Adrienne watched her husband, her eyes blazing with love and pride.
The fool will obey me. I am his Queen.
Hawk paused a whisper of a breath, not enough to break continuity, but enough to acknowledge.
And besides, you're past commanding. You're pontificating and being positively redundant. Still, well done, mortal. She is safe, you both are. I will see to it for now and always.
Hawk continued, "… all elements conjoined by ifs, ands, or buts, or other conjoining verbiage shall not, when seemingly in conflict, operate in exclusion or limit in any fashion but shall function conjunctive, overlapping, and allowing the broadest possible definition of the terms as used herein…"
The Fairy Queen sighed. Ahhh, I see. You will not cease this drivel until I offer you assurance. Clever man. You seek my troth? I grant it. You have the sworn oath of the Fairy Queen upon the pact of the Tuatha De Danaan. T'will never be broken, lest our race vanish.
Hawk released the scroll and it rolled shut with an audible snap. Only then did Adrienne see the tremor in his hands as he met her gaze, eyes triumphant.
"She has given us protection and fealty." His smile could have lit the Samhain bonfires. His eyes swept her from head to toe, lovingly lingering on every inch in between.
"We're safe?" Adrienne whispered, tears springing to her eyes.
I shall see to it myself, the silvery voice lilted. Now and for always. Fool?
Adam growled.
Since I can't seem to keep you out of trouble you have a new companion. Aine will spend the next five hundred years with you. She will endeavor to keep you in line.
Not Aine! Adam's plea was a shade away from a whine. That snoopy little fairy has a crush on me! I could spend my time pleasing you, my Queen. Let me!
You will please Aine, fool, or you will spend the next thousand years in the foot of a mountain by yourself. You think you're bored now?
With one last searing look at the Hawk, Adam vanished.
Now where were we? the Queen asked. Adrienne squinted hard in the direction of the voice. She could barely discern the shimmering outline of a woman hovering in the misty air behind the Hawk.
Ah, yes. The two of you were about to have a wedding on the ridge by the sea. The fool has a beastly sense of timing. I shall pick up where it was left off. I, Aoibheal, Queen of the Tuatha De Danaan, name you man and wife. Neither mortal nor immortal shall ever tear you asunder, lest they incur my eternal wrath. There. You've been wed by the Fairy Queen. None can lay claim to such a legend.
Adrienne and the Hawk were still staring at each other across a space of garden, both afraid to move even an inch.
Well? Kiss the woman, you big beautiful man! Go on.
The Hawk sucked in a harsh breath.
He'd changed, Adrienne realized. Time had rendered him even more beautiful than before. She didn't know he was thinking the same thing about her. His eyes slid over her, from her silvery-blond hair to her bare toes peeping from under a pair of strange trousers.
And then she was in his arms, folded in that strong embrace she'd dreamed about every night for the past five months as she lay in bed, her hand resting on her rounded belly, begging the heavens for just one more day with her husband.
He brushed her lips with his. "My heart."
"Your heart is… oh!" She lost her breath beneath his ravishing lips.
"Ahhh," the Queen marveled, for even the Tuatha De Danaan were in awe of true love. You are worthy of what I now give you, she whispered just before she vanished. Consider it a wedding gift…
* * *
EPILOGUE
adrienne breathed deeply. nothing would ever compare to the scent of roses and spring rain, the unceasing roar of the waves against the west cliffs and the splash of salt in the unspoiled air. She had ducked outside to watch twilight move in over the sea. Then she would return to Lydia and continue making baby plans. She smothered a laugh with her hand. Lydia had finally outright ordered the Hawk to go away, complaining that she couldn't possibly welcome her daughter-in-law back properly and prepare for her grandchild if he wouldn't stop kissing her all the time. Not that Adrienne had minded.
Like a chastened boy, the Hawk had glared.
"You have the rest of your lives together," Lydia had remarked crisply, "while we women have only a few short months to prepare for the babe."
"A few short months?" Hawk had looked stunned. Then worried. He'd raced off, muttering under his breath.
