Midnight's Kiss (11 page)

“I needed the closest thing to a cold shower I could get.”

Ronnie was glad the car was holding her, because she was sure her legs would have crumpled otherwise. No words would come, not that she knew what to say in response to his admission.

“I see you were no’ expecting me to say that.”

“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “I had no idea.”

“Liar.” He chuckled and lowered himself in the water so that only his head showed. “Join me, Ronnie.”

God how she wanted to walk into that water and go right up to him and kiss him. She wanted to thread her fingers into his dark hair and stare deep into his eyes.

But the past kept her on land, kept her from taking a chance. Damn Max for ruining this.

“I don’t think I can.”

He nodded and then stood up so quickly, the water splashed around him. It wasn’t until he began to walk toward her that Ronnie found her body trembling from need, need of him.

The water kept getting lower and lower on his body with each step he took. It revealed the chiseled abs she’d come to know. It also bared his trim hips and the line of dark hair that traveled from his navel downward.

With his golden eyes locked on her and unmistakably filled with a deep, dark hunger, he looked like some mythical Highlander determined to claim her.

And God help her, but her heart beat faster because of it.

Her lips parted when the water lowered to show his thick, hard arousal and his legs corded with muscles. He kept walking straight to her.

Ronnie hated that he stopped just short of touching her. He leaned his hands against the hood on either side of her so that his lips were breaths from hers, water dripping from his body onto hers.

“I figured you for the adventurous sort,” he said as his gaze raked over her face. “What a pity.”

And then he was gone.

Ronnie blinked, angry that—once again—she’d been too timid to see what would happen if she gave in to Arran MacCarrick.

All she’d had to do was lean up and put her lips on his. He’d been waiting for it. He even told her he’d come for a cold swim because of his desire for her.

But she’d chickened out as she always did.

She expected to see him on the road or somewhere close, putting on his clothes, but he was gone. As were his clothes. It was like they just vanished.

Ronnie straightened and looked around the area. “Arran. Arran!”

No matter how many times she called, he didn’t answer and she didn’t find him. After several minutes, she gave up and got in her car.

“Damn,” she said, and slammed her hands on the steering wheel. “I’m such a coward. I want him and what he’s offering. Why can’t I take it? What’s wrong with me?”

She put her head on the wheel and simply sat there, hating herself for allowing the past to rule her. It was all because of Max, all because she’d been naïve and foolish.

Pete had warned her that what Max had done would jeopardize any future happiness. She’d laughed Pete off, but it seemed he was right.

Ronnie tried to remember the last time she’d had a date, a real date. The last time someone had asked her out had been just a few months after she broke things off with Max.

She’d declined the date, and the next several following that. Then she’d dived into work so that she hadn’t realized it had been over two years since she’d had a date of any kind.

With a sigh she lifted her head and looked at the water. What would it have been like to swim with Arran? What would it have felt like to forget about the past and give in to the attraction?

What would it have been like to kiss him?

Ronnie angrily wiped at a tear that dared to fall. Then she did as she’d always done. She gave herself that minute to wallow in guilt and regret, then she shoved it aside and looked ahead.

It was the only course she had. Look ahead. Always look ahead.

She fastened her seat belt and started the car. As she drove away, she was determined never to think of the loch and Arran walking from the water again. Never to think of the way her body reacted to his mere presence or what could have been.

CHAPTER

TEN

Arran watched Ronnie drive away. Only then did he release the breath he’d been holding. He wasn’t sure how he hadn’t hauled her against him and plundered her mouth as he’d wanted to do from the first moment he’d seen her. Several times he’d nearly come out of his hiding spot when she called his name.

She’d wanted to come into the water. It’d been there on her face. But something had stopped her. What was it?

And why did he care so damn much?

He dressed as the sizzle of her magic began to fade when her car drove away. He’d felt her magic while he was underwater, but to break the surface and see her standing there had brought all the ardor he’d worked so hard to cool back in an instant.

