She sank back on the bed underneath him, and he rolled up onto his elbow. Her hair fell back from her eyes, and her arms threaded around his neck. She drew him down on top of her, and the same electric energy radiated off her to tell him she wanted this too.
All at once, she rocketed off the bed so fast she flung him over on his back. She launched herself across the room to the window where she halted in a frenzy of dragging one palm across the other.
“Sorry,” she mumbled. “I can’t do this. I want to, but I can’t.”
He scowled at her, but she wouldn’t look at him. This obsessive hand rubbing consumed all her attention. Her shoulders hunched in the tense effort of scraping whatever it was off her hands.
Louis watched from a distance. Had she gone completely insane? Whatever she was or wasn’t, she needed his help. She wouldn’t deal with this without someone pulling her out of it. He swung his legs off the bed and strode over to her, wearing nothing but his kilt.
She didn’t look up from her hands.
He gauged his words with care. “Ye say ye got something of Nikolai’s on your hand that killed him?”
“Yes. And I have no idea what the potential long term effects of it might be,” she babbled. “You should never touch a chemical without the appropriate safety wear, never mind an unknown chemical.” She shook her head briskly, her gaze fixed on her hands. “Who knows what that stuff was or what it could do to me or anyone else I get it on. I’m really sorry, I guess that means we won’t be doing anything anymore. I really wish I could, but I wouldn’t want anything to happen to you.”
“You held me hand on the way out of Aberdeen,” he pointed out. “Nothing happened to me then.”
Her head shot up, and she froze dead still. Her clear eyes drilled straight into him as a thousand questions battled in her countenance.
Poor lass! Angui women had it easy. They grew up fighting and killing all their lives. They knew who their enemies were, and they got used to it. Ellen never expected to kill anybody. Her own warrior nature came as a shock to her. She believed killing was wrong. She would learn the hard way that nothing could ever be so right as killing your enemy without mercy.
She stared at him in confused shock, then something wild and ferocious took hold of her. She thrust out her hand and laid it on his forehead. Sealing her palm against his skull, she held it there in all her intense concentration.
Nothing happened.
The two of them gazed deep down into each other’s souls for a long, tense moment. Then, just as fast as she’d placed it, she let her hand fall to her side. The obsessed anxiety and uncertainty drained out of her. Her pinched expression split apart, and a gorgeous smile erupted out of the horror and strain of the moment before.
With a sudden burst of laughter, Ellen spun away to the table, plunked down in the chair, and started eating her supper. Louis frowned at her. So that was it? She proved to herself she wouldn’t hurt him the way she hurt Nikolai, and now it was all over.
She cut the roast mutton with a knife and forked pieces into her mouth along with heaping portions of mashed potato and turnip, chewing between gulps of wine.
Louis couldn’t decide what to do about her. She ran from hot to cold and back again so fast he couldn’t keep up with her. What could a man do with a woman like this? Was everything okay, now that she no longer worried about killing him?
Watching her eat, the hunger and exhaustion of the last week overtook him. He was too tired and hungry to care about anything but his own bodily needs and realized she must feel the same way after her ordeal.
He migrated to the table and sat down opposite her, then set to work on his meal. She smiled at him across the dishes. She wiped her mouth on her napkin, and when she refilled her own glass from the bottle, she refilled his too.
The more he ate and drank, the more he relaxed along with her. The wine blurred the sharp edge of danger crowding in on all sides. Everything was going to be okay, now that they were together.
In the midst of the meal, she snuck her hand across the table and threaded her fingers into his. He squeezed them, and she squeezed back. Her smile grew broader, more intimate, and her eyes glowed with pleasure.
He put down his fork and wiped his lips, then settled back in his chair with his glass, still holding her hand in his.
She surprised him by speaking first. “Do you remember on the Prometheus you told me I had some power?”
“Aye,” he replied, marveling at how this unspoken conversation had never really stopped between them. “Ye must have if ye sent yerself here from the future.”
