He might’ve convinced himself that that wouldn’t matter to her if she just hadn’t looked at him with those big hazel eyes like he’d just stabbed her.
Irritation suffused him. He didn’t know why she was acting so wounded any damn way. He was the one who’d been wed to a woman in a gag!
Belatedly, it occurred to him that it probably hadn’t helped that he’d failed to show for the wedding night. If he had, he’d have this behind him now.
Heaving a sigh of disgust, he got up and hauled enough water up to manage a bath … of sorts, figuring it wasn’t likely to help his situation if he arrived at their chamber stinking of ale and still reeling from the aftereffects. When he decided he was clean enough, he rung as much water from his tartan as he could, slicked his hair down with his hands and headed back into the hall.
He stood in the doorway to his room a good five minutes, staring blankly at the empty bed. When Maggie tried to push past him to enter, he grasped the neck of her dress and snatched her up till they were practically nose to nose. "Where’s my wife?" he growled.
Maggie gaped at him and then tried to peer around his shoulder. "She’s nae in her room?"
Sean ground his teeth. "She’s nae in our room!" he bellowed. He was instantly sorry, not because Maggie looked like she might faint but because the sound reverberated around the inside of his skull like a thunderclap.
Maggie sniffed disapprovingly. "Like as nae the lass’s fled yer nasty temper, Sean Frazier."
She looked more than a little alarmed at the expression on his face, but Sean merely released her so abruptly she stumbled against the door and then stalked out. Having satisfied himself that she wasn’t in the castle, Sean strode outside, mounted the walls and surveyed the countryside. As far as he could see, there wasn’t a sign of her.
Abandoning the walls, he made his way to the stables. There was one horse missing--Ian’s.
A red haze of mindless, jealous rage instantly swept through him, along with the images of Chloe laughing and talking to Ian. "She’s run off with him," he muttered. "I’ll kill them both!"
The rage driving him hadn’t dissipated by more than a hair when he had his horse saddled and rode out, but he found it difficult to concentrate on following them and maintaining his fury at the same time. By the time he’d tracked them for an hour, a more sobering explanation had occurred to him.
They were headed for the fairy ring where he’d found her.
Fear drove the dregs of jealous rage to the furthest reaches of his mind, completely paralyzing him for several moments.
She was going home.
The pain that washed through him emerged as a bellow that was as much a war cry as a sound of agony. Kicking his horse into a dead run, he ignored the tracks he no longer needed to follow, racing headlong after her, the fear drumming in his mind to the beat of his horses’ hooves.
When at last he burst upon the clearing where he’d found Chloe that first day, both Chloe and Ian were poised like statues, their expressions almost identical combinations of fear and guilt.
Dragging back on his reins, Sean leapt from the horse even before it could halt its headlong progress. As if his dismount had shaken her from her transfixed state, Chloe turned away, tensing as if she were about to leap.
"Don’t!" he cried out, stopping abruptly in his tracks, fearful that, if he rushed her, she’d jump.
Chloe threw a frightened glance back at him and paused. When he could think of nothing else to say, she smiled at him a little tremulously. "It’s okay. Really. I think I finally figured it out. The other Chloe … the one that belongs here, switched places with me. If I’m right, I just have to say the words backwards and she’ll be here and I’ll be home."
Sean swallowed with an effort. "Ya dinna ken if it’ll work at all. Dinna try it, lass."
Chloe frowned at him doubtfully, feeling the fear she’d been trying really hard to ignore, surface. "If I’m wrong, nothing happens and nobody’s any worse off than before. If I’m right, I’ll go back to my own time, the Chloe that belongs here will return, and you’ll be married to the woman you should be married to. I know that’s not exactly what you wanted, but you did get the land and … at least she’ll understand things about this time that I don’t."
Sean studied her a long moment. "I ken this place is nae what yer used ta, lass, an’ I canna make it be, but I give ya my word I’ll do my best ta give ya all that I can."
It should have been ‘no contest’--everything her world had to offer, versus all that what was within his ability to give her. In point of fact, it was no contest. Chloe felt like crying. "Why would you do that?"
Sean reddened, glanced uncomfortably at his brother and then looked at her again. "I love ya, lass."
Chloe felt a blush rise in her cheeks. "This me?" she asked, pointing at her chest with one finger.
"There’s only one you, lass, in all the world an’ all time."
The blush deepened, making her feel hot all over. "Seriously?"
"God help us if there’s another one runnin’ loose on unsuspectin’ society," Ian muttered.
Sean glared at him. After a moment, Ian took the hint and left the clearing to them.
When he’d gone, Sean took a cautious step closer to Chloe. "Yer makin’ me uneasy standin’ sa close to tha’ thing. Do ya nae think ya can come ta love me, lass?"