Now Adrienne stood on the stone stairs, head tilted back, drinking in the quiet beauty of the velvety sky. A flicker of movement on the roof caught her eye.
Grimm peered over the parapet at her and his handsome face lit with a smile. She and the Hawk had talked that afternoon and he had filled her in on what had transpired, including Grimm's part in helping to bring her back. Only hours before, Grimm had clasped his hand to his heart and on bended knee begged forgiveness for lying. She'd granted it readily.
"Hope you're not looking for a star, Grimm," she called up to him.
"Never again," he vowed fervently.
Adrienne gasped, as at precisely that moment a tiny white speck sparked and sputtered, then traced a downward spiral across the sky. "Oh my God! Grimm, look! A shooting star!" She squeezed her eyes shut and wished fiercely.
"What did you just wish?" he growled down at her, rigid with tension.
When she opened her eyes again, she said saucily, "I can't tell. It's against the rules."
"What did you just wish?" he roared.
"My, aren't we superstitious?" she teased with a smile.
He glowered down at her as she made her way back into the castle. Glancing over her shoulder, she flashed him an impish grin. "Brace yourself, Grimm. I will tell you this much—I spent my wish on you"
"Don't you know how dangerous it is to be throwing idle wishes about, lass!" he thundered.
"Oh, this one wasn't idle at all," she called cheerfully before the door swung closed. On the rooftop of Dalkeith, Grimm sank to his knees and stared up into the sky, desperately seeking another wishing star… just in case.
* * * * *
Adrienne's gown rustled as she slipped down the corridor. Lydia had told her where she might find the Hawk and, over tangy mint tea, had filled her in on a few things her husband hadn't bothered to mention to her. Such as the fact that he'd destroyed her beloved nursery, the one she'd lain awake fantasizing about when she'd been stranded in the twentieth century. So that was where he'd rushed off to looking so worried about "the scant few months left." She entered the nursery so silently, Hawk did not hear her approach.
She traced her fingers lightly and lovingly over an exquisitely carved doll and paused.
He was kneeling beside a cradle, rubbing oil into the wood with a soft cloth. Clad only in the blues and silvers of his kilt, his dark hair fell forward in a silky wave. The nursery was aglow with dozens of oil globes, casting his powerful torso a gleaming bronze. His eyes were narrowed in concentration and the muscles in his arms flexed and bunched as he rubbed.
Adrienne leaned against the jamb and watched him in silence, tallying the room's meager furnishings. Many of the toys were back, but all the cradles and beds were all gone. What phenomenal passion must have raged through him!
"I suppose I should feel flattered," she said softly.
His head jerked up guiltily.
Adrienne stepped into the room, conscious that her breasts, made fuller by pregnancy, swayed beneath her gown, and that the Hawk seemed fascinated by the ripeness of her lusher curves. They'd made love that afternoon, desperately, quickly, and fiercely, scarcely making it from the gardens to the privacy of their bedroom. Lydia had patiently waited all of one hour before she'd knocked on the door and demanded to see her daughter-in-law.
When Adrienne had been trapped back in the twentieth century, fearing she would never be intimate with her husband again, memories of their incredible passion had cascaded through her mind with bittersweet fury, heightening
her awareness of all the sensual things she'd longed to do with the Hawk, but had been denied. Those long, torturous months of desire, coupled with the demanding hormones of pregnancy, enhanced her daring now. She hungered for the slow, delicious loving she'd been afraid she might never experience again. "Hawk?"
He gazed up at her, still crouched on the floor, ready to pounce if she so much as moved an inch.
Adrienne moved—deliberately and erotically. She stooped to pick up a toy soldier, bending so that her breasts threatened to spill from her bodice. She caught her lower lip between her teeth and sent the Hawk a smoldering look from beneath lowered lashes. He was on his feet in an instant.
"Stop!" Adrienne raised a hand to hold him back.
Hawk froze mid-stride.
"What do you wish of me, Adrienne?" he whispered huskily.
