by Mariah Stone
Was she ready for this? When was the last time she’d had sex? Must have been five years ago or so, with her last boyfriend, Jim. She wasn’t even waxed or shaved—not that it would matter in medieval times, she thought.
Finally, she stood before him in nothing but her smock, and he bent one last time and pulled the fabric up and over her head.
Kate held her breath, fighting her instinct to cover herself. There she was before him, every curve, every pore exposed for him to see.
And he, a Greek god, a gladiator in the flesh, so gorgeous it hurt to look at his perfect form. If ever there was a model of a man’s beauty, he stood before her.
Kate looked down, not daring to meet his gaze, and yet craving it more than anything. What would she see in his eyes? Disgust? A polite smile? Desire? Maybe he was into women with curves for all she knew. Then she’d be in luck.
Ian sank to his knees in front of her and wrapped his arms around her hips, taking her bottom in his hands, then pressed kisses to her stomach. He looked up at her.
“Never have I seen a woman more bonnie than ye, Kate,” he said. “I want to worship every part of ye. Will ye let me?”
Worship her?
Her?
She was too disoriented from the hot desire in her veins and his male beauty to think of it, but distant parts of her psyche shook their heads in disbelief.
She shut them up and let her body and her heart take over.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Come,” he said.
He rose and took her by the hand. He stepped on a small stool set by the washing barrel and climbed into the tub, then helped her in as well. The water was warm, just the right temperature, and Kate moaned at the wet touch of it on her sensitive flesh.
Ian sat on the bottom of the barrel and leaned against the wall. “Come here,” he said.
Kate went to him and settled between his legs. His erection that felt hotter than the water, pressed against her lower back. He reached out to a small shelf built into the edge of the tub and took a piece of soap. It smelled flowery.
“’Tis a Castile soap,” he said. “Made of olive oil, nae tallow as they do here. Father must have bought it a while ago. I canna imagine he’d have spent money on expensive soap in recent years.”
He foamed the soap between his hands, put it back on the shelf, and massaged Kate’s shoulders. She relaxed her head and sagged against him. His hands went down to her breasts and began massaging them, sliding over her skin, playing with her hardening nipples.
“Ohhhh…” she moaned. “This feels so good…”
“I wholeheartedly agree, lass,” Ian said.
He washed her, rubbing and caressing her breasts, then ran his hands down to her stomach, her sides and her hips.
When he reached her hips, he slowed his movements down. He gently kneaded her thighs and spread her legs. The gesture was so wanton, so sexy, Kate bit her lower lip. He slowly made his way towards her sex, every squeeze taking her higher into a cloud of delirious happiness.
Then his fingers were at her sex. He spread her folds and gently stroked here there. Kate arched her back at the intensity of the pleasure that shot through her. He began exploring her there, rubbing, slapping slightly, delicately tugging.
Kate hissed and moaned and shook while he found his way around her body.
“Ye like that lass,” he murmured. “How about this?”
He applied more pressure against her clitoris, and a shudder went through Kate’s legs. All she could manage, was a noise that resembled a meow.
“Oh, aye, I think ye like that.”
He continued his game while Kate tightened more and more strongly in her core.
Then he suddenly withdrew, lifted her, and turned her to face him. She straddled him, his cock pressing against her stomach.
Ian undid Kate’s hair, and the long tresses fell into the water and swam around her like sunrays.
“So beautiful, lass. How did I ever deserve ye?” he said.
He held her gaze, and there was a question in his eyes, as though, he was asking if she was really ready. She bit her lip and nodded. She wasn’t just ready, she needed him.
Lifting her in one swift movement, he invaded her sleek core. He cursed under his breath, and Kate almost fainted from the wave of pleasure. He withdrew, then thrusted again, diving inside her, stretching her to the most delicious limits. He wrapped one arm around her waist to hold her in place and increased the rhythm, pounding into her with throaty, growly noises.
With the other hand, he reached between her legs and found her engorged clit. The moment he touched it, she was on the edge of an orgasm. He devoured her with his eyes, as though he were seeing the sky for the first time after years in prison.
In his strong arms, and under his sweet assaults, Kate was unraveling, being peeled open to the very core of her soul. Their eyes were locked. He looked at her as though he’d die if he didn’t.
The orgasm took her like a hurricane, and as she tightened and convulsed around him, he stiffened, his hands digging into the flesh of her hips to pin her to him with every thrust he made.
She tightened and released, wave after wave in an eternity of world-shattering pleasure. The orgasm cascaded through her in a burning surge, and when it was over, she fell on top of him, into his arms. She hid her face in his neck, inhaling his delicious masculine scent.
As the aftershocks of their lovemaking were calming down, she stiffened.
She wanted to stay in his arms and have him at her side forever. She was falling deeper and deeper in love with him.
Loving him meant pain. Loving him meant her heart would be crushed. Because no matter how much she wanted to stay with him, there could be no forever for them.
Her sister and her nephew needed her. Without Kate, they’d end up on the streets.
The more she loved him, the more she’d be shattered into pieces when she had to leave. And she loved him more and more every minute.
