She said nothing. There was nothing to say. She laid her slim hand on his shoulder. That was all she had to do. She was here, and now she knew. They both knew, and that ridiculous pipe dream about them running off together would never come to pass. They would face this. They would support each other, and all the secrets would sleep in that easy place between his heart and hers.
His shoulders shook with sobs. He couldn’t hold back the tears. His wife’s destroyed body and the tiny corpse next to her wouldn’t leave him alone, but they no longer tormented his spirit the way they did before. He suffered the crucible of grief, and he could hold them in his mind without losing himself.
Ellen lived in the same chamber of his soul with them. The three cherished beings of his life no longer conflicted with each other. They didn’t repel or cancel each other out. They strengthened each other.
When he peeked up at Ellen’s face, he beheld the same transformation written there. Louis didn’t threaten the memory of her lost beloved. He honored him. He gave his silent promise to protect Ellen in the dead man’s place. He swore to be the love she needed and to give her all the joy and peace that man could not.
Tears clung to her eyelashes before they ran down her face, but her lips smiled and her eyes shone. Inch by inch, she pulled him into her arms. Her embrace only brought more tears, tears of relief and belonging. She gathered him into her delirious self, and he fell into her to the endless inevitable tide of his love for her.
Chapter 33
Ellen swam up out of an intoxicating dream to find her arms and legs draped around Louis’s naked body. She didn’t bother to open her eyes. Darkness obliterated everything outside this overwhelming heat enveloping her all around.
His mouth closed over hers, and his tongue poured his sweetness into her being. She caressed her skin across his. In all the times she’d lain with him, she never let herself experience the bliss of him until now—now when she would lose him.
During this last long night of ecstasy, those two dead souls out of the past lay with them. Annella and Gavin Hamilton. She never said his name out loud, but he still occupied their bed in both their minds. Both of them would always occupy it. They would watch Ellen and Louis together. They would check and make sure this heartfelt connection never died away.
Only now that she and Louis both knew the full story could they fully appreciate each other. No more hiding. No more secrets. This was the reality of their love, together with all the shades of their two pasts.
Ellen loved it like this. She didn’t have to hide Gavin from Louis anymore, and she welcomed Annella and her dead baby into her life. She loved that woman as much as she loved Louis, and she felt the same rightness coming from him. Louis embraced Gavin as a brother. The five of them would live together forever, just as soon as Ellen took the Cipher’s Kiss.
That dreaded specter laid to rest along with all the other imagined horrors. Ellen would help Ree and the others make the formula. Ellen and Louis would face whatever came.
She didn’t want this night to end, but it would. She understood that now, and it made her that much hungrier for every inch of Louis while she had the chance. Seeing him in a few hours in San Francisco couldn’t replace these precious minutes alone with him in the dark.
Her greedy mouth covered him with kisses, the same way her legs parted to slide up on top of him. She draped her breasts across his chest, and he hugged her down to glide over his shaft. Their undulating rhythm married them together in a seamless ocean of blissful warmth and silken softness. Her nectar warmed and excited him, and he sighed into her mouth. Somewhere in the darkness, his eyes glistened with moisture. His tongue swirled rapturous waves of sweetness into her being. She could never get enough of this.
He clenched his muscles around her ribs and rocked her off onto her side. Then he eased up on top of her without breaking the indelible seal holding them. Her inner channel gripped him, and his slithering movements excited contractions down her swollen passage.
He broke away from her mouth, and his hot breath blasted in her ear when he groaned. He wedged his knees into the mattress to grind his hardness into her engorged flesh. Hour after hour, he brought her to one climax after another, but she always wanted more. As soon as one peak finished, she couldn’t wait for the next one.
He gyrated his hips to screw it in tight, and she arched her pelvis to kiss his pubic bone with her essence. He milked the creamy goodness from her insides until a slippery coating of lubrication removed any friction from the incessant pumping and grinding.
She rocked on one breaking wave after another. He propped his tree trunk arms next to her head and glared down on her from above. He protected her from any danger at the same time he propelled her into Heaven with his unstoppable thrusts.
She hooked her ankles behind him and raked her fingernails down his back, then locked his ass in a white-knuckled grip. She crammed him into her as hard as she could, and every plunge stuffing his thickness inside her filled her to her dizzy limit with ecstasy beyond imagination.
It never ended. She swayed in a smooth ocean of angelic delight until the dawn light woke her from her dream. She would have given anything to ignore it and spend another day and another night here with him, but she couldn’t. One more day and one more night would lead to one more day and one more night, and on and on into eternity.
Only one solution remained, and that was true eternity, eternity together, and that meant the Cipher’s Kiss. She glanced away from the window to find Louis regarding her.
She said nothing. They’d already said it all with their eyes and their hands and their bodies. Nothing remained but the future. She eased out of bed and got dressed by the window.
He didn’t move. He lay on the pillow and watched her, but she already knew he was ready for this.
The streets of Dundee showed the first stirrings of life. Louis and Ellen came here after their epic battle against the Falisa to spend their last night together in peace, but they couldn’t stay long.
