Wild Irish Soul (14 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

Baird stood at
his window and watched as Morgan approached his office. It had been several days since their first appointment and he was glad that she had decided to come back to talk with him again. He sensed that there was a lot of underlying anger and insecurity that she needed to deal with. Baird didn’t even care that she couldn't pay. In some ways, he needed to help her. For Aislinn.

Maybe for himself, Baird thought with a shrug. If treating Morgan for free was some way to atone for hurting Aislinn then he had a pretty messed up way of apologizing, the psychiatrist inside of him lectured.

Yeah, yeah, Baird thought. I know what I'm doing.

He needed to go see Aislinn. He'd found himself unconsciously thinking about her through the week, wanting to ring her when something funny crossed his mind or when he saw something that he knew she would want to paint or photograph. It was like she had opened his eyes to the world and Baird found himself stopping in his everyday routine and looking around him, seeing the beauty in the everyday.

Was the village really in on some big hoax? The more he met and interacted with the locals, the harder he found it to believe.

And, yet, he still needed answers.

A part of him hated that he did. Why couldn't he just let it go and accept what was? He could've kicked himself the other night for saying the things he did. It was like they had just rolled off his tongue of their own accord.

Baird trotted down the stairs to his office at the knock on his door.

"Hi, Morgan." Baird held the door open for the girl and was relieved to see her smile up at him.

"Hi, Dr. Delaney," Morgan said shyly.

"You can call me Baird," he said with a smile. They'd pretty much moved past formalities when he'd interrupted that little scene between her and Patrick last week. He gestured for her to sit on his couch and took a club-style chair across from her. Sensing that she wasn't a fan of protocol, Baird kept his notebook down and instead moved to a small refrigerator.

"Water?"

"Sure, thanks," she said.

Morgan crossed her legs and pulled a pillow onto her lap. A wall.

Protection, Baird thought.

"How have things been since our first session?" Baird began.

Morgan shrugged her shoulder.

"Good, I guess. I've been busy."

"Work?"

"Yes, helping Aislinn get ready for her show. She's painting like she's possessed," Morgan said, her eyes trained on his face.

"I'm sure. She's very talented," Baird said.

"In more ways than one," Morgan said, meaning behind her voice.

Baird met her eyes but didn't say anything. It would violate Aislinn's confidentiality to discuss her gift with Morgan, irrespective of whether the girl knew about it.

"How do you like working for her?" Baird asked instead.

"I love it. I find her to be so inspiring. She's the first person, aside from Flynn, that's really given me a chance. I'm learning so much," Morgan gushed.

"You didn't have a lot of chances…or choices…growing up, did you?"

Morgan's shoulders instantly slumped.

"No, not many choices. Until I made the one to leave."

"Tell me about why you ran away, if you can," Baird asked.

Morgan watched Baird for a moment before reaching for her water bottle. Not saying a word, she set it back down on the table. She looked at the water bottle and back at Baird as he waited patiently for her to begin her story.

"I shouldn't say that I didn't have choices. I had power. Which gives me certain options that others don't have," Morgan said softly.

Baird raised an eyebrow at her but held himself back from a laugh. Another one with power? Right, he thought sarcastically to himself.

Anger flashed across Morgan's beautiful face and his mouth dropped open as her water bottle flew into the air, hovered over his head, before dumping the contents in his lap.

"Hey!" Baird shouted, gasping in shock as he stared at Morgan, his mind working furiously to resolve what had just happened.

Morgan jumped up and met his shout with her own.

"Hey back! I can hear what you're thinking! I don't need you to condescend to me with your stupid smile and biased thoughts. I can HEAR YOU. Do you get that? I've always had these powers. Nobody has ever understood me. I've had nobody to help me. My whole life." Angry tears sprung into Morgan's gorgeous eyes, "Not until I came here. For the first time in my life, I've found people who accept me. As I am. And, Dr. Delaney, I don't need you or anyone else to pass your judgment."

Morgan's thin body trembled with her anger and surprise crossed her face at her words. Baird gathered that she didn’t shout that often. She turned to go.

