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Chapter Three
W hen Olivia came to and saw the dead FBI agent dressed in medieval garments and looking very much alive she almost burst into tears. Had she fallen down into some sort of Wonderland, like Alice? Or was this the place everyone went to after death?
“It’s all right, Miz Gibson,” Ava Travars said in a soft voice that had a subtly twanging accent.
“Did I die, too?” she whispered.
“Nope, we’re both alive and safe.” The other woman held out an unglazed pottery cup. “Here now, have some water.”
A long-fingered male hand took it from her and brought it to Olivia’s lips. That made her aware of the warm, hard body behind and under hers. Was she still sitting on Alec McKeran’s lap? She was. Had he held her the entire time she’d been passed out? Evidently he had. The embarrassment of having imposed so much on him made her try to rise, but his arm came around her waist.
“You’re still shaking, lass,” he said, his voice stirring her hair and making a shiver run down the side of her throat. “Stay still for now, and drink.”
Olivia could do that, and sipped from the cup before she asked the woman, “How do you know my name?”
She held up her license. “Your wallet fell out of your jacket.” She handed it to her before she added, “Obviously you recognize me, but in case I’m wrong about that, I’m Ava Travars, and in our time I was an FBI agent.”
In our time. Just those three words seemed huge and ominous to Olivia.
“What time is it here?” she asked carefully.
“You’ve come to a place where time doesn’t exactly exist,” Ava said. “This is McKeran’s Castle as it was in the twelfth century.”
Suddenly Olivia saw everything that seemed strange in the room differently; the stone of the walls showed no signs of age, and the hearth had scorch marks inside indicating it was regularly used. Unlike the castle she’d entered, this place had no cobwebs, dust or debris. If it was staged from modern materials to resemble the original castle, then whoever built it was an expert on medieval construction.
“Are we in the twelfth century?” she asked Ava, hoping she’d say no.
“It’s more like we’re not in any time at all,” the FBI agent said. “Nine hundred years ago the clan and their vassals were imprisoned in a magical trap. It cuts them off from the real world and the passage of time and forces them to keep reliving the same year in a loop. We can’t escape, but no one grows old or gets sick here. The enchantment also replenishes the food and supplies we use every morning.”
“Making me entirely superfluous.” The red-haired man who had accompanied Ava came over to Olivia and crouched down to peer into her eyes. “I’m Dr. Ben Miller, also from your time.”
His name triggered a memory. “I read about you. You disappeared inside McKeran’s Castle two years ago.”
“I did,” he said, as if he were pleased that she knew him. “With your permission, Ms. Gibson, I’d like to check your hands.”
She nodded, and watched as he gently inspected her bloody fingers. “I think some of my bones were broken, but now nothing hurts.”
“That is one of the few benefits of the spell trap,” he said, rising to his feet. “Any injuries you have when you come inside are instantly healed. Both hands are fine, Ms. Gibson.” He hesitated, and then asked, “May I ask how tall you are?”
“I’m four-foot-ten.” For the first time she glanced down at her legs and saw how high her slacks had ridden up—they looked more like capris now. Yet when she reached to tug them down she didn’t recognize the long, slender arm attached to her shoulder. She also couldn’t pull down her sleeves.
“You’re a bit taller now, ma’am,” Ava said.
“Wait. What is this?” Olivia looked all over herself. “How am I like this?”
“The enchantment has healed your body of all the injuries that you suffered,” Ben said, his voice very gentle.
He knows. Tears welled up in her eyes, making it difficult to see. “Everything? Even—even the permanent damage?”
“Yes.” He glanced at Ava. “I’ll let you tell her what more she should know about this place, Agent Travars.”
Listening to what seemed like a crazy fantasy story scared Olivia even more than the way her body had changed and her fall into this strange world. She couldn’t be in a place with computer-generated images, so it had to be real—yet unreal at the same time. The intense colors and flawless textures made her wonder if she could be hallucinating. That would explain why she had suffered an instant growth spurt, too. Could she be having some sort of trauma-induced psychotic break because of that old man who had attacked her? Or could it have started before that?
If I see a bottle labeled Drink Me , I’m going to have a meltdown.
“Miz Gibson, if you’d rather wait to hear all this, I can come visit you tomorrow,” Ava said.
Olivia was tempted to agree, but she promised herself ten years ago that she would always face the truth, no matter how hard it was to hear.
“I’d rather know everything now, please,” she said.
