The Wedding Dress (39 page)

“I don’t want to
tell
you about them at all. I want to make them come true. And we’re running out of time.”

Impending loss hit Jared harder than he expected. He glimpsed an answering ache in the curve of Emma’s mouth. He wanted to drive the inevitable away with a kiss, but that would have to wait until he got her alone. “Your wish is my command.”

“Then I wish we could go to the Knight Stone. Make love there as if we had forever.”

But they didn’t. Jared thought of the magazine spreads Veronica had flashed about. Emma, exquisite in satins and jewels, sailing through a sea of shouting humanity and flashing cameras, journalists and fans salted through with unscrupulous bastards like Joel Feeny. A world he didn’t understand, could never feel comfortable in. A sharp reminder that any life with Emma would always be completely beyond his reach.

“I’ve never taken anyone else there,” Jared hedged. “It’s slick. Dangerous.”

If he took her to the stone in the water, his secret place, he knew in his soul that her essence would remain there, seeped into the ancient pillar forever. That every time he set foot upon the stone, he would feel her in his heart’s deepest core.

Emma slid her hand down and twined their fingers together. “I’m not afraid.”

“I am.” Jared lost himself in her eyes. He slipped his arm around her shoulders as if to steady her. “I’m taking Emma back to the castle so she can sleep off the Scotch,” he told the group. “You all stay and have fun.”

He led her out the door to a chorus of good-nights. They drove back to the castle, exchanging fire-hot kisses at every stop sign, hands too eager to wait catching bare skin under shirts as they drove. Castle Craigmorrigan loomed against the sky, a pagan goddess turned to stone. She whispered love charms as they made their way to the cliff’s dizzying edge.

Anticipation sang through Emma’s veins, honed by a fine edge of danger and the ache of knowing their time was running out. The sea crashed and roared, the stones slick beneath her feet, the untamed wonder of this place and the man who had brought her here soaring her spirits higher, ever higher. Emma almost expected Jared to speak some incantation, to make a silvery path appear upon the water for them to cross.

But at the last possible moment, she glimpsed the faint shelf of stones the sea had not yet crumbled away. In a few hundred more years, she thought, this bridge of Jared’s would have vanished, eaten away by time, just as the curtain wall in the castle above had crumbled. No one would ever know that once, a man and a woman had loved here.

But she would know, Emma thought. She would remember this night for the rest of her life. Jared, so strong and sure, guiding her by instinct along a path no one but he could see. Leading her to the one place in the world that belonged to him alone.

Salt spray dampened her face, the beating of waves against rock feeding passions centuries old. Craigmorrigan’s own brand of magic…What else could it be? Enchantment, its pull more primal than anything Emma had ever known.

The wind sang the wild song of the standing stones, the sea ballads of Lady Aislinn’s love. But the sacred Knight’s Stone whispered of loves beyond memories, beyond poems, beyond bard’s tales. Fairies older than time, dragons who ruled men’s fears and warriors pagan still.

Emma embraced it all with sweet abandon, wishing she could hold this man—this madness—for all eternity.

Jared laid his worn leather coat down, then his bulky blue sweater to make her a bed.

“The stone is rough…” He hesitated before he moved to cover her with his body. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You won’t.” She looked up at him with eyes filled with strength, courage, love. “I’m strong enough to take whatever you’re willing to give me.”

Was she? Jared wondered, knowing she spoke of far more than hard rock and sex with all pretense of the civilized stripped clean away. Was it possible she was strong enough to take him as he was? Rough-edged and temperamental and self-centered? A man far more comfortable with facts than with feelings?

He stripped away her clothes, kissed her creamy skin. She felt so damned small beneath him, so delicate, so…fragile? But he couldn’t wait. He drove himself deep into her welcoming heat, felt her surge up against him, sea to his cliff, soft to his hard, in a sensual battle as old as time.

He marveled at the power of her as she took all of him, body and soul. Emma fragile? She was fire beneath him, storm, like a wild witch borne in from the sea. As they made fierce love there upon the stone, she took as much as he did, demanded as boldly, reached as deeply and when the climax came, she cried out, and clung to him so hard his ribs ached almost as much as his heart.

How on God’s earth was he ever going to let her go?

What other choice did he have?

