Highlander’s Curse (33 page)

“It’s the same reason they sent you here by my side when they returned me to my own time.” He moved his hand to cup her chin, his thumb feathering over her bottom lip as he continued. “We are destined to be together, you and I, my Abby. We are Soulmates. Two halves of the same whole. Only together will we be complete. I love you, Abigail. These are the words I need you to hear.”

Roderick’s advice had eaten away at him all day. Colin knew by this time tomorrow he and Abby would reach the most dangerous part of their journey. Though he’d not hesitate to give his life to save hers, he didn’t want to risk either of their lives with so much left unsaid.

He had seen his friend’s pain and recognized the truth of the things Roderick had told him. Losing forever the opportunity to share how he felt with Abby would stain even his afterlife with the unending sorrow of regret. Roderick’s advice was sound. Once heeded, it had only been a matter of gathering his own courage to act on that advice.

Now that the words he’d struggled to find all day had finally passed his lips, Colin waited, his heart pounding
in his chest. If Abby was going to reject him, it would be now.

She covered his fingers with hers, drawing them away from her face and clasping them tightly between her two hands.

“You don’t have to say things you don’t really mean to get me to sleep with you. You should know that by now. I haven’t made any secret of the fact that I’m attracted to you.”

Her voice shook even as her hands trembled against his. That she feared rejection as much as he did was clear to him now.

“What you feel is no a matter of attraction, wife. It’s the love shared by those souls meant to be together.”

As the only physical proof he could think to show her, he opened her hand, brushing his index finger over the healing wound that marred her soft palm.

“An accident with Jonathan’s knife,” she explained, her voice soft and breathless as he stroked his finger over the spot again.

“An accident I felt in my dreams because of our connection. One that called me to find you. To protect you.” He opened his hand next to hers to once again display the twin to her wound.

She caught up his hand, tracing her finger over the mark in his palm. “I’d forgotten this. You were going to tell me about it, but with everything that happened, I forgot. How can something like this be possible?”

Her beautiful eyes had rounded, whether in fear or amazement, he couldn’t be sure. He knew only that he wanted to shield her, to hold her as she came to terms with the reality of what he told her. He lifted his
hand from her grasp to caress the back of her neck and draw her down to him. Her lips were warm and eager against his.

“We are fated to be together. Together from the beginning of time until the end of time,” he whispered before losing himself in her kiss.

His mother had been right. This woman was his destiny. On some level he had known it from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her. His own foolish pride and arrogance had been the barrier that had kept him from recognizing it, from admitting it. Roderick’s pain had broken that barrier.

“Thank the Fates,” he murmured, trailing his lips down the soft skin of her throat.

She moaned as he slid his hands under the tunic. Urging the fabric up and over her head, he pinned her arms in place, outstretched. Her lightly tanned skin begged for his touch and he obliged, tracing his tongue down a pathway from her inner elbow to her shoulder and lower, to her firm, rounded breasts.

He molded his hands along her sides, down to her waist, tightening his grip to hold her close. Her heart pounded against his cheek, almost a match to his own.

“I still can’t commit to staying here with you, Colin.” She sounded breathless, as if she fought for enough air to speak the words. “I need you to understand. I think . . .” She gasped as he took her nipple into his mouth, pausing in her little speech. “I can’t believe I’m going to say this out loud. I don’t think. I know. I know I love you, too. But I can’t stay here. I have to go home. I’m not meant to live in this time.”

He slid his hand over her abdomen, enjoying the twitch of her muscles responding to his touch, caressing the soft skin down to her inner thigh and over the heat between her legs.

“Just as I must do the things I am meant to do, love. But we have now, do we no?” As Roderick had counseled, this precious moment was not to be wasted.

Though her brow furrowed, she smiled her response, her hands skimming over his chest and lower, down to his waist. Her fingers trailed into the dark hair at his navel and tracked down. When they closed around his manhood, his mind went momentarily blank, all thought erased by the ecstasy that existed in her touch, slowly undulating up and down his shaft.

“No,” he growled. He wouldn’t last long if she kept that up.

Pulling her hands away from his body, he lowered her to her back and fit himself into the warm cradle between her legs. She lifted her hips to meet his first thrust, locking her ankles behind his back.

“All the way this time, agreed?” Her soft fingers traced a path down his chest as she spoke, her eyes catching and holding his.

“Agreed.” By far the most pleasurable bargain he’d ever consented to.

He drove deep, over and over, his face buried in the crook of her neck. She gave as good as she got, urging him to continue, pressing her fingers into his skin as she arched her back and cried out in her pleasure.

Gritting his teeth, he refused to give in to his own release until he had brought her to the edge once again.
Perspiration slicked their bodies when he thrust deeply inside her heat, her little gasps of pleasure lost in their combined groans as they met their climax together.

It was like nothing he’d experienced before. Golds and silvers shot through his mind, melding together in one great shining whole before shattering and splintering in a display that he’d swear shook the ground beneath them.

It was only afterward, as he held her trembling body in his arms and they drifted on the edge of sleep, that he realized the pounding in their chests beat in unison, as if they shared but a single heart.

