Chapter 9
“Where do ye come from?” Ian asked as he assisted her from the horse.
They’d decided to take a walk along Loch Ness to stretch their legs. Fingers intertwined, they rubbed each other’s hands as they spoke, looking like a love-struck couple.
“Ah, so that is your accent. I have never met anyone from the colonies before.”
“What year is it now?”
He gazed at her as she examined the grounds. “1647.”
She turned, her eyes sparkling, a broad smile covering her lips. “My favorite time period.”
“Ye studied me time?”
“Yes. Scotland and the Highlands are both my passion and my work. I studied your lands, your time, your way of life, the people, and your language. All of it is so fascinating to me.”
“I’d like to know more of your time.”
Natalie laughed, leading his hand to her lips. “It is much different.”
She started explaining cars, ovens, air conditioning, and toothbrushes. Not only were the words completely foreign and confusing, but Ian was astonished at their uses. None of it made sense. “And Donell wanted to live this way?”
Natalie stopped walking, turning to face him, her little body pressing fully against him. The look of contentment on her face was heavenly. Her amber eyes filled with emotion. “It’s because he loves her, Ian. When two people are in love, they will endure and learn new things for the other.”
Raw emotion snaked its way around Ian’s mind and body, consuming him.
He recognized what he was feeling. He’d never before sensed it with any other woman.
The need to hold her and never let go racked through him.
He was in love. Amazing how swiftly and violently it happened.
Just one day. Gazing deep into her eyes, his own emotions were reflected in their depths.
“We are in love,” he stated, his brows rising as he came to the realization.
“Yes,” she whispered, biting her lip.
Ian was in awe at how overpowering his affection for Natalie was.
He leaned in, brushing his lips against hers, breathing in her feminine scent.
Eagerly, she kissed him back, rubbing her tongue provocatively against his.
Growling deep in his throat, he heightened the kiss, his mouth slanting over hers again and again.
His hands held her face, caressing her smooth cheeks with the pads of his thumbs.
The world around him cascaded into a cloud of intense lust and love.
Lifting her into the air, Natalie wrapped her legs around his waist. The heat of her seeped through the fabric of their clothing. All he wanted to do was rush her back to the keep, up to his chamber, and take her there on the chamber floor.
“Oh, Ian,” she moaned, kissing him all over his face, nipping at the sensitive skin on his neck. “I want you, now.”
Her demand set a fire to his ardor. He wouldn’t be able to make it back to the keep. Sweeping his cloak from his back, he spread it on the frozen ground. Lying her down, their fingers fought furiously to shove their plaids out of the way. Thank God for tartans...
Finding her slick opening, Ian maneuvered his throbbing shaft into position and then plunged inside.
The warm velvet of her core drew him in deeper.
They made frenzied love, nipping and sucking on each other’s skin, their moans surrounding the wilderness.
Natalie’s hips met each thrust with a keen tempo until he savored the fiery vibrations as her release rocked her body.
Ian smiled as he stared at her sated and glassy eyes. “I want to take ye another way—”
“As you wish.” Her voice was throaty with desire as she repeated his words.
Drawing away from her, the cold air didn’t faze his overheated body.
“How would you like it?” Natalie’s gaze was wicked and alluring.
“On your hands and knees,” he said gruffly.
A tantalizing smile covered her face as she rolled over and lifted her luscious ass toward him.
Oh, how he’d enjoyed this position the last time…
Ian slid his hand along her tender flesh and grasped her hips.
He entered her slowly, his body coming over hers.
He kissed her neck. She pressed her hips back against him.
“Harder,” she moaned.
He needed no further demands from her, and his hands found her hips, drawing her close until there was no space left between them. The world fell away until all that remained was the wild rhythm of their hearts, beating in time, and their names murmured on each other’s lips in exquisite release.
He held her close, the warmth of her body seeping into his own until he couldn’t tell if the trembling was from cold or from everything he hadn’t meant to feel. As they lay in the grass, completely sated from their heady romp, Natalie turned to Ian.
“Can we take a walk and talk?”
Ian nodded, and they dressed slowly. The seriousness of her request tied up his tongue.
The loch stretched before him, silver and still, the sky streaked with gray and gold as if heaven itself mourned the coming loss.
Wind off the water carried the bite of winter, rippling through the reeds and snapping at the edge of Natalie’s cloak.
She stood near the shore, small against the vastness, her hair whipped wild by the gusts.
Ian’s boots crunched through the frost as he approached. He wanted to reach for her, to pull her back against him and pretend the world beyond the mountains didn’t exist. But he stopped a few paces away, hands fisting at his sides. “Tell me, lass.”
“I can’t stay,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “Every part of me wants to but…”
“So it’s decided then?” he asked. His voice sounded steadier than he felt.
She didn’t turn. “I have to go back, Ian. I can’t just vanish. My parents… my friends…” Her words faltered, carried off by the wind. “They’ll think I’m dead.”
Her admission hit him like a punch to the gut, and with it a wave of disappointment followed.
His brother Donell had found happiness and love through magic.
Ian had sworn never to believe in either.
Yet, with this strange, golden-haired woman in his bed, even disbelief began to sound like a lie.
And now that it was about to end, he knew it for the truth.
He closed his eyes for a moment, drawing in the clean, cold air.
When he spoke again, the ache slipped through despite him. “And yet your heart is here.”
At that, she faced him. The look in her eyes nearly broke him—love and pain tangled together. “Yes,” she whispered. “That’s what makes it so hard.”
He stepped forward until the space between them was gone.
Lifting his hands, he cupped her face, his thumbs tracing the soft line of her jaw.
The thought of her fading from this world made his chest tighten like a vise.
“Then go,” he said quietly. “Set your world to rights. But know this, there will always be a place for ye here. For as long as I draw breath.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “What if it doesn’t work again? What if I can’t find my way back?”
“Then I’ll come for ye,” he told her. It was not a boast, not a promise of magic, simply the truth. He’d move hell and earth if he had to. “Across time, across death itself if I must.”
A laugh escaped her, thin and trembling. “You’re infuriating.”
He leaned close until their foreheads touched, her breath mingling with his. “Aye,” he murmured. “But ye love me for it.”
She gave a slight, helpless nod. The wind surged around them, whipping her cloak like wings, carrying the scent of heather and peat and something bright he’d come to think of as hers. For a heartbeat, the world held still—the loch, the hills, even the pulse of his own heart.
Then she kissed him.
He met her halfway, his hands sliding to her waist, memorizing the feel of her. The kiss was soft but desperate, filled with everything they couldn’t say aloud. When she drew back, his vision blurred.
“Until we meet again, my love.”
The air shimmered, bending like heat on stone. Light flared, wind roared, and before he could reach for her again, she was gone.
The loch fell silent, and Ian stood alone, the cold gnawing through his boots, the echo of her kiss still warm on his lips.
He looked down at the empty space where she had stood and whispered, “I’ll find ye, lass. Even if I have to chase the sun through time itself.”