Chapter Ten #3
Nonetheless, Jamie insisted on a thorough search.
They scoured the beach from one end to the other, searching for footprints or ridges in the sand that would indicate a ship may have been beached here.
There was nothing. The only prints were those of wading birds and the shallow depressions where seals had hauled themselves out to bask.
After the beach, they searched the hillside for signs that anyone had been here: old campfires, the remnants of food or scraps or fibers of clothing.
Nothing.
Finally, after more than an hour, Elise threw up her hands and gave a cry of exasperation. “This is useless! We’re wasting our time!”
She had been so sure she was right. She was Elise MacFinnan, spellweaver extraordinaire, wasn’t she? How could she be wrong? How could her gifts have led them so far astray?
But she could not argue with the evidence of her own eyes. Just as Jamie had said, there was no pirate base here. There was nothing here. And Elise was no closer to completing the mission Lir had brought her here for.
Jamie walked over to join her.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I’ve dragged you out here for nothing. You were right and I was wrong. There, I’ve said it.” She huffed out a breath, feeling tears of frustration welling in her eyes. “You can say I told you so if you like.”
“Why would I say that?”
“Because I’ve wasted everyone’s time! Wasted your time when you could have been back at Dun Arach doing something that might actually help rather than coming on this fool’s errand!” She blinked furiously to stop the tears from falling. She would not cry in front of him.
He stepped close. She looked away, not wanting him to see how close she was to losing it.
“Wasted?” he said softly. “No time spent in yer company could ever be called wasted.”
Surprised, she looked up at him and found him watching her with an unreadable look in his bright eyes.
“But you told me it would be a waste of time and I just wouldn’t listen!
That’s always been my problem. I jump in without thinking.
Without considering alternatives. I just see what I want and act, regardless of the consequences.
Some MacFinnan spellweaver I am! All my power was pointing me to this spot and what’s here?
Exactly nothing, that’s what! How am I supposed to help your people if I can’t even trust my own power? ”
“Listen to me,” Jamie said sharply, his voice cracking with a tone of command.
He stepped closer, so that his chest was brushing hers and she was forced to crane her head back to look up at him.
“Ye dinna give yerself enough credit, lass. If it wasnae for ye, me and all my crew would have been killed yesterday. Do ye call that nothing? I call it everything! The way ye defended my people was nothing short of miraculous.” He cupped her cheek in one of his big hands.
“Elise MacFinnan,” he breathed. “Ye are the most extraordinary woman I have ever met.”
The look in his eyes stilled any reply she could have made. His gaze burned with an intensity that sent goosebumps rippling up her arms. Heat rushed across her cheeks and suddenly she couldn’t look away.
“Jamie,” she whispered.
He silenced her by bending his head and kissing her.
For a fraction of an instant she stood rigid, stunned. Then all restraint snapped. With a soft moan, she wrapped her arms around his neck, pushed herself against him, and kissed him back. She had wanted this from the moment she’d met him.
It was not a gentle kiss. Elise felt like a dam inside her had broken. All the desire she’d been holding back came crashing through. She wanted this man. She’d always wanted him. And so she kissed him desperately, hungrily, her eyes sliding closed as she surrendered to it.
Jamie responded in kind. If a dam had broken inside her, it was only a match for the one that had broken in him.
A growl rumbled through his chest so deep she could feel its vibration and his lips crashed against hers with a fierceness that sent all her thoughts scattering.
His big hands slid down her back to her buttocks and pressed her hard against him.
His tongue forced her lips apart, slipped inside, and Elise was only too glad to welcome him in. This was what she wanted. This was why she’d really come to this time. For this man whose presence filled her up like spring sunshine and whose absence felt like the darkest winter’s night.
She could stay in this moment forever.
But too soon, Jamie broke the kiss and laid his forehead against hers. He was breathing heavily and his normally bright eyes were dark with desire. His hands came to rest possessively on her waist as he struggled to master himself.
“My God, Elise,” he said softly. “Ye are…ye are…” He closed his eyes and a shudder went through him. When he opened them again, the desire in his gaze had dimmed. A little.
“We should be getting back,” he breathed.
Reluctantly, Elise nodded. “I suppose we should.”
But neither of them moved. Elise let her eyes slide closed, savoring the closeness between them—the feel of his forehead against hers, his breath against her skin, his hair tickling the sides of her face.
Yet slowly, grudgingly, Jamie stepped back, opening a gap between them. It wasn’t large, maybe a few inches, but Elise hated it nonetheless. He took one of her hands in his big one, raised it to his lips, and kissed it.
“Elise.”
There were a thousand implications in that word, a thousand unspoken promises.
Oh heck. This was no good. If they stayed here another minute, she would begin tearing his clothes off right here on the beach and they both knew where that would lead.
Not that she didn’t want it to lead there, of course.
Right now, with her nerves aflame and her limbs trembling, she wanted that more than anything.
Wanted him more than anything. But this was not the time or place.
So, with a supreme effort, she took another step back, increased the distance between them.
He still had hold of her hand. In fact, his grip increased like he didn’t ever want to let her go.
“I thought you wanted to get back to the keep,” she said.
He stared at her as though trying to fix every detail of her into his memory. His lips parted and a long, slow breath escaped him. Only then did he release her hand.
“Aye,” he said, breathing out slowly. “Let’s go.”
Side by side, arms brushing, they climbed the hill to where they’d left the horses.
Jamie didn’t speak and Elise was content with the silence.
She kept glancing at him and every time she did she found him looking back at her as if he couldn’t get enough of her.
She felt an idiotic smile breaking out across her face.
God dammit. She felt like a giddy teenager.
They reached the horses, mounted up, and began the trek home. And Elise would be perfectly happy if the journey took all day.