OnlyYou (2 page)

Kaitlyn stared just over the top of the horse’s head,
searching for anything familiar. Highways. Signs. Lights.

Anything.

Unfortunately, nothing but trees and darkness met her eyes.
Swallowing the despair rising in her throat, she attempted to shift her
position in his arms. She sat up and moved her arm, which was pinned against
his chest and accidentally brushed her palm against a rather hard object
between the stranger’s legs.

It took her a moment to realize just what her hand made
contact with but when it finally dawned on her, heat burned her cheeks. She
immediately turned toward him, simultaneously mortified and aroused. “I’m so
sorry!”

His face broke into a devastating grin and his gaze roamed
lazily from her eyes to her lips and then downward, lingering briefly upon her
breasts. “I do believe it is I who should be apologizing to you, madam,” he
whispered.

As if on command, her nipples puckered. Small tremors ran
from Kaitlyn’s breasts to her thighs and she tilted her face up toward his, her
breathing shallow as she became acutely aware of an empty ache growing between
her thighs.

The noise of the horse’s hooves fell away, replaced by the
sounds of her pounding pulse and the long, deep exhalation escaping from
between Gabriel’s parted lips. His fingers dug slightly into the soft flesh of
her hip and she choked back the moan threatening to alert him to her arousal.
An impulse to lean in and press her lips against his came over her and she
instinctively pulled away, turning her head toward the front of the horse.

“What’s your name?” she asked, attempting to distract her
mind from its wandering thoughts.

“Gabriel O’Connor.”

Kaitlyn automatically stiffened, her blood turning to ice in
her veins.

It can’t be…

As if he sensed her trepidation, Gabriel tightened his hold
upon her and leaned down to her ear. “Do not worry, Miss McCann. You are safe
with me.”

She shook her head, insisting to herself that it must be a
coincidence. After all, if this guy were
the
Gabriel O’Connor it would
mean the fog had taken her over two hundred twenty years into the past.

And, as everyone knew, time travel was impossible.

Of course, up until a few seconds ago when she accidentally
felt the evidence for herself, she had thought it was impossible for her to be
the cause of a hard-on in a guy who looked like…well…
him
.

She must have fallen and hit her head and was now, in
reality, lying unconscious in the middle of Main Street in Stockton, dreaming
that she was in the arms of some hot guy. Hopefully the kindly old librarian
would be by at any moment and call for an ambulance.

Several minutes slipped past as neither of them spoke, the
silence broken only by the rhythmic clip-clop of the horse’s hooves on the
packed earth. The warmth emanating from the stranger holding her so firmly in
his arms slowly began to permeate Kaitlyn’s clothing, allowing exhaustion to
creep into her bones. She opened her mouth to engage Gabriel in conversation in
order to keep her mind active but nothing came out. Her shyness all but
strangled her as she battled to form a coherent sentence, certain that anything
she might say would only cause her further embarrassment. She finally gave up
and sagged against Gabriel’s chest, tucking her head under his chin as a wave
of helplessness washed over her. She felt him stir but he said nothing and she
was left with the sinking thought that this felt all too real to be a dream.

Kaitlyn wasn’t certain how long they rode but she guessed it
had to have been a couple of hours. Finally, a number of fires came into view
and, after several minutes, Gabriel slowed the horse’s gait as they approached
what looked like some sort of encampment. She sat up, her mouth dropping open
at the scene surrounding her. Milling around dozens of campfires were countless
men, all wearing torn and tattered clothing reminiscent of the soldiers in the
colonial militias during the Revolution. Several had various parts of their
bodies wrapped in dirty, white bandages and a few other men were missing a
limb. She blinked several times in disbelief as she watched a man hobble to a
nearby campfire, using a large stick as a cane.

Gabriel reined in his horse and pulled his hands back,
resting his palms intimately on her hips. “Good evening, cousin,” he said,
looking down at a young man who had rushed toward them.

“Gabriel,” the other man replied in greeting, his attractive
face splitting into a wide grin as his eyes landed upon Kaitlyn. “Another
patriot of the fairer sex?”