She nodded. “I didn’t want to believe it, but Nikolai said the same thing.”
“What spells did he teach ye?”
“He taught me that invisibility spell, and he taught me how to make things disappear, and he also—” Her fork trembled in her hand.
Louis cocked his head to one side. “Lassie?”
She stiffened and pulled her hand free. “It’s okay. I can talk about it. He was in the process of teaching me the tracking spell he used to follow us to Inverness. I guess I got the words wrong because he repeated the spell himself. He said he was trying to find someone, which I guess turned out to be me. That’s when things went south in a hurry.”
He raised an eyebrow. “South?”
“It’s an expression. It means everything fell apart. He realized I was the person he’d been looking for, and here he’d been teaching me his magic. He tried to kill me, and…”
“Ye dinnae have to tell me.”
“I don’t like to think about it, but it might come in handy. I don’t know if I could ever do anything like that again, but if I could, it could be useful. It would be like carrying a weapon all the time, only the weapon would be me.”
“Of course that would be useful,” he replied. “It would be most helpful. Ye’d never have to bother about defending yerself, and all Angui have to defend themselves. That’s just the way it is.”
She blushed. Her hair draped over her eyes as she turned away. “I’m not Angui. I told you that.”
“Of course ye are. Do ye think the Falisa will give up on catching ye when ye go back to yer own world?”
She whipped around fast to stare at him. “What do you mean?”
“They’ll keep tracking ye,” he replied. “Ye can never fully give them the slip. Ye stuck yer nose in Angui business coming back here to warn us and to save me and Malcolm from Obasi. Ned and Ree told ye all about the Cipher’s Kiss, and ye joined them in their mission. That makes ye Angui, and ye can bet yer boots the Falisa will be watching and waiting for ye back home.”
She opened her mouth more than once before she got her voice to form words. “But…but Malcolm is in charge of the Falisa.”
“That could change at any moment, as ye’ve seen yerself,” he countered. “If anything goes wrong, he’s the one in the gravest danger of us all. Obasi was Falisa, and Nikolai was their staunch ally. Ye’ve killed them both, and the Falisa never forgets. That’s one thing ye must remember above all else. They’ll send word down the centuries about who ye are. They’ll track ye down.”
Ellen kicked over her chair in a rush to get up from the table. She stood there, shaking, wringing her hands. “It’s not possible. It’s not possible. It can’t be.”
He leaned back. “Sit down, lassie. It’s naught.”
Her arms shot out at her sides, and she said, “You don’t understand! I gave Nikolai a false name. He wanted to know what I was doing in Aberdeen without friends or any place to stay. I had to make up some ridiculous story that I was traveling with my grandmother to Inverness and we got separated. I didn’t know what to say, so I just came up with something off the top of my head.”
He frowned. “What are ye saying, lass? If ye lied to fool him, then ye made a good job of it.”
“Don’t you understand?” she shrieked. “I gave him a false name. He wanted to alert the garrison and send out word to track down my grandmother. I didn’
t dare give him my real name, so I gave him my mother’s maiden name instead. I told him my name was Ava Channing.”
“Good idea,” he returned.
“Aaargh!” She threw up her hands and spun away. “Will you stop saying it was a good idea? It was a terrible idea. Don’t you see what happened? He must have told someone who passed that information down to the twenty-first century.”
Louis sat glued to his chair. “Do ye ken what ye’re saying, lass?”
She flopped onto the bed and covered her face. “This is all my fault. I killed him, and the Falisa tracked me down. They thought I was Ava Channing, and that was my mother, so they killed her.”
Louis couldn’t take his eyes off her. In front of his shocked gaze, she burst into tears. Sobs wracked her body as she wept into the bedspread.
Dear God, she must be right! The Falisa waited all that time to find the woman who killed Nikolai, and they took their revenge three hundred years in the future.