He closed his eyes, remembering the magazine picture Veronica had flashed in front of him, the red satin, the polished smiles, the delicate stiletto heels.

A world where he was doomed to fail. But did he have to? Couldn’t he even learn to like the diamonds and satin if he were the lucky sonofabitch who got to peel them off of her at the end of the day?

Right, and then the two of you could dash off to the baby minder’s and pick up the kids.

Cold sweat broke out on Jared’s nape. Don’t be a fool, he told himself. Love her if you have to. But never forget that differences wider than the world will always keep you apart.

You might as well be the sea and Emma, the moon…

He looked at the scrap of horizon where the two bled together, moonshine and the water’s reflection…seeming to touch, but their joining not real. An illusion. Something no man could keep, hold. Like this time he and Emma shared.

“Emma, promise me something,” Jared said, feeling like a fool, unable to stop himself.

“Anything.”

Stay here with me. Make your life this castle. Turn your back on the craft you love and the children your heart longs to have….

For what? A man so selfish he’d take all that from her to keep her in his world?

No. Even he wasn’t that selfish.

“Jared?” She cupped his face in her palms, tipped her head in gentle query. He knew she left her handprints on his heart. “What is it?”

“Promise I’ll be able to sense you, feel you…after you’re gone. Here at the stone. Come back and haunt me.”

Her eyes filled with love and loss and longing. Impossibility an alchemy that made the moment all the sweeter.

“You already haunt me.” She kissed him gently on the lips. “You’ll be there, Jared. Every time I close my eyes. I’m counting on it.”

Jared’s throat burned. He climbed to his feet, turned his face into the wind for long, silent moments, the familiar lash of sea spray and isolation encasing his emotions as he shuttered the pain away.

When he’d hidden them deep enough, he turned to Emma, forcing a smile.

“Come along with you, then,” he said, extending his hand to pull her up. “It’s time we get up to the tower. Morning will come plenty early.”

He helped her dress and clothed himself, then tucked his jacket around her to keep her warm. He led her along the stone bridge, losing himself in the magic of this one night, how right it was. Perfect. Inevitable. Fleeting. She followed him across the stones as if she, too, had known where the footing lay from the dawn of time.

When they reached the cliff top, Jared paused, looking down into her face. A face a little too pale, eyes still a little red from the whiskey she’d drunk what seemed an eternity ago. He brushed her hair back tenderly. “We’ll be stopping at my office first, before we’re off to the tower.”

“Whatever work you’ve got left will still be there in the morning.”

Jared laughed, reaching past the ache to the amusement Emma so often inspired in him. “You think you’ve left any strength in me for work, woman? I’m half dead from having my way with you. We’ll be going after the paracebo I keep in my desk drawer.”

“Parace…? You mean, aspirin?” He saw her eyes go wide, her expression adorable. “Jared, did I, um…hurt you?”

“It’s not for me, treasure. It’s you who’ll be needing it. You’re going to have the devil of a headache come morning.”

He chuckled, running his thumb along the fullness of her kiss-stung lower lip. “It’s a rare fine birthday you had for yourself here in Scotland, Emma McDaniel. If you’re lucky, by tomorrow you won’t remember a thing.”

“Until I read about it in the morning papers,” Emma quipped wryly.

Jared’s jaw set, grim. “That’s one thing I can promise you won’t be happening. Not while I’m on watch.”

He drew her into the crook of his arm as they walked down the path toward the main camp, reveling in the weight of her, the warmth of her against him. He didn’t hear the footsteps in the shadows behind them. Didn’t see the white gleam of a hunter’s smile.

Chapter Nineteen

T
HE TRAILER DOOR STOOD
open to the night, the metal panel thudding in a hollow rhythm against the structure’s outer wall. Jared eyed it in surprise. “I thought I locked that before we left for the pub.”

He felt Emma stiffen against him. “I’m sure you did. You dropped the keys and we both made a dive for them. We clunked heads and couldn’t stop laughing.”

She was right. Wariness stole through him. “It’s probably nothing,” he attempted to soothe her. “Kids bent on mischief.”

“Or someone trying to get the dirt on me.”

He bristled at the idea. “That’s breaking and entering. It’s against the law.”

