by Leigh Morgan
“He’s taking his sweet time, Goddess, and she’s looking outward instead of inward for answers. She’ll never find anything that way.” Merlin placed the stone in his pocket, leaving a leaf of sage from Jesse’s herb garden in its place. One never knew when a good projectile would come in handy.
The air suddenly turned heavy around him and Merlin shifted form until he was once again the gangly twenty-something Jesse recognized. He looked to the heavens and whispered ancient words of thanks in his native tongue.
“Taryn may not be able to find what she’s looking for, but you left a trail a blind seventh grader could have followed. I don’t know whether to shake your hand and offer my thanks or beat you bloody.”
Merlin saw Taryn come flying out of the cottage when she saw Jesse. Jesse’s back was to her and he seemed so engrossed in deciding which path to take with Merlin he didn’t appear to hear her coming. As for her, Taryn seemed to only hear the beat you bloody part of Jesse’s speech.
Taryn didn’t slow down. She bent at a full run and took Jesse out by the back of his knees, tumbling to the ground with him, vying for dominance until she landed on top. Blue eyes the color of hottest flame, dark blond hair tossed and cascading around her broad shoulders, a look of savage intent gracing her features like a she-cat protecting her young, Taryn was utterly marvelous. Boudicca would have been proud to call her daughter.
“Beat him? Touch Merlin and I’ll hurt you, badly.”
“He could have gotten you both killed. Although I’m willing to bet he tried to talk you out of this juvenile display of monumental stupidity. He’s still standing because I know this little escape is your fault and he’s done what he can to make sure I knew how to find you without actually betraying you.”
Jesse rolled Taryn onto her back, pinning her down with one quick and seemingly effortless twist of his hips. “He’s got more sense than to try to protect you with nothing more than the two dozen golf balls he got through airport security.”
And a palm sized stone, my good man.
Jesse’s eyes narrowed and for the first time Merlin sensed the fear riding the man. Anger could be dealt with. Fear made men dangerous. This was not good.
“I wouldn’t beat someone trying to protect you. But, my dear wife, that won’t save someone who actively tries to hurt you. That includes you.”
Taryn twisted under him. Jesse didn’t move. “Try it, husband and you won’t live to see tomorrow. Then who’ll protect me?”
Merlin thought about pointing out the lunacy of using the words beat and protect in the same sentence, but neither of his charges looked or sounded like they’d be receptive to the sway of logic.
Taryn twisted beneath Jesse again, threatening to hurt herself with her struggles. She’d learned to fight, but when she was already had, there wasn’t much she could do against the reality that Jesse was bigger, stronger, and in this instance, right. Being right made all the difference in the world. Even Taryn knew that. She was Celt enough to fight for fighting’s sake, but she was true enough to know when her heart was only half in it. Jesse pushed her down hard. Merlin knew she wasn’t hurt, the indignant flash of her eyes told him her pride was bruised though.
“Why did you run from me?”
“Because you made me want to stay,” Taryn gritted out every word.
“Is that supposed to make sense to me?”
Taryn made a choked sound, half self-deprecating mirth, half pain. “Why should it when it doesn’t make any sense to me. I don’t want to want you. Needing you is even worse.”
“Why?” Jesse’s whisper was barely audible.
“Get off me.”
“No.”
“Get. Off. Now.”
Jesse looked up from Taryn and captured Merlin’s gaze. “Have you unpacked yet?”
Merlin shook his head no.
“You’ve got five minutes to load my Rover. Leave the keys in your rental, someone will return it. Pack the case of wine you bought, I’ve got a feeling your mistress is going to find it useful.” Jesse looked back at Taryn and something in his face made her still.
“And Merlin, I want my credit card back.”
Merlin smiled and ran to do as bidden, keeping his mind’s eye and ear on their conversation. One nice thing about being a druid master was not having to be physically present to know what was occurring.
“You are coming with me and you’re going to do what I tell you to do and you’re never going to run again.”
Taryn laughed in earnest, the daisy pendant Jesse had given her for her birthday shaking lose from her form fitting tank. “Good luck with that.”