Louis’s new suit of clothes draped over the chair. As soon as he put them on and cut his hair, he would pass for an English gentleman on his way to America to try his luck in the colonies.
She tied her sneakers and smoothed her skirts to hide them, but where she was going, the dress would stand out more than the shoes. Her mind had already prepared for the transformation back to a modern American woman. In a few minutes, she’d wind up back in a world of cars and computers and complications.
She returned to the bed and sat down next to Louis. His hair hung loose over his shoulders, and his chest rose and fell with gentle breathing. He laid his warm palm against her cheek, and she rested against it.
Inescapable yearning pulled her down to cradle her head one more time against his big heart. Her soul ached kissing him one last time. She couldn’t tear herself away, not even knowing he was waiting for her on the other side of the portal.
Poor guy! He had to live alone for the next three hundred years before she kissed him again. She owed him big time for that, and she vowed she would make it up to him when she got back. She would fold him in a cushion of love, and they’d never leave it again.
She stretched out next to him and wound her arms around his neck. She buried her eyes and mouth in the delicate skin under his jaw and whispered the words to herself.
“Eshmun Hamilcar hanno ashtzaph byblos rae
Zephon anana akilokipok silatuyok anik toe
Takiyok keorvik suluk yo
Uyarak ek chua lo.”
A catastrophic explosion ripped Louis out of her arms so hard it hurt, and she went hurtling back through the portal. She plunged through a frigid veil of watery glass and spinning circles until she thought she would never survive it.
As fast as it started, it came to a screeching halt and she regained awareness in midair somewhere. She floated in the dark with no light to orient herself. Then, out of empty space, she caught sight of a thin row of lights in the distance. She drifted toward i
t. It got bigger and bigger until she recognized the swooping orange glow of the Golden Gate Bridge.
She measured where she was and discovered she could control where she went and the rate of her own descent. She steered herself over the city until she found Ree’s apartment building. She settled down until her feet touched the front sidewalk.
The first rays of morning gray tinged the eastern horizon. A few cabs whizzed along the streets, and some drunks staggered home from the bars. Other than that, she had the city to herself at this hour.
She paused outside Ree’s building. Should she go in there? Should she reveal everything she found out, just like that? Should she confront Ree about what she knew before sending Ellen back in time? While Ellen stood there trying to decide, the door opened and a man emerged onto the street. He glanced right and left, then looked straight across the street at Ellen.
Her heart skipped a beat. There he was, and she saw in an instant that he remembered. For her, she’d just got out of bed with him a few moments before. He’d been waiting three hundred years for this moment.
He checked both ways and crossed the street, but he still hesitated to approach her. Her heart flooded with so many emotions at once she couldn’t contain them all. She rushed up to him and threw her arms around his waist. She hugged him for all she was worth, closing her eyes in relief that she had him in her arms again.
He pushed her back to stare into her eyes, tears glistening on his eyelashes. He kissed her and his breath caught, but neither of them spoke. They were together, forever.
She took his hand and led him away from there, back to her own apartment, and closed the door behind him. She left the lights off and conducted him to her bedroom. He sat down on the bed of his own accord while she took off her dress and corsets and stockings, then stood before him in her thin shift. She eased him back on top of her bedspread and lay down next to him. She pillowed her head on his chest, and they rested there in the darkness, absorbing centuries of meaning.
His heart pounded against her ear. Her skin cried out to touch him, but she wouldn’t squander this moment. He kissed her on the head and trailed his fingers down her back and up to her neck.
It would always be this way between them. They would always dwell in that undiscovered country of past and future combined into one heady experience with no beginning and no end. Dozens of people dwelt in that place with them, and they all belonged there together.
She dared to look up to encounter his dark eyes boring into her soul. He didn’t try to kiss her. His mind kissed her mind in that eternal moment. The words he spoke the night she left came back to her.
“I know. Remember that when the time comes. I know. You can trust me. When the time comes to tell me, I’ll understand. I’ll be there, and I’ll remember. I remember even now. I could never forget.”
Then she remembered. That night she left—that was tonight. No time had passed. She came back a few minutes after she left, and he’d remembered all that time.
Looking into his eyes right now, they both remembered. They remembered everything.
Chapter 34
Ree pulled her apartment door open and gasped in surprise. “Ellen! You’re back!”
“Yeah. I got back last night.” Ellen shook her hair out of her eyes. “Do you mind if I come in?”
Ree scanned over Ellen’s usual black business suit and boots, all ready to go to work. She’d taken on her old persona of a hard-nosed executive and left the lady from Scotland far behind.
Ree stood aside. “Sure. We waited up for you, but when you didn’t come, the guys went home. I should call Ned and tell him everything’s okay.”
“Don’t call him just yet,” Ellen replied as she crossed to the living room. “I wanted to see you alone first.”
“Sure. What’s up? How did everything go?”
Ellen draped a black plastic garment bag over the couch. “I brought you this. It’s the dress I came back in. It’s not the same dress you gave me, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I’m sorry I lost it. I guess you won’t be able to use it to remember your time in Scotland.”
