Chest heaving, she pressed the back of her hand to her mouth while pointing at him with the other.“Do not say it.I can only handle a certain amount of weirdness at a time, and I have reached critical mass.”
“Jessa—”
“No.”She shook a finger at him, forbidding him to say another word.“Shut it.Right now.”
Shut it?No woman told him to shut it.“I will damn well speak whenever I wish.”He rose to his feet, gathered her back into his arms, and kissed her again, showing her exactly what he thought about her ordering him toshut it.Aye, this intimate connection was the same.The searing burn, the raging sense that every tiny piece of his soul was falling into its proper place and settling into a perfect wholeness.
She clung to him, kissing him back as if starved for the taste of him, then she jerked and pushed away again.“Set me down.Now.”
“Lore a’mighty, woman, are ye trying to kill me?How can I let ye go when ye make me feel so?—”
“Stop it.Please.”Her words didn’t get through to him, but the fear in her eyes did.
He immediately steadied her safely back onto her feet and backed up until several steps separated them.“No matter how badly I need ye, never would I ever force myself upon ye, Jessa.Never.”
She fisted a hand to her heart.“I never thought you would.I was just afraid.That kiss.It was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before.”She shook her head, or maybe she shuddered.He couldn’t tell.“That was not a…” She blew out a shaky breath and pressed a hand to her forehead.“That wasn’t normal.”She turned and plopped down on the step, sitting with her elbows propped on her knees and her head in her hands.“That was strange,” she whispered, then shivered again.
Her words concerned him.“Ye found it unpleasant?”The way she had responded—surely, she had felt the same passionate wave that had coursed through him.“Are ye saying it was intolerable?”
She gave him a disbelieving look.“That is not what I meant.I found it entirely tootolerablefor a first kiss with someone I’ve just met, whom I’m not entirely sure about.”She wrinkled her nose.“Of course, I don’t usually make it a habit of kissing people I’m not sure about, but you don’t exactly fit into any of the neat little boxes I pigeon-hole people into when I meet them.You’re shockingly different.In more ways than I am presently able to describe.”Twisting to look at him, she caught her bottom lip between her teeth and hugged herself.“Was it—really different—for you too?”
“Aye, lass.”He sat on the steps, keeping a bit of distance between them for both their sakes.“Fiery.Raging.Yet peaceful and complete.As if I’d finally found that which I’d been missing all along.”He knew what he was describing, but couldn’t bring himself to call it what it was.Breath held, he waited to see what she would say.
“Two halves finally snapping together to create the whole they were always meant to be.”She hugged herself tighter, as if suddenly cold.“Fated mates,” she whispered, then huffed and gave him a sour look.“But you don’t believe in that, do you?”
“I said I dinna ken what to believe.Not that I did not believe.There is a difference, lass.”
“I don’t know what to believe, either.About any of this.”
As she dropped her head back into her hands, he ached to console her, to hold her again, but he was afraid.The intensity of everything she stirred within him shook him to the marrow of his bones.What she’d said about his people harming her because she was different came back to him with a vengeance, tempting him to lock her away and protect her like the priceless treasure she was.He slowly shook his head.Nay, he could never do that.She was indeed the glorious phoenix and the flame-haired fox combined—a sly wee beastie, risen from the ashes, in need of her freedom.
“Jessa?”He pushed himself to his feet and descended the steps until he stood one step behind her.When she didn’t answer, he bent, trailed his fingers down her arm, and scooped her hand into his.“Come, lass.Between the two of us, we’ll sort this out.Above all else, know that ye are not alone here.I will always be at yer side.”
She didn’t lift her gaze to his, but she squeezed his hand and rose to her feet.After a long moment that made him wonder what was going on in her lovely head, she turned and looked up at him.“If it was my destiny to go through this craziness, I’m glad you’re the one helping me survive it.”
The insatiable urge to pick her up and carry her to his bed raged through him, but he fought it.Struggling for control, he kissed her hand.“Not only will ye survive, my lovely one, ye will thrive.I shall see to it.”
Chapter 10
Grant escorted Jessa through the main floor of the keep into what looked like a massive dining hall filled with rows of trestle tables.Its whitewashed walls were covered in tartans, tapestries, ancient weapons, and an astonishingly large hearth that could probably burn entire tree trunks.She tightened her grip on his arm.Everything looked so real, so chillingly authentic.
It even smelled real.Not that she was an expert on how the eighteenth century should smell, but she felt like she was quickly becoming one.She swallowed hard and tried not to shudder.Admittedly, she was a chronic worrier, an over-planner, and an over-thinker, but she never panicked.Until now.This introduction to time travel and kisses that triggered so much more than simple lust overwhelmed her, and Emily wasn’t here to talk her off the ledge.She gulped another hard swallow to keep from throwing up the coffee Mrs.Robeson had worked so hard to make for her.If she didn’t calm down, control her breathing, and slow her erratically pounding heart, she was going to pass out.That’s what Emily would say if she were here.A sad wave of homesickness made her bite her lip.
“And this is the main kitchen,” Grant said, oblivious to her internal war, as they passed through a stone archway and came to a halt.“The outside kitchen is just beyond that door.There, ye will find the firepits and cauldrons where meat is put by for the winter and roasted for summer meals.”
Bundles of dried herbs, pots, pans, and flat disks of weathered iron hung from massive wooden rafters that crossed the low-ceilinged area.A haze of smoke beyond the tiny windows on the far wall revealed that the outdoor firepits were already in use.Enormous cauldrons and kettles, their surfaces seasoned to a gleaming black, hissed and bubbled from iron bars hung across the large hearth that took up one end of the room.Heat waves shimmered in the air over a large stone box that jutted out from one end of the hearth.Deep-sided skillets rested on the grid of metal bars that topped it.Hunks of meat sizzled and popped in the pans, making the air almost greasy with the aroma of highly seasoned beef and pork frying.
Jessa tried to ignore the stares of the two young girls at the long worktable under the windows on the other side of the room.Even though they attempted to hide behind the piles of vegetables they were peeling and chopping, she felt their curious glances pinging off her like mosquitoes trying to get through a window screen.
An older girl entered the kitchen from a side room.As soon as she noticed them, she jerked to attention, then hurried over to Grant and curtsied low while still hugging a basket overflowing with some type of leafy greens.“Cook’s outside starting the venison, m’laird.Ye want I should fetch her?”
“Nay, Alison.We’ll go outside presently.”He tipped a nod at Jessa.“This is Mistress Jessa.She is our honored guest and is to be treated as such, ye ken?”
“Aye, m’laird.”The girl offered Jessa a hesitant smile and another deep curtsy.
Jessa nodded and returned the maid’s smile as she’d done with everyone else she’d met, hoping that was the correct response.So far, Grant had only advised her against hiking her skirts above her knees, and that had led to those kisses that had shattered all her preconceived notions about the ridiculousness of fated mates being fictional rather than real.She pulled in a deep breath, forcing herself to concentrate