Jesse’s smile was lethal, making Taryn’s heart kick to life in her chest. It sent heat to the core of her more surely than anyone else could have through touch. His eyes flashed with possession he didn’t try to hide when he saw her necklace and he bent to kiss her. His lips captured hers. He kissed her like she was a long lost love and she’d just given him back his reason for drawing breath. When he kissed her like he was giving and taking life itself, she was lost. He rolled her on top of him, wrapping his hands in her hair, kissing her like he’d done it every day of his life and would continue to every day he walked the earth. When Taryn groaned and started to writhe he pulled her to her feet.
Once again she was winded. He wasn’t winded, although his navy eyes bled to black and still flamed with banked heat. He led her to the Rover, where Merlin was waiting. He’d managed to do everything Jesse asked him to in half the time.
Jesse held her hand. When Taryn tried to disengage, he held fast. He fished in his front pants pocket, pulled out the keys and tossed them to Merlin. “You drive. Our destination is programmed into the GPS.”
Taryn turned to him. “Where are we going?”
He answered, looking at his watch. “Scotland.”
“But I’m supposed to be meeting Aunt Olive.”
“She’s on a plane right now on her way to meet Mary at Potter’s Woods.”
“That can’t be. I just spoke to her.” Taryn tugged on her hand again. Jesse held fast, squeezing her to let her know he wouldn’t be letting go, and it was up to her how much pain she inflicted on herself. He didn’t answer her statement, he simply raised a brow. She wanted to hit him. He must have read that plainly in her stance because he grinned as if to say: try it.
“Why do we have to go to Scotland?”
“Because I need to get you somewhere that’s safe. Somewhere you have no tie to while my team sets up a perimeter around Spring Cottage. I want you a country away while they do it. Now shut up and get in the car.”
Taryn’s chin shot up like a put upon toddler. She looked like she just might try to bite him if given the opportunity.
Jesse opened the back seat for her, gesturing for her to get in. “Your chariot awaits, dear lady.” His words were polite. His shove was not.
Taryn decided to distract him with a question. “What’s in Scotland?”
“A friend with a castle.”
Damn the man six ways from Sunday. He wasn’t going to tell her anything. Apparently she was still being punished for making him chase her. She hadn’t made him do anything, but he didn’t see it that way. Stubborn man. Taryn decided to accommodate him by getting into the back seat without a fight. Mighty big of her, in her opinion.
As soon as she did, Jesse grasped both of her hands in his gently and he kissed her again. He lifted her hands, rubbed them against his chest and lifted…
She was shackled with zip handcuffs to the handle above the door before the kiss ended. She yanked on her wrists, only tightening her restraints.
“What do you think you’re doing?” She demanded.
Jesse shut her door, slid into the passenger seat next to Merlin who already had the car in gear. He grabbed a baseball cap and pulled it low on his head covering his eyes. The cap sported a stick figure, legs crossed in a yoga pose, fingers in the rounded ‘om’ position, the words Life is Good emblazoned in bright yellow.
/> Jesse pushed his seat back, threatening to squish her legs, a self-satisfied smile on what Taryn could see of his face in the rear view mirror. His cheeks and jaw, covered in dark stubble, white teeth flashing.
“I’m not thinking. I’m taking a nap.”
“Unlock me.” Taryn said, struggling, inadvertently kicking his seat.
Jesse reached in his pocket and pulled out another zip handcuff strip, brandishing it over his shoulder, waving it like some sex toy he was planning to enjoy. Taryn grit her teeth.
“Keep it up and I’ll bind your feet too.”
Taryn stilled. She had no doubt he’d do exactly what he said. She spoke through clenched teeth when she responded.
“Payback’s a bitch.”
He laughed. “Forewarned is forearmed, my love. I salute your intent and I’m looking forward to your effort...right after my nap.”
Jesse’s last thought before he drifted off was one of thanks that things were finally going his way.