"I need you," she said breathlessly. He lunged forward and she raised her hand again. "No, let me look at you," she said as she circled slowly around him. She smiled when his eyes widened. "When I was back in my time, one of the things that I really wanted to clear up was a question about Scotsmen and their kilts___"
"And that question was?"
"I saw you mounting your horse one day—"
"I know you did," he said smugly. "You were in the window by the nursery."
"Oh! You did do it on purpose!"
Hawk laughed, mischief crinkling his eyes, and it fueled her bold resolve. If he could tease her—well, two could play that game. She'd see how well he handled such toying with his desires.
Stepping closer, Adrienne placed her hand on his muscled thigh and stared into his eyes provocatively. His nostrils flared, and his eyes darkened beneath hooded lids. With her other hand she tugged the bodice of her gown, freeing her breasts to spill over the top. She felt deliciously wicked, knowing her nipples were rosy, puckered, and begging to be kissed. When he leaned forward to do just that, she pushed him back playfully, slid her hand up his thigh, and wrapped it around his shaft, delighted by his husky groan. "Nothing beneath this plaid, just as I suspected," she observed pertly.
"Adrienne. You're killing me."
"I've only just begun, my love." She wrapped her fingers around his magnificent arousal and slipped her hand up and down his shaft with a velvety friction.
Hawk grabbed her hips and lowered his head to kiss her; but she moved her head and laughed when he buried his face in her breasts instead.
"Stop," she commanded.
"What?" he asked disbelieving.
"Step back," she encouraged. "Don't touch me until I ask you to. Let me touch you."
Hawk groaned loudly, but let his hands fall from her body. His eyes were fierce and wild, and Adrienne suspected he wouldn't permit her subtle torture much longer.
She leisurely unfastened his kilt and dropped it to the floor. Her husband stood nude before her, his bronze body glistening in the candlelight, his hard shaft bucking insistently. Adrienne traced a fascinated and admiring path over his shoulders and across his broad, muscled chest. She lightly brushed his lips with hers, kissed his jaw, his nipples, teased his rippled abdomen with her tongue, then sank to her knees, her mouth inches from his shaft, her hands splayed on his thighs. "Adrienne!"
She kissed the sweetness of him, stroking her tongue up and down his hard length. Hawk buried his hands in her hair and made a raw sound deep in his throat. "Enough!" he pulled her to her feet and backed her against the ledge beneath the windows. He swept her off her feet, deposited her upon the ledge, and tossed her gown up, spreading her legs to accommodate him. "Now, Adrienne. I want you now" He kissed her deeply as he gently but insistently thrust into her beckoning wetness. Adrienne gasped with pleasure as he filled her completely. Hawk stared into her face, taking careful note of each shudder, each moan that escaped her lips, and just when she reached convulsively for the exquisite apex, just when she felt the sweet tremor begin—he stopped moving completely.
"Hawk!"
"Will you be teasing me again like this, my love?" he murmured.
"Absolutely," Adrienne replied saucily.
"You will?"
"Of course. Because I know my husband would never leave me wanting. Just as I would never tease him without completely satisfying his desires. So, satisfy me, my sweet highland laird. Take me to Valhalla, husband."
He laughed softly, then thrust into her carefully and gently until they came in perfect tempo. The intensity of their union, so perfect in body and soul, made Adrienne cry aloud with the wonder of it.
Later, the Hawk shut the nursery door and carried his sleepy, satisfied wife to the Peacock Room, where he held her in his arms through the night, marveling at the completeness of his life with her in it.
* * * * *
Lydia smiled when she heard the nursery door close soundly above her. All was well at Dalkeith-Upon-the-Sea. She paused a dreamy moment imagining the wee bairns that would grace the nursery soon.
Life had never been sweeter.
But it could be even sweeter still, Lydia.
Lydia's eyes narrowed thoughtfully on Tavis MacTarvitt's back as he stood pensively before the fire. A wave of guilt crashed over her as she recalled how he'd come back to her that night after talking to the Hawk, and she'd turned a cold shoulder to him, and retreated once again into the familiar safety of formality.
The strain in his patient smile was all the reproof he'd betrayed.
