The Morrigan: Damaged Deities (25 page)

Morrie blinked, surprised by the…well, vehemence of his question and the turn of his questioning. 

Of everyone in the home, he had seemed the least concerned about her reasons for being there.

“If I didn’t think I could catch him, I wouldn’t stay.”  And she had thought he wanted her to stay, but his question had elicited an unwanted response—one of insecurity. “If you think I’m wasting my time, then I should just leave.” 

For emphasis, she moved to slip off the stool, to really get away from him before he could see just how his doubts had touched her, but he stopped her by placing his hand on her hip.

“Wait, that’s no’ what I want.”  Morrie paused but crossed her arms over her chest, pressing her lips together and waiting for him to continue.  Kade sighed. “O’ course I think ye can catch him.  If anyone can, it’s you.  I doona doubt ye.” He blinked, like a discovery had been made. “Maybe ye’re supposed tae. In fact, I’ll help ye do so.”

Morrie gave Kade a sidelong glance.  He was up to something, she just wasn’t sure what.

“You’ll come with me to the loch?” 

There it was again!

A passing cloud of fear across his face, but this time it was different.  It seemed spurned on by a different place. 

But it came and went so quickly, Morrie soon questioned seeing it at all.

“I’ll follow ye anywhere,” he answered her and there was a deep truth behind his statement. “Just doona leave again like ye did this morn.”

Morrie studied him like a suspicious package wrapped in a thin veil of desperate relief.  He seemed changed from the night before—this emotion even different than the cloud that settled over him after the encounter with his mother. 

Kade either wore many masks or his true nature was too complex to determine. 

Like the horse, Kade was a challenge.

And Morrie was a sucker for challenges.

And his dark eyes turned her into a puddle and it seemed there was nothing she could do about it.  Her shoulders slumped before she muttered, “Stop making me melt.”

Kade frowned. “What was that?”

“Nothing,” Morrie stood up, placing her body much too close to Kade’s, but she couldn’t appear weak.  She pulled out some money and slapped it down on the bar to well cover her tab.

“Alright, you can help.  But what happened last night cannot happen again.  I am your brother’s employee, I am
your
employee.  And for us to entangle ourselves…” Kade’s responding grin caused Morrie to roll her eyes and regret her word choice, but she continued on, hands on her hips, “would only result in an unnecessary distraction.” 

She hoped to glower that smirk right off his beautiful lips.

At the fire in her eyes, Kade threw up is hands in surrender.

“Aye, lass, as ye wish.  If ye insist on lying tae yerself and pretending, then I will no’ impose my will on ye.” 

Morrie’s face burned with outrage, but that only resulted in Kade laughing at her, gazing down with desire in his smoldering eyes and adoration in his smile.

“Stop that!” she complained, pushing past him.  

“Stop what?” he asked with feigned innocence.

She whirled around and nearly smacked her face into his chest. 

Sighing, she stepped back and looked up at him.

“Stop trying to provoke me.  Nothing will happen between us.”

“If ye say so.  As I said, I will no’ impose myself on ye, but if ye canna keep yer hands tae yerself, lass, I will no’ stop where they may roam.  And we both know they’re curious, lil’ things.” 

Volumes were spoken in his heated gaze.  Morrie flushed anew.

Her body grew rigid, her hands balled into fists at her sides.

“My hands do not—there will be no—gah!” Morrie sputtered and turned her back to him, stomping out of the restaurant and towards what was going to surely be a violent battle of wills. 

For the first time in her existence, Morrie didn’t know if she would be the victor.

K
ade took great pleasure in watching Morrie march away, particularly the way her little ass swayed in her jeans.  They had quickly become his favorite piece of female fashion, at least as long as they hugged her perfect little body. 

This time he did not chase after her. 

He would let her stew in her annoyance, let her temper flare on her own.  Instead, he removed her cash from the bar that he would discreetly return to her later and paid her tab before ordering lunch for himself.

With a smile on his face, Kade sat at the bar and ate his lunch while chatting with Maddie and some of the locals in the pub.  He had no intention of rushing off to start this mad dash search of Morrie’s; he knew she would need some time to cool down first, anyway. 

And he had every intention of making good on his vow to the lass.  He would not touch her, not until she touched him first, no matter how much pain it may cause him. 

She had a desire in her, a naughty nature just waiting to be fully unleashed.  He knew as soon as it was, she would be like a turbine exploding into action. 

And he would be there to help her ease her suffering, to sate her need until they both collapsed from exhaustion, entangled in each other’s sweaty bodies, in each other’s
unnecessary distraction
. 

God, he even loved how she talked. 

But he would win this.

He just had to wait her out.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-
T
WO

“Then it was that the maidens of Connacht besought the men of Erin to lift them up on the flat of the shields above the warriors’ shoulders, to behold the aspect of Cuchulainn.”

Táin Bó Cúailnge

Somehow the lass had manipulated the pilot to take off, leaving Kade stranded at the restaurant. 