"Sit, please," Baird said, shaking his head at what had just transpired. He was used to patients acting out, but this was a whole new level. What was it with this town? There was no way that he could deny what he had just seen. Baird closed his eyes for a moment and sighed.

He owed Aislinn an apology.

Morgan sat and crossed her arms, angrily wiping away the tears that continued to spring into her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she whispered softly, refusing to look at the water spot that stained his trousers.

Baird walked over to the side table and picked up a napkin to dab at his pants. So, Morgan seemed to have more than one gift. He'd have to be careful around her.

"I won't hurt you," Morgan said, clearly offended.

Baird turned and surprised himself by laughing at her.

"I know. I meant careful in my thoughts. As a psychiatrist, I have to run through a few possibilities for what may be going on with you in my head. If you can hear my thoughts, you can't jump to any conclusions. You're going to have to let me be your doctor or I can't treat you."

Morgan's mouth dropped open.

"You'd still want to treat me?"

"Of course. You still want help, don't you?"

Morgan nodded her head vigorously.

"Please," she whispered. "Please don't give up on me."

Baird walked over and held out his hand to her.

"You stay out of my mind and let me work on helping you and promise not to pull any more tricks and I'll treat you. Deal?"

Morgan's hand felt warm and clammy in his own, and he was suddenly grateful that he had the opportunity to treat her. It was clear that healing herself was very important to her.

"Deal," Morgan whispered.

Chapter thirty-three

Aislinn stood back
and studied the vision that had come to her during a dream one night. It would be the masterpiece, the showpiece, the grand dame of the collection, she thought.

It was a triptych. A three-paneled painting of the ocean. Each canvas would be framed in driftwood and was floor-to-ceiling height. She'd had to lay the canvas on the floor of her apartment to paint and then alternate between getting a ladder and tacking them to the wall to stand before them and see the paintings from that angle.

It was all the moods of the sea in one. The water rolled between the three panels, from softly gentle waters to a raging fury in the last piece.

But it was the middle piece that haunted her.

The cove jutted out, proudly arrogant, owning the middle panel, showcasing how land and sea warred with each other.

Loved each other.

But, she wasn't finished. Wasn't sure if she could finish it. If she could really feel what was needed in order to complete it.

Aislinn brought her hands to her eyes in balled fists. When she closed her eyes she could all but feel how the painting should be finished, but something stopped her from bringing the image out of her mind. Into her work.

It was enough to drive her mad. Or make her cry. Instead, she moved into her kitchen for a sip of whiskey. She'd bypassed wine earlier this week and instead went straight for the hard stuff to take the edge off the emotions that raged inside of her when she painted. Whomever said painting was cathartic was nuts, Aislinn thought. It was more like opening a wound and then pouring salt in it, she thought as she laughed into her glass of whiskey.

A knock at her back door had her head lifting up. Aislinn glanced to the clock by her bed. It was after 11:00 at night.

Baird.

A part of her had known that he would come. Just as she knew that she was powerless to ignore his knock. Putting her whiskey down, she pushed her hair back and padded softly down the stairs to the door, where she could see his face framed in the light on the back stoop. She stood for a moment, not letting him in, watching him through the glass.

In his eyes was a question.

One that she knew she would have to answer.

Aislinn opened the door and remained silent, tilting her head to look up at him.

Baird bent and wrapped his arms around her, crushing her lips in a kiss that burned straight to her soul. She could have sworn that she heard trumpets or some type of epic music in her head as he swooped her up and carried her up the stairs, his lips never leaving hers.

Aislinn's heart clenched as he walked backwards with her into the room. God, she'd wanted him. Ached for him. She hadn't wanted to believe it was over and yet couldn't understand why he had left her. Hadn't trusted her.

Baird broke his lips away from hers, his chest heaving as he struggled to catch his breath and he brought his eyes up, past hers, to the painting behind her.

Aislinn gasped as he looked back down at her. Baird's eyes were so full of passion…of love…that it made her heart sing. Reaching out, she felt his emotions wash over her and she wanted to weep in joy. There was nothing but lust and love.

Baird loved her.