Chloe felt her bottom lip tremble. It made talking difficult. "But I already do love you, Sean!"
She was on the point of rushing into his arms, but she slipped on something on the ground, losing her balance. Her eyes widened as she felt herself falling backwards. Sean’s eyes widened, his jaw dropping as he watched. Abruptly, he launched himself at her, caught her around the waist and rolled as they hit the ground with a bone jarring thud.
When they stopped moving, Chloe opened her eyes cautiously and looked around. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or sorry when she discovered that, between them, she and Sean had plowed up the fairy ring. Around them, the ground was littered with the decapitated tops of the magical fungi.
Sean was grinning when she looked down at him. "Now, lass, tell me tha’ one more time."
Chloe smiled back at him, tracing a pattern on his chest with one finger. "I think I’d rather show you." Leaning down, she kissed the spot she’d traced. "There’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot since I met you," she murmured, licking a circle around one male breast. "It’s something I never really considered doing before," she added, poking at one erect male nipple with her tongue and then sucking on it briefly.
When she lifted her head, she saw that Sean had folded his arms beneath his head. His eyes gleamed with amusement, but also with love and desire. "I’d nae deny ya anythin’ at all, luv."
A slow smile curled Chloe’s lips. "Good … because you taste better than chocolate and I’ve had this burning need to taste you all over."
Sean’s brows rose. "I’m nae so sure tha’s a compliment," he said doubtfully. He caught his breath on a gasp, however, as Chloe began to work her way slowly down his chest and hard belly, licking, nipping and sucking love bites as she went.
He reached for her when she lifted slightly away from him and sandwiched his hard erection along her cleft, rocking back and forth slowly. She shook her head. "Not yet."
He dropped his hands to her knees, rubbing her thighs through the fabric, but she scooted beyond his reach. Settling on his thighs, she pushed his kilt up and wrapped her fingers around his erection tightly, moving her hand slowly while he watched her through half closed eyes. Leaning forward, holding his gaze, she opened her mouth over the head of his cock.
A harsh gasp erupted from his chest. His shoulders came off the ground and he grabbed her. She sucked the head of his cock experimentally, feeling a dizzying rush of desire flood through her. His fingers tightened reflexively, but he held perfectly still. Smiling to herself, Chloe concentrated on her goal--sucking his cock until he was a mindless mass of quivering jelly. She achiev
ed it faster than she’d anticipated--before she was entirely satisfied herself. After no more than a few minutes, when she’d just begun to feel her excitement building to fever pitch, Sean sat up with a growl, lifting her up and covering her mouth with the same hunger and urgency that she’d felt when she was lavishing her affection on his erect member.
Before he could toss her backwards onto the ground, she reached between them, grasped his cock and guided him to her opening, bearing down on him until she felt him slipping slowly inside of her. He broke the kiss, gasping as if he were dying. Grasping her, he bore down on her until he was buried so deeply inside of her Chloe cried out, felt her body quivering on the verge of release. The sound startled him. His grip slackened instantly.
Looping her arms around his neck, Chloe kissed his throat and began moving her hips, lifting away from him and then settling back again, rotating her hips until she felt his cock stroking just the spot where she most needed him. He squeezed his eyes closed as if he were in agony. "Ya’ll be the death of me, lass," he growled. "I canna hold it."
The words sent a rush through her that catapulted her over the edge. She bit his shoulder as she felt her body convulsing around him. His arms tightened around her as he found his own release.
Abruptly, he collapsed back against the ground, taking her with him. A chuckle escaped him. "Yer a brazen wench," he growled, "molestin’ yer husband before God an’ everybody."
Chloe sighed dreamily. "I like the sound of that."
"Which part?"
She pinched him. "The husband part … You’re not mad with me about the way it happened?"
He rolled until she was under him. "I was right pleased with the way things were goin’ till ya started objectin’ an’ yer father decided ta gag ya." He frowned. "Ye’ll nae regret stayin’ with me when ya might’ve gone back ta yer own time?"
Chloe stared at him. "You believe me?"
He swallowed. "Yer nothin’ at all like the Chloe Monroe that belonged in this time, lass. I’d nae met her, but I’d talked ta more than one who knew her well an’ I knew I’d never wed tha likes o’ her. There was na a soul who dinna say she was cold hearted, calculatin’ an’ cruel. You’ve her beauty, but none of tha bad. I thought I was just so smitten with ya that I just couldn’t see it, tha’ you were playin’ games with my head." He stroked her cheek. "Then I remembered what ya’d told me about how ya come ta be here, tha’ ya’d asked the fairies ta take ya ta the one man in all the world who’d love you, passionately, forever--I knew then tha’ it must be so, because I do an’ I will, lass … forever."
The End
The Fairy Ring Page 13
