She waded out of the sea and stretched out her hand to him. She wanted to make sure he was real. He took it, and in her mind’s eye she was startled to see them naked together, their limbs entwined as Hawk made love to her.
Then a feeling of immense pleasure settled in her heart, and she slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him.
She would do nothing to stop him this time, Miranda told herself. She only had herself to answer to now, and she knew what she wanted. Back in that hellish room in the cave, she’d imagined herself burnt to cinders. But even then, Miranda’s only regret had been that she’d never made love with Hawk.
He pushed the hair out of her face as they walked back up to the base of the cliffs.
“What happened? Where are we?” she asked, looking at the beaches of sand and stone to the north and south.
“You passed out. It had to be exhaustion and hunger.” He studied her face. She could see worry lingering in his hazel eyes. “I carried you out of that room and along that passageway. I had to climb a ways, but it eventually led out right there.”
He pointed to a narrow opening just above the overhang where Miranda had awoken moments earlier.
“See that rocky inlet there?” he continued. “That’s where the water goes into the cave. Looking at it from the outside, I think we would have drowned trying to swim out.”
She frowned and tried to shake off the thought of such a horrible end.
“It’s getting dark,” she said. “I’m sorry I wasted so much of the day. You could have awakened me.”
He smiled. “Actually, you slept through last night and today, too. I was starting to worry you’d never wake up.”
She’d slept for more than a day! And she hadn’t dreamed. When she woke up, she was thinking about what she’d seen in the cavern chamber. It was real. She and Hawk were both there.
He pulled her down beside him under the ledge. The sand was dry. He’d picked a spot above the tide line. He added driftwood to the fire he’d built earlier, and the branches popped and sparked as they ignited.
“While you were sleeping, I ventured out a ways. It looks like there may be some breaks in the fog to the south. No sign of the Peregrine yet, but I didn’t want to get too far away from you.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?” she asked hopefully. “The fact that no wreckage at all has washed up?”
“You may be right.”
“Any sign of him?” she asked.
He shook his head. “And no one else, either. The man’s village or his people could have been near the place we camped. Or maybe he was protecting the center of the island.”
Or maybe he’s one of the defenders of the circle of standing stones. That’s where he and the other two were depicted on the wall of the cavern chamber. Even more so than before, Miranda was convinced those standing stones existed on the island. Everything in her visions told her it was a place where they’d be safe. They had to find it.
Hawk reached behind him and picked up the cloth wrapping she’d worn for days. He put it down between them. It was bulging with food. A good-sized haddock that he’d caught. Oysters and razor clams. Even blaeberries.
“Eat.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“Eat,” he ordered, opening up an oyster for her as she sent him a cross look and tasted some of the berries. “I don’t want you passing out again.”
She took a mouthful of the haddock he’d roasted over the fire. “What do we do now?”
“It’ll be dark shortly. We stay here for the night and head south along the beaches at dawn.”
He didn’t give her a chance to do it herself and lifted the oyster to her lips. She laughed as the juice of it dripped on her chin. When she brought a hand up to wipe it, he caught her wrist.
She held her breath when he leaned over and tasted her chin. Fierce longing rushed through her as his mouth moved to her ear, and he gently bit on her earlobe.
“Are you going to eat on your own, or should I continue to feed you?” he asked.
“I can feed myself, but I’m enjoying this.”
His face was a whisper away from hers. She looked into his eyes, and then she touched the growth of beard on his face. Something moved in her heart at the thought of how much he’d come to matter to her in so short a time. She loved him. But with that realization came the memory of her vision in which Evers killed him.
“No thinking of nightmares or anything unpleasant,” he ordered, clearly reading the dismay in her expression. “We need to plan.”
Miranda nodded, forcing back her fears for him. “You already told me. In the morning we walk south along the beach.”
“But before we talk about that . . .”
Reaching behind a rock, he produced a spray of honeysuckle and handed it to her. As she held the fragrant flowers to her nose, a lump formed in her chest. She was trying to do as Hawk told her and not think of Evers and her vision. She tried to think only of this moment.
“I found these growing at the base of the cliffs.”
“They’re bonnie things. I love them. Thank you.”
He smiled. The softness in his expression made her heart leap. “And about that planning. I’m not just talking about tomorrow. I want us to plan for the next day and for next week. And we need to think about how living on board a ship would suit you, when the time comes.”
“I’ll have a difficult time pretending to be a lad again and working in the galley,” Miranda admitted. “But I can do it until we reach Duart Castle if you want. What the future brings after that . . .” She shrugged.
“And you consider yourself a fortuneteller?” he said, lifting her chin. “I’m asking you to marry me, my love. I’m talking of our future together, on the Peregrine or on whatever ship we command.”
He held her in his arms, knowing his offer of marriage might have seemed too sudden to her. She stared into his eyes for an endless moment and then kissed him.
It was too easy to be lost in their passion. He pulled back, gathering her close.
The smell of the fire and the steady wash of the waves over the beach made for a lovely setting, but Rob wished Miranda’s first time could be in a grand chamber on a high featherbed with every amenity and convenience imaginable.