He didn’t have to say it, Aislinn could feel it. Aislinn reached up and pressed her hand to his cheek, tears clouding her eyes. She hadn't known that this was what she had really wanted until it had happened. It was easier to convince herself that she didn’t care. A moan escaped her mouth as he lowered her to the floor in front of her painting.

Without a word, he began to love her. It was his own way of telling her how he felt. His hands traced up her bare legs to where her ragged sleep shorts barely covered her. She shivered as he caressed her inner thighs, running his hands up beneath her shorts to caress the line of her underwear.

Hadn't he wanted to wait? What had happened? Why now?

Aislinn gasped as he ran a finger beneath her underwear and tugged slightly. Lifting her hips, she allowed him to tug the shorts from her legs.

Baird paused between her legs to look down at her. She knew that her hair was a mess and that paint was probably all over the thin tank that she wore. Personal appearance mattered little to her when she painted.

For a second, everything stopped. The world narrowed to a little pinpoint. Warm light from her table lamp slashed across Baird's face and Aislinn could see the colors of her paintings behind him, the war and fury of the ocean raging around his body. It all melded together in harmony with his emotions and Aislinn's body sang as he knelt and thrust inside of her in one smooth motion.

Her head fell back against the hard floor and she didn't care that it was uncomfortable or that they were half-dressed. It felt so right, so raw, that her body seemed to throb around Baird's as he stroked deep inside of her, cradling her in his arms as he pushed her to the point of madness…into ecstasy. Aislinn sobbed into his mouth as he pulled her deeper down through the emotional layers and more into love then she'd ever been with anyone else before.

Their lips mingled, their bodies moving together as one, as Baird brought her, trembling, to the precipice of a love so sweet, so open, that her body ached with wanting it. On a moan, she shattered around him and swallowed his cries of lust with her mouth, never wanting to leave this moment.

Spent, Baird rolled and pulled her on top of him, cushioning her from the hard floor. Aislinn brushed her hair back from her face and pillowed her arms on his chest, looking down into his silver eyes.

"I missed you," Baird said simply.

"I see that," Aislinn said, laughing down at his face.

"I'm sorry, Ash. I shouldn't have said…the things that I did," he whispered and Aislinn could feel the real pain in his voice.

"That's okay. You're a man. Men have a tendency to be idiots at times in their lives," Aislinn said magnanimously.

Baird raised his eyebrow at her. "Did you just call me an idiot after I made love to you?"

Aislinn grinned down at him. "Oh, was that love you were making?"

Baird reached up and traced a hand down her cheek, over her nose and down her bottom lip.

"Aye, it was. I love you, Ash. I don't know why or how, or fully understand you, but you're all that I can think about. It's not just lust, I know the difference," Baird said.

"Well sure and I thought that I'd seduced you into lust," Aislinn teased.

"I thought that too," Baird said seriously and Aislinn jokingly smacked him in the head.

"That's why you were all about being hands off?"

"I just felt like I wanted to know you better. It didn’t make sense to me that I would feel so much…so quickly." Baird shrugged.

Aislinn tilted her head and looked down at him.

"Don't you believe in love at first sight, Doctor?"

"No, I don't. Or, I didn't, I guess," Baird said, scrunching his nose up as he thought about it.

"Not everything lines up neatly like in those textbooks of yours, does it?" Aislinn asked quietly.

"No," Baird admitted, watching her. "But, human emotion is messy and often doesn't follow textbooks. Even I know that."

"What about the other stuff? My gift?"

"I love you and that is part of you so I can accept that."

Something about the way he said it rankled, like he was giving her a gift or something. Aislinn, for the first time in her life, decided to keep her mouth shut and not ruin the moment. Especially when she could tell what he was feeling. There was no animosity behind his words.

"I guess I'll have to learn to accept that you are some fancy doctor then," Aislinn said instead and was rewarded with a laugh from Baird. Aislinn giggled as her stomach growled loudly on Baird and he looked at her in awe.

"Not eating much?"

"Between being angry at you and having to get ready for my show, food kind of falls off my radar," Aislinn admitted.

"Let me feed you," Baird said and moved to sit up.

Aislinn rolled from him and stopped when she saw Baird frozen, staring at her canvases.

"These…they're stunning. Almost painfully so. My God, Ash. You take my breath away."