Chapter 27
Ellen blinked awake to a clear blue sky outside the inn window. The first thing she noticed was Louis standing by the open casement, gazing down into the inn yard below.
He turned around when he heard her stirring. “Good morning, lassie.”
“Is everything all right?” she asked. “What time is it?”
“The church clock in the village just chimed Matins, so it must be getting on for eight o’clock.” He went back to looking out.
“Anything down there?” she asked.
“A troop of Redcoats just went through. They questioned the stable boys. Then they left. We’re safe for the moment.”
She sank back into bed and blinked the sleep out of her eyes. “How did I get in here? I don’t remember falling asleep.”
He didn’t raise his eyes. “You passed out after ye cried about the Falisa killing yer parents. I put ye to bed.”
“I’m…” She had to think about it. “I’m in my underwear.”
A hint of a smirk touched his cheek. “Aye.” He held up the thing in his hand. “I found this stuffed in yer bodice.”
Ellen stared at the spell book she stole from Nikolai. “Yes. It’s Nikolai’s spell book.”
Louis gave her a broad smile. “Well done, lass! We now have the spell to go alongside the elixir!”
Ellen returned the smile. “I went through hell for that.”
“And it will all be worth it, I promise ye.”
Ellen sighed and shut her eyes. The moment she did, her mind wandered back to the horrible truth she’d realized the night before. All these years, she’d thought her parents’ death was an accident, but the Falisa had killed them in retribution. It was her fault they’d died.
Whatever else she did with the rest of her life, the Falisa were her sworn enemy. She would do anything to destroy them. Nikolai himself gave her the skills and weapons to fight them. The Falisa would never come near her again. They would have to kill her too, before she ever gave up on defeating them for all eternity.
She sat up and looked for her clothes. “If it’s safe outside, we should make a break for it.”
He turned to face her, leaning against the wall. “Ye should go home. It’s perfectly safe. Ye can concentrate on the spell and do it right. I dinnae like to think of you staying here where it’s dangerous. Ye must go back. Ye ken ye have the power, so ye dinnae have to bother about winding up somewhere in the wrong time and place.”
“I don’t want to go back yet,” she replied. “I’ve been thinking I might like to stay in this time. We just have to figure out where to go.”
“I’m going to America.”
“America!” she gasped.
“Aye. Ned’s ordered everyone out of Scotland now that he kens we must rendezvous with Ree in San Francisco. We’ll set up shop there to be ready when your company comes along. I’m setting sail as soon as I find safe passage.”
She collapsed back on the bed. “Then I’m coming with you. That’s all there is to it.”
“Ye cannae,” he countered. “Ye must go back to yer own time. Ye must tell Ned and Ree about the spell, and ye must practice yer pronunciation so ye can cast it when the time comes. That’s where ye’re most needed—no’ here.”
“Great. So you’re telling me you don’t need me here? Is that it?”
His shoulders slumped. “Of course no’, lass. I’ll always need ye. Just think on what ye’re saying. Ye belong over there. Ye’ll be safe there. Ye’ll have all the Angui to protect ye, and ye’ll have yer power.”
“I don’t want to go back.” She drew in a deep breath. “I want to stay here…with you.”
He stiffened, and his eyes flashed gazing down at her. “Lassie, please.”
“Are you saying you don’t want me here? Is that what you’re saying, ’cause if it is, just come on out and say it. Don’t sugarcoat it.”
He spoke so softly she barely heard him. “Ye ken I want ye here with me. Ye ken I want that more than anything.”
She sat up straighter on the bed. “Then prove it to me.”
His shoulders swelled, and his chiseled chest heaved with his breath. One step at a time, he stalked to the bed until he stood tall and menacing at her feet. She sat exposed in her thin shift, but he didn’t frighten her. He could never frighten her, no matter how big he was. She wanted him—all of him. She wanted him in this terrible world of danger and deception. She wanted to share his hardships, and she never wanted to go back to the world of loss and pain she’d left behind.