Gabriel squeezed her hips gently, gaining her attention.
“Miss McCann, this is my cousin Philip O’Connor.”

Kaitlyn barely heard him, her mind reeling from the feel of
Gabriel’s palms holding her against him so firmly, almost as though he expected
her to bolt at any second. A strange tightness settled in her chest as she
fought to push aside the sudden primal cravings this strange man brought out in
her. Her legs instinctively parted and she inhaled sharply, biting back the
groan threatening to escape her lips as she thought she felt Gabriel’s cock
grow erect against her ass.

She took a deep breath and forced a pleasant smile onto her
face. “It is a pleasure to meet you,” she replied, looking down at Philip. She
was impressed by how unaffected her voice sounded despite her rather unfamiliar
physical urges.

Much to her simultaneous dismay and relief, Gabriel released
his hold on her and dismounted, reaching up to lift her from the back of his
horse.

As soon as she was on the ground, Gabriel grabbed her hand
and led her several yards away to a tent in the middle of camp. He held the
tent flap open, allowing the light of the lantern inside to spill out onto the
ground at her feet. She ducked under the entrance, trying to calm her flipping
stomach. A small, wooden desk and chair stood to one side and a bench was
placed along the far wall. A pile of blankets and a pillow were neatly arranged
against the wall opposite the desk, almost as though it were a makeshift
sleeping bag.

With a gallant wave of his hand, Gabriel motioned her toward
the bench, indicating that she was to sit. She complied, her stomach churning
nervously. He followed her and positioned himself a few feet in front of her
with his legs braced shoulder width apart and his arms crossed in front of his
chest.

Suddenly, the pensive yet good-humored man she had ridden
with through the forest disappeared. A man who exuded power and authority
quickly took his place. Though Kaitlyn had been immediately attracted to him
from the moment he extended his hand to her, his magnetism unexpectedly became
so potent that Kaitlyn felt hypnotized by his dark gaze. Her body ached and she
wished he would simply grab her and slam his lips upon hers.

“What is it the information you have come to give us?”
Gabriel asked in a very businesslike tone.

Startled out of her reverie, Kaitlyn jumped slightly and
dropped her stare, unable to hold it for fear of him figuring out what she
thought about him. Deciding to play along until she could figure out what was
happening, she quickly searched the information in her head about Eileen
O’Connor’s wartime escapades.

“Well,” she began, her voice soft and quavering, “I had
overheard some British soldiers speaking about moving east against the men
stationed near Stockton, Massachusetts.”

Gabriel stared at her silently. His eyes were clear and
unresponsive, as though he was withholding judgment. “How is it that you came
by this information?” he asked, his voice uncompromising yet surprisingly
tender.

A lump formed in her throat and she swallowed nervously,
praying that he wouldn’t be able to detect the fact that she was lying. “Um…I
overheard some British soldiers talking as they passed by where I live.”

If the look in Gabriel’s eyes was any indication, her prayer
had gone unanswered. “And where is it that you reside? Surely your family must
be worried about you,” he inquired, uncrossing his arms and clasping his hands
behind his back.

His dark eyes bored into hers as though he was attempting to
read her mind. Kaitlyn dropped her eyes to the ground. “I used to live with my
father. But he died about a year ago. I do not have other family here.” With
that small bit of truth, she began to feel her confidence return just enough to
calm the erratic rhythm of her heart.

He shook his head, sighing as he straddled the bench and sat
down facing her. “Madam, I do believe that to be the most honest thing you have
said to me since you told me your name.”

Kaitlyn dashed a surprised look at him. The giant of a man
did not sound very upset with her, despite the fact that he could tell she had
lied about certain things. “How did you know?”

He shrugged. “I am a lawyer. It is my job to know when people
are lying.”

Kaitlyn laughed softly and rolled her eyes, her stomach
fluttering at his nearness. She tucked one leg underneath the other and noticed
for the first time that his eyes were the color of chestnuts.

He raised his eyebrows quizzically as he stared at her. “Now
perhaps you would care to regale me with the truth?”