Chapter 21
Thoroughly cleaned and satisfied, Ian held Kate in his arms. They lay in his bed after having made love two more times. He inhaled the scent of her skin and of her wet hair.
Thank ye, God, Jesu, and Mary for Kate.
Ian had never been so happy in his entire life. His body expanded and light, his blood flowing easily through his veins. The intensity with which she’d given herself to him, the responsiveness of her beautiful body, made him love her even more.
He stroked her arm. “Ye’re a blessing to me, lass,” he said.
She looked up at him. “Me? A blessing?” She snorted.
“Aye. And it pains me that ye doubt it.”
She hid her face against his chest, her hair tickling him slightly. “You just like my cooking.”
“Aye, I do. But ’tisna just that.” He put a finger under her chin and raised her head so that she looked at him. His throat spasmed as he met her eyes, big and blue and so bonnie. “Ye came into my life with nae warning and brightened everything. Like a light in the darkness. I didna have hope before ye. Just desperation. But ye… Just yer presence, just seeing ye walking around my house, doing simple things. Homey things. It cracks my heart open.”
Tears filled her eyes. “No one has ever said that to me before.”
“They’re all pigheads.”
She breathed easily against his skin, her breasts caressing him slightly as her rib cage moved. She traced her finger down his chest.
“Tell me about yer home,” he said. “Tell me about the far away.”
His lungs stopped working as he waited for her answer. This all felt too good to be true. He’d need to take her back to Inverlochy. Destiny wouldn’t let her be his forever. If God was willing, Ian would protect his lands against the Sassenachs. But then she’d be gone, too.
And that would be his punishment for the countless deaths he had caused so that he could live. For keeping the lass here, despite knowing that the enemy was coming. For these selfish acts.
Kate briefly closed her eyes, gathering her inner strength. She needed to go to save Deli Luck, she needed to go to take care of her sister and her nephew. She needed to take part in that TV show if it wasn’t too late.
Sooner or later, this magical dream where she had fallen in love with a Highlander would be over. And Ian had told her the truth about himself. He’d told her the most difficult thing he’d ever done.
She wanted to tell him the truth, too, no matter how crazy it would sound, no matter if he believed her or not. It was important that she was honest with him.
Because that was what they were. Honest with each other.
Would he believe her? Her purse with the only objects she had from her time was now with the English; otherwise, she could have shown him the date on the bottle, and the money, and the credit cards. He wouldn’t have doubts then.
But he’d asked her, and she’d tell him.
Kate pushed up from his chest and propped herself with her hand on the bed. She gathered the blanket to her chest to cover her nakedness and also as a gesture of protection, to shield herself from the pain she was about to inflict on both of them.
“I must tell you where I really come from, Ian,” she said. “But you may not believe me. In fact, you most probably won’t.”
He frowned and sat straight up, all easiness gone.
“Do you remember I told you I was from so far away you wouldn’t believe me?”
His gaze grew so intense, his eyes were like black coals in the semidarkness of the room. “Aye.”
She swallowed. “It’s not the distance that’s far. It’s time.”
He shook his head. “Time?”
“When you found me in Inverlochy, I had just traveled in time. I was born in 1989 in another country, the United States of America.”
He narrowed his eyes, studying her as though he was struggling to understand her.
“What are ye saying, lass?”
“In Inverlochy, there’s a rock… It was carved by the Picts, and there’s some sort of magic that allows people to travel through time.”
He shook his head again in disbelief.
“Lass—”
“I know, it sounds crazy. But however crazy it is, it’s true. Back in 2020, I met this woman—Sìneag. She told me about the legend of a rock that opens a tunnel under the river of time. In 2020, Inverlochy stands ruined, and I—”
She remembered the rude advances of Logan Robertson.
“I slipped and fell and hit my head. I think I had a concussion and probably that’s why I lost my memory. But I remember crawling through the darkness, disoriented, panicked, looking for a way out. And there, in the darkness, glowed that carving of a river and a tunnel, and there was this handprint in the stone. And I laid my hand there. I touched it. And I felt like I literally fell through the stone.”
She sighed. “The next thing I remember, is you.”
She let out another long breath.
There. All of the cards were on the table, and it was up to him whether he’d pick them up or not.
Ian blinked. “I want to believe ye, I do. Aye, that does sound like madness. Or like ye hit yer head verra hard. But I…” He shoved his fingers through his hair. “Ye havna judged me or rejected me after I told ye the worst part of my life. And I wilna judge or reject ye, either. I see ye believe ye are from the future. I will assume—at least for now—that ye are.”
Kate squeezed his hand.
“I believe the Highlands are full of magic, and we are a superstitious people. We still believe in faeries and kelpies and loch monsters. Mayhap, there’s the time traveling rock somewhere in Inverlochy.”
Kate smiled, lightness filling her chest. Did he really believe her? “Thank you.”
“Aye. Well. Yer strange manner of speaking. Yer unique cooking. The strange materials in yer purse.”
She nodded. “Yes. It’s all modern. I can’t help it. That’s what I know from back home.”
His face went blank. “Home…”
Kate’s smile fell. “Home.”
“Tell me about it.”