The FBI agent used simple terms to explain where she was and what had brought her here, which added up to a basically unbelievable scenario. Olivia simply listened, but her doubts kept mounting. Did Ava really expect her to believe in the Fae and their magic? Could any enchantment be powerful enough to imprison a medieval clan and their castle outside time itself for nine hundred years?
Olivia might have had that meltdown and bolted from the room, if not for two things: the way her body had changed, and Alec.
The presence of the man who had caught her when she’d been thrown out of the sinkhole seemed to keep her anchored. Perhaps it was the solid warmth of his body, or the wonderful woodsy smell of him, but Olivia had never felt safer. It seemed ludicrous, for she knew nothing about him, but she trusted him completely. Although Alec was deaf, he must have been able to read lips, for he seemed to follow everything the FBI agent said. He also held one of Olivia’s hands the entire time. The fact that he had to be the most beautiful man alive didn’t hurt, either.
As for what had happened to her body, nothing else could explain it except what the other woman was saying. She’d simply never thought of her condition as the result of injury, but it was. Years upon years of injuries.
“I know ending up here in another dimension with a half-Fae highland clan and the medieval folks who work for them is a lot to accept.” Ava obviously knew how to handle accident victims. She also had a way of speaking that was kind as well as direct. “When I landed here I thought for sure these folks were crazy. I’ve never believed in curses, or magic. I still don’t have any answers as to how Dun Talamh ended up here as an eternal prison for the McKeran, but what happens in this place makes you a believer.”
Olivia thought of the news article she’d read about the other woman and set aside her own qualms .
“There’s something you should know, Agent Travars.” She hated being the one to deliver the bad news, but it seemed the decent thing to do. “Everyone in our time believes that you died in a car accident. Your rental was found at the base of a cliff, and you were still inside. I read about it on a local news website.”
As Olivia recounted the details from the article she’d read, Ava’s dark brows drew together.
“It’s interesting that someone would go to such lengths to fake my death, including putting a body in the car. I appreciate you for telling me. Now, are you up to answering some questions?” When Olivia nodded she asked, “Why did you visit McKeran’s Castle in our time?”
She told her about the storm that had damaged the property, and how she had come to perform an on-site survey to estimate the cost of repairs for the owner.
“I saw a sinkhole open up in the floor in front of me, and then someone pushed me into it.” Olivia looked down at the streaks of dried blood on her fingers. “After I grabbed the edge he stamped on my hands and kicked me in the face to make me fall in.”
Ava’s lips thinned. “Can you describe that man?”
It made Olivia sick to even think about him, but she tried. “He seemed pretty old, maybe in his seventies or eighties, but he was strong. He wore something like a dirty, ragged toga that he hadn’t washed in a while. He laughed at me while I was holding onto the edge of the pit, like he thought it was funny.”
Alec rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand. “Dinnae dwell on it, lass.”
The FBI agent frowned at him before she said, “Anything else about the assailant strike you as odd?”
“He smelled awful, and he had red eyes. Not blood-shot, but the irises. They were scarlet.” The moment she said that a wave of embarrassment came over her. “I could be mistaken. The passage was pretty dark, and everything happened so fast.”
The other woman nodded. “Did he say anything, Miz Gibson?”
“He said he was sending me to hell.” Olivia shuddered. “He said it was where I belong, and he also told me to enjoy myself for once. Honestly, it didn’t make any sense. The man even called me Gibs, like the people at my office do.”
“Did the man come through the sinkhole with you, or after you?” When she shook her head the FBI agent smiled at her. “All right, I think that’s enough for tonight. If you’ll come with me, I’ll show you where you can get some rest.”
“No. She stays here.” Alec gestured at the door. “Go and tell what you ken to Tasgall. ”
Ava regarded him for a long moment before leaving.
Olivia’s hand shook as she took another sip of the water. Because Alec was deaf she was reluctant to try to speak to him, although he apparently read lips. She didn’t want to climb off his lap, but she couldn’t keep treating him like her personal armchair. That and everything that had happened up to this moment seemed to weigh on her like dozens of barbells piled on her shoulders, squashing her.
Being in a twelfth-century world should have seemed exciting, but too much had changed too fast. Would this new reality crush her down until she was tiny, skinny little Olivia again?
You’re so uptight, Charles had accused her when she’d refused to go with him to Vegas. What’s the matter with you, don’t you want to have fun?
Her ex had accused her of a lot of things to distract her from his gambling problem. It had seemed minor at first, but she’d soon learned he was hopelessly addicted and couldn’t go a day without making a wager. He bet on anything from racetrack horses to football games, always convinced the next big jackpot was around the corner. When he’d been fired from his job for stealing from petty cash, Olivia had tried to talk him into getting some help, but he’d insisted he could stop any time .
