The Highlander's Bargain

by Barbara Longley

  She bit her lip and averted her face, fisting her hands at her sides. Robley placed a finger under her chin, bringing her gaze to his. “Is there something you wish to tell me?”

  “I . . . I don’t know for sure, but . . .” She swallowed. “I think I might have some of that faerie blood running through my veins,” she whispered.

  Shock sluiced through him, realization fast on its heels. He was naught but a pawn in some scheme Madame Giselle had foisted upon him, a means to an end, the end being bringing Erin back through time like she had True. What did the faerie know that led her to seek out Erin, and how could he protect her from whatever fate lay in wait for her?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Right there in the Roseville AMC theater, Erin shared her secret. Not since her unstable, less-than-ideal childhood had she ever told another living soul about her abilities, and here she was spilling it to Robley of freaking fifteenth-century clan MacKintosh. “I can tell things about people, like where they hurt, whether or not they’re healthy, stuff like that,” she stammered.

  “When I touch my patients, their pain lets up some, or their nerves calm. Things like nausea or headaches I can handle with no problem. Bigger things, like broken bones or disease”—she shook her head—“not so much. All I can do is ease discomfort a little for the more serious conditions.”

  She glanced at him, trying to gauge his reaction. When he spoke of True, she’d never detected anything but respect, but still. After a lifetime of hiding who she was, sharing left her vulnerable. Exposed. He gave nothing away. She’d grown more than accustomed to his presence in her life, to the easy closeness that had developed between them. She didn’t want that to change, didn’t want him to see her differently, and that was bound to happen. Before she’d just been ordinary Erin Durie. Now she was gifted. Would he be guarded around her, less accessible?

  “Perhaps somewhere in my family tree there’s a faerie perching on one of the limbs. Like what you said about True and the boy she saved. I don’t know where else I would’ve come by my abilities. Do you?”

  “Humph.”

  That was it? A grunt? No comment? His intense scrutiny put her more on edge than she already was. She studied the shoelaces of her boots. The lace on the right was coming undone. “So I guess 3-D movies are out. Do you want to see if they’ll exchange our tickets? We can see the same movie without the 3-D, or maybe something different.”

  “If it pleases you, I’d rather go home. There is much we need to discuss.”

  Her eyes widened. Maybe she preferred his lack of comment on the matter. Discussions about her abilities had never gone well when she was a kid. Her stepdads had never appreciated hearing their livers, hearts and lungs were suffering from all the abuse they heaped on them. Her mom had scoffed at her, insisting she was just being a little smart-ass with an overactive imagination.

  Her heart raced, and the inside of her mouth went as dry as soda cracker crumbs. “What is there to discuss? My giftedness doesn’t really change anything. You’re here for a while, and—”

  “Can we have this conversation in private, love?” He drew her into his arms and rested his chin on top of her head. “We can watch a movie at home anytime.”

  Anytime? Like his month-long vacation wasn’t almost up, and he wasn’t planning on leaving her soon? Lately, the leaving part obsessed her. Any day he could pop out of her life the same way he’d popped into it. The thought of him leaving sent her into a tailspin. She put her arms around his waist and burrowed into his warmth. If only she could stay in his arms forever. She sighed. Thoughts like that would only lead to heartbreak. Correction, more heartbreak.

  “All right.” She stepped away from his warmth. “Let’s go get our jackets. Toss your glasses in there.” She pointed to a cardboard box set up just inside the door to the theater.

  “I’ll get our things.” He took the 3-D glasses from her hand and dropped both pairs into the box. “Wait here for me.”

  They left the theater and walked through the parking lot to her car. On the ride home, the silence stretched between them, unsettling her even more. Rob stared out at nothing with a pensive expression on his face.

  “What are you thinking about?” she asked. “You’re so quiet.”