CHAPTER THIRTY
After the mind-numbing hours in Jesse’s Rover, Jesse feigning sleep in the front seat with an unholy grin on his unrepentant face, and Taryn having to stop at every rest stop from Somerset to Argyll, Merlin hit the castle grounds at a trot, tossing the Rover keys to Jesse with a small wave and a murmured, I’ll check out the grounds. He may be as old as the hills, but when he was stuck in a twenty-three-year-old’s body, he felt a twenty-three-year-old’s hormonal impatience with lovers who railed against their fate-filled desire for one another while embracing their monumental affinity for all things stupid.
A large forest surrounded the acre or so of garden at the back of Castle Rhia. Much of it was planted as an experimental arboretum after WWI and then again following WWII. The climate here, so close to the coast, was ideal for many varieties of trees and flowering shrubs. For a Druid, it was paradise in a world now filled with more technology than green earth and blue sea. Mourning the loss wouldn’t get him or the earth in a better state and Merlin didn’t waste time on pointless emotion. His purpose here was to make things better, not mourn current affairs of the earth or the heart.
There were trees from the tropics, including palm trees, as well as a multitude of diverse and divergent greenery. The effect was peaceful in a planned sort of way. Much different than the grove where acorns fell and created the forests of his youth. The only constants seemed to be the rhododendrons, that grew like weeds in Scotland, and the ever present spring daffodils which reminded Merlin of his native Wales. The daffodils were gone now, but he could sense their bulbs beneath the soil surface growing stronger in anticipation of next year’s rebirth.
Merlin grew to like Wisconsin almost as much as he liked Scotland and Wales. Maybe his view of the place was colored by his affection for its people, surprisingly diverse, and tasty craft beer and soul satisfying summer music festivals. A sensualist could be forgiven for all that if the Goddess was in a forgiving mood, as she’d been for the last millennia.
As Merlin walked, his urge to smash Taryn and Jesse’s heads together became less crucial. The fecund scents of moss and forest surrounded him with each crush of soil, stick and fallen leaves under his feet. He could smell the brine of the sea to the west and the fresh water of the large loch to the north. The birds and the scattering of forest creatures treated him as one of their own as they continued scurrying and scavenging and enjoying the mid-day sun filtering through the trees, completely oblivious to the danger that Merlin felt stirring in the air. He sensed that precursor to the storm beginning to brew the moment Taryn decided to step onto the path of opening her heart and fulfilling her destiny.
Tolkien, whom he’d assisted with languages and of course coffee delivery, had gotten it right. Sometimes just stepping out one’s door can lead to life changing adventure.
Merlin bent, retrieving an acorn that caught his eye. He held it in his palm, chanting words ancient and true three times before placing the acorn in his pocket. He’d take it with him and plant it wherever Taryn chose to call home as soon as this part of her journey was over. There it would grow strong, keeping silent but ever present vigil over Taryn, her children and her grandchildren. Merlin smiled at the thought.
Merlin had watched over many people in his lifetime. He planted acorns for them all as he cared for each and every one, guiding them to become their best selves. Each person held a place in his heart, but few touched him the way Taryn did. From the beginning Taryn took it as her duty to watch over him, never even contemplating it was actually the other way around. Taryn’s defense of him had always been immediate and instinctual.
When one of the camera men picked him up by the collar and tried to toss him off the set, Taryn stopped the tape, fired the man on the spot and lied to everyone, saying Merlin was her new assistant. Merlin didn’t know what made her do that or any of the spontaneous, sometimes stupid, but always brave things she did. He did know she had a pure heart. That she kept it encased in bark thicker than oak and more prickly than Russian Olive was just one of the things he’d been sent to change.
At times, Merlin thought Taryn saw right through his façade. She protected him despite everything and Merlin loved her for it. In a world where people and their creations were rarely what they appeared to be, Taryn was exactly who and what she projected to the world: a true friend.
Merlin lifted his arms to the sky and his face to the dappled sun in supplication. “Help me Lord and Lady. Help me keep her safe on this quest. Help me gently guide her toward her true goal. And if that doesn’t work, give me the strength to push her stubborn tail every step of the way. Guide me in my goal to help her find her true heart before I have to beat her senseless or use any of my other heretofore hidden skills to make it happen. So Mote it Be.”