She sighed heavily, her shoulders slumping. She was a
horrible liar. She knew it and now Gabriel knew it too. Just what was she
supposed to tell him? That either he’s just a character in a really strange
dream or that she had actually been pulled back in time over two hundred years?

If this was all a dream, which it most likely was, then
nothing would happen and she would eventually wake up, right? So, what was the
harm in telling the guy the truth?

Kaitlyn shrugged, feeling a sudden buoyancy in her
confidence level. “Honestly, I don’t even believe it myself. I don’t know why
you would.”

“Just tell me what happened,” he quietly commanded in a low,
almost gravelly voice.

“Well, I was in the library doing some research—”

“Whose library?” he curtly interrupted, his brow furrowed in
confusion. “There is nothing but ale houses and merchants’ shops near where I
found you.”

“Exactly,” she replied, feeling exasperation creep in at how
he had so unceremoniously cut her off. This would all have been so much easier
to prove if she hadn’t lost her messenger bag in that fog. “But where I come
from, there is a public library. Anyway, I walked out of the library and into a
dense fog. However, when I went through it, I found myself surrounded by pubs
and shops…and British soldiers.”

The features on Gabriel’s face softened as a look of
remembrance flitted through his eyes. “Fog?” he repeated, clearly disturbed by
her words.

Kaitlyn nodded her head enthusiastically, excited about the
thought of someone having seen what happened to her. “Yes! I forgot that you
had been in the area at the same time. Did you see it too?”

He nodded slowly, his eyes narrowing into obsidian slits. “I
rode through a terrible fog on my way through the village. ’Twas strange…one
moment I was in the thick of the woods and the next I found myself surrounded
by large homes, strange lanterns on tall poles and peculiar covered carriages.
And then it was gone. I thought for a moment that I had been bewitched.”

Kaitlyn gasped in excitement and grabbed his forearms. “Yes!
That’s exactly what happened to me!”

“Are you trying to tell me that what I saw was real?” he
asked hoarsely.

She nodded, feeling her will falter at the sudden skepticism
that began to creep into his eyes. Quickly, she came to the conclusion that she
should lay all of her cards out on the table before she chickened out
completely.

“What you saw was the world in which I come from. The
future,” she whispered, her voice rapidly threatening to abandon her. “The year
2008.”

Silently, he gazed at her for what seemed like an eternity.
When he finally spoke, his voice was even and deliberate. “You are saying that
this fog brought you here from over two hundred years in the future?” His eyes
narrowed again and he searched her face intently. “These sound like the words
of the devil.”

The sudden change in his demeanor caught Kaitlyn off guard.
“Do I look like Satan to you?” she asked, trying to sound very calm and logical
despite her shaky voice.

Several moments passed in silence before Gabriel’s visage
relaxed. He flashed her a roguish smile, obviously deciding that she was of
little threat. “’Tis said the devil takes many guises, the most common being
that of a beautiful, tempting woman.”

She dropped his gaze, feeling her cheeks flush. The air
around her became hot and she realized that her hands were still grasping his
forearms. She yanked them away as though his arms had turned into hot coals,
noticing a flash of disappointment crossing his face. Certain that she was
imagining the desire in his eyes, she focused intently upon the buttons of his
blue coat. “Please don’t tell anyone what I’ve said,” she quietly pleaded. “I
don’t want people to think I’m crazy.”

He tilted her chin up with his fingertips, forcing her to
look him in the eyes. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“Are you saying you believe me?” she hopefully whispered,
her skin burning beneath his touch.

“I do not know.” He dropped his hand from her chin and shook
his head. “I would not have thought such a thing to be possible before now. You
did seem to appear out of nowhere and you are dressed rather strangely. I do
not believe you are lying to me now but perhaps it is simply because you have
bewitched me.”

The seriousness of his face cracked into an easy, boyish
grin. His eyes roamed languidly up and down her body, unleashing a powerful,
primeval need deep within her. She nervously shifted her weight, uncomfortably
aware of the moisture growing between her thighs. Her breasts ached for his
touch and her breathing became shallow.