  “Hmm.” He spared her a glance. “When I came back through time, I fixed New York in my mind. Giselle said focusing on a particular time and place would take me there.” He shifted and ran his palms down his denim-clad thighs. “Instead of New York, I ended up in your arms. I’m certain ’twas no accident. Lady True suggested my obsession with the future and the overwhelming desire to come here may have been planted by the faerie.”

  “Do you regret coming here instead of ending up in New York?” She held her breath.

  He scowled at her. “How can you ask such a question? You know I dinna. I think less and less of returning to my time. That should frighten me, but it doesn’t.” He reached out and lifted her braid in his hand to run his thumb over the end. “I’ve yet to see your hair free of this braid and flowing about your shoulders, lass. I’d very much like to see that.”

  His touch caused an internal riot of sensations—all of them sensual. What did he mean when he said he thought less about returning to his time? Did he mean he wanted to stay because of her? Or was he referring to the new life he’d begun, working with Connor and forming friendships with the men in her reenactment club? She flashed him a confused look. “What does seeing my hair down have to do with anything?”

  He dropped her hair and went back to staring out the window. “It has naught to do with it.”

  “Well, that was cryptic,” she huffed out. “What’s really on your mind?”

  He plowed his fingers through his hair and blew out a breath. “Giselle had a reason for sending me to you. I believe I’m to bring you back with me to the past.”

  OK! Did not see that coming. Now she knew what a knee-jerk reaction felt like, ’cause pretty much everything inside her jerked. “Sorry, Rob. I don’t have the kind of balls it would take to leave my time for yours.” She gripped the steering wheel with both hands, her eyes wide. “That’s not going to happen.”

  “Nay? That’s it? You willna even consider the matter?”

  “I’m strictly a twenty-first-century girl.” She shook her head. “My life is here. I have goals and plans. Ending up in the fifteenth century does not figure into my future.”

  “Plans dinna always unfold the way we wish them to, lass. Mayhap fate has another purpose in store for you, a greater one.” He shot her a look, his eyes filled with a challenging glint. “Why do you belong to that reenactment club? Surely the past holds some attraction, aye?”

  “Yes. It does—as a social outlet, and I love getting dressed up.” She lifted her chin. “I may be drawn to some aspects of the past, but I like my HDTV, hot water, central heat, electricity and all the other technological perks that my time has to offer. I like the advances we’ve made in medicine. I want to work in a hospital where I know I’m backed up by a team of experts if something goes wrong with a delivery.”

  They reached her apartment building. She pulled into her parking spot and cut the engine. “If I knew I could return, I might consider a visit, but my place and time are here.” Slinging her purse over her shoulder, she climbed out and headed for the door.

  Robley followed. “Humph.”

  “I don’t know what ‘humph’ means. You do that a lot. I’m going to start calling you Sir Grunts-a-Lot.” More than anything she wanted to ask him to stay with her, but even if he did, it wouldn’t last. They’d get tired of each other. Then the fights would start. They’d hurl hurtful words, resentment would grow and all the good feelings would disappear. She’d seen it over and over. Love never lasts, and neither do relationships.

  What about Connor and Kathy? They’d been together since they were teens, and their love and respect fairly lit up a room. The
green serpent of envy coiled in her gut, and she blinked against the hot tears filling her eyes. OK, there were a few exceptions, but she had no reason to believe she’d be one of them. Infidelity was probably an inherited trait, and she’d gotten it from both sides. The only difference between her and good old Mom was that she never let herself get close enough to a man to find out whether or not she could make the good feelings last. Why risk it? The disappointment would pulverize her.

  Anxiety laced with sadness gripped her heart. Dragging herself up the stairs to her apartment, memories from her childhood swamped her. It was always the same. Her mother and her latest-and-greatest would start out giddy with love, and Erin would be showered with false affection and presents by the stepdad du jour. After a honeymoon period lasting all of six months, maybe a full year, the wear and tear would start to show. Then the angry words would fly through the air like poison darts. During those times, Erin was pretty much ignored by both the adults she should’ve been able to depend on the most. Who needs it? She opened her door and walked into her apartment.