If he could forget the burning need long enough to talk to her about Druids, he might learn more about her. But damn if he could get his body under control. Yet, he was going to have to—and soon. He’d seen the way she’d looked at the arches. Whether it was a burial mound or something else she was uncovering, he didn’t like the feel of it.

And it seemed to be taking her. It was the way she looked at it that bothered him the most. The last thing he wanted was to confront her with being a Druid, but since he hadn’t been alone with her, he was fast losing time.

He’d had that opportunity a few minutes ago, and he’d blown it. All because of his damned cock.

His phone rang at that moment. “Shit,” he murmured, and jerked the phone out of his back pocket. Then he let loose another string of curses when he saw Saffron’s name.

“You’ve got some explaining to do,” he said by way of answering, since she’d refused to take his calls.

“Hello to you as well,” Saffron said, a smile in her voice. “I thought you might like my little trick. Many people think Ronnie is a man based on her name.”

“That’s a natural deduction. And you could’ve answered my calls before about this. Why are you really calling?”

When she didn’t immediately answer, he grew instantly alert. Saffron was a Seer. They were rare in the Druid world, so rare that she’d been kidnapped by Declan Wallace in order to use her magic.

It had been Camdyn, her husband, who released her from her imprisonment. Those were three years Saffron never spoke of.

“Saffron,” Arran said softly. “Did you have some sort of vision?”

There was a long sigh through the phone. “Yes.”

Arran squeezed his eyes closed because he knew whom the vision was about. “Ronnie.”

“Yes,” Saffron said again.

“What did you see?”

“Not nearly enough. I’m sorry. All I know is that she’s scared. Really scared, Arran. The kind of scared like I was when Camdyn found me in Declan’s dungeon.”

Arran’s gut clenched painfully. He struck a tree with his fist. “Fuck.”

“I wanted to call you first. Camdyn went to the castle to tell the others. Fallon will want to send another Warrior, and maybe that’s wise.”

“Nay,” Arran said forcefully. He didn’t want to share Ronnie with anyone. “I can do this.”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to her. It could be an accident at the site, or it could be a mugging in the city, a wreck while she’s driving. It could be anything.”

“A wreck,” he repeated, and jerked his head up to where the taillights of Ronnie’s car had disappeared. “I’ll call you back.”

Arran was running before the last word left his mouth. He didn’t hold back this time. Memphaea wanted to be released, and with the dread pounding through him, he was barely able to keep his god clamped down.

Using all his speed, Arran hurdled parked cars and boulders. He didn’t follow the road, but instead took a straight path until he saw Ronnie’s taillights.

He began to slow until he saw a car turn the curve toward her. The tire blew at that moment, causing the car to swerve in Ronnie’s lane.

“Ronnie!” Arran shouted as he pumped his legs harder to reach her.

It was going to be a head-on collision. The cars were too close to each other, and it was happening too fast.

“Turn the damn wheel, Ronnie!” Arran shouted, knowing it wouldn’t do any good since she couldn’t hear him.

But somehow, she did jerk the wheel at the last second. The car slammed into her passenger side. The squeal of tires and the smell of burnt rubber along with the crunch of metal would stay in his memory forever.

The cars were still rocking from their collision when he reached her. He threw open her door, halting his true strength so he didn’t rip it off, to find her gripping the wheel so tightly, her fingers were white.

“Ronnie?” he asked softly, hesitantly. “Ronnie, lass. I need you to look at me. Look at me,” he said louder when she didn’t move.

Her startled, fear-filled hazel eyes turned to him. “Arran?”

“Aye. Are you hurt?”

“I … I don’t know.”

He did a once-over, but didn’t see any blood besides a cut on her hand from the broken passenger window. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

Arran rushed to the other car, and after determining they were also all right, he ran back to Ronnie. She hadn’t moved. Blood ran from the cut between her two knuckles, where a small piece of glass had embedded itself in her hand.

He took her face in his hands and made her look at him again. “Ronnie, did you hit your head?”

Her eyes were a bit dazed as she tried to shake her head no, but a wince quickly stopped her.

