, there was nothing strange about me just popping in. If the spell had worked on me, my memories should have fit in with everyone else’s.
“Instead, I remembered everything about the other reality. I knew we had been pulled back, I knew those other memories were false. The spell actually only acted on Gabhran, and because I was touching him at the time, I was pulled along too, made a part of the new reality. The spell didn’t act on me because I wasn’t a part of it, so my memories were never affected.