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Did she need to think something specific to go back to him?

“To dissolve into skies. To save him who dies.”

The vertigo seized her again, and this time didn't let go, propelling a dull
 
click-click
 
in her head, spinning, spinning.

The flames at her back felt suddenly cold, her lungs breathing the smoke of dry ice, not fire.

Haley was chilled, her  body bloodless and insubstantial, and her heart fluttered lighter and lighter, until she thought it a hummingbird set to flit from her body.

God help me.

“Take her. Take her. Take her.”

* * *

The humming stopped, and she sagged abruptly.

She felt sapped, saddened. She was steeped in heightened emotion, felt thick with it.
 
Didn't it work?

The whirling in her head subsided and she struggled, her eyelids fluttering.

She felt hands holding her. Warm hands.

Rollo
? Had she collapsed?

Haley shuddered a de ep inhale. Managed to give her head a shake. Opened her eyes.

She stood before MacColla, her chin in his hands. “This is farewell,
 
leannan
,” he told her. “Do you not have a kiss for me?”

Haley shrieked.

Chapter Thirty-Three

She leapt up and into MacColla's arms, wrapping her legs around his waist, clawing her hands in his hair. She felt thick black hanks of it tug tight at his scalp, but she didn't

care.

She had her MacColla back.

Haley kissed him deeply, opening her mouth wide to him, her tongue delving deep, savoring him.

She pulled away. “Laces,” she said frantically, reaching behind her back to undo the bodice of her dress. “Help me.  The laces.”

MacColla laughed. “Oh,
 
leannan
.” He put her down and spun her, tugging hard at the ties. She felt cool air hit her shoulders, then her back, as he pulled the gown down hard. “Had I known what a simple request would do”  - he nibbled and licked along the line of her shoulders  - “I'd have been asking you more politely from the start.”

“Quiet,” she commande d, turning to face him. “Just kiss

me.”

“Aye,” he said huskily. His good humor was gone, leaving  his eyes hungry, hooded. He took her mouth roughly with  his.

Wrapping an arm around her waist, he whisked her backward. They stumbled over the long musket he 'd given

her, abruptly parting their kiss. “Careful,” he said quickly,

holding her from falling.

“Right.” She glanced down and back up again. “My trusty

musket,” she said sarcastically.

He looked at her a moment, brows furrowed in amusement and confusion . “Och, woman, 'tis time for you to quiet yourself and kiss
 
me
!”

MacColla seized her mouth once more. He shuffled them

briskly backward, pushing her hard against the wall.

The stone was cold and rough on her naked back, and she welcomed the reminder that she was alive. That
 
he
 
was

alive.

Haley tugged at his clothes, his belt and empty shoulder scabbard fell with a clatter to the ground, followed by the heavy sound of his plaid cascading to the floor.

He pushed the gown from her hips and their clothing was a tangle at their feet. Frustrated, she kicked wildly at all the layers of fabric, eliciting a husky laugh from MacColla.

“Easy.” he muttered, squatting down to sweep the pile

away.

“Don't easy
 
me
!” she snapped. “You have no idea.”

“Hm?”
 
He began to  stand again, but when she tangled her  fingers roughly in his hair, he squatted again, kneeling  before her, a husky laugh in his throat.

MacColla slid his large hands around the backs of her thighs and gave a squeeze.

“Oh… ” she gasped.

“Nach tu a tha bòidheach,”
 
he murmured. “You're so

beautiful,
 
mo leannan
!”

Haley looked down, and the sight of him, staring up at her with such pure want in his eyes, sent a shock of desire through her core. She felt herself grow wet, expansive.

“You're alive,” she whispered.

She began to tremble as MacColla turned his focus to her body. His mouth hovered just above her skin, just almost kissing her.
 
“Cho maiseach ris a' ghrèin”
 
His breath was hot on her belly, her thighs.

Beauty like the sun.

She shivered, feeling those rough palms caressing her legs, stroking around to cup her ass, up her back.

“Your hands,” she whispered. His fingers spanned her, so

long and strong. “I missed your hands.”

He brought both palms to rest on her stomach. His thumbs edged down, rubbing  along the inside of her legs, tracing the vee of her thighs.

Her knees buckled, and with a rasp of a laugh, he moved quickly to catch her, leaning his body in close to hold her up against the wall. Weak, Haley rested her hands on his shoulders, giving him more of her weight.

“You're alive,” she murmured.

MacColla began nuzzling her, tracing his tongue along her legs and belly, nipping gently with his lips, teasing closer and closer to her cleft.

One hand held her hips firmly, the other glided up, findin g her breast and kneading it. He chafed his open palm over her nipple and she drew in her breath, feeling the tender skin pulling tight. He pinched her, rolled her between his fingers.

“Yes… ” she said softly.

His kisses skimmed closer and closer until his tongue darted for a moment between her legs, licked, and drew back out again.

“Please.” Haley tightened her grip on his shoulders. “More,

MacColla.”

Groaning, he swooped his head back between her thighs, kissing her once, then pressing the flat of his tongue firmly against her.

His tongue laved her, sucking and flicking in a steady rhythm, until she thought the heat in her veins would catch fire.

“Mmm.” It was a harsh sound, rasping low in his throat,

escaping on a quavering exhale.

His thumb swiped one last time over her nipple, and  MacColla brought his hand down, using it to help support  Haley's weight while he eased her legs further apart.

