Reunited (Book 2 of Lost Highlander series) (6 page)

Mellie whimpered. “How can you know it’s not evil?” she insisted.

Lachlan merely shrugged. “I canna know, lass. That is the truth of it.” His eyes were full of pain.

“And you still need blood?” Piper asked.

She had been hopeful when Lachlan had said there was another way, but if there was still blood involved she didn’t know how it was much different from Daria’s spell.

“Aye, we could never get past that. But it needn’t be much, and it needn’t be from an unwilling victim, only yerself. And definitely no bones. I think the witch just enjoyed—” he stopped at the look on Mellie’s face. “That is all over now,” he said firmly.

He shook his head as if he were remembering something. “And I can only do it on this land, Glen land, or at least verra near. I rode out into the mountains, and it wouldna work at all. And I’d had several, er, practice trips with no trouble from the forest near this castle.”

“Practice trips?” Piper said. “You were here before and didn’t come find me?”

“No,” he assured her. “I couldna get here the first few times. Once I went backwards and immediately came back when I realized my mistake. The next time I went forward and saw yer great-grandmother, who looked so like ye I almost walked right up to her.”

Piper gasped. He’d been traipsing all over time these past months, and she’d been torturing herself to stay away from the book. What a hypocrite!

He must have seen her beginning to stew because he drew her close to him so she was almost in his lap.

“I didna make the decision lightly,” he said, an uncomfortable look creeping over his face.

She remembered what he’d said to her when he first arrived. Even after all the confusion that ensued, she couldn’t believe they were just getting to it.

“You said you were glad it wasn’t too late,” she said, studying his face for his reaction. He swallowed and seemed to grow even more uncomfortable. “And who stabbed you?” she demanded.

His face relaxed. “Oh, that,” he said, waving it off.

“Yes, that,” she said. “What happened?”

His brow furrowed. “Has there ever been a battle here on this land?” he asked.

She thought about all the history she’d been reading since she got here and shook her head. “I don’t think so. Not that I know of.”

“Well, I arrived too early again on my third attempt and was set down in the middle of a fight. It was near dark so I couldna see who they were, but there were at least twenty men having at it with swords and dirks, by the edge of the woods.”

“Yikes,” Mellie said. “Talk about the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“Aye, that is exactly what happened, lass.”

“You got stabbed in some random skirmish you showed up in?” Piper asked, full of suspicion.

He nodded vigorously. “More of a slash than a stab, though,” he said. “I hied off into the woods and tried one last time to reach ye. I certainly had enough blood to do it, and was in a fair bit of pain. I did want ye so, my love. It was late when I arrived and I made my way up the secret passage I knew from last time, hoping I’d got it right. I’m thankful it worked, as I may have died had it not.”

“You may have …” Piper’s chest constricted and she blinked back tears, burying her face in his neck.

He patted her on the back. “I’m here now, and we shall make everything right.”

Before she could come back to her wits enough to ask what it was that needed righting, there was a tremendous crashing sound from the kitchen.

Someone was yelling, the door banged shut and she heard pans clatter to the floor. They all got up and ran, nearly colliding with one of the stable boys halfway to the kitchen.

“Miss Piper,” he cried, wild-eyed with fear. “The stable is on fire.”

Mellie called the volunteer fire team, but by the time the rattletrap water truck got there they had mostly extinguished the blaze themselves.

Lachlan had fearlessly charged into the barn to free the horses, while Piper and the stable lad found a hose and sprayed at the flames.

The fire hadn’t raged long when the boy, who had been out on the hill trying to follow a trail he believed belonged to a wolf, had finally given up and straggled tiredly back to the barn. He was hoping he might get something to eat and was going up to the kitchen when he smelled the smoke and heard the frightened screams of the horses.

When the firefighters finally arrived and took over, they all stood out in the yard, trying to figure out what happened. The barn was completely modernized with a state of the art sprinkler system that should have gone off at the first whiff of smoke.

The stable lad was bereft, and went out into the enclosure to make sure none of the horses were hurt, and to give them all pats and carrots.

“How could it have even started?” Piper asked.

The fire had been quickly contained, and there was minimal damage, but the horses would have to spend the night outside until the smoke could be cleared.

“There shouldn’t be anything inside that would go up like that,” she said.

The stable lad had gone inside and was throwing the windows open. She could hear him coughing and yelled for him to come back out.

She asked Mellie to take him up to the kitchen and give him a sandwich, thanking the boy for his help. He nodded and looked about to cry as he followed Mellie.

“The fire started outside,” Lachlan said, returning from an investigatory trip around the perimeter.

He looked disturbed, but quickly tried to rearrange his features. Piper wasn’t fooled but let it go for now. He held up some little scorched sticks.

“This was used as tinder to set one of the wee bushes on fire. It’s a good thing the building is mostly stone.” He shook his head in disgust.

“Did someone set the fire on purpose?” she asked, jumping to her feet. A trickle of unease made its way down her spine as she looked all around for the culprit. “Who?”

He shook his head. “Let’s go inside, Piper. We’ll no’ settle this tonight. If the fire was indeed set apurpose, the culprit will be long gone.”

He stared toward the woods. His look was menacing and Piper almost pitied the person who would do such a thing if he or she were caught by Lachlan.

“Pietro’s going to have a nervous breakdown,” she said as she let Lachlan lead her back up to the house.

He looked down at her curiously. “Who’s this Pietro, then?” he asked a little too casually.

She snorted at his tone. “He’s in charge of the horses. The Master of the Horse, we call him,” she said, smiling at the title.

