by Hazel Gower
It was late when Holly awoke. She felt around the table for her satchel and looked inside for her phone. The screen flashed two-thirty. Holly thought it should be late enough to leave. Slipping out of the covers, she shivered at the cold breeze. Even with the fire blazing, the room was cold. Holly put on her shoes and took a moment to warm up by the fire, but she was still chilled.
She packed the dress she’d worn earlier into her suitcase. Holly wondered if she should wait until morning to escape, but she had a feeling Magan wouldn’t let her out of her sight until she was wed to her son. Holly couldn’t have that, she wasn’t going to marry a complete stranger, even if his touch made her body burn with need. That was why she had to leave now. She pulled the cloak out of the satchel and put it on. Holly wished she’d brought her big jacket instead of sticking with the costume. She’d tried to squeeze it into her luggage, but there hadn’t been room.
Using the light from her phone, she made her way out of the room and down the stairs. The hall was dark with only the firelight and a light on the wall. Being as quiet as she could, Holly maneuvered around tables and to the big doors using her phone for light. She opened the door just enough to slip through.
Once through the door, she pumped her fist and almost skipped out of the keep, rolling her suitcase behind her. Holly knew there was a large village at the end of the road. If she could get there, she might be able to hide out until she figured out what to do and how she could get home.
Callam walked back to the keep after leaving Bertha. She’d been in fine form tonight, just the way he liked his women. Bertha had worn him out so much that he’d had a doze before he awakened and left her to go back to the keep.
He needed to be home for his brother, who was marrying a lass their mother had sent for from the future. Callam felt sorry for his brother. To have to be with one woman for the rest of his life…argh, Callam couldn’t think of anything worse.
As he walked up the hill toward the keep, he saw a cloaked figure walking with an unusual kind of light and pulling something behind. He wondered which of his clan it was, he didn’t ken anyone besides his mother who could make light with their hand. Keeping to the shadows, he quietened his steps to see who the person was at such a late hour.
When the small figure got closer, he paused and stood out of the shadows. The small woman screamed and dropped the thing the light was coming from and the thing she dragged.
“Fucking hell. You scared the life out of me.” The woman bent and picked up the rectangle object the light came out of. As she brought it up to her face, Callam took a step back. The woman was beautiful. With raven-black hair and light brown skin, she spoke with an accent he hadn’t heard before, and used language no lady would use. She stared up at him with big brown eyes, and full lips that were turned down in a frown. Callam couldn’t see much of the rest of her body, as the cloak she wore hid it. But if it were anything like the beauty of her face, he was in big trouble.
“Me Lady, why are ye out so late?”
She chewed on her bottom lip as her eyes narrowed at him. “I…um…argh…I’m on my way home. If you’ll excuse me.”
Callam bowed. “May I be of assistance and walk ye home?”
She shook her head, picked up the rectangle object she dragged, moved around him, and walked down toward the village using the strange light.
Callam followed. “It is dangerous for ye to be out alone this late. Where is yer husband? Where do ye live?” He hoped she wasn’t married, but most of the women in the village were.
“I’m not married. Ah, I mean, he’s at home waiting for me. And I live over that way.” She pointed in a direction he knew no new tenants had moved into.
Callam helped his brother and father lead the clan, and he kenned who was in the village. There was no way a beauty like this had moved in without his knowing.
“Yeah, well, I gotta go. It’s been nice talking to you. I better get back home. To…my husband.” She smiled with perfect white teeth.
Callam stood watching her for a moment. She was one of the worst liars he’d ever met. He was shocked though, because women never denied him. Everyone said if his face didn’t get them, then his charm would. He watched as she hurried down the hill until he heard the hooves of a horse coming from the direction of the keep.
The woman didn’t seem to hear the rider. She kept walking like she was in her own world. He kenned he couldn’t let anything happen to this woman. He felt a compelling need to protect her. Callam saw the rider getting closer, and he ran after her and pulled her to the side as the rider passed them.