That morning the man had looked at him like he was mad when Kade threatened him bodily harm if he didn’t land the chopper in the small clearing beside the restaurant, but apparently had no problem offering his services to the mad American anytime she asked. 

After interrogating Lorna—taking all of two seconds to get the housemaid to divulge Morrie’s whereabouts—Kade ordered the helicopter back up and to the restaurant. 

A part of him had thrilled in knowing she had gone there, that maybe there was an ounce of sentimentality in the high-tailing honey.

A feeling that was fleeting, apparently. 

It was five miles back to the manor and Kade would spend the walk thinking of new and exciting ways of torturing his little horse trainer as retribution.

He sensed trouble as soon as he stepped foot on the drive.  Worry driving him forward, Kade quickened his pace until he was all out sprinting towards the front door, bursting through it just as Lorna was coming out.

“Thaur ye ur, Maister MacLeod,” she greeted him, out of breath. “Ah was comin’ tae swatch fur ye.”

Sometimes Lorna’s thick dialect tripped him up, but for now he didn’t care to try to interpret her words, allowing her to lead him upstairs. 

“What is it?” Kade asked, stripping off his coat and letting if fall on a chair as he passed.

“Yer brither. He’s havin’ one ay his fits.”

It was worse than Kade had anticipated. 

Already he could hear Kamden’s screams from the end of the hall, the thick oak door still not enough to muffle the mayhem from inside.

 “What brought that on?” he demanded.

“Ah doona kin,” she replied. “Ah doona think he’s bin feedin’.”

“The daft fool,” Kade muttered. “Why the fuck not?”

“Ah think coz ay th’ lass.” 

Lorna stopped at Kamden’s door and produced a key from inside her sleeve.  The latch that had been installed outside of the room for this very purpose, half a foot of thick, reinforced steel rattled where it was affixed.

“That’s exactly why he should have been feeding.”

Kade wanted to bellow, but he knew his brother would be susceptible to his emotions. 

He stood ready and poised as Lorna inserted the key into the lock.  He would have precious moments to get into the room and calm his brother down, making sure to protect his own neck in the process. 

He didn’t fear his brother would do any lasting damage, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t cause any pain.  Or that Kade could keep from hurting him back.

“Alright…now,” he nodded and sprang into action as soon as Lorna twisted her wrist, the lock clicking open. 

In one speedy, fluid motion, he opened the door and slipped inside, turning to shut it back.  Just as the space was closed, he saw a flash of big blue eyes at the end of the hall, and wondered how in the hell he was supposed to explain this one later.

M
orrie had seen some very odd things in her incredibly long life. 

She had watched gods transform into animals in order to seduce humans.  She’d witnessed a pair of Siamese twins tap dancing on top of a hippo while a bearded lady played the harpsichord.  She’d been to Woodstock. 

But none were so odd as what she encountered now. 

Not even the thunderous booms and rage screams that had rattled the manor from the third floor had been all that peculiar. 

No, what really concerned Morrie was the way Kade greeted her the next morning, bright-eyed and cheery and as though nothing had happened the night before.

“Ready tae chase this cuddie down?” he asked, joining her in the kitchen. 

The thick stubble he had worn on his face the night before had been shaven clean, revealing the smooth, perfect lines of his jaw and cheekbones.  A white Henley t-shirt hugged his torso and biceps, the sleeves pushed up his bronze forearms and made Morrie question any other time she had noticed such things.  Especially his dark jeans hugging his perfect ass that he turned to her to pour himself a cup of coffee. 

Morrie’s head tilted to the side while she appreciated the sight. 

Every nerve in her alighted towards the single purpose of moving her body to his, of tracing her fingers down the planes of his back, across his lower muscles.  Maybe Kade had been right about her roaming hands.

When Kade turned around, he caught her staring and grinned. 

Embarrassment flamed her cheeks and Morrie blinked, looking away as she bit down on her annoyance at him thinking he was right about her. 

She would not be the one to touch him!

“So shall we start at the loch?” he asked before sipping his coffee, his mood and tone light.

“No, I’ve not had any luck there lately,” she answered. “I was thinking of heading into the village and seeing if anyone has seen him around.”

“No’ a bad idea,” he took another, longer drink of his coffee and then placed the cup in the sink behind him.  He hooked a ring of keys from the counter and swung them around his finger before snatching a coat from the coat rack. “I’ll drive.”

Without waiting for her, Kade left through the side kitchen door.  Shaking off her surprise, Morrie jumped up and followed him. 

To keep up with his long-legged strides, she nearly had to run, trotting behind him and only reaching him when he stopped at the truck.  He opened her door and helped her up inside, his hand waiting for hers and then letting her go as soon as she was seated. 

He seemed to be deliberately keeping distance between them, their contact at a minimum. 

“How’s your brother?” Morrie asked once they lumbered down the road towards the village.