“Damn,” Arran muttered.

He pried one of her hands from the wheel and felt how ice-cold it was. Shock. He rubbed her hand to help warm her before he gently took her other hand.

Arran carefully held her injured hand in his. “I’ve got to get the glass out.”

“Glass,” Ronnie repeated. Then she looked at her hand and nodded. “Yes. Please get it out.”

“Turn your head.”

He waited until she looked away before he looked at the glass. His fingers were too big to try to grab it without hurting her. The only option he had was to use his claws.

“Keep your eyes closed,” he warned.

A ghost of a smile pulled at her lips. “Blood doesn’t bother me.”

“Well, you looking makes me nervous, and I doona want to hurt you.”

“Okay.”

He watched as white claws extended from his fingers. Arran was just reaching for the glass when she inhaled.

“I’m glad you’re here, Arran.”

He used that second to pull the glass free and toss it away. “Me, too. It’s all over.”

“Is my car dead?”

“Nay,” he said with a chuckle, his claws now gone. “You’ll need a new window and some bodywork, but the car should continue to drive.”

It took longer than Arran liked to get information exchanged regarding the wreck. Once that was done, he cleared the passenger seat of glass and moved Ronnie over.

He was in the process of driving back to the site when his phone rang again. Somehow he wasn’t surprised to see it was Saffron.

“It’s over,” he said.

“What do you mean?” Saffron asked.

Arran glanced at Ronnie to find her eyes closed. “There was a wreck. Ronnie is all right.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Saffron said after a brief pause. “But I don’t think that’s what my vision was. Terror, Arran. True, heart-pounding
terror
.”

He clenched his jaw. The only thing that would cause Ronnie to feel any of that was the evil they’d been fighting for centuries. An evil that was now gone.

“That’s over,” he ground out.

Saffron made a sound at the back of her throat. “Is it?”

“It’s been a year.”

“I know. Let me talk to Ronnie.”

Arran held the phone out to Ronnie. “It’s Saffron,” he said when she looked at the phone.

He drove along the narrow winding roads, pretending he couldn’t hear Saffron’s voice through the phone asking how Ronnie was. Arran kept his gaze forward as he feigned not hearing the tremor in Ronnie’s voice as she responded.

The conversation ended quickly, and when Ronnie handed him the phone, he felt her hand shake. He tossed the phone into the cup holder and wrapped his fingers around hers.

He gave her a reassuring smile, and to his relief, she didn’t pull away.

“I’ve only ever been in one other accident,” she said. “It was during college, and I was driving home. I had a friend in the car with me, and we were talking as I drove through the parking lot of the university. A car suddenly backed out right into me. Very little damage, but it scared the shit out of me.”

“The unexpected always frightens. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

She looked at their clasped hands. “I suppose.”

All too soon they arrived back at the dig site. Arran got out of the car and hurried to the other side to help Ronnie. She’d already opened her door and was stepping out by the time he got to her.

Most everyone had already found their tents for the night, so there was no one to see them arrive. Arran waited until she was out before he closed the door.

He walked her back to her tent, and though he didn’t want to leave her, there was no excuse to stay. His hands itched to hold her again and make sure she was really all right. Mortal life could be extinguished so quickly, too quickly. It left him cold just thinking about it.

“Thank you. For being there.”

Arran shrugged. “You wouldna have been there had I no’ gone to the loch.”

“This wasn’t your fault.”

“Nor was it yours. Accidents happen.”

She smiled and sat on her cot. “I can’t even see where the glass was in my hand.”

“It was small.” He swallowed and glanced around. They were alone. He could ask her now about being a Druid, but the dazed looked in her eyes told him he wouldn’t get any information out of her. He’d have to wait again. “Get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Arran left before he did something crazy like take her in his arms and kiss her until they were both senseless. The fear that had rushed through him when he witnessed the wreck left him cold.

Even after knowing Ronnie was safe, he couldn’t shake the knowledge that at any time she could be taken. It could have happened that night, had she not turned the wheel.