But that was not to be. They were both eager for this to happen. But there was far more at stake here than merely making love. He wanted her, but what if she didn’t want the life he offered? He’d grown into manhood knowing what it meant to be rejected, unwanted, unloved. He’d been fighting his way through life until now. Until he found something better, something he truly wanted. Or rather, someone. It was important that she accept him but more important, he wanted her to accept what he saw as a future for them.
He broke off the kiss.
“You have yet to answer me,” he persisted. “Will you marry me?”
“Well,” she began coyly, placing more kisses on his face and his neck, and driving him mad with desire for her. “You should know a great many things are stacked against you.”
“And here I thought you believed I’m perfect.” He smiled and pushed her back onto the sand, leaning over her and trying to decide where to start. “Very well, but you need to let me answer all charges.”
“The worst of it is that you’re an Englishman. You can’t expect me to overlook that.”
“And my Scottish half will always be there to help you live with it.”
Her hands moved across his chest and his shoulders, running her fingers lightly over his neck. The sensuality of her touch drove him nearly to the edge. He wanted to strip away her clothes, make love to her. But he held back. He wanted Miranda to say what was on her mind before he pushed her down the road of no return.
“You don’t believe what I’ve told you about the gift of the stone relic,” said Miranda. “That is something I’ll have always, for as long as I live.”
“I respect your belief,” he said gently. Rob liked her use of the word always. He traced her bo
ttom lip with the tip of a finger. He wanted to taste her, devour her. “I don’t want to change anything about you. Except, perhaps, these clothes.”
Her hands stilled, cupping his face. “I love you more than it’s imaginable to love any person.”
“And I love you,” he whispered. “I want you at my side today, tomorrow, and after we get off this island. I want you to see a future with two of us together. Can you imagine that for us?”
She hesitated. “I will, but only if you will do one important thing for me.”
“Anything.”
“When you reach a circle of standing stones, I need you to remember all I told you about my magic . . . and I need you to trust me.”
“Where are these standing stones?”
“I’m not certain. But they’re somewhere on this island. We have to find them.”
Neither of them had been on the Isle of the Dead before. There was no way she’d know of any such thing. Rob recalled everything she’d gone through and thought about the images on the wall of the hermit’s chamber that she’d been studying so keenly before falling unconscious.
“I think by tomorrow—” he began softly.
She stopped him.
“Trust me.” Sudden tears glistened like stars in her eyes. “Trust me and believe me. And do what I ask you, then step inside the circle. That’s all I’m asking.”
Rob knew he would be a fool to argue over an unknown moment in an unforeseeable future. And he also knew he’d go to the very edge of the world for her. If he reached there and a circle of standing stones was something that he needed to cross, he would do that, too. He nodded. “Then you will marry me?”
A single tear escaped her magical eyes and danced its way to her hairline. “I come with no dowry. No place I can call home. No family, except for a brother I may never know.”
“I want you, not a family name or property or any of the rest of it.” He kissed her lips, brushing away the wetness on her cheek. “I only want you. The two of us together shall build all of that. Will you have me?”
She nodded. “I will,” she whispered, slipping her arms around his neck and sealing their promise with a kiss that Rob felt in his heart and soul.
Miranda’s thoughts were in shambles. She had yet to see any predestined happiness for them. She longed to see something that would make her believe that the future she’d seen with Evers had already been rewritten. But she had no control over what she saw.
Her breath caught in her throat as Hawk raised her up and pulled the tunic over her head, spreading it beneath her on the sand. She shivered as he studied every inch of her bare skin, his gaze taking a lazy journey across her face and body before moving to her breeches.
She tried to reach for him, but he pushed her back down.
“Let me,” he said, undoing the belt and setting aside the pouch. Inching backwards, he ever so slowly pulled off her breeches.
His gaze narrowed and his fingers immediately moved to the burn on her hip. Gently, he caressed the skin around it. “What happened here?”
She shook her head. There was no point in explaining. She already knew he’d dismiss her story as he’d done before. She could only hope that he’d recall this burn and the relic that lay against it when he arrived at the standing stones.
His gaze moved past the wound.
She squirmed where she lay and a feverish heat spread through her. She was totally exposed to him. She crossed her arms over her chest, uncertain about how her body compared with other women he’d known.
He caught her wrists and trapped them above her head. “You’re so beautiful that you take my breath away. Now, don’t move. Let me.”
Miranda trembled as he kissed her lips, coaxing her mouth open and tasting and playing until she moaned with need. He moved down her body, laying a trail of kisses from her jaw to the tender flesh of her throat, his lips lingering on her fluttering pulse.
“You still bear marks of the woolen cloth you used to bind your breasts,” he whispered.
The tip of his finger traced the flesh below her breasts, around it, on top of it. Miranda took in a deep breath, her body rising to his touch. He watched her, daring her to look down at her own body’s reaction. She did.
As his thumb circled her hardening nipple, Miranda gasped. His hand made a wider journey of her breast, kneading and caressing her firm flesh. Strange feelings flowed through her—wild, turbulent sensations that were unlike anything she had ever known.