I just wanted to borrow twenty dollars, Charles had whined when she’d caught him with his hand in her purse last night. I’ve got to put something on the game this weekend; it’s a sure thing. Geez, Ollie, are you really that tight-fisted?
Her ex had put her on her guard, and she really had no reason to trust these people. Yet her instincts about others had always been correct, and they were telling her that no one here would hurt her.
Alec took the cup from her, and only then did she realize she’d nearly tipped it over and spilled it.
She had suddenly grown so tired she could hardly stay awake, Olivia realized. “Sorry.”
“I’ll watch over you,” he murmured, covering her with the plaid again. “Rest now.”
He meant what he said, and while she would never have done such a thing with anyone else, Olivia rested her cheek against his shoulder and closed her eyes. She breathed in his scent, which was so much like the forest she could imagine herself sitting in a grove of mossy oaks. For a moment her imagination failed, and the terrifying blackness of the sinkhole came back, along with the terror of waiting to smash into the bottom. Then Alec put both arms around her and shifted them both so that she lay more fully atop him. His lean, muscular body should have made a very poor mattress, but Olivia had never been held while she slept.
This is what heaven must be like , she thought, and drifted off .
The next time Olivia opened her eyes she stood in front of a decrepit old barn. From the interior, the musty, pungent smell of straw and manure came out, making her nose wrinkle. Someone was in there, although she didn’t know how she knew that. She also wanted to run away, but that fear wasn’t hers. She heard someone walking up behind her, but when she turned to look she saw no one, just a long, broad shadow.
The cold patch of darkness stretched out to form another abyss, one that looked as if it were lined with jagged teeth.
In the next moment she found herself inside a towering gate in a high wall. From the design of the portcullis, it was a very old medieval structure, and yet it looked brand new. Above her an impossibly green sky, lit with sunlight and yet containing no sun, curved over everything like the dome to a snow globe. Behind her stood a castle complex the size of a small mountain, enclosed by not one but two walls, and possessing more towers than she had ever seen in her research books—twenty-one in all, she discovered after counting them. All around the outermost wall, trees rose in thousands of shades of green and brown, but they had a watery, unreal look to them that made her wonder if they had been painted.
This is Dun Talamh from the outside. How Olivia knew that, she couldn’t say. She simply knew.
Men carrying long bows lined the battlements and rooftops and tower walks, and others holding flaming torches and long spears paced atop the two walls. They wore the same clothes as Alec, but they were much larger and more muscular. Despite the body differences, their features and the way they moved reminded Olivia of the man who had saved her.
That’s because they’re his brothers, lassie. Same as me.
A towering man came to stand beside her; so tall that it made her neck crick to look up at him. He resembled a superhero without the costume, so well-built every muscle he possessed seemed perfectly developed. Over his clothes he wore a blacksmith’s heavy leather apron, and he carried in one hand a sledgehammer larger than any Olivia had ever seen at the castle experiment in France.
I hope he doesn’t intend to use that on me.
As soon as she thought that the man chuckled. Och, lassie, never would I harm a mortal.
He was speaking inside her head because his lips didn’t move. He also had a face so beautiful he couldn’t have been human, and yet he reminded her of Alec. Everything about him made her wonder if he could be one of the mythical titans from old folk stories. Despite the fact that he was so astonishing to see, Olivia immediately sensed he hadn’t come to harm or threaten her. On the contrary, he gave off a very quiet, peaceful aura that seemed reassuring.
I’m Olivia Gibson from Riley Corp. She felt a little foolish introducing herself as if they were meeting for business. You’re one of the McKeran Clan?
His gorgeous lips curved. Aye, Rory, youngest of the lot.
First Impossibly Perfect Alec, and now this herculean paragon of utter, unearthly beauty. I’m dreaming, aren’t I?
What you now see, ’tis as real as what you’ll behold when you wake, lass. Dinnae fear the changes in your body, either. How you appear now, ’twas how the Gods meant you to become.
Olivia had ended up in her dream world, which had also fixed her body. That more than anything frightened her, because she had only lived in such a place in her imagination. She had only ever been taller in her dreams, too.
Can I return to my reality someday?
Rory shook his head. You’ve been trapped here with us for all eternity.
She wondered why he sounded so sad—it wasn’t as if he knew her—but then she saw the jagged-toothed shadow stretching across the ground toward them. Taking hold of his hand, she tried to pull him away from it.