  Before she could even take her jacket off, Robley took her by the shoulders, turned her around and wrapped her up in his arms. “I understand, love.”

  “What do you understand?” She scowled at him.

  “I ken why you dinna allow yourself to have expectations. ’Tis clear as day why you gird your heart with impenetrable armor, but I can see through to the hurt you wish to hide. More than anything, I wish to sweep the pain away and leave naught but joy in its wake.”

  Before she could respond, his mouth covered hers in a kiss so tender and sweet, her soul took flight. The man could kiss. Her legs went weak, and her breath got hung up in the flutters and flips happening in all her other major organs. Delicious heat spiraled through her as his tongue slid over and around hers. She pressed closer to his fine, muscled chest and circled her arms around his neck to play with the soft hair covering his collar.

  She should back away, but she couldn’t. Instead, she kissed him back, opening up to him like a flower desperate for sunlight. He was the sun, the center of her galaxy, and she had been drawn by his magnetism into his orbit. When had that happened? How would she survive once he left? He pulled back, eliciting a groan of protest from her.

  “There are things you need to understand, love.” He rested his forehead against hers. “Things I must tell you before we continue down this path.”

  “Yeah?” She imagined a path all right, a path leading straight to her bedroom, with items of clothing littering the oak floor like bread crumbs along the way. “Like what?”

  “MacKintosh men give their hearts but once and for all time. We do no’ take our vows lightly. When I take that step, I mean to see it through to the end of my days. There are no divorces, lass. I am no’ a fickle man. You can depend upon it—you can depend upon me.”

  “Oh, Rob.” Her eyes stung, and her stupid chin quivered like a five-year-old’s. “Don’t you think everyone believes that in the beginning? Love starts out all shiny and bright. New lovers behave as if they’re on some kind of high, drugged on a magical substance that only they have access to. But eventually the high wears off and they come down. Things always turn ugly.”

  “Nay, lass.” He cradled her face in his large hands. “My mother and father still love each other as much as they did when first they wed. Mayhap even more, for they have a lifetime of memories to shore them up during the tough times. The trials they’ve been through have strengthened their bond, deepened their respect and regard for one another. They’ve been married nigh on thirty years now. ’Tis the same for my uncle and his lady wife and my cousin and True. Love does last. Marriages can be a wellspring of love and respect lasting a lifetime and beyond. They don’t have to end in acrimony and bitterness.”

  He lifted her chin with a finger and brushed his lips across hers. “The marriages of my clan are the lasting kind. ’Twill be the same for us. I swear it by all that I hold dear. Will you accept my love, Erin of clan Durie? For my heart longs to make a home with yours. I burn for you, and I always will.”

  She swallowed against the tightness in her throat. “Oh, Rob . . . I don’t think . . . It’s too soon to talk about this stuff. You’ve only been here a few weeks. We hardly know each other.”

  “I know you were meant for me.” He gripped her shoulders and dragged her back into his arms with bone-crushing force. “No matter how long it takes, I shall convince you of the veracity of my convictions.”

  “I don’t even know what that means,” she wailed, burying her face against the bare skin at his throat. She took in his unique, wonderful smell. “I need a dictionary just to talk to you.” She placed her palms against his pecs, just as the temperature in her apartment took a sudden nosedive.

  Wait. A hot guy kisses you, holds you in his arms and tells you his heart wants to shack up with yours . . . and the temperature drops? Shouldn’t it rise? Is this some kind of sign?

  A wave of scent followed the sudden change in temperature. “What is that?” She sniffed the air. “It reminds me of the way it smells outside just before a rainstorm hits, only we’re inside. Weird.” Her brow furrowed, and she scanned her apartment. “Is it natural gas? Maybe there’s a leak. We should get out of here.”

  “Shite. Get behind me, lass.”