She cried out in pleasure when his mouth closed over her breast. He circled her hard, erect nipple with his tongue before tugging at it with his lips and teeth. She paused, paralyzed with excitement, and watched him through half-lidded eyes until she could lie still no longer.
Engulfed by a rising fever that demanded release, Miranda reached for his breeches. “These need to go. Take me.”
His eyes spoke of his smoldering excitement. “Not yet. Soon.”
She didn’t know why they had to wait until his hand slid down her stomach, over the mound, and between the folds of her womanhood. She shook from the intensity of her body’s response.
Her body and skin were on fire, and her breaths grew shorter as he continued to stroke the sensitive spot within her. Miranda threw back her head and moaned as he probed deeper and deeper into her intimate heat, and his mouth once again suckled her breast.
Sensation began to crowd out her consciousness. It was like gliding along on some fast-moving cloud, or running in a dream down some endless hill, feeling the excitement rising and never wanting it to end. But in a bright corner of her brain, Miranda knew that this could not go on forever. An urgency told her that complete fulfillment was near. But she didn’t want it to finish. No matter how rapturous whatever lay beyond could be, she didn’t want to cross that line—not without him.
Blindly, she reached out for him, her fingers restlessly trying to push the breeches down his hips.
“Now, Hawk,” she whispered, the note of ardor evident even to herself as she gazed into his dark and passion-glazed eyes. “Take me now.”
He shoved the breeches down his legs. In the next instant, she felt the broad tip of his manhood against her folds. She pressed herself against it. Driven with the urgency to have him inside of her, she moved with him as he centered himself over her and took hold of her hips.
“This means forever,” he said.
She drew his head down, kissing him with all the passion she had in her.
As he drove into her, Miranda realized that, at long last, this was true passion. As the fiery excitement uncoiled within her, she was grateful that the two of them had a chance to share a taste of this fruit of heaven tonight.
Tomorrow was another day, and she knew she needed to alter it to prolong the forever they both desired.
Chapter 20
Gathered in Hawk’s protective arms, Miranda listened to the rush of the waves coming up the beach. The low muffled rumble of distant thunder rolled in across the cloud-covered sea. From the few remaining embers that were left of the fire, a branch popped, sending a few persistent sparks sailing into the early morning air. The sea had that distinctive briny smell that told her dawn was almost upon them. And a storm was coming.
A knot had formed in Miranda’s chest when she first opened her eyes, and it was growing larger with each breath she took. What was coming was more than just wind and rain. The future was bringing blood. She’d already seen the victims.
Staying here in Hawk’s embrace had its appeal for her, but she could not erase the memory of her vision. But what was the right course of action? Which way should she go to rewrite the future and force a change to happen? Lives depended on what she did now.
Two visions battled in Miranda’s mind. One took place at the standing stones. The Druid and the giant and the woman in white were there, but Hawk could not enter into the safety of circle. The other took place somewhere else. In that vision, she watched Evers kill Hawk and her brother Gavin. There was no evidence of the isla
nd’s three inhabitants, and no circle of standing stones. Miranda was alone and defeated by the Englishman. And as the blood flowed from Hawk and her brother, the life force flowed out of her body, as well.
“Here . . . step back . . .” The words were muttered in anger, and as Hawk dreamed, his foot kicked at an imaginary assailant.
Miranda slipped from the warmth of his arms and sat up. Hawk’s handsome face was frowning fiercely as he fought a battle in his sleep. She loved him. The passion they’d shared was blistering, and she still trembled remembering it. And he’d asked her to marry him. Muirne had known this would happen. She’d foreseen it.
Now it was Miranda’s task to protect her lover.
But two paths lay before her, and that was the problem. If she stayed here and traveled with Hawk to find the standing stones, they risked being captured by Evers. Hawk would die then, along with her brother. That was the future that she needed to change at all costs. The second path required that she set out alone and find the red-bearded Druid and the stones as quickly as possible. But so much was left unknown in that vision. And she could only hope that Hawk would follow her and somehow cross into the circle.
If she left him here, though, what would happen if Evers found him? What protection would Hawk have against the Englishman and the army of the dead she’d seen? And worse, would he think she deserted him?
Hawk stirred when she left his side and stood up outside the overhang. The sky was brightening slightly above the bluffs. She pulled on her clothes and her boots.
The carved images on the wall of the cavern chamber showed her things she never knew. The tablet was part of a wheel, and it had four sections. In her vision, Evers told her that he had the other fragments. He wanted hers. That was why he was here on the Isle of the Dead. And he’d kill to get this piece. Once she was dead and he possessed the stone, the power would be his.
All her life, she’d never imagined that this tablet was part of something greater, part of something that would bring her here. She possessed a gift her mother passed on to her, and the stone and its power were now part of her. It had driven its roots deep into Miranda’s heart and soul. She needed to protect it. She couldn’t let the Englishman have it.
Tempest in the Highlands (The Scottish Relic Trilogy) Page 15