My love, he'd called her, and she'd felt so guilt, for having love when her son had been so alone that she had refused to acknowledge it. How much more time do you plan to waste, lass?
Very quietly, Lydia unpinned her plaits, freeing her wavy chestnut hair. Her eyes never wavering from Travis's back. With a smile of anticipation she tossed her head upside-down, finger-combed her hair into tousled curls, then flipped it back over her head, allowing it to fall in a wild tumble down her back.
So many years?
She tugged nervously at her gown, studied his back another moment, then shrugged and unbuttoned a few pearl buttons at her collar. She took a deep, trembling breath as the butterflies took silken wing inside her belly.
"Tavis?" she called softly. Once decided, she fully committed to not wasting one more precious moment.
Tavis's back straightened and he peered briefly over his shoulder at her.
She almost laughed aloud when his eyes flew wide and he jerked completely around to face her, his gaze roving over her wild mane, her loosened collar, her parted lips.
"Lydia?"
She heard a hundred questions in his one word, and was thrilled by the knowledge that she finally had the right answer to give him. "I've been wondering a thing, you see, old man," she said patting the bench beside her. "Those hands of yours…" Her voice trailed off, a wicked sparkle in her eyes. Coquettishly, she wet her lower lip in an invitation older than time itself.
"Aye?" There was a hoarse catch in his voice.
"Being that they're so talented and strong…"
"Aye?" His brows rose. His breath snagged in his throat as Lydia made a suggestion for those hands that shocked and delighted Tavis MacTarvitt to the very seat of his soul.
* * * * *
When Grimm finally left the rooftop that night and entered the Great Hall, he stifled an oath and scrambled, in full retreat, right back out the door. In the hall, of all places! Lydia! And Tavis!
"Och! Love!" he grumbled to the stars that twinkled above him with dispassionate splendor.
* * * * *
Three months later the healthy cry of a baby boy resounded through the halls of Dalkeith-Upon-the-Sea.
Hawk Douglas, bursting with pride, sat at Adrienne's side on the bed.
"Look at him, Hawk! He's perfect!" Adrienne exclaimed.
"He's not the only one," Hawk said huskily, smoothing her hair back from her forehead.
Adrienne smiled at him. He'd held her hand through her labor, alternating between cursing himself and cursing her for letting him get her pregnant in the first place.
&n
bsp; But there would be many more such times, Adrienne thought, because she fully intended to have half a dozen babies. Hawk was just going to have to get used to the process of bringing them into the world.
Adrienne touched his cheek wonderingly. "You're crying," she whispered.
"Happy tears. You've given me a new life, Adrienne—a life I never dreamed I'd have."
She gazed at him adoringly, their baby snuggled between them.
Adrienne could have remained like that for hours, but Grimm entered the Peacock Room just then, briskly ordering the guards about. "Place it there, by the bed."
Hawk glanced over his shoulder. "Ah, the cradle. I finished it last night. I suspect he will not be seeing much of it for a while." Hawk possessively drew their tiny son in his arms. "He should sleep with us for a time, don't you think?"
"I don't think I could allow him out of my sight, could you?"
Hawk nodded his agreement as he studied his son intently. "My jaw," he said proudly. "Just look at that fine strong angle."
Adrienne laughed. "Stubborn angle," she teased, "and he already has dark hair."
Behind them Grimm made a choked sound.
Hawk glanced over his shoulder questioningly.
"What the bloody hell… er, excuse me, milady," he said to Adrienne, "and pardon me, wee one," he said to the babe. "But why did you go and carve this on the cradle, Hawk?" Grimm asked. "Haven't we all had enough of the blasted Fairy?"
Hawk raised his eyebrows in confusion. "What are you talking about, Grimm?" He gently relinquished their son to Adrienne and strode to the cradle.
Flowing letters had been carved deep into the wood. The entire cradle gleamed as if it had been brushed with a sprinkling of gold dust. Hawk gazed a long moment at words he knew he hadn't put there. A smile curved his lip as he read aloud to Adrienne:
Beyond the Highland Myst Page 29