Merlin lowered his arms and his head, pausing a moment to add a silent supplication. When he was finished, he bent, leaving a sprig of lavender he’d taken from Jesse’s herb garden in place of the acorn thereby finishing the ritual. He headed back to Castle Rhia with a renewed commitment to his ultimate purpose. He had a love spell to weave, no small matter when both potential occupants kept evading the web, no matter how fine or how sticky he made it.
Time to up your game Magician.
Merlin shook his head at his folly, sure that he heard the trees laughing.
…
Taryn took one look at the six foot something wet dream standing in front of her in the castle’s kitchen and stared in open mouthed appreciation for the male form before her. Jesse had to put a finger under her chin and gently shut her malfunctioning mouth. Tomorrow she’d be embarrassed. Right now she didn’t want to blink.
Throaty feminine laughter saved Taryn from adding drooling to her list of sins against this stud. The blond, bare-chested, barefoot Adonis in front of Taryn, winked at his wife, who was holding their two year old curly-headed cherub of a daughter in her arms. She threw a balled up black t-shirt at his chest which he caught with a smile.
“Put a shirt on Herr-Rock-Star before you give the poor woman a heart attack with your flamboyant awesomeness. Where is your shame Ramsey Macleod?”
Taryn watched the easy by-play between Ram and his wife, Rhia. She especially envied the way Rhia smiled at her husband’s over-the-top Lothario routine that didn’t seem to bother her in the least. Ramsey caught the shirt in one hand and took his time pulling it over his muscled chest. He bent to take his daughter in his arms, and planted a loud raspberry on her pink cheek, eliciting peels of joyous laughter.
Ram turned his attention to Jesse, and pulled a skeleton key from the front pocket of his well worn jeans. The grin he gave Jesse was best described as lethal tiger on the prowl recognizing a kindred hunter and wishing him happy hunting. Ram tossed the key to Jesse, who caught it effortlessly.
“I believe you requested the key to the magic kingdom, my good man.”
“I did.” Jesse returned Ramsey’s smile, the heat it promised made Taryn’s breath catch. In moments like these when Jesse wasn’t
so vigilant and felt free to show his sensuality, Taryn thought there was no one on earth more appealing. Including Herr-Rock-Star.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.” Ram said, covering his toddler’s ears. She tugged on his long hair in response. He howled in mock pain eliciting more of the golden child’s infectious laughter.
“Is that even possible?” Jesse said, his tone suggesting it wasn’t. It was Rhia who responded with a genuinely kind smile on her face and a naughty twinkle in her eye.
“Probably not, Jesse. So feel free to do whatever you wish in my kingdom.”
“Nice to meet you, Taryn.” Rhia said, smiling before she turned serious and whispered, “You get used to men like Ram and Jesse and then you never want to let them go. Don’t hang on to your heart so long that you miss the prize, Taryn. They’re worth the risk.”
Rhia turned and had Jesse in the same affectionate hug before Taryn could say, Nice to meet you too. Jesse was more than a head taller than the small woman, and yet she had him bent to her will. Rhiannon Thorson Macleod was a whirlwind of dynamic energy. She’d have to be to keep up with all the trouble that goes with being married to the world’s most sought after rock-star.
Taryn stared in awe as she whispered something in Jesse’s ear that made him blush, then laugh and then kiss her on the cheek. At Ram’s rather loud throat clearing, Rhia turned, grabbed her purse, her car keys and Ramsey’s flip-flops as she headed for the door with the speed and precision of a NASCAR driver. Taryn needed a nap after watching the energy Rhia expended just saying good-bye.
“We’ll be at Pentla House in Pontryhydyfen if you need anything. Flossie is missing Eppie, and Ram’s still trying to figure out how to get our caretaker to accept laundry service. Flossie doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do. She’s a sweet, stubborn woman who will overdo it if Ram’s not there to push her around and get her off her feet. Ta ta.” With that, Rhia and her family were gone with a wave.