“Only if you can prove it. Feeny and his buddies would tell you sometimes it’s worth taking a chance.”

Jared ground his teeth. “If those bastards so much as set foot on castle property, I’ll call the police.”

“Don’t be dragging the poor cops away from their coffee and donuts just yet.” Emma grimaced. “I’m probably just being paranoid. It’s not like we’ve got some front-page-worthy story we’re hiding around here. I mean, I think you’re plenty newsworthy, Butler, but the rest of the world would like it better if you were married or something.”

“Stay back until I see what’s going on,” he ordered as he stepped through the opened door into the dark trailer and fumbled for the light. He should have known she’d still follow right behind him.

Jared found the switch, the bulbs glaring to life, blinding him for a head-splitting instant. He heard Emma’s involuntary groan, could imagine what the flash had done for her whiskey-fogged head.

Jared scrubbed the back of his hand against his eyes to clear them. He heard Emma gasp.

“Davey?”

Jared’s sight popped into focus, zeroing in on the dispirited figure huddled at his desk. The rims of the boy’s eyes shone red, his face etched with silent misery. A misery deeper than any Jared had seen since the day Davey had told him about the stable job. What the hell? The boy had seemed fine at the pub. Almost…well, cheery, laughing and joking, basking in all the attention Emma gave him. Her influence had smoothed things out with the other kids, too, from what Jared had been able to see.

Last time Jared had seen him, Beth Murphy had been sliding into the seat beside the kid and Davey had looked like he’d won the lottery.

“Cheers, there, boyo.” Jared crossed the space between them. “What are you doing here so late?”

“Why can’t everybody just leave me alone?” Davey said bitterly. “You’re not supposed to be here. Why didn’t you just…just stay away, up in the tower with Emma? Shagging each other’s brains out like the rest of the normal people in this damned camp?”

Jared heard Emma’s breath catch. This edginess—it didn’t even sound like the Davey Jared knew. From the moment Emma had set foot on the site, Davey hadn’t been willing to tolerate any disrespect to her. And now he was sniping about sex in front of her with something near rage in his voice?

“Davey,” Emma said gently, disregarding his sharp words. “What’s the matter?”

The boy turned to her with a miserable groan. “Oh, God, Emma! I’m such…such a loser! The lads are right! I’m a stupid, dickless loser!”

“I don’t believe that for a minute, and neither does anybody who knows you.”

“You weren’t there…you didn’t see…I made such a mess of everything!”

“Just tell us what happened,” Jared soothed. “Start at the beginning.”

“She kissed me! Beth kissed me! Right on the mouth! In front of everybody!”

Had it been some sort of a dare? Some cruel joke that had shaken the boy so? Jared would find whoever was behind it and make them so damned sorry they’d never try a trick like that again. “Who put her up to—” Jared began but Emma cut him off.

“I thought you wanted Beth to kiss you.” Confusion rippled through Emma’s voice. “You were just too shy to kiss her yourself. That’s why I told her to try it.”

Suspicion raked Jared. “What the hell?”

Emma bristled, defensive. “Beth was moping in the bathroom, as miserable in love with Davey as he is with her! I told her that if
he
wouldn’t kiss
her,
maybe
she
should kiss
him.
”

“Ah, God save us,” Jared swore roundly. “Words of wisdom from a drunken fool!” She winced as if he’d slapped her. “I told you to keep the hell out of this.”

“I wasn’t too drunk to see what was right under my nose!” Emma raged back. “He’s in love with her. Didn’t you hear that?”

“Jesus! Love?” Jared kicked his desk in frustration. “He’s nineteen years old!”

“I do love her! I love her so much!” Davey turned to Jared, anguished wonder in his eyes. “Oh, God, Dr. Butler. I didn’t think there was a chance in hell she’d love me back.”

The words ground deep, echoing doubts Jared understood far too well.

“Then what’s wrong, Davey?” Emma broke in. “You’re not making any sense.”

“Haven’t you done enough damage here?” Jared snapped. “Why don’t you let me handle this?”

Emma faced him down, hands on hips. “You want me to sit here and watch you teach this amazing, wonderful boy how to shut himself off from life like you’ve done for so many years? Because it’s safer? Because you aren’t sure he’s strong enough? No way, Butler. Davey deserves better!”