“Are you really Caelan Foster MacKay?”
“Aye.”
“Is Emrys really your uncle?”
“No.”
“Aha!” She poked him in the chest, irritation flashing in her eyes. “Will you just tell me already and stop making me drag it out of you? I haven’t even had my shower or any coffee yet!”
Damn it to hell.His timing was indeed poor. He should have thoroughly pleasured her in bed, allowed her a shower, plied her with that disgusting swill she called coffee, andthenexplained the concept of time travel to her. He rubbed the grit of sleep from his eyes and sent up a prayer to the Goddess for guidance. “When we travel to Scotland on Samhain, at midnight, during the seventh full moon since I arrived in Kentucky, we will not need a passport, airline tickets, or luggage. All we need is ourselves, Emrys, and the dogs. We will go to the pond deep in the woods, and when Emrys speaks the words, we will go back in time to the year 1379, to Scotland, to my home, and to my clan where I am their laird.” He held his breath and waited for her reaction.
“Did you inhale too much of the ether yesterday when you worked on the tractor? Because that sounds like one hell of a dream you had.” She arched both her eyebrows nearly to her hairline as she slid out of bed, grabbed her robe, and slid it around her shoulders. With a leery glance back at him, she slowly ambled toward the bathroom.
He pulled in a deep breath and braced himself for the worst. This was not going well. “It is no dream, lass. In fact, this all started months and months ago because of the same dream of ye that haunted me every night. For nearly a year, ye came to me, teased me with your beauty, and tormented me by never allowing me to catch ye. I drove the clan mad, making them search for this violet-eyed goddess of my dreams. I even had my most trusted and wisest druid search through all his mystical sources for this wonderful lass I could nay forget.”
She went a little pale as she fisted her hands at her sides. “And this druid’s name was?” She chewed on the corner of her lip, her eyes telling Caelan that she already knew the answer.
“Aye, it was Emrys. He found ye in the Mirrors of Time. Showed ye to me and worked a spell with the Fates. The spell granted us seven moons to come forward, win your heart, and then give ye the choice to return to my home and my time with me.” He pushed himself out of the bed, grabbed his jeans, and pulled them on. This wasn’t going well, but, at least, she hadn’t run out the door screaming.
“You said give me the choice. So, we don’t have to go back to Scotland 1379? We could stay here, right?” The color returned to her cheeks, and she smiled as she blew out a relieved sigh. “I know the name of a good psychiatrist. His office takes payments, and I’d be happy to go with you.”
Caelan tensed, his heart aching. She believed him mad, thought none of it was true. “This is not pretend, Rachel. It is real. Andyehave the choice whether or not to go, my love, butonly ye can choose. Ye may return to my home, the love of my soul, as my heartmate and make me the happiest man who ever lived, or ye may stay here in your Kentucky of 2007. With your dogs, your conveniences, and without Emrys and myself. The old man and I will be sent back to our time, whether or not ye choose to accompany us.” As he watched her thoughts and worries play across her face, he felt as though he aged all the years between 1379 and 2007. All he could hope was that he’d captured enough of her heart to ensure she couldn’t live without him, either.
“Caelan,” she started, then stopped, pulled in a deep breath and blew it out. She gentled her tone as though speaking to a child. “I hope you realize how much I love you. But I don’t see how what you are saying is possible. You cannot be from the year 1379.” She offered him a sympathetic smile. “How about bacon and pancakes this morning? You rest while I fix it.”
A determination to make her believe filled him, raging within him like a battle needing to be won. He closed the distance between them and took hold of both her hands. “The day before Emrys and I showed up on your doorstep, ye and I were together in your dreams. It was the first time we loved each other and enjoyed each other’s touch as we have these past few days. Do ye remember, lass?”
Her eyes went wide. She yanked her hands out of his and clutched the lapels of her robe, pulling it tighter around herself. “How do you know that?” she whispered as she backed up against the dresser.
He kept his voice soft and low, sensing she was about to bolt. “Because Emrys sent me to love ye in your dream plane so that ye would know me when we appeared in this time.”
“That is not possible,” she choked out as she stumbled toward the bedroom door.
“What about the violet light that surrounded us? The energies that flowed through us when we permitted ourselves toadmit our true feelings? Have ye forgotten that night? How the light united us?” He wanted to touch her but realized she would never allow it. Not now. His heart ached for her to believe. If she didn’t?—
With shaking hands waving him away and her head bowed, she whimpered like a frightened pup.
Caelan couldn’t hold off any longer. He closed the space between them, lifted her face to his, and brushed his lips across hers. “Believe me, Rachel,” he whispered. “I beg ye.”
She backed up a step and shied away from him, turning to the wall.
“I’ll go for a bit of a walk,” he suggested, unable to come up with anything else to do to give her time to come to her senses. “Think about it, aye? Please know I love ye with all my being, dear one. I swear ye have nothing to fear. Never would I ever let any harm come to ye.”
She hugged herself tightly and stared at the floor, not saying a word as he walked out.
“Goddess, I beg ye,” he said under his breath as he strode down the hall, through the kitchen, then out the door. “Dinna let me lose her. I canna bear it.”
The setting sundrew even with the ridge just as Emrys emerged from the woods. True to his word, the druid was right on time. He ambled along, touching the ground with his staff, not to support himself but seemingly for some other purpose known only to him. As he crossed the yard, he narrowed his eyes and knotted his brows as his gaze lit first on Caelan where he sat on the edge of the porch, then rose and took in the dark windows of the house.
“Where is she?” he asked, his tone revealing that he sensed all was not well.
“Ye tell me.” Caelan stared at the ground. He’d sat here for hours, waiting for her return while his hopes and dreams dwindled to nothingness before his eyes.
“What did she say when ye told her?” Emrys asked. “How did she react?” With a groan in honor of his stiff old bones, he lowered himself to the porch beside Caelan. “How bad was it, my laird?” he asked with a solemn quietness.
Caelan huffed a mirthless laugh; his gaze focused on the ground but his mind’s eyes watching the terrible scene over and over. “At first, the lass thought I’d gotten caught up in a dream or maybe gone daft for whatever reason. But when I reminded her of our time together in the dream plane before ye and I arrived, it frightened her. I could see it in her eyes.”
“Frightened her?” Emrys stroked his beard and twisted his staff, digging its tip deeper into the soft earth beside the porch. “Was she frightened about the time travel or afraid she’d fallen in love with a madman?”