Ree’s eyes widened. “That’s okay. I’m just glad you got back all right.” She leaned closer to peer into Ellen’s face. “Is everything all right? Did you warn the guys in time?”
“They’re fine. Everything’s fine.”
“And…Malcolm?” Ree asked. “Is his cover still intact?”
“I talked to Louis last night,” Ellen told her. “He said nothing’s changed since I left, so Malcolm is still in charge of the Falisa in this country. He’s still CEO of Allied Chemical. I never got a chance to meet him, but Louis says he warned Malcolm himself after we met, so it’s all good.”
Ree shifted from one foot to the other. “Okay.”
Ellen shook her head again and waved to the couch. “Do you mind if we sit down for a minute? I need to talk to you about something.”
“Yeah. Sure.” Ree moved around and sat on the edge of the couch.
Ellen positioned herself in front of her friend. She never really understood until this moment how good a friend she really had in Ree. They faced everything together. All those agonizing days in Scotland, Ellen feared Ree would turn against her if she found out the truth. She should have known better then, but at least she knew better now.
Ellen took a deep breath. “I have to tell you something, Ree.”
Ree’s mouth hung open in suspense.
On impulse, Ellen took Ree’s hand and pressed it. “I’m in love with Louis. We got together back in Scotland, and we’re together now. We’re together the way you and Ned are together. We’re gonna do this Cipher’s Kiss formula, and I’m gonna take it so I can be with him.”
Ree started back with a jolt. “Oh! Is that all? I thought it was something serious.”
Ellen suppressed a smile. She might have known Ree would react this way. “I was worried you’d be upset. I didn’t want to come back and face you. I thought you would be hurt that I betrayed Gavin.”
“Gavin!” Ree cried. “You…betray Gavin? Gavin’s been dead for almost ten years, honey, and you’ve been alone all this time. I’ve been waiting for you to get with a guy, but you buried your heart in work, the same way I did. If you can get with a guy like Louis, I’m happy for you.”
Ellen blinked back tears. She did her best to ease her grip on Ree’s hand, but she couldn’t let go of her friend to save her life. “I know. I don’t know why it was such a big deal to me. I didn’t want you to think I blamed you for Gavin’s death.”
“Sweetheart,” Ree breathed. “I blamed myself for Gavin’s death. I wouldn’t have thought twice if you had blamed me too. You had every reason to be angry at me for taking Gavin away from you. I almost hated to be your friend after the accident. I couldn’t stand to look at you. I kept imagining you were holding a grudge against me. That tormented me worse than anything, and the longer you stayed alone, the more I blamed myself. I worried you would never find love again, that you would keep carrying the torch for him for the rest of your life, and it would be all my fault.”
The two friends fell sobbing and laughing into each other’s arms. Ellen never experienced such blessed relief, not even sharing her secret with Louis. All the painful years of being friends with Ree and never knowing where she really stood in her best friend’s heart—it all came crashing down in that moment. Nothing held them apart anymore.
She remembered her other concern. Whether Ree knew about her killing Obasi before she sent her back. Right then, with Ree in her arms, comforting her, relieving her of her guilt over Gavin, did it really matter? If Ree had known, she’d sent Ellen back with the best intentions for everyone, including Louis. Ellen understood that now. And besides, Obasi would have killed Louis and Ned if he had the chance. Ree had to do what she could to stop that. Ellen didn’t blame her.
Ree sat back and wiped the tears off her cheeks, but her face shone so bright Ellen couldn’t take her eyes off of her. Ree kept squeezing h
er hand between sniffs. “Well! Just look at the two of us!”
Ellen laughed out loud, she was so happy. “Yeah.”
Ree patted her knee. “All right. We’re gonna do this thing. We’re gonna get to work and make this formula. Now that you’re on board, the others will fall in line. Once they see you’re getting to work on it, they won’t ask any more questions. You and Louis will oversee the lab, and Ned and I will run interference with the outside world. We’re already making headway on sourcing the ingredients.”
“There’s one more thing you need to know,” Ellen told her. “The Cipher’s Kiss—it needs a spell to activate it. I learned the words back in Scotland, but Louis says I need to practice my pronunciation. The words go—”
Ree held up her hand to cut her off. “Don’t tell me. You keep them to yourself and work on your pronunciation while we get the formula together. I suppose we can get Malcolm to cast it when the time comes.”
“I can cast it.” The instant the words came out of her mouth, Ellen wanted to stuff them back in. She hadn’t intended to reveal anything about her magical abilities, but now that she’d said it, she couldn’t take it back.
Ree sucked in her breath. “I’m not sure I want to know what you mean by that.”
“Do you remember?” Ellen asked. “Malcolm said all of us women have some power. That’s how we were able to cast the time portal spell in the first place. You couldn’t have gone to Scotland in the first place if you didn’t have some power.”
Ree blinked. “I guess you’re right. I never thought of that before, but it was me who cast the spell, not Ned. Everything makes sense now. He said the words, but nothing happened. He had to induce me to repeat them for the portal to open.”
Spellbound by the Angui (Cipher's Kiss Book 2): A Scottish Highlander Time Travel Romance Page 23
