“Aye, and here I am.”
He kept grinning, and it was downright distracting. Because slowly but surely, she was coming out of her daze and truly seeing him. From his nearly black hair to his impossibly handsome features. Then there were those eyes that had a way of looking right into her soul.
When he stood, Milly rounded her eyes as she looked up and up. Just like his alternate self, Phillip, he was damned tall. She swallowed as she took in his broad shoulders, muscles, and long, lean body. While all that was daunting enough, it wasn’t what had her leaping to her feet and stumbling back a few feet.
“Why are you dressed like that?” As she took in his green and blue plaid, tunic and black boots, breathing started to become a little tricky. Her eyes swept over the thick forest where moments before there had been an attic. Though never one to panic, she was pretty close right now. Hellishly close based on how everything started spinning. Was she passing out?
“Och, you’re taking this a wee bit rougher this go around,” Adlin said before he scooped her up into his arms. “Easy lassie. I think ‘tis best we get you to bed until you’ve acclimated to traveling through time.”
“No, I’m fine.” She rubbed her forehead. Did he say traveling through time? “Please put me down.” Anything to get away from his hard body. His spicy scent. “By a tree. I’ll lean against a tree.” When he hesitated, she frowned. “Please...Adlin.”
His eyes fell to her lips and lingered. Far too aware of him now, she shook her head. “What?”
“It has just been...” Emotion churned in his eyes as they met hers. “It’s been a verra long time since I’ve heard you say my name. Outside of a dream that is.”
“What do you mean?” She shook her head, upset. “None of this makes sense. Seriously, I need you to put me down, and I need to understand what’s going on because I’m really starting to get frightened.”
About five minutes ago at that, but she wasn’t going to say as much.
“I’m sorry, lass, mayhap I went about this all wrong,” he murmured and finally set her down by a tree. “’Tis just you handled it much better before and I figured having dreamt of me so often...” He handed her a strange sack. “Have a wee dram and gather yourself then I’ll explain everything.”
She looked from him to the sack. “A wee dram?”
“Aye.” He gestured at the sack, grinning again. “’Tis good Scottish whisky.”
“I’m not much of a liquor drinker but all things considered...” She took a deep swig then spat it right out. “Dear God what is this?”
Luckily, Adlin had dodged in time and missed her outburst. “You shouldnae drink it that fast the first time, lass.” He chuckled. “Small sips to start would be best.”
She frowned. “That might have been worth mentioning beforehand.”
“It might have,” he agreed, humor still in his eyes as she sipped this time. Though she didn’t much enjoy the burn of the alcohol, she did enjoy the warmth that quickly spread through her veins. The calm it offered.
Milly leaned against the tree, took a few more sips and again eyed her surroundings. Just woods. That’s all. Nothing scary. Just an attic that turned into trees. She could handle this. No, she had to handle this because she wasn’t dreaming. Was she?
“Okay,” she finally managed. “Tell me what’s going on. Starting with where we are and how we got here.” She lowered her brows at him. “Then we’ll get to why you disguised yourself as Phillip and why you keep saying I’ve been here before.”
“All right, lass. Fair enough.” Adlin made an encompassing gesture with his hand. “Me and my clan, the MacLomains, claim this land as our own and have for a verra long time. We’ve a long, rich history that I will share with you as time goes on.” His eyes held hers. “A history that you were once part of, Mildred. That’s why I say you have been here before.”
A strange sensation rolled through her. A feeling similar to what she felt when she saw the ranch and colonial. “So you’re saying I’m, what, reincarnated somehow? Because I’m not really sure what you’re getting at.”
Though she did based on what Jessie had said. No need to tell him that quite yet though.
“Aye,” he said. “Reincarnated and back with us...back with me.”
“So I’ve been here before. To this place.” Her eyes swung around the forest again. “I was Scottish?”
“Well, aye, but not like you think,” he said. “Like you are now, you were an American with Broun heritage when I met you for the first time. ‘Twas nineteen forty-two in Salem. One thousand and fifty here in Scotland.”
She wasn’t sure which date to balk at. “You can’t be serious.”
“I am.” She could tell he wanted to move closer but was letting her have space. “We’ve had some adventures together, Mildred.”
“Please call me Milly.”
“All right, Milly,” he agreed and watched her closely. “We’ve had adventures, and we’ve shared great love.”
“Love?” She perked her brows. “So we’re long lost fated lovers?”
Heat warmed her cheeks as she contemplated that.
“Aye.” He nodded. “And I cannae tell you how grateful I am to have found you again, Mildred.”
“Milly,” she reminded. “So you’re saying I’ve traveled through time before?” She swallowed hard. “And now I’ve done it again.”
“Aye.” He took a step closer, his heart in his eyes. “Soon enough, the gem in your ring will change colors. When it does, you will remember everything.”
“You,” she whispered then shook her head, so overwhelmed that she was focusing on little things. “You were saying ye to me when you were a child now you’re saying you.”
“’Tis just easier for modern day people to follow,” he explained. “That’s all.”
“Modern day people,” she murmured, eyes wide. “Because I’m in medieval Scotland.”
“Aye.”
