Highland Defiance (The MacLomain Series- Early Years) (22 page)

“He’s too powerful for us to get rid of but I can still give him a tongue-lashing if you want,” Irene said.

“If
I
want,” Mildred muttered, her eyes rose to Adlin’s. “Today’s all about what
I want.
”

“Today and all the days after,” Adlin murmured.

Jonathan sat as well. “Tell us about your experience traveling back to Scotland, Mildred.”

Her eyes stayed locked with Adlin’s and she softly said, “
He’s
my experience. There’s little else to tell.”

“I find that hard to…”

“Enough!” Sarah said while she made tea. “Your sister just told you her experience and what she took from it. Leave it at that.”

“But,” Irene started.

“No.” Sarah turned. “No, Irene. Despite how much you love us all, you cannot change what is.” She held her daughter’s gaze. “You simply cannot.”

Adlin felt heartache and confusion rock the room but Sarah’s words kept everyone silent. Sick to his stomach, he watched the family try to cope with all he’d introduced with a steely, silent determination.
Shame on him, indeed.
What had he done? True, he’d never expected to find her in his time but then again… hadn’t he?

When the gods had told him she was coming and where’d she’d be he’d rushed there, eager to finally
see
her,
touch
her. All along, he could have ignored the temptation. He could have sent another to meet her and take her far from the MacLomain clan. He could have been away, visiting another clan.

There were so many ways he could have avoided this.

Her.

Adlin folded his hands and breathed deeply. The truth was the world would’ve no longer mattered had he not been there when she traveled back in time. The truth was he was selfish and so much in love it physically hurt. Did the harm outweigh the good?

Never.

He had been
so
wrong.

For him.
For her.
For everyone who mattered.

Her eyes shot to him and he knew without doubt that
she
had heard
his
thoughts!

“No,” Mildred said, shaking her head. “No.”

Surprising even him, Mildred vanished from her chair.

A look of horror crossed everyone’s face. Sarah looked at him. “Adlin, where’d she go?”

Petrified, he stared at the empty chair. For all the magic inside him, he felt nothing. “I’ll find her. She’s alright,” he promised and fled the house.

Blind with fear, terrified, he ran.

And ran.

Not traveling nearly fast enough, he shape-shifted into his familiar.

Wide wings flapping he flew through the forest until he arrived at the Stonehenge and banked a sharp right into the cave in which they’d arrived.

Then he flew directly into the small Highland Defiance carved into the wall.

Chapter Ten

I’m going to die!

Mildred held onto the ledge, her body swinging high above the crashing waves. While thrilled to be back it hadn’t been her intention to fall to her death upon arrival. But staying in her time knowing that Adlin might somehow swipe him from her memory was terrifying.

What would it be to never have known him?

Did he really have the power to make that happen?

Obviously.

As she gripped the rock, her chest tightened. Now her family knew. Now she knew. Adlin meant so very much. And she refused to let him let her go.

A wind whipped up and blew her sideways. She cried out.

Suddenly, a huge white eagle landed above her. Before she could wonder at its beauty it vanished and Adlin appeared. With a painful grip, his hand wrapped around her wrist and pulled her up as though she weighed nothing.

“Foolish,” he muttered severely as he pulled her into his arms.

“No,” she cried, holding on tight. “It’s never been foolish.
None of this.”

“Every.
Inch.
Of.
The.
Way,” he ground out and crushed her against him. “Why, Mildred? Why?”

Tremors rocked her body but she held on tight.
“Because I
do
love you.
I think I always have. You’re a confusing, complex, oftentimes irritating man, but I understand that about you. Somehow I think I always have.”

“No.” He buried her head against his chest. “You barely understand a thing.”

“You don’t have everything figured out.” She wrapped her hands into his hair, small sobs breaking from her body. “I’m sick of you thinking you
do
. It’s presumptuous and rude.”

“Do,” he muttered, seeming to lock onto the word. “What
do
we have?” he asked, burying his nose in her sweet hair. “What
will
we have?”

“This,” she breathed, her body quieting next to his. “Is exactly what I
want
. You asked me earlier what I wanted. This is it,
you are
. How else can you explain me coming back here? I feared losing you and suddenly I returned to the Defiance.”

Adlin wrapped his arms around her tighter. Defeated but determined he said, “You’re exactly what I want as well, Mildred. It seems your magic is powerful in matters that most count, matters of the heart.”

For all she cared, time could cease to exist. Those moments minutes ago back home nearly a thousand years from now had mattered. They’d changed everything. Or had they? Tilting up her head, she brought her lips against the warm skin on his neck and breathed deeply. Spice, sweat, worry, she brought her lips against the vein throbbing in his neck.