Don’t fall into the abyss, Rory.
Och, lass. I dinnae fear such. He let go of her, and then went to the very edge of the opening, where he looked down into that terrible darkness. ’Twas my home—just as the barn was his.
His?
He must tell you. Only beware, lass. Rory looked over his shoulder. ’Tis an ugliness that gnaws away at his spirit, just as she did to you in her way. If he’s to continue on, he needs your strength and courage. Aye, and your love, little wren.
Olivia opened her wet eyes to see the blurry shapes of the chair and the hearth on the other side of the room. She now lay on his ticking in the corner of the room and looked down to see a man’s arm around her waist. Everything she had experienced had been a dream, strange as it had been. Warm breath moved against her nape, and the solid vault of a man’s chest pressed against her shoulder blades. She didn’t have to look over her shoulder to know it was Alec who held her; his woodsy scent was all over her. He had taken her to his bed and was sleeping with her. Why would he do that? He’d insisted she stay with him, too. Was he near-sighted as well as deaf?
He's being nice, that’s all.
Olivia had dated while in Europe, and this wasn’t the first time she’d shared a bed with a man. The two lovers had both been university students working in France like her, and very nice but not interested in a long-term relationship. She hadn’t minded; she’d wanted to be like other girls. She’d enjoyed her time with them, especially as it helped her better understand sex. Still, neither boy had touched her heart. Why then had her face gone blazing hot now with a blush so hard she expected to see smoke rising from her skin?
You’re never going to be pretty enough to attract someone like him. Even if you’re taller now, you’re too plain, too timid. He’s like a dark prince.
Sometimes Olivia wondered what sort of person she would have become if Mae Gibson had put her up for adoption instead of raising her. She might have ended up with someone worse, certainly. But she also could have had adoptive parents who might have loved and cherished her, and raised her like other kids. Then she could have gone to school, played at the playground, had toys, and enjoyed an ordinary childhood like other girls .
Would I have looked like this? Didn’t she want me to have that, either?
“Go back to sleep, lass,” Alec said from behind her, his voice drowsy.
She closed her eyes.
A s Ava walked with Ben Miller to report to the laird she noticed how often he kept glancing back toward Alec’s chamber. His green eyes also looked troubled when he did.
“What’s up, Doc?” she asked.
“Nothing, really.” He glanced at her and sighed. “You are far too perceptive, Lady Ava.”
“And you’re never going to win at poker,” she countered. “Might as well tell me.”
“I’ve been interviewing the other outsiders who came before me,” the clan’s healer said. “I ask them basically the same questions you put to Ms. Gibson: why did they come to the castle, what lead them to the passage with the entry to the spell trap, what they saw as they crossed over, and so on. As far as I know, no one was ever attacked or forced inside by a smelly old man with blood-red eyes.”
“I’m puzzled, too, Doc. Tasgall told me no insects can survive in the trap, and since the clan was cursed, no one can die in here,” she pointed out. “Next thing you know we’re fighting off man-size caterpillars, and the murderer I was tracking burns to death while trying to get rid of me. Now Olivia is tossed in against her will. Things are changing, and fast.”
“Exactly,” Ben said, nodding. “Why now?”
“I can’t say, but there’s likely a good reason,” she said, “and it’s not to help us get out of here.”
During Ava’s time at Dun Talamh she’d ended up with more questions than answers about almost everything. They still didn’t know who had sent in the enchanted giant caterpillars that had attacked the clan and their vassals, paralyzing and cocooning them. Tasgall and his men had managed to defeat the monstrous creatures by beheading them, but it could have easily gone the other way. They’d also unhappily discovered that burning someone to ash was something that the magic of the spell trap could not fix. They were all worried about what would come next.
“Ms. Gibson is different from the rest of us, too, you know,” Ben said. “The enchantment restored her body to how it should have appeared when she matured. I’ve never seen anyone healed by the spell trap in that manner, but it might explain why I have an appendix again.”
She frowned. “Now I really don’t follow.”
“I had appendicitis during med school, and had surgery to remove it, but after I came here it grew back.” Ben patted his right side. “I still have the incision scar, but when I press on my abdomen, the organ is back in place. Ergo the trap restores anything lost to injury, or in my case, surgery. Even injuries here, if they’re bad enough, will result in scar tissue after the overnight healing.”
Ava glanced at her own knuckles, which still bore the faint scars of her father’s beatings, but no longer ached when it rained. Other than Olivia’s beautiful hair, she hadn’t noticed anything unusual about the young woman, but now recalled how oddly her clothes had fit.