Lachlan nodded, any hint of jealousy gone. “Aye, he’ll likely be upset about this.”

Back in the house, she shyly led him to her bedroom. “Unless you’d rather go back to your own?” she asked, referring to his makeshift hospital room.

He looked at her as if she’d gone quite mad and went into her room without a word.

He immediately began shucking his new clothes off, tossing them aside with undisguised distaste. “I dinna suppose I can wear a kilt in this time?” he asked.

“Sorry, not unless you want to get stared at constantly,” she said, staring at him now in all his naked glory. He seemed completely relaxed and uninhibited in his skin. “We can get you some more comfortable things tomorrow,” she said, drawn to him like a magnet.

She placed her hands on his chest and ran them down the front of him, pausing to check his bandage. She wriggled out of her own clothes as quickly as she could and stood in front of him wearing only a smile.

“I want you to see the village, the way it is now,” she said, continuing to run her hands down his body.

He closed his eyes and swayed gently, clearly enjoying her fluttering fingertips as they stroked the front of his thighs.

 “And I opened a gallery, too. With things from the past. Maybe you’ll recognize some of them.”

“That sounds verra nice,” he said.

Piper kissed his chest, over his heart, then started downward, kissing the sides of his ribs, his well-defined stomach, his hip. He sighed above her and she felt the heady urge to make him weak with desire for her, as weak as she felt for him.

He ran his fingers lightly over her hair and down her bare shoulders as she slid lower with her mouth.

 “Piper,” he said, then sighed.

A tremor ran through him as she reached her final destination.

She smiled against him and leaned back on her heels to get a good look, glancing up to see with satisfaction that he was standing as still as a statue, biting his lower lip and with his eyes squeezed tightly shut.

She gripped him and slid her hand along his velvety steel length, feeling a heavy warmth coursing through her, spreading low into her core. Relishing the feel of him in her hand, she leaned over and placed her mouth alongside him, sliding her tongue until she came to the tip, then eagerly took him into her mouth.

He groaned and stiffened, threading his fingers through her hair.

He was fiery hot and smooth and she reveled in the slightly salty taste of him. She pressed her body closer to him, gripping his powerful hips. The coarse hairs on his thighs brushed the tender skin of her breasts and she slid her hands lower, unable to get enough of him. She felt a frenzied need to get all of him in her hands, in her mouth. After a moment of sweet torment, he took her under her arms and lifted her back up to him.

“I wasn’t through,” she said with a wicked smile.

He shook his head and growled, easily bundling her onto the bed.

With a wicked smile of his own, he began to kiss his own way down her body. She threw her hands above her head and sighed with the intense bliss of it all. Having him back and in bed with her, his mouth doing heavenly things all over her, was perfection.

If her barn hadn’t nearly burned down she would have chalked it all up to a fantasy dream.

She looked longingly at his silky, jet black hair trailing over her breasts and down her stomach and ran her fingers over the soft strands, trembling with wanting him.

Lachlan’s mouth found its way between her legs, enflaming her senses. Gasping, she arched her back and dug into his shoulders, his strong muscles bunching in her grasp.

Eyes closed, she reached blindly down to him and he found her hand, twining his fingers together with hers as he devastated her with his tongue.

He continued until she was quaking with pleasure and ravenous to have him inside her, too weakened from ecstasy to do more than tug on his arms.

“You’re terrible,” she said when he slid up her body, pausing to look into her lust glazed eyes. He nudged her gently and she wrapped her legs around him, trying to get him closer. “You’re cruel,” she said.

With a laugh of joy he plunged into her and she cried out, her rapture caught in his fevered kiss.

***

“Oh holy hell,” Piper muttered as she scrambled out of the tangled bedclothes to reach her phone. “What, Sam?” she answered rather rudely.

She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and her mood instantly softened when she saw Lachlan waking up and grinning at her.

“We’re on our way back from Glasgow,” Sam said. “We’re nearly there.” There was a scuffling sound and then a screech in her ear.

“What is going on, Piper?” Evie yelled at her.

Piper held the phone away while Evie continued to rail on the other end. When the tirade died down, she held the phone back to her ear.

“So, Sam filled you in?” she asked.

“Filled me in? With what? All he knows is that Lachlan’s back.”

Piper looked over at Lachlan and crawled back into bed, pulling the covers over them both and snuggling up next to him.

Something dawned on her as she listened to Evie’s disgruntled complaints. As a matter of fact, that was all she knew, too. Lachlan was back. He’d told her how he’d managed it but she still didn’t know the why.

As much as it gratified her that he loved her and didn’t want to live without her, she kind of suspected there was more to the story.

She edged away from him and sat up, narrowing her eyes at him. He went from content to nervous at her look. Mmmhmmm, he was hiding something.

“You know what?” Piper told Evie while she continued to stare Lachlan down. “I’m going to have to call you back. Or better yet, just hurry up and get here.”

“Don’t you—” Evelyn was yelling as Piper clicked the phone off.

Lachlan ran his hand up her thigh and she scooted away.

“Oh, no you don’t. You’ve managed to confuse me twice already with that, buster. But now I need some answers.”

She popped out of bed and started pulling on layers of clothes. If he couldn’t touch her, she would be able to maintain her wits.

“Did you leave anything out yesterday?” she asked.

She tossed him his t-shirt, and tried not to look at him as he struggled to get it over his head. God, his arm muscles actually rippled.

“I may have done,” he said and she pounced.

“May have done?” she yelled, flinging his jeans at him with all the force she could muster after a night of being repeatedly reduced to quivering jelly. “What did you leave out, pray tell?”