He pulled away from her. The cold air on the thick dampness between her legs was a shock, and she mewled her complaint. But he tilted her hips and very quickly found her again, his rigid tongue pushing in to penetrate her.

Her knees buckled then, and MacColla caught her, wedging a shoulder beneath her knee to bear her weight. His tonguestill thrusting and licking, he brought his thumb to her, steadily circling until she felt her body tightening, tensing, ready to shatter.

A sharp sound escaped her and MacColla held her tightly as she exploded in waves over him.

Easing them both down, he lay on his back and pulled  Haley to kneel astride him, slowly guiding her onto him.  “So wet.” he murmured, as he began to glide in and out.

His hands roved her body, teasing her breasts, caressing her thighs.

He slowed, snagged her gaze for a heartbeat. “You're too far from me,
 
mo chrìdhe
.” MacColla slid his hands to her back and pulled her closer.

“Oh
 
leannan
” he whispered huskily, kissing along her  collarbones. MacColla's mouth roved down to suck each

breast into a point. “So beautiful,
 
mo leannan
”

Haley was unable to speak, her body already burning again from within. Breathy moans escaped her and she folded herself completely over him, chest to chest, drawing her mouth along his powerful neck, his throat, his strong chin.

He took her face in his hands and kissed her deeply. He thrust hard and fast now, and the feel of him, so thick and moving so surely inside her, replaced all thought. There was only this sensation, only this moment, only them.

Already she felt the familiar pull in her belly, building and coiling once more, and she thought her next climax might thrust her over a precipice from which she'd never return.

He pulled his mouth from hers. “Come for me,” he whispered, his voice ragged in her ear.

She angled her face to his, her mouth grazing the sharp scrape of stubble at his jaw.

The taste of salt and sex destroyed the last of her control.  “Yes,” she cried, and the heat exploded within her, fragmenting her, consuming her.

Haley felt his arms wrapped tightly around her. Felt his fingers curled tight in her hair, clawed in the flesh of her ass. Felt him tense, grow large and spasm inside her, a guttural moan sounding his own pleasure.

MacColla stroked the sweat-damped hair from her brow.  Utterly spent, they lay there unmoving, tangled with one another on the lumpy pile of clothes.

“I love you,
 
leannan
.” He studied Haley's beautiful face, her  cheeks bright from their coupling, and those long black  lashes framing bottomless gray eyes. Flecked black and  gray like a stormy sea, they watched him, expectantly, and  for the first time in his life, MacColla felt truly seen.

“'Tis a simple phrase from a simple man. But there it is. I

love you.”

Her passion never ceased to surprise him. The time for him to leave had come and gone, but he'd steal just a few more moments of this. Of her.

“I won't let you die again,” was all she whispered in

response.

His fingers paused. Eyes narrowed, he asked, “You mean, you believe I
 
will
 
die.”

“No, MacColla. I watched you die.” She twined her fingers  with his and pulled them from her  brow. Rolling from him  to lie on her side, she said, “You died and I came back for  you.”

“How is it… ?” He didn't understand what she was telling  him. But he trusted her implicitly, and so waited for  understanding to dawn.

She tucked his hand at her heart, and for the first time  MacColla noticed her fingertip. “What's this then?” he asked, seizing it.

Though it no longer bled, the pad of her finger shone a uniform and vivid red, as though a layer had been scraped off to reveal the tender meat just below  the surface. An angry reddish brown halo already circled the injury.

“We must clean this,
 
leannan
.” The furious desire to protect

her flexed his muscles. “How did this happen?”

“That's what I'm trying to tell you,” she said, giving him an

impatient look.

Realizing he clutched her hand too tightly. MacColla eased his grip. He knew such a response was without merit  - this was a small cut, and cuts healed. But the thought of her in any sort of pain was more than he could bear.

“You fought the battle,” she  rasped. “You died. A brownhaired soldier shot you in the back. Rollo helped me.”

The words rattled from her, and MacColla tried to make sense of them. “Slower, lass.”

“I went back in time again, to this moment, to tell you.”

She squeezed his hand hard.  “You can't fight this battle.”

“How can that be?” He studied her finger. “And what has

that… to do with this?” he asked, rubbing her knuckle.

“I went to James Graham for help,” she said, more slowly.

“Graham?” His brows raised in surprise.

“Yes.”

His  eyes narrowed playfully. “Is this your way to get me to betray James's true fate?”

“No.” A smile flickered on her face. “My question was finally

answered. I saw for myself that Graham lives.”

“You say you went back in time… again?” Could such a

thing really have happened? “Truly?”

“Yes. I met James, and Magda too. She gave me a tiny  painting, of her brother, said it was a portal through time…  ” Her words drifted off. “Do you believe me?”

MacColla stared hard at her. She suddenly looked so anxious, so uncharacteristically vulnerable, her despair hinging on his response.

He remembered Magda. The woman had told him about her brother, how he'd died.

And then it struck him. There was no way Haley could've known about Magda's dead brother.

“Aye,
 
leannan
” he replied softly. “When have I not believed

you?”

Smiling, she clutched his hand tight and continued with renewed zeal, “Rollo took me to find a witch. But a witch

found us. She said she hated Campbell and would send me

back to save you.”

Haley let go his hand and studied the raw skin of her fingertip. “She scraped patterns on the portrait and that's what cut me. She chanted and rubbed my finger raw, and… well, then I was back with you.”