Baird went and stood before the panels and Aislinn had the distinct pleasure of admiring his naked rear end. Maybe that was the missing part to her middle part of the painting, she mused. A snicker escaped her and Baird turned to narrow his eyes at her.

"Sorry, I was thinking about painting you into my canvas. Just like that." Aislinn gestured.

"Oh yeah? How's this?" Baird bent his knees and pushed his butt out like he was a girl and Aislinn fell over herself laughing.

"Don't get mad if something like that appears in my show," she called after his retreating back end.

Aislinn snagged her sleep shorts and pulled them over her legs and stood in front of her painting. She closed her eyes and could feel what she needed to do. She was dying to pick up her brush, but knew that sometimes the artist in her had to wait.

"I've got the dinner of champions starting in here," Baird called from the kitchen. He poked his head out to her. "Grilled cheese and soup sound good?"

"Perfect." Aislinn grinned at him, feeling giddy at the turn her night had taken.

Glad that she hadn't overthought it. That she'd let him in.

Grateful that she had allowed emotions to rule her world instead of pride.

"Get comfortable, I'll serve you," Baird called from the kitchen and Aislinn raised her eyebrows at that. A man who cooked and served the food? Smiling, she made quick use of the bathroom and then padded over to her low-slung couch, pulling a throw over her bare legs.

Baird came out of the kitchen carrying two plates with cups of soup and sandwiches on them.

"Triangles?" Aislinn asked, raising her eyebrow at the neatly cut sandwich.

"Always," Baird said and sat next to her, stretching his legs so that their feet intertwined on the couch. Steam poured from the top of the mug and Aislinn blew on it as she looked at him over the rim. He looked rumpled and comfortable on her couch, at ease with the world and himself.

How had they gotten here? From in a fury a week ago to comfortably cozying up on the couch over soup and a sandwich.

She'd opened the door for him, hadn't she?

"What made you come here tonight?" Aislinn asked, taking a bite of her grilled cheese sandwich, crisped to perfection.

Baird shrugged his shoulders and sipped at his soup, looking over at her wall of paintings.

"Morgan came to see me."

Aislinn didn't say anything, waiting him out. He raised his eyebrow at her and laughed.

"Aye, so you know the power of silence in getting someone to talk then?"

Aislinn smiled at him cheerfully and a laugh bubbled from him, low and long. She wanted to crawl across the couch and snuggle up on his muscular chest.

"I can't talk about our sessions, as it is privileged information. Needless to say, she's opened my eyes to a few things."

"Like the fact that extra abilities are a very real thing?" Aislinn asked archly.

Baird sighed and ran his hand through his thick hair. "Listen, it's not that I doubted you. Okay, maybe it is…" He held up his hand to silence her when she tried to speak. "It's that it was weird for me to go from never being around someone with extra abilities to suddenly having a whole town seemingly comfortable with all this…magickal stuff."

"That you know of…" Aislinn said.

"What's that?"

"You've never spent time around someone with extra power that
you know of
," Aislinn clarified.

Baird looked astounded at that realization and Aislinn choked out a laugh. She suspected that she would continue to rock Baird's narrow world view for quite a while yet.

"I just…don't you want to know why? Magick doesn't make sense to me. Science does. I'm sorry that I am this way, but I just automatically seek answers. To explain." Baird held up his hands beseechingly and Aislinn sighed at his words.

"And if there are no explanations? Other than what we've been told?"

"Then I have to accept it. Magick."

"Why can't you just accept that now?" Aislinn asked, bitterness seeping into her tone.

"Ash, this is all new to me. I can't help that my mind immediately jumps to wanting to figure it out. To study it." Baird shrugged his shoulders, looking confused and shaken.

"So what does that mean for us?"

"I know that I want to be with you," Baird said simply.

"And that's it? What about the future?"

Tilting his head, Baird studied her from behind his glasses, his silver eyes bright with intelligence and love.

"I say that we deepen our bond a day at a time and the future will plan itself."

Aislinn's mouth dropped open. It was the most "by the seat of the pants" statement that she had heard from the uptight doctor yet.

"So, no boundaries or rules? Or are we in a relationship?"