Though hard to process, she actually was and for some reason not totally freaking out about it. Almost like the overly accepting feeling that there was something other than a normal human in her attic.
Milly’s eyes fell to the ring. “Tell me about this.” Her gaze returned to his. “Tell me why I dreamt about it. The attic. You as a child. Why you lured me back there because you clearly did.
And why putting the ring on now brought me here.”
“’Tis a bit o’ information you might not be ready for, lass,” he started, but she cut him off.
“Tell me, Adlin,” she said. “Help me make sense of everything. I deserve that at the very least.” She cocked her head. “Don’t I?”
Because something told her she did. And something told her he was about to share what Jessie had meant when she said Milly was different. As it turned out, Adlin was nothing less than detailed with his report.
“After we had our adventures and lost many years of being together, I eventually ended up with you in New Hampshire where we spent our final days together,” he said softly. “Every evening we would sit on that bench in front of your ranch and watch the sunset together. We always held hands as you rested your head on my shoulder and we talked.” His eyes never left hers. “We had so much to share of our lives. Of the life still ahead. Then one evening you...” It was clear he was struggling. “One evening you leaned your head on my shoulder, closed your eyes and said your last words.”
“What’d I say?” she whispered.
He clenched his jaw as his eyes stayed with hers. “That you loved me and you were glad we were together again.”
As she stared into his eyes, she felt a great sadness overcome her. An unexplainable sense of loneliness. “So I died.”
“Aye,” he murmured. “And within a few hours, I did the same.”
Say what? “A few hours?”
Adlin nodded, sadness in his eyes. “Without you, this world was not one I wanted to be in anymore, and it seemed my soul knew it because as I rested my head against yours and grieved,
God took me.”
“I see,” she whispered, not sure she saw at all. “That’s one hell of a tale.”
“It is,” he agreed. “One of many between MacLomain men and Broun women.”
There it was. Another hint that Jessie was on to something. “Could you elaborate?”
“The ring.” He nodded at her hand and shifted a bit closer. “’Tis part of a legacy. It was created harnessing the power of the original rings given to Broun women, with a new intent not so entirely different than that of the original Claddagh rings.”
“Created? Power?” She shook her head, not sure she wanted to hear the answer to her next question. “What are you talking about?”
“The original rings were gold and brought together great love betwixt us medieval MacLomains and modern day Brouns,” he said. “Created by my mentor and me, the new ring is platinum though its gem acts in much the same way.”
“I’m gonna need you to speak English,” she whispered, totally confused.
It seemed he knew what she meant because he continued without question. “The platinum band sets your ring apart from the originals and signifies a new beginning. A mission or quest so to speak, that needs to be fulfilled by you, me and others,” he said. “To help my country get where it needs to be.”
She shook her head. “I’m still not following.”
“Eventually, the gem in the center of the ring will match the color of my eyes,” he said, closer still. “That signifies you’ve found your one true love and it will help you come into the power that is yours.”
“Power,” she said softly, remembering her thoughts in the attic. Though tempted to keep quiet, so she didn’t sound insane, she figured they were past that. “Because I’m a witch.”
“Aye,” he said, again watching her closely. “And the power the ring lends isnae just to you but your MacLomain as well. ‘Tis a mutual power.”
“So you’re a witch too?”
“Och, nay.” He smiled and flashed surprisingly straight white teeth, upping his hotness by an unneeded hundred degrees. “I’m a wizard, lass.”
She couldn’t help a small smile and a mocking tone as she tapped her chest. “So I’m a witch,” then she pointed at him, “and you’re a wizard.”
“Aye.” His smile stayed wide. “And I dare say, you’re a wee bit more powerful this time around, my lass.”
His lass? How presumptuous.
“Okay,” she said slowly. “Again, care to elaborate?”
“It might be more than you’re ready to hear,” he started, but she cut him off again.
“Just tell me, Adlin.”
“All right.” When he leaned against the tree beside her, she had a funny feeling he was positioning himself to catch her in case she fell. “As it stands, time passes differently between here and the future. Much slower here. So a man could age twenty years here in what’s only been a few years in the twenty-first century. So that explains my age.”
“Okay.” Where was he going with this? “What does that have to do with me being powerful?”
“Mildred, you and I died a few short years ago and while I’ve aged normally by being here, you,” he took her hand, “you’ve done something remarkable. You’re only a few years younger than I am now. That’s unheard of considering you were in the future the whole time.”
“How did I?” she whispered and trailed off because she had no idea how to phrase the question. “I’m sorry, but I was born in nineteen eighty nine.”
“I dinnae doubt that you were,” he said. “But it isnae just any witch who can be reborn years before she actually died.” He shook his head. “That can co-exist with her other self. ‘Tis quite impressive. A manipulation of soul and time that makes you more special than most, Mildred.”
Oh, for God’s sake, what?
“All right, let’s just say I buy into this far-fetched tale of yours,” she said. “Assuming you were a wizard in another life, which I don’t doubt you were, how did you never sense I was alive in two places at once?”