Kate looked at her hands.
“Home is with my sister, Mandy, and my nephew, Jax…”
She then told him everything. Even about her workaholic mom. Her childhood full of neglect and struggle. About Mandy’s depression. About Deli Luck.
Kate remembered the day Mandy and she had bought the restaurant.
They’d walked into the building, and Kate’s head had spun from happiness. There was nothing in there, just empty walls, big windows, and hardwood floors. It smelled like dust.
“I like the blinds,” Mandy said, looking at the windows. Jax, who was three, sat in his stroller and played with a police car that went wee-oww wee-oww.
The sun shone through the windows and the blinds left striped shadows on the walls and the floor.
“They look very retro,” Kate said. “Very diner. We want something more unusual.”
“But this town wants retro and diner.”
“No, there are enough of those places. You know I want to cook something more creative than burgers and spareribs.”
“I know, hon.” Mandy shook her head and shrugged. “But I don’t see any of our customers enjoying a vegan quinoa bowl with avocado, either.”
Kate’s stomach tightened. A part of her agreed with Mandy, but she didn’t want to give in to negativity. Mandy seemed to have felt well over the past couple of weeks. She took her medications regularly and didn’t miss therapy. But there wasn’t any way to know if she was thinking clearly.
“Only because they’ve never tried one,” Kate said.
“And they’ve never tried one because they don’t want one.”
Kate didn’t want to stress out Mandy with unnecessary arguments. She’d better change the subject. She walked towards the back of the space. “Here’s a good place for a kitchen door.”
“Yeah. That looks good. Nice central place for the waiters to move quickly. That’s what you want.”
Kate smiled. “Yeah. Agreed. And there are also stairs leading to the first floor where we all can live. Do you want to see it?”
A smile blossomed on Mandy’s face. “Of course!”
She let Jax out of the stroller, and the three of them went up the stairs and into the apartment. Like downstairs, it was big and empty. The old windows, hardwood floors, and flower-patterned wallpaper made Kate think of old times.
Kate finished the tour and they stood in the living room. “We don’t need much. Two bedrooms is enough, right?”
“Absolutely. I’ll share a room with Jax. And it’s so convenient that it’s in the same building as the restaurant.”
Kate hugged her sister, her small frame feeling fragile in Kate’s arms. “I’m so relieved you like it.” She sank to the floor and stroked Jax’s full cheek with her knuckles. He giggled. “And don’t worry, I’ll take care of you two. With money coming in, Jax can go to preschool. You can go to college like you wanted.”
She picked up Jax, set him on her hip, and kissed his sweet, plump cheek.
“Actually,” Mandy said, and her eyes sparkled for the first time in a long time. “What would you think if I were to help you in the restaurant?”
“Help me?”
“Yeah. With anything. Waitressing. Cleaning. Running the business.”
Kate frowned. “Are you sure you’re well enough? And what about college?”
“I want to go to college to be able to run my own business one day. But here we’ll have a business, already. And I could always get an online degree, part-time.”
Kate bit her lip. “I’d love nothing more than to do this together, but I don’t want to overburden you. I’ll take care of you, don’t worry.”
Mandy’s smile fell. “I’m not worried. I just want to do something. Feel useful.”
“Does Dr. Lambert think it’s a good idea?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Tell you what, let’s talk to her and if
she clears you for work. We’ll figure something out, okay?”
The doctor had cleared Mandy for work, but Kate still had trouble delegating and giving her sister tasks, afraid that anything might trigger another episode of depression. Mandy’s episodes became less frequent with time, and she became more help than Kate had admitted to herself.
Kate told Ian how Mandy had gotten a celebrity interested in their restaurant—it took a bit of explaining about what TV was and that a TV cooking show was widely popular. Ian blinked, disbelief written all over his face, but he didn’t interrupt.
She told him how she’d wound up in Scotland. How this was their last chance to save the restaurant and keep their home. Ian didn’t ask questions but listened intensely. His face solemn, he nodded from time to time.
Telling someone about her life was strange. She didn’t usually like to talk about herself or her past, but sharing with Ian was freeing, and surprisingly easy.
When she finished, the last word drying out like a drop of water in the fire, Ian was looking at her, his jaw muscles working.
“Say something,” Kate said finally, unable to wait any longer to hear what he thought.
“So ye want to go back to… 2020? Is that so?”
She clenched her fingers together till her knuckles whitened and hurt. She didn’t want to go back. What she wanted, was to stay with him forever. But she had to leave.
“Yes, Ian,” she said, her throat painful.
He nodded.
“Aye. It makes sense now.”
“What does?”
“God wouldna have sent me a woman like ye to make me happy. He sent ye to me to punish me. To give me the biggest happiness of my life only to take ye away.”
Pain pierced Kate’s gut. “No, no. No one is punishing you. You were already hurt enough. You should stop beating yourself up for something that was done to you. For something beyond your control.”
“’Tis all right, lass. At least I’ll ken ye’ll be alive and safe, even though in the future. I never expected to be happily marrit. My life is destined to be lonely, lass.”
Kate’s chest tightened painfully. To hear a man like him saying that was so sad.