“She said she was four-foot-ten, Doc, but I’d put her at more like five-six, five-seven,” she told Ben. “What would cause the enchantment to give her a sudden growth spurt?”
“I can’t say, but I can almost guarantee that Olivia has a very painful reason.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Her change in body size doesn’t worry me as much as her disturbing effect on our war master.”
“You just have a whole list today, don’t you?” she said. “What’s going on with her and that boy?”
“Do you remember how Alec reacted the first time he saw you?” he chided. “He wanted to lock you up and interrogate you. Only after you saved the laird from his weakness did Alec trust you. He was like that with me and all the outsiders, too. I thought he might throw me in the dungeons after I tried to make the first change to Dun Talamh. He’s so suspicious of everyone his behavior borders on a delusional disorder.”
“I’m fairly sure that’s the war master’s job description,” she pointed out.
“Don’t take what I said as criticism or diagnosis, please,” Ben said quickly. “Alec is very effective at keeping everyone safe. But you must have noticed how protective he was of Ms. Gibson. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s been reunited with his long-lost sweetheart.”
She recalled how Olivia had been clinging to their war master, too. “Maybe she reminds him of another girl.”
“I’d agree, except Alec avoids women like the proverbial plague. Even if our war master found a bunch of naked supermodels in a hot tub, he’d just turn and walk in the other direction.” Ben fell silent as they passed a guard, who inclined his head to Ava. Once they were out of the clansman’s earshot he said, “You know he’s not like his brothers, either, right?”
“Sure, he’s built differently. I expect that he takes more after his mama instead of his daddy,” she said, and gave him a sideways look. “From what Tas told me, Alec’s been the way he is since he joined the clan, so his whatever it is predates the curse.” She thought of Chris, her first lover, who had been killed in the line of duty, and how they had instantly hit it off. “You know, there are people who put us immediately at ease from the moment we meet them. Maybe that’s what happened with him and Olivia.”
His expression grew pained. “The scuttlebutt is that Alec’s never been involved with anyone, male or female. He’s celibate by choice, and he may even be a virgin. But when I saw him with Olivia, I got a definite romantic vibe, didn’t you?”
“A little, yes.” She wondered why Ben was so interested in Alec’s love life, or lack thereof. “You think Olivia is trouble, like Polly was?”
“No, she’s more like a mystery. She looks timid yet judging by her injuries she fought for her life. That may relate back to her childhood.” He stopped in front of the laird’s chamber and gave her a direct look. “Please don’t think I’m gossiping. Tasgall asked me to stay on top of the emotional well-being of everyone in the spell trap, especially outsiders. Alec also has a sensitive position in the clan.”
“Fair enough, Ben.” Ava knocked before she opened the doors and went inside.
As she walked over to the table where her husband sat writing his daily scroll, Ava took a moment to appreciate once more how lucky she had been to wander into this man’s enchanted world. Practically a giant compared to ordinary men, Tasgall McKeran’s heroic build and elegant features went together as oddly but assuredly as his Fae warrior-hunter father and druidess mother. Since warmer weather had arrived he had been spending more time outdoors, adding some pale gold streaks to his mane of light brown hair.
A little shiver of delight went through Ava as it did every time she looked at her husband. He was hers, and she was his. Nothing else mattered but that.
Beside him, his younger full-blood brother Darro stood frowning at a scrap of parchment in his hand. The second largest man at Dun Talamh, the senior chieftain dwarfed the laird and nearly everyone else in the clan. He also served as Tasgall’s second in command and had nearly as many responsibilities as his older brother. Thankfully Darro possessed a peacemaker’s calm, thoughtful personality, and spent much of his time mediating the squabbles among the clan, their vassals and the outsiders.
“My lady,” both men said as they looked up and smiled at her.
Ava saw the warmth of love bloom in her husband’s cool blue eyes, which still amazed her. She had never expected to open her heart to another man again after losing Chris, but somehow she and Tasgall had become two halves of the same whole. Even if they found a way to return the outsiders to their time, she had no intention of leaving him. Her life wouldn’t mean anything without him in any time.
“Fair morning, healer.” Tasgall stood and regarded Ben. “How proves our latest addition to the clan?"
“She’s healed of her injuries, but Alec won’t let go of her,” the healer said, and then added quickly, “He’s looking after her himself. They seem to have instantly bonded.”
“That doesnae sound like my war master,” the laird said. “Mayhap you should tell us more about the lady.”