“Thank you. I didn’t hear or see the horse.” She smiled up at him, and Callam moaned as his heart flipped. The horse was trotting back to them now and came to a stop before them. Callam stood and pulled his sword. His brother got off the horse, scrubbed his face, sighed, and grabbed the woman from his arms.
“Oh, no.” The woman whispered before she struggled in Duncan’s hold. “Let me go. I can’t marry you. I hardly know you. I’m not even from this time. Let me go, you big oaf. You can’t marry me. I have rights.”
Callam groaned as everything made sense, the strange light and her funny accent. This was the woman his mother had brought from the future. But was she destined for his brother, or could she be a mate for either one of them?
Duncan had put Mason and Ian out tonight to help guard the keep. It was Ian who’d come and woken him to say a small figure had slipped out of the keep and was heading for the village. Duncan kenned straightaway who that small figure would be. He’d known from the moment he laid eyes on the woman that she would be trouble. So he got out of bed and dressed, then went to get his horse.
His heart sank when he saw the small figure being chased by a man. Duncan was shocked when he stopped the horse and got off to see his brother with Holly. Callam held her tight to him, and Duncan could see the desire in Callam’s eyes. Anger and jealousy assaulted him at the sight, and he’d snatched Holly out of Callam’s hold and into his own arms, where Holly fought him and told Duncan how she couldn’t marry him. Did she want his brother instead? She then went on about how they hardly kenned each other. Well, he would be happy to change that, if she would just give him a chance. He listened as she told him that she wasn’t from this time and needed to get home. She couldn’t stay here. He wondered whom she had waiting for her?
“Why do ye have to go home? Who do ye have waiting for ye?”
Holly tried to get out of his hold, but Duncan wasn’t willing to give up the feel of her against him.
“I have to go home because I belong in that time. My best friend will worry about me.”
Duncan noticed how she didn’t say parents, brothers, or sisters. “What of yer family?”
Holly stiffened in his arms. “I’m the last of my family. I was an only child, and I never knew my grandparents.”
“So nothing besides yer friend is holding ye to where ye came from?” Callam said.
“No. Yes. Um…that’s not the point. The thing is, I can’t live in this time.”
Duncan scowled at his brother, he’d forgotten about him. Duncan didn’t like the way his brother watched Holly, like she was a tasty treat ready to eat. Duncan kenned that Callam had been with Bertha tonight. Bertha had come to him at the evening meal, and he’d sent her away. He and Callam shared everything. Duncan wasn’t bothered if Callam slept with a woman Duncan had, and vice versa, but that was before Holly. Duncan hadn’t known Holly for long, but he knew from the moment he saw her, felt her, that she was his. Duncan wasn’t sharing her, and he needed to make sure his brother kenned. He and Callam were close, and before today, Duncan would have said there was nothing he wouldn’t give his brother to make him happy.
Glaring at his brother, he tightened his hold on Holly, turned her and picked her up so her eyes were almost at the same level as his. “Why canna ye stay here, lass? Ye have a family now, me family. Ye belong here with me. Ye’re mine. This is the time ye should have been in. Ye’re
me soul mate. Me woman.”
He grinned when she growled. “Ahhh, you may be the hottest man I’ve ever met, but you’re the most frustrating. I’m not your woman. I’m not your anything. I’m not yours. I don’t belong to anyone. I barely know you. This is the second conversation I’ve had with you.”
“Ye like how I look, do ye, lass?” He couldn’t help the wicked smile that spread over his face.
“Grrr, didn’t you hear anything else I said?”
Callam chuckled behind Holly. Duncan narrowed his eyes on his brother for a moment, nodded to her rectangle thing, and then he leaned into Holly, brushing his lips against hers. The moonlight shone behind Holly, illuminating her eyes as they widened. She tried to move away from him, but he wouldn’t let her have an inch. Her tongue came out, wetting her lips before slipping back in.