C
olin had awakened early, more rested than he could remember feeling in years. He’d lain there, waiting for the sun to rise, holding Abby in his arms, more content than he could remember feeling perhaps in his whole life.

He’d decided to give himself those treasured moments, like a gift a supplicant would present to his king. All too soon the sun would rise and he’d be ready to face whatever hardships this day would bring.

By the time the sun sank behind the horizon this day, they’d likely find themselves in the place that would be known one day as the King’s Field. Whether MacDougall of Lorn already waited there to ambush King Robert or whether he and his men would be arriving shortly, it was the place where Colin would attempt to take the future into his own hands.

It was also where he and Abby would face their
greatest danger, both as he attempted to ascertain the MacDougalls’ exact location and to warn his king and his kinsmen of the impending danger.

Those precious moments had flowed by swiftly, like spring runoff from the highest peaks. They had passed all too quickly, leaving him with only the sweet flavor of their memory. Even now, Abby bent to pack her folded belongings back into the bundle she’d tie behind her saddle.

“What do you think yer doing with those wee weapons, my lady? They’re to wear for yer protection, no to carry in yer bundle where they’re of no use to you.”

Abby huffed out her breath and held up one of the knives Ellie had given her for the journey. “Honestly, Colin. Look at this thing. What do you possibly see me doing with this? I’m no warrior. I don’t even know how to use it.”

“Is that so, wife?” He smiled at her disheveled appearance, remembering how it had been his touch that had brought down the neatly tied-up hair not half an hour past. “I seem to remember yer putting one no larger than that to good use in a moment of need, do I no?” Her bravery in attacking the Nuadian had impressed him more than any other woman’s.

“Fine. But I’m telling you right now, if I end up stabbing myself with one of these things, I’m going to be really pissed with you and your sister-in-law.” She tied the belt with the longer knife around her waist and shoved the smaller of the two into her bodice. “There. Happy?”

“It will do for now. I’ll be happier at this day’s end when you allow me the pleasure of retrieving that trinket from its hallowed resting place.”

He would be happier when this day had passed and he knew she’d had no need for the weapons. For now, he could but take joy at the flustered blush his words brought to her cheeks as he took her bundle from her hands and secured it to her saddle before lifting her up onto her mount.

He allowed his hand to linger on her waist for longer than necessary before trailing his fingers to her thigh.

If only there were more time.

“Wait a minute. I need your oath, Colin.” Abby fit her soft hands on either side of his face, her eyes dark with concern. “Promise me you’ll be careful no matter what happens today. Give me your sworn oath that you won’t do anything to risk your life in any way.”

He’d warned her that their journey would change this day. He hadn’t wanted to frighten her, but it was important that she be on her guard as much as he would be. The miles of empty countryside were behind them. Ahead they’d face the roaming bands of English and their toady sympathizers, the traitors who dared call themselves Scots though they rode in support of Edward.

“I’ll do everything in my power to see to yer safety and mine, this I swear to you, my love.” It would have to do. He could not swear he’d take no risks. Were Abby to be in danger, he’d offer up his life without a second thought to save hers. He had no doubt, however, that this was not what she wanted to hear, so he left those words unspoken.

His declaration seemed to satisfy her. That, or she knew him too well to press for better. Either way, she bent to kiss his forehead before taking up her reins, staring out toward the forest.

“Which way to your friends this morning?”

It was the question she’d asked him each day at the start of their journey since he’d told her how he used his gift to locate the Soul aura surrounding his kinsmen to track them. It had become something of their own private little ritual.

With one last sideways glance at Abby’s lovely profile, he closed his eyes and lowered his defenses, opening himself to the onslaught of the other world of Faerie Magic, allowing his senses to seek the visions he needed to follow this day.

Nothing.

The sheer vast emptiness hit him like a physical assault. It wasn’t simply the blank comfort of no souls nearby; this was different. This was as if there were no people left in the world for him to find.

Frantically, his mind hunted for the signature auras associated with Dair and Simeon.

Nothing. Not them, not the armies they traveled with, and no one in between.

He concentrated, blocking out everything around him, searching. Not even Flynn’s black soul showed itself to him.

His chest tightened and his heart pounded. What had happened to all of them? Either they no longer lived or. . .

He opened his eyes and stared toward Abby, searching the air around her for her now-familiar golden aura.

Nothing.

After nearly a decade of agony, now that he’d come to depend on the Faerie Queen’s horrible curse, now that he actually needed it, it was gone.

Proof positive that he’d found his Soulmate.

*     *     *

As if her nerves weren’t already shot to hell this morning after Colin’s little speech about their having reached the dangerous part of this trip, now he was sitting there like some statue, frozen in time.

“Well? Which way?”

He opened his eyes and turned his face to her, but he wasn’t really looking at her. It was as if he were looking through her, around her, but not seeing her.

“Colin?”

He blinked. Once, twice, his face crumpling into a vision of horror. Whatever had happened to him had to be hideous beyond anything they’d experienced so far for him to allow her to see so much unbridled emotion. His mask was completely shattered.