  “Why?”

  Rob pivoted and shoved her behind him just as neon-blue light flashed through her living room.

  “Human.”

  What the hell? An otherworldly voice reverberated throughout her apartment, its tone derisive. Erin peeked over Robley’s shoulder, and her mouth fell open. Right there in the middle of her ordinary apartment stood a tall, slender man limned in blue light, like the blue flames you’d see at the center of a campfire. Long, white hair fell around his shoulders, and his large, luminous eyes were an impossible shade of pale sky-blue. He glanced at her, and his eyes widened for a second before aiming his glare at Robley. “You have stolen from the high king of the Tuatha Dé Danann. The penalty for such a grievous offense is death.”

  Whoa. Adrenaline pulsed through her, and she ducked back behind Rob’s broad back. The being didn’t hold any weapons that she could see. Good. Fishing through the junk cluttering the inside of her purse, she searched desperately for the canister of pepper spray she always kept with her. No way was she going to let this thing hurt Robley. No. Way. Her heart pounded away like a kettle drum, making her ears ring. Where is it?

  “Where is the pensieve, mortal? Return it to me now, and your life might still be spared.”

  “I know naught of any pensieve, or what a pensieve might be.” Rob widened his stance. “How is it you’ve come after me?”

  He wanted to have a conversation with this being? “Shut up,” she hissed. He responded by reaching around to encircle her waist, pinning her to his back. She continued her search for the leather-bound canister buried somewhere in her stupid too-big bag, glancing over Rob’s shoulder at the being again.

  “I followed the trail of your stench from my king’s chamber in Avalon to this hovel.” The being raised his hands, and blue fire appeared at his fingertips. “Where is the king’s pensieve?”

  Oh shit! It doesn’t need weapons. We’re about to be incinerated!

  “I was commissioned and sent to Avalon to fetch a silver platter for one of your kind, and once I did the deed, I handed it over to her.” Robley let go of her to fold his arms in front of him. “Is that what you are referring to?”

  “Who asked this of you? To whom was it given?”

  “In human guise she calls herself Madame Giselle. I dinna know her fae name.” And now he kent why it had been so important to Giselle that he couldn’t call her by her true name. Conniving faerie! “In exchange for my part, I was granted two tokens for travel through time. She said the item belonged to her.”

  “You were . . . misled.”

  “Humph. Used lik
e a pawn in her game of chess, you mean.”

  Finally! Erin pulled the small cylinder out, unsnapped the leather covering the nozzle and gripped it so she could shoot straight. Pushing out from behind Robley, she lunged forward, aimed for the creature’s eyes and sprayed for all she was worth.

  The combination of pepper and mace came right back at her—and Rob. “Augh!” She dropped the canister and covered her burning eyes and nose.

  “What the devil did you do, Erin?” Rob cried. “I canna see!”

  “I was trying to protect you,” she shot back.

  “And then what?” he rasped out.

  “I don’t know,” she snapped. “Maybe run for it?”

  Eerie laughter echoed off her walls, and the temperature dropped even lower. “You have thirty of your human days to retrieve the pensieve, mortal. I’ll return for it then. If you wish to live, do not fail. This is not your time, nor your place—another of our laws you have broken.”

  The world around her began to spin at a sickening speed. “Robley,” she cried, stretching her arms out in a blind search.

  “Here, lass.” He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. “I’m here.”

  Pressure from all sides wracked her, pulling, pushing and pressing into her all at once, threatening to tear her apart. Her head hurt, and her heart climbed into her throat, while her face burned like it was on fire. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she clung to Rob. Screaming at the top of her lungs, she held on to him for dear life.

  After what seemed like forever, she landed on her back with a thud against something hard, and Robley landed on top of her. Struggling to draw breath, she swiped at her eyes and cried, this time not from the spray, but from the horror and the sublime realization that she’d survived the ordeal. “What just happened? What have you done?”