He bent down and propped one fist on the bed, eased forward, and rested one knee next to her foot hidden under the covers. He sidled up to the bed, closer and closer, until his face floated inches from her nose. Her nerves quivered all over at his breath on her delicate flesh. Her hands itched to touch his skin and envelop him in her softness, but he wouldn’t kiss her. He brought his other knee forward and knelt over her thighs. His torso rose above her in a wall of solid muscle that dwarfed her.
She ached for this agonizing anticipation to end, but the longer it dragged, the more excited she got. Her heart pattered, and juicy desire between her legs throbbed for release. She dared not cross the last micron between his body and hers, even as she burned to feel him so close.
He crouched lower, and the ridges along his midsection tightened. He slipped one mighty arm around her waist and drew her to him, but he still didn’t kiss her. His eyes hypnotized her into ultimate submission.
She swam in the luscious pools of his eyes. Somewhere far down in those forgotten depths, he waited for her. He lurked in the darkness to reveal her most explosive secrets. The part of him that lingered down there understood the part of her she’d never showed anyone before. How she longed to sink down there, into the moist, oozy dark where no one existed but the two of them. How she longed to stay down there where no one would ever find her again. She could live with him knowing about her. She wanted him to know she’d killed two men using power no modern person could explain. When she was with him, it all made sense. How could she make sense of everything that happened to her if she went back to a world that didn’t believe in magic?
He pulled her out from under the covers to kneel on the bed in front of him. She became aware only of the intoxicating passion consuming her all over. Any space between him and her was too much.
Once he got her out from under the coverlet, he slid her shift over her head and dropped it to the floor. His eyes held her captive so she couldn’t move. His pecs jerked when he tugged his belt free. He kicked his kilt away so they both knelt naked on the mattress.
Ellen fought to breathe. Moist, slippery desire boiled out of her slit in aching hunger for him, but he wouldn’t go any faster than these slow, deliberate movements. She’d told him what she wanted. Now he would choose when and where and how he did it, or even if he did it at all. Her pulse raced, but she couldn’t bring herself to touch him, much as she wanted to. This was his moment. He mastered it, and she would follow his lead.
He scooped her
up one more time and gave her a peck of a kiss that meant nothing. His smoking gaze communicated so much more than she could ever relate by kissing him. She dwelt far down in that unseen realm where their souls danced in unison through a world of cosmic understanding.
He picked her up and sat her down on his lap. His hard member pressed against her slick center, nudging her delicate flesh aside, but he didn’t try to enter her—not yet. That would happen soon enough. Once he settled her there, he scrutinized her at close range while her ravenous lust took over her every thought.
She couldn’t sit still, straddling his rock-hard body. She spread her hips and rocked on him until her dripping essence coated him all along his length. The more she moved, the more he encouraged with his hands, pushing and pulling at her thighs, matching her rhythm. He flexed his legs to lift her up, and his pelvis shoved between her hips. Her mouth yawned open, but she couldn’t form words. She drifted in that unspoken dream where they met eye to eye and soul to soul.
She held on to him as the pace increased. Now he took over of his own accord, and she relaxed into his mind-bending tempo. His shaft stroked between her swollen lips, spurring her to dizzying heights of rapture without even entering her. Her breasts tickled down his chest, and their stomachs waved from their sternums to their pubic bones in an endless pulse melding them together. Down at the bottom of that seething swell, their hips pinned them together, never to be torn apart. He wrapped his arms around her waist to hold her in place, but she never wanted to be anywhere else. She inhaled him into her at every stroke, closer and closer. When would he ever cross that last barrier holding them apart?
She couldn’t bear to wait any longer. She gasped out in ragged whispers, “I want you.”
His hard features didn’t flinch when he pumped into her one more time. “Ye have me, lass. Ye have all of me there ever was and ever shall be.”
“I need you,” she whined. “I need you. Please.”
Spellbound by the Angui (Cipher's Kiss Book 2): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 19