“Ye do belong to someone, Holly…me.”
Holly opened her mouth and started to speak, but he didn’t let her get anything out. This time he kissed her to show her what she was to him. He pulled her so her body was hard against his. Holly didn’t resist him and he preened at that. Her arms came up and around his neck, clinging to him.
Duncan kissed her possessively, taking what was his and making sure she felt it. He knew his display would show his brother that Holly was not to share. He pulled away and muttered against her lips, “Mine.”
Duncan looked behind him to see his brother holding Holly’s rectangle thing and studying him. When their eyes met, he nodded and walked toward the keep.
“Mmm, what is it about you that turns me to mush? I have no willpower against you. No other man has ever had the effect you have on me. I haven’t even known you twenty-four hours, and you have me at your mercy, Duncan.” The way Holly said his name made his body tense with need.
He wasn’t going to let Holly get away. The way he had felt since he met her proved that Holly was the one for him. Duncan had never been like this with a woman. He hated to admit it, but his mother had brought a girl he could, and would, marry.
Unwrapping Holly’s arms from his neck, he lifted her and placed her on his horse, then got on behind her. They rode in silence for a moment as his mind started to go through everything that could have happened to her if he hadn’t found her. “Ye canna run. It is dangerous in this time. There are bandits, and we are feuding with other clans. They would nay hesitate to take ye.” He kept an easy pace back to the keep. “I ken ye wish to return to yer own time, but ye are here now. I won’t say I’m sorry ye’re here, because that would be a lie. And one thing I can promise ye is I won’t lie to ye. Ye need to at least give this life a try; otherwise, ye’re gunna spend the rest of yer life here miserable.”
Holly sighed against him. “Okay, I’ll try. I’m sorry I got you out of bed.”
Duncan kissed the top of her head. “I kenned from the moment I laid me eyes on ye, ye would be trouble. I had a feeling ye’d try something, so I told me guards to watch out for ye. Ye were just lucky it was me brother ye met on the road and not someone else.”
They rode through the gates and into the bailey. Duncan dismounted near the stable doors, pulled Holly down, and held her hand as he guided his horse into his stall. The young lad came over, groggy from being woken, to take over the horse’s care.
Duncan took Holly inside his home, never letting go of her hand. They walked around the furniture and up the stairs. He walked past the guest room, and Holly tugged on her hand.
“This is my room.”
He shook his head. “Not anymore.” Duncan wasn’t taking any chances. He showed Holly to the last door, where he opened the door to his sitting room. He walked into the next room to his bed. “This is our chamber.”
He let go of Holly’s hand and watched her as she stood still, looking around the room. Her eyes rested on the door they’d just come through. Duncan could see she was ready to bolt, he stalked her, determined to hold her.
“You don’t have to marry me. I can be your guest until we get to know each other.”
Duncan understood that if he weren’t selfish, he would agree with Holly, but he kenned what he wanted, and he didn’t want to wait to hold her in his arms every night, or feel her body beneath his own. Duncan wanted to kiss her in front of his clan, so they all would know she was his. They would learn each other, and get to know one another as husband and wife.
“I want to marry ye, lass. It’s time I marry.” Duncan reached Holly and grabbed the cloak she wore and lifted it off. “We will get to ken each other once we are wed.”
Holly wore a shirt that was big on her, and men’s pants. “What are ye wearing?”
“These are my comfort clothes. Warm clothes. It’s freezing.”
“They are men’s clothing.”
Holly rolled her eyes. “In my time where I live, women mostly wear pants.”
He shook his head. “What do yer men think of that?” Duncan lifted the hem of her shirt to take it off, and she batted his hands away.
“The men don’t get a say. In my time, women have equal rights and we can wear what we want, within reason.”
Thank God, he didn’t live in that time. “Ye are not in yer time. I get a say in what ye wear. Take those off before I do, or ye may not like where I put them.”