“She claims to be an expert on repairs and restoration of historical structures. Evidently Renard Beaumont had her come to the castle in my time to survey storm damages,” Ava said, and related what details she had about the attacker responsible for Olivia Gibson’s abrupt arrival. “Has anything like that happened in the past?”
Tasgall shook his head. “All outsiders came here without any manner of coercion. None that I ken fell through pits in the passages.”
“From the way she described her assailant he seemed determined to assure she would cross over to us,” Ben put in. “Enough to break her fingers and perhaps her jaw as well. It was a cowardly and vicious thing to do.”
Ava nodded her agreement. “I went through the pockets of her jacket, and found her wallet, but nothing else. Alec will probably know more about her.”
“In the morning we’ll speak to our war master,” the laird said, and glanced at his senior chieftain. “Mayhap we should place more guards on the trap’s entry for now.”
“I shall warn them about the pit,” Darro said. “Do you reckon ’twill remain open until dawn, when the spell trap resets?”
“’Tisnae part of our Dun Talamh,” Tasgall said, at the same time Ava muttered, “If it’s still there, could we try to go out through the pit?”
“Maybe the guards should check.” Ben chuckled as the three of them ran from the laird’s chamber. “Or you could go and see,” he called after them.
Ava had the advantage of the longest legs, and reached the entry passage a few moments before her husband and brother-in-law. The large hole in the floor looked as if it had been burned through the stone, with dried blood from Olivia’s injured hands darkening the edge on one side.
“Still here,” she said as Tasgall and Darro joined her, and took hold of her husband’s hand. “Come on. If I can go back, you’re going with me.”
Yet before either of them could take a step, the red crystals in the stone surrounding the pit took on a white glimmer, and the hole abruptly filled itself in and vanished.
“’Tis sunrise,” Darro said, sighing the words. “The castle’s just reset, thanks to the curse.”
Ava went to the spot where the hole had been, but when she crouched down to inspect the floor she caught a whiff of something unpleasant.
“The rotten smell is back.” She sat back on her haunches. “That’s the same stench I picked up from Renard Beaumont, the owner of the property in my time. Olivia said that the man who attacked her smelled bad, too.”
“Could they be the same man?” Tasgall asked.
“If he’s human, no, but I suspect he may be something else. They may be related, too. Beaumont is young and attractive, and looks mortal, while Miz Gibson described her attacker as elderly with scarlet-red eyes.” She noticed Darro’s flinch. “Is that significant, chieftain?”
“Only ’tis the same color as the crystals that reset the trap in the night,” he said. “And the pit as it closed turned red, no’ white as all else does during the reset. ”
Tasgall gave his brother a narrow look. “Until we’ve something more than a color to connect the two, we shall continue our investigation. Ask Ben to look in on Mistress Gibson later today and assure all’s well with her.” He offered his hand to Ava. “Come, Wife. I’d break my fast with you in peace before word of the new arrival spreads.”
Oddly the laird didn’t guide her to the great hall, where the clan gathered to dine, but instead took her to their bed chamber.
“I don’t see any food in here, lover,” Ava mentioned. “Are we breaking that old fast later?”
“I’ll send for a meal once we’ve rested,” Tasgall said, putting his arms around her and walking her backward until the backs of her thighs touched the edge of their bed. “Och, you didnae make the bed, Wife.”
“The last time I did, you told me I was taking work away from Elspeth,” she reminded him as he eased her down onto her back. “Speaking of our chambermaid, she will be coming in here any minute to do that.”
“I dropped the bolt bar after we came in.” He came down on top of her, his mouth finding hers for a long, slow, hungry kiss.
Nothing could ever be as good as this, Ava thought dreamily. She knew he wanted her too much to wait until tonight to make love. As she gripped his shoulders the soft scent of their lovemaking from last night rose around them now like a whispered, unnecessary suggestion.
“You wear too many clothes,” Tasgall said as he lifted his head and brought up his hand to tug at the laces of her bodice.
“You lied to Ben and your brother,” she countered. “You could have just said we were going to nap.”
“A laird doesnae nap, my lady.” Tasgall tugged down the sides of her gown until he revealed her bare breasts. “I’ve no intention of sleeping again until I’ve loved you twice more.” He bent his head to kiss her beading nipples.
In that moment her husband looked more like Alec than he ever had. The way he watched her face as he suckled her was just as intense as the way the war master had regarded Olivia Gibson while holding her in his arms.
Alec isn’t going to be celibate much longer.