A crooked grin curled his lips. “My guess is because you didnae pull it off until after you died and we were separated. Then you were reborn in your own past. So the Mildred I spent my time with had no knowledge of it, therefore, kept nothing from me. We were so bonded, that had she known about you, I would have as well.”
“That sounds crazy.” She shook her head. “I’m not buying it.” She scowled. “And to give you an idea, not buying this is at the bottom of the massive amount of disbelief I feel right now.”
“’Tis quite unbelievable,” he agreed. “But I can tell you with certainty that you died in two thousand thirteen yet here you stand, verra much my Mildred.”
“Two thousand thirteen?” Her eyes rounded and she almost choked on nothing. “That’s only four years ago!”
“Aye, in your time.” He shrugged. “Like I said, ‘tis a bloody odd thing.”
“It is odd!” She shook her head. “And impossible.”
“Och, nothing’s impossible, lass.” Her eye was caught by the small dimple in his right cheek when he smiled again. “’Twas still the same you, just on two different time lengths. An ingenious way to find your way back to me.”
She started to speak but snapped her mouth shut. This was too crazy for words.
“’Twas you who came back to the bench first, you know,” he said softly as he took her hand. “I knew the minute you sat on it. I heard you from across the centuries.”
Her eyes flickered from their hands back to his steady gaze. “Come again?”
“Somehow your soul found that bench. A place we loved. The last place we were together. Your spectral self, or subconscious, visited it in your dreams,” he said. “It was there, when we were both children, that I first gave you the box to hide. A box that when you were of an age to find and wear the ring, would help you find your way back to me.” When he squeezed her hand, shivers raced through her. “This version of me. Not the boy from your dreams.”
“Okay, I suppose that makes some sort of warped sense,” she relented as she pulled her hand away. “Why was it so necessary to find you via the box and ring when you’d already met me disguised as Phillip?” She frowned and shook her head. “Pretty crappy thing to do by the way. If you truly believe all you’re saying, then I’m not so sure you know what love is.” She couldn’t quite meet his eyes. “Because as far as I know, you don’t lie to the people you love.”
“Nay,” he agreed. “I shouldnae have.”
Her eyes widened, and she went still when he stood in front of her and cupped her cheeks, his intense eyes inches from hers. “I only did what I did because I couldnae risk what might have happened had it been me. I couldnae have you run from me. Had the man with the brogue been the one to greet you when you came home, that might have happened.”
“Home?” she managed but realized it had been exactly that in another life. “And why would I have run when I was so drawn to you?”
“For that verra reason,” he whispered. “Had we met under normal circumstances you would have been selling a house for me, not considering buying the house yourself. The dynamics would have been considerably different, aye? And you needed to buy it and move in. ‘Twas the only way you were going to push past the dreams from your childhood, put on that ring and find me the way Fate meant it.”
Though tempted to argue with him, he had a point, and she knew he was right. Had he been standing in front of her looking and sounding as he did now, things would have gone entirely different. Maybe a date would have come out of it, but she certainly would not have bought the house and moved in. Would she?
“It went as it needed to go, lass,” he said, his hands gentle against her skin. “You had to start remembering, and you needed...”
When he drifted off, she whispered, “Needed what?”
“It doesnae matter,” he murmured as his fingers slowly began to brush across her cheek and he moved even closer.
It was becoming harder and harder t
o breathe.
“You’ve no idea how long I’ve waited for this moment, lass,” he murmured. “To see you again. Hear you.” His fingers trailed down the sides of her neck. “Feel you.”
Hell, if her eyelids didn’t flutter shut at his touch. At the feelings rushing through her as she tried to stay mad, confused, determined, afraid, whatever it was she was supposed to feel right now. But none of that mattered as she felt the heat of his powerful body close to hers. The anticipation of what she knew was coming. The feel of his lips. Because he was going to kiss her.
And she was going to let him.
“M’laird?” came a deep voice from somewhere off to her left. “Sorry to interrupt ye but we have a situation ye’ll want to see to.”
Her eyes shot open as yet another handsome man in a plaid approached on horseback. It was becoming more and more apparent Adlin wasn’t lying at all. At least not about being in medieval Scotland. A fact that should have her trembling in fear, but really wasn’t having that effect at all. If anything she seemed to be feeling more and more comfortable. Which seemed way off base all things considered.
“Och, mayhap ye have a more pressing situation as is.” The stranger offered her a charming smile as he swung down from his horse. With black hair and a build as broad as Adlin’s, he had the darkest, most sinful eyes she’d ever seen. After a few short strides, he dropped to a knee, kissed the back of her hand then turned those daring eyes her way with promise. “Greetings, I’m Graham, first born son of Niall and Nicole and first in command of Laird Adlin’s armies. And ye are?” He winked. “Besides bonnie that is.”
Laird Adlin? Armies? She knew enough about Scottish history to realize Adlin was not doing too badly for himself.
Milly might be overwhelmed and confused, but she couldn’t stop a smile if she tried. “I’m Milly. Nice to meet you, Graham.”
“Milly, is it?” A Cheshire, but sexy as hell grin slithered onto his face. “Well, isnae that something.”
Huh? Why was that something?
Sworn to a Highland Laird Page 4