Duncan bit his cheek to keep from chuckling as Holly’s eyes narrowed at him while she mumbled about being stuck with a medieval jerk. Slowly she took her shirt and trousers off.
As the trousers hit the floor, he growled at the sight of her, and gathered her up placing her on the bed. He took a step back to undress himself quickly, before she could move away.
“Ye are beautiful, lass.” He joined her on the bed and pulled her to him. The light from the fire illuminated the room. Duncan ran his hands over her, admiring the strange garments she wore. “What are these?” He fingered the black fabric over her breasts.
“It’s a bra.”
“And this”
Holly held his hands as he slipped them under the cloth.
“Underwear.”
“I like them. Ye can wear these. Do ye have more in that rectangle thing?”
She gave a huff and tried to wiggle out of his hold. Her wiggling was arousing, and his already pulsing erection strained to get what it wanted.
“I’d stop wriggling if I was ye.” Duncan pulled Holly tightly to his body, and she gasped as she felt his cock rub against her. “I promise I won’t do anything to ye tonight. Answer me question, and we’ll sleep.”
“Yes, I have more.”
Duncan kissed her head. “Wear a different one on the morrow, so I can see.”
Holly didn’t say anything and he didn’t press. Holding her to him, he breathed in her flowery smell, closed his eyes, and let sleep take him. He kenned he had his work cut out for him to convince Holly to stay and let them get to know one another, but he’d do it.
Chapter Three
Holly awoke as rough, callused hands glided up and down her body, and warm lips trailed kisses across her neck. For a moment, she let herself enjoy the touch and the tingling feelings coursing through her body.
“Good morn, lass.”
At the sound of his voice, Holly stiffened and moved away from him. Duncan let her go.
“I’ll let ye retreat now, only because ye’ll be me wife tonight.”
Gathering up the sheets, she wrapped them around her and slipped out of the bed. “Why? Why do you want to marry me? I’m not from this time. I know nothing about being a wife, let alone a wife of a laird.”
Duncan sat up in bed and her eyes zeroed in on the thick muscled arms as they crossed over his broad, toned chest. Her gaze followed his tight six-pack abs, and down to the erection that stood proud. Holly stumbled back at the sight of the big, wide, long cock. It was huge, not that she’d seen many penises, but the ones she’d seen on TV hadn’t been that size. He chuckled, and Holly snapped her stare up to his face. Duncan’s eyes shone, and his smile was one of male satisfaction.
“I knew from t
he moment I laid eyes on ye that I wanted ye. Then I touched ye and I knew ye were mine.” He got off the bed and walked to her.
Holly backed up until she had nowhere else to go. Duncan reached up and ran his fingers through the hair that had fallen out of her braid. He pulled her to him.
“I ken nothing of being a husband. We will learn as we get to ken one another. I have watched me parents, and I hope we can be as good a match as them. And as for not being from this time, ye’ll get used to it. Ye were sent for a reason.” He brushed his lips over hers, as banging on the door had him moving from her.
“Duncan. Duncan! The lass has gone. She is not in the chambers I gave her,” Magan yelled through the door.
Duncan walked to the chair by the fire where his plaid lay, put it on, then opened the door. “Good morn, Mother.”
Magan pushed past her son, and paused as she saw Holly. “I see ye found her.”
“Aye, I did.”
Holly watched the scene play out before her. She told herself to move, but her brain seemed frozen as she watched Duncan slip into his boots. Magan’s scowl turned into a dazzling smile.
“I’ll have the servants bring her bath up here. We have a lot to do today. The priest will be here before the nooning meal.” Magan came to her and gathered all Holly’s hair to the side. “Ye have lovely hair. I will be able to put it up—”
“Nay, Mother. I want her hair out.” Duncan stood dressed with his own red mane tied with a black leather thong. He looked like an imposing figure no one would cross. Holly bet no one ever did.
