Page 26 of Highlander’s Curse (The Daughters of the Glen #8)

Twenty

C olin awoke in the dark, aware only that he was no longer in the cave. The Magic had worked, and though he sensed no immediate danger, where the Magic had taken him—or when—he had no idea.

Where or when it had taken them .

Abby lay in his arms, her legs entangled with his. Warm, soft, and invitingly naked, her skin caressed his, seriously impairing his ability to concentrate on their surroundings.

When her hand slid up his chest to his face, tenderly guiding his mouth down to meet hers, what little sense he had deserted him completely. He ran his tongue across her lower lip before dipping inside. Just as he remembered, she tasted sweet, like a marvelous mix of mint and honey.

She anchored her hand behind his neck and pressed her body against his. He tightened his arms around her, deepening the kiss, losing himself in the moment. She moaned against him, a soft mewling, needy sound that drove him wild with desire.

Rolling her to her back, he fit himself into the warm cradle between her legs, eliciting another of those little noises as she locked her ankles behind his back. He rocked against her once, twice, his need growing until he thought he might burst.

She met each of his moves with one of her own, and on the third he found his mark, inching slowly inside her tight heat.

Like coming home to a place created just for him, in this moment, he feared he’d never find its equal again in this life.

Her hips lifted, grinding against his pelvis, and he dropped his hands to those lovely hips, holding them still while he prayed he could last long enough to satisfy them both.

Slowly, very slowly, he eased himself almost all the way out before slowly sliding back in again.

By the Fates! Swiving had never felt like this before.

“Yes. Oh yes,” Abby breathed the words into his ear, urging him on with the movement of her hips against his.

“Yes. . . No !” Her hands swept from his neck to his chest, pushing against him.

“Oh my God! This is real. It’s not the dream at all.

This is actually happening. You have to stop. You have to stop this right now!”

Stop? What was this stop she spoke of?

His mind blanked and his entire body shuddered as he ceased all motion, still buried just inside her warm sheath.

“We can’t do this. We cannot be doing this! Get off me!”

Abby wiggled beneath him and he tightened his grip on her hips, pinning her to the bed below him. Much more of that from her and it would be too late to stop.

“Be still, woman,” he ordered, his breath coming in short, desperate pants. “I’ll do as you ask, but dinna you move again. Give me but a moment to collect myself.”

He rested his head against her breast, fighting to regain command of himself as he listened to her heart beat a furious tattoo under his ear.

At last, his control somewhat returned, he withdrew, rolling off her and onto his back.

Eyes closed, he concentrated on an intricate series of sword work patterns he’d learned in Wyddecol and the footwork involved in each thrust and parry.

Thrust . He groaned and tried once again to clear his mind.

“I know this place.” Abby’s voice came from just above him in a breathless whisper. “I’ve seen it a hundred times in my dreams. Where are we? How did we get here?”

When he opened his eyes, a dull gray light filtered through the room, emanating from the early morning sun shining through a crack in the wooden shutters high up on the wall. He knew the place as well.

“This is my own bedchamber.”

As soon as he could move again, he’d have to deal with all this.

Dun Ard was not where the Magic was supposed to take them, though why he should have expected the Magic to do as he wanted this time was beyond him.

His intent had been that she should be sent to the safety of her own home even as he should have found himself in the woods near Methven.

He had certainly not planned on bringing Abby back through time with him, no more than he’d planned on bedding her.

So much for his plans.

He’d feared there could be a problem when he’d realized the words she’d said aloud, but by then, it was too late. The Magic had already been invoked.

“You’ve sent us to my home, Abby. To Dun Ard.”

“As if. Don’t you even try that line on me.

I know for a fact that Dun Ard is not your home.

I was there. I went there looking for you.

Those people had never even heard of you.

” Abby sat next to him, her face determinedly turned away from him, a woolen coverlet pulled up to her chin.

“How did we get here?” she demanded again, twitching nervously at the cover.

“And what the hell did you do with my clothes?”

“What did I do?” He pushed himself up to sit, shaking his head at how wrong everything had gone. “It’s as I told you. It’s you what did the wishing, lass. You who said the words to send us here. I should be asking what you did with my clothes. Again.”

It was her words that had directed the Magic to put them here, together, so very far from where they both needed to be, but the fault was all his. He should have realized the danger and told her exactly what to say.

Rising from the bed, he made his way to the fireplace and squatted beside it. The fire had been laid at the ready as it always was. All he had to do was strike the tender and start the flames to bring some warmth to the chamber.

“Right. Like you expect me to believe I could simply wish us out of that cave? That’s about as truthful as Dun Ard being your home.”

Flames licked up over the wood and he rose to his feet, facing the bed.

“First, if you canna accept that it’s yer wishing that sent us here, then how do you explain it?

And, for the record, Dun Ard is my home.

Here. Now. In 1306, no in yer time.” Assuming the blasted Magic had at least transported them to the proper time.

He resented her implication that he’d lied about his home, though as he thought about it, he did find some satisfaction in the idea that she’d gone there in her own time searching for him. “You looked for me there, did you?”

“Wait. Let’s just back this up for a second. Did you say 1306? That’s crazy. It’s not possible.” She turned to face him, immediately dropping her eyes to her lap. “Could you please put something on? I can’t think with that ,” she waved her hand in his general direction, “when it’s like that.”

He looked down to where she’d pointed and frowned. His swollen manhood was only now beginning to return to normal.

She waited in silence as he strode to the chest at the foot of his bed and pulled out first a shirt and then a plaid, which he deftly wound around himself.

“Better?”

Abby nodded, her eyes glassy when she looked up. “What’s happening here, Colin?”

“It’s as I told you. You’ve the blood of the Fae in you and the power of their Magic at yer disposal. You saved us from that filthy Nuadian by sending us here.”

Though he could have spent the rest of his day simply watching her, he had to get moving. If the Fae had sent them to the wrong location, there was no telling what date they’d chosen. He could only pray he wasn’t too late to save his friends.

For now, he needed to find his cousin Blane, the MacKiernan laird, and his brother Caden to tell them both what had happened. He also needed to find someone to help ease Abby into life here until they could figure out how to send her home.

His stomach knotted at the thought of her leaving but he pushed the foolish emotion from his mind and walked to the door. Of course she had to leave. She should never have been here to begin with.

“What do you think you’re doing now? You’re going to leave me here? Alone?”

She’d risen from the bed when he turned, the coverlet clutched to her breasts. The look of desperation on her lovely face drew him back to her side.

He enfolded her in his embrace and she leaned into him. “Don’t leave me here, Colin. I don’t think I can wrap my head around this. I’m scared.”

With a kiss to her forehead, he pushed her away. “I’ll only be downstairs, Abby. You’ve no a need to fash yerself. Yer safe here. Climb back into bed and I’ll send my mother with clothing for you.”

“You’ll send your mother ? Oh, Lord, Colin. Your mother’s going to come in here and find me bare-ass naked in your bed? That’s just perfect. Thank you so much for making things all better for me.”

A twinge of guilt held him in place. A guilt that forced him to confront what they had done earlier, a task made all the more difficult by his own confusion.

“About what passed between us, Abby. I’m sorry for . . .” He paused, suddenly unsure of exactly what he wanted to say. It would be a lie to say he was sorry it had happened. He wasn’t. If anything, he was sorry they hadn’t finished what they’d started.

She saved him from having to finish. “Forget it. It was as much my fault as yours. I’m sorry it all went so badly and left you, you know, so uncomfortable and all.”

Yes, for that he could honestly say he was sorry as well.

Again he kissed her forehead and turned away, saying at last what was really in his thoughts. “Perhaps next time will go more smoothly, aye?”

Her strangled “Next time?” brought a smile to his lips as he closed the door behind him.