Caelan slid into the bed and gathered her to his chest, holding her tight until the terrible spasms racking through herceased. She knotted his shirt in her hands and buried her face against him, begging the pain to go away. “I can’t stand this,” she moaned. “Please make it stop.”
“I would take it from ye if I could, my love,” he rasped into her hair. He held her close, mumbling something under his breath in words she didn’t understand.
“What are you saying?” she whispered, trying to latch onto anything to get her mind off the hurting.
“An old verse from my home,” he said. “An oath, ye might say—in the old one’s tongue.”
“Tell me so I can understand it. Give me something to think of other than this pain.” She wished the pain pill would hurry and take effect. If it didn’t, she was going to vomit from this torture, and that would make it even worse.
“I give ye the strength of my heart, my love. I give ye the strength of my soul. I bind our fates and destinies. We two are now a whole. For the good of all and with harm to none, so let it be uttered, so let it be done. So mote it be.”
“So mote it be,” she whispered with a smile, remembering that Granny used to always say that exact phrase sometimes. The memory brought her comfort and a sense of peace she hadn’t felt in a very long while. With a strange sense of floating on air, she found herself able to breathe a little easier. Thank goodness those pills hadn’t expired, and they had kicked in amazingly fast. “Thank you for everything, Caelan,” she said in a breathy whisper as her pain and tension melted away. “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
“If I have my way about it, lass. Ye will never be without me again.”
CHAPTER 5
Caelan stared up at the ceiling, his heart easier and his soul filled with more contentment than he ever thought possible. In Rachel’s bed, with her tucked in close and sleeping in the crook of his arm, her head on his chest, he couldn’t imagine heaven would be any better than this. Gently, so as not to disturb the rest granted her by the wee pills that magickly numbed her pain, he stroked her hair, running the silky strands through his fingers while breathing in her sweetness that made those flowery vines she had called honeysuckles pale in comparison.
When she moved her head, nestling like wee Sam trying to get more comfortable in the pillows, he went still, fearing he had disturbed her.
She pulled in a deep breath, eased it out with a breathy sigh, and then spoke in a sleepy whisper, “I must be having that dream again.” She hugged her arm and leg across him, snuggling closer and torturing him with the fullness of her breasts pressed into his side.
Teeth clenched; he held his breath to keep from groaning.
“I wish he was naked too,” she mumbled while curling her leg tighter around him. “Skin to skin would be so much better. Like the last dream.”
Caelan bit the inside of his cheek until his mouth filled with the coppery tang of blood.
She wriggled her fingertips into the space between the buttons of his shirt and toyed with his thick chest hairs. A happy sigh came from her, so happy that he envisioned her smiling. “I love a man with a hairy chest,” she sleepily purred.
Goddess help—she’s feckin’ killing me.With the greatest of care, he tried to untangle himself from her embrace and slide away, knowing if the pills were wearing off, and she fully awakened, she would not be happy to find him in her bed, and her naked.
“Take your clothes off,” she said in a breathy voice that made him ache to do as she said. “I like the way your skin feels against mine.” Moving surprisingly fast for one so dazed with those wee pills, she stretched and nipped at his throat.
He had to get away from her. She was in no condition for love play, no matter what her drugged mind thought, and if she awakened even more, he felt certain she would change her mind—and fly into a fury. She reached for him as he slipped out of the bed but only ended up as far as his pillow. With the fluffy barrier hugged tight in her arms, she smiled and relaxed, slipping back into a deeper level of sleep.
Teeth clenched so tight his jaws ached, he covered her with the soft white sheet. If she wasn’t injured, he would like nothing better than to rub every inch of his skin against hers. But now was not the time.
“Sam,” he quietly called, motioning for the little dog to come to him from his place at the foot of the bed. He picked the wee warrior up and placed him beside Rachel’s head. “If she wakes,come get me. I know ye understand what I’m saying so, come and fetch me if she so much as squeaks, ye ken?”
With his little head cocked to one side and his pointed ears perked at attention, Sam gave a soft yip as though accepting the task assigned him. He turned three times in the tightest of circles, then firmly cushioned himself up against the top of Rachel’s head. He stretched and barely licked her nose, then tucked his head between his paws and went to sleep.
Satisfied that the dog would do as he’d asked, Caelan hurried into the bathroom and splashed cold water on his face. This would have to do since there was no icy loch in which to dive, and he refused to leave her long enough to go jump into the pond to cool his painful yearning. Staring at his reflection in the cracked mirror above the pale pink sink, he frowned. Rachel’s injury was going to complicate matters. He needed to be able to woo her, win her trust and her heart—and he had little time to do so. Seven moons was not that long.
Especially since he had to wait until the proper moment to tell her that on Samhain, they would travel over six hundred years back in time to start their life together. From what he’d observed so far, there was nothing here to keep the lass from wanting to travel back with him. The only things she might even think about missing were her faithful companions, Sam and Maizy. Surely, Emrys would come up with a spell to bring the dogs along.
Caelan narrowed his eyes at his reflection. Where was that seer, anyway? The old druid could add some of his healing powers to Rachel’s wee pills. She seemed to be resting much easier this morning, but it would still be days before she was able to move without a great deal of pain.
He dried his face on the pink towel that matched the sink and tried to rub the knots out of the muscles in his neck. Only the lightest of sleep had come to him, mere dozing ashe’d held Rachel while she slept. At her every twitch, he had gone fully awake and alert to do whatever she needed, but the night had thankfully passed without issue. And he’d held himself completely motionless, fearing the slightest movement might cause her distress. Hours of locked muscles now had him as sore as if he’d been beaten. But she was worth it, and he’d reveled in her precious warmth cradled in his arms.
“Ye’ve done well enough, I see.” Emrys stood in the bedroom doorway, his spindly arms folded across his chest.
“She sleeps for now thanks to the wee pills she had in the bathroom.” Caelan pointed for Emrys to join him in the kitchen. He raised a finger to his lips at Sam as the dog perked up and watched him walk past the bed. With the bedroom door pulled to but not closed entirely, he paused and listened for a moment before continuing down the hall.
As soon as he joined Emrys in the kitchen, he allowed himself a low growl, “Where the devil have ye been? Ye could have helped her if ye’d but laid hands upon her instead of leaving us there in that field. I’ve seen ye ease the pain of many a warrior as he lay groaning from his battle wounds.”
“The Goddess protects the lass. How do ye think she survived such a blow to her back?” Emrys peered at the coffeepot, frowning as he held it up, and discovered nothing but dregs sloshing around its bottom. He returned it to the coffeemaker and glared at Caelan. “She fares much better than she should have, ye ken that as well as I. And from what I saw reflected off the waters of the pond, she should be up and around in but a few days’ time.”
