Chapter 20
Robert stretched his legs out in front of him, crossing them at the ankle as he stared into the flowing stream that ran past Isabella’s cottage. The dark ripples seemed to take on a mesmerizing life of their own as they reflected the light of the full moon.
After what felt like the longest two days of his life, he was not at all anxious to begin another night in the cottage. He needed time alone to unravel his tangled thoughts.
Time alone to face his demons.
He and Isa had made the trek back from Castle MacGahan in silence, his guilt and worry building a wall he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to scale—guilt over the secrets he kept from Isa, worry about his inability to ensure the obstinate woman’s safety.
From the moment he’d seen the burn mark on the bedchamber floor, he’d begun to suspect that his relationship with Isa was far more than either of them had bargained for.
That suspicion made his not having any control over what would happen to Isa when the Faerie Magic overtook him all the more painful.
And the Magic would overtake him. Of that he had absolutely no doubt. The daily changes in his old wound assured him of that fact.
He felt powerless for perhaps the first time in his adult life, and he hated it.
When had he so completely lost control over the direction of his life? That was easy. The moment he’d come in contact with his first Faerie.
The mark on his arm prickled, and he squeezed his eyes shut in a useless attempt to quiet his equally prickly conscience. Apparently the Fae Magic that infused his body wouldn’t allow him to wallow in self-deception.
Fine. He’d admit that the Fae weren’t entirely to blame for his current dilemma. Though he did fully expect the Faerie Magic would be the death of him, in fairness, it had also saved him. It had swept him into the future and allowed him the most amazing decade of experiences any man could imagine.
No, the problems troubling him tonight were of his own making. He had kept information from Isa. He had failed to convince her to leave this place for her own safety. He had slept with her. Willingly. Eagerly.
Then he had gone and made everything worse for the past two days by shutting her out, denying them both what little time they might actually have together.
“Great dunderheaded fool,” he muttered into the night.
“Pardon?”
Robert’s eyes flew open at the sweet sound of her voice so close. Her hair was loose, the long curls flowing around her.
“I dinna mean to interrupt yer . . . yer thinking time, but I worried when you remained out in the dark for so long.”
She held her fingers laced together at her waist, so tightly, from the looks of it, that Robert doubted she could have any circulation left in her hands.
He’d managed this night to confront some of his demons. Perhaps it was time to confront one more.
“It’s no so dark, really.” He stretched up his arm, pulling her down to sit next to him when she took his hand. “The moon lights the land like a lantern tonight.”
“I suppose.” She nodded before laying her head against his chest.
“Isa, did you ever . . .” He swallowed his nervousness and draped his arm around her, pulling her close before he tried again. “When you were a small lass, did anyone ever tell you stories? Faerie stories, perhaps?”
Her body tensed against him, but he held her tight, waiting for her response.
“Mayhap,” she said stiffly. “One or two.”
“Sitting here this night brings a story to my mind. Would you like to hear it?”
“Aye,” she whispered, seeming to relax a little. “It would please me to listen to yer telling.”
“Long, long ago, long before man ever began to record his history, Fae and Mortal lived together in a harmonious world.
For every man there was a mate. Two perfect halves, their souls destined to be together through eternity.
As one life ended, the displaced spirit would take up residence in the Fountain of Souls, waiting until its mate arrived, and then they would both return to bodies to live together again. All was as it should be.
“Then came the Great War. A battle between factions of the Fae for control of the Fountain and the power of immortality it bestowed. The foundations of life itself were shaken. Soul Pairings were ripped apart, many never to be reunited, and the world was divided between Mortal and Fae.
“Since that time, the souls that were separated—the ones that survived, that is—have sought one another, lifetime after lifetime, their misery creating disharmony in both worlds.”
Here he paused, listening to Isa’s breathing, wondering for a moment if she’d fallen asleep.
“I’ve never heard such a sad story, Robbie. Does it have a happy ending?”
She lifted her hand and laid it on his chest, and he felt his heartbeat speed up under her touch.
“For some it does. Every once in a great while, two struggling souls will find one another, repairing a tiny piece of the damage that was done, returning a sliver of harmony to both worlds.”
“That’s a lovely tale,” she breathed, turning her face toward his. “What was it about this night that brought that story to yer memory?”
He’d swear the moonlight pooled in her eyes, flowing out to set her entire body aglow—she was that beautiful to him.
“You,” he whispered. “Standing there with yer hair wisping about in the breeze. And now, with you in my arms, it’s as though the story is fact. You feel that right to me when I hold you.”
She lifted her hand again, this time to trace her fingers down his cheek, and he felt his body tremble under her touch.
He lowered his lips to hers, swearing to himself he would kiss her once and nothing more. Knowing, even as he thought it, the oath was a falsehood he had no intention of keeping.
Her hand glided to the back of his neck, her fingers tangling in his hair as she leaned into him, deepening the kiss as if she were as desperate for his touch as he was for hers.
When she pulled away from him, her rapid panting echoing his own as her fingers flew to the ties on her shift, clumsy in their haste.
The ties were of no importance to Robert.
He grasped her shoulders, guiding her to her back, shoving her skirts up as he covered her with his body. His plaid slid up as he pushed himself in between her legs and she moaned, threading her arms around his neck as she drew his head down for another kiss.
Skin to skin, her body called to him in a primal way. In the space of a heartbeat, the need he’d felt building turned to frenzy, and he drove into her heat, not stopping until he’d buried himself deep inside her welcoming folds.
He had to get hold of himself or this would be over before it had even begun.
“Sorry. Trying to . . . slow down.” He forced the words through gritted teeth, dropping his head to her shoulder.
Another of her sexy little moans and he felt his tenuous grasp on control slipping.
“Again,” she panted, tilting her pelvis and pushing against him.
The thread of reason snapped.
Grasping her hips within his hands, he withdrew and drove back into her, reveling in his power as she demanded more. Again and again, he plunged into her, until her hips bucked up and the contractions of her orgasm drew him into his own mind-numbing release.
He pushed his weight off to one side, unwilling to separate their bodies for several minutes.
When at last his breathing had returned to normal, he looked down at her smiling face, her eyes closed, and he brushed a tangled curl from her cheek, tucking it behind her ear.
“That was even better than the last time,” she murmured.
The laughter he felt building in his chest would not be denied.
With one arm under Isa’s shoulders and another under her knees, he rose to his feet and carried her back to the cottage and through the open door.
Inside, he set her on her feet, tugging his shirt off over his head as she scrambled out of her overdress and shift. His hand froze on his plaid, forgetting what his brain had ordered it to do as he took in the sight of her standing there, her curves bared for his pleasure.
“Yer the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
The words were pulled from deep inside as Isa stepped forward, pushing his hand from the waist of his plaid and unwrapping it for him.
Once again, he lifted her into his arms, ignoring the tearing burn in his side. Stopping at the bed, he stared down into her radiant face.
Her hand covered the Mark of the Guardian on his arm, and his skin felt sensitized to her touch as if all the energy in his body gathered in that one spot.
“The story you told out there, Robbie, the Faerie story? When I’m with you, I can almost believe it. And if it were to be truth? I’d wish to have you as the missing piece of myself. You and normal life to complete my soul.”
She lifted her lips to his and he lost himself in the taste of her. His ears filled with a strangely familiar humming, and for just an instant he felt as if the world around him exploded in a burst of light.
His knees weak, he lowered Isa to the bed, climbing in beside her.
Outside, on the grassy bank, he had taken her hard and fast. And though it had been a magnificent coupling, this time he intended to take it slow and easy, pleasuring her long into the night.
The Magic might well take him on the morrow, but tonight belonged to him and Isa.