His hand cupped the back of her neck and held tight. “Let’s have our day.”

Mildred focused on breathing. She’d do just about anything to have ‘their day.’ Carefully, she pulled back and looked up, surprised to see his eyes concerned, desperate, nearly wet. “Yes, let’s do that.”

Needy, impatient, his lips crushed hers in a kiss that outdid all kisses. If the moment never ended, she’d be fine with that. Their tongues swooped and searched, wanting the moment to never end.

Before he could, she pulled away and nodded toward the meadow. “Back that way, right?”

Tall, gorgeous, kilt once more intact, he nodded.
“Aye, that way.”

The moment seemed almost surreal as she sat then jumped off the ledge. Ready to run, be free, she jolted. Highland grass swooshed around her as she ran across the meadow. When Adlin caught up, running alongside, she laughed. Late day sun seemed to follow them in a mad chase. Halfway across the small valley his arms wrapped around her and took her down.

When they landed it wasn’t jarring but soft, ready, delayed.

“Too soon, just did this,” he whispered.

He spoke of her recently loss of virginity.

“Then use your magic to make it easier,” she whispered back, desperate to unclothe.

As if the very gods heard her request the winds died and grasses stood still. Their clothes were gone and she had no hardship to face but the feeling of his warm skin against hers. His calloused, curious, weapon-roughened hand skirted over her shoulder then cupped her neck while his fervent body pinned her down.

And, as easily as his eyes met hers, the sun vanished and night appeared.

“What did you do?” she whispered.

“Nothing,” he murmured. “Time is but catching up with itself.”

Concerned but mesmerized, she watched the full moon rise and
blow
its lunar light over them.
“But Bruce.”

“Isn’t here yet,” he growled and gave a bruising, delicious kiss.

Mildred relished the way his muscled legs felt against hers and dragged her inner thighs along them. When he jerked in response, she gave a small womanly smile and wiped her heels up the backside of his shins. With a sharp inhale of breath from Adlin, she proceeded to tip-toe back down.

“Lass, you’ll be the end of me,” he moaned and clenched his hot mouth over her tight, expectant nipple. When she cried out his hand grabbed her hip and locked securely in place. He would control. The feel of his long, strong fingers curling around her hip as his tongue manipulated her breast was almost more than she could handle.

“Here,” she pleaded, her tongue wetting eager lips. When his mouth found its way back to hers, he was given the opportunity to put his member close to her hot center. She pushed up, determined to keep him from escaping.  

“Adlin!” she gasped when he took exactly what she’d offered and grabbed her legs.

Rolling them until she sat on him, he answered.
“Aye.”

Too late, she sunk. Her eyes rolled back in her head. Full, amazingly alive, she settled into the feeling as his lips skimmed the corner of her lip, cheek then neck.

At last, he said, “Sit up, lass.”

Because listening to him seemed so natural, she did. The movement alone caused a flood of pleasure to ricochet through her limbs. There existed nothing more intense than opening her eyes to see him below her, eyes half-mast, his lips apart.

She was in control.

Only because he wanted her to be, because he thought her amazing and worthy of…controlling him. Unable to stop herself, she bit her lower lip and closed her eyes. Who cared about having little magic when such a magnificent man was between her legs?

Mildred breathed in through her nose then out through her mouth.

Hard and muscled, his masculine body waited, curious about what she could offer it. His hands were so large that they nearly spanned her waistline. His shoulders so wide beneath her that they reflected the moonlight from above, chiseled and making obvious every little sinew of muscle.

Wind returned. With it rolling clouds and scattered light. The pure energy of it all made her come alive. When she lowered and kissed him she shifted her hips. The slight
movement made pleasure skitter
through her body. Adlin’s eyes closed. Somehow seeing the unexpected bliss on his face made the sensation rippling through her all that more intense.

So she rocked again.

And again.

As she did, new and intense feelings started to burst through her. Next thing she knew he’d flipped her beneath him. Clouds rushed past the moon as he thrust. High and wide, she wrapped her legs around his, desperate for what he could give her. Eager, unrelenting, he spread kisses over her cheek and down her neck. When she sighed in bliss Adlin plunged, went as deep as she allowed.

With an anguished cry of deep-throated pleasure, she wrapped her ankles around his back. It felt natural and wanting. Mildred pulled him as close as she could, wished in an odd way that they were one.

In. Out. In. Out. Faster, determined, he moved.

Before she could control the feeling, her body seized then released. An electric feeling shot through her torso, fizzling on her lips, fingers, toes, jaw. Her limbs were no longer hers as he cried out. He grabbed her backside and forced her to push one last time.

Unlike their first union, the sensations that now stole her body were far-spread leaving no muscle unused. She clenched her fists, curled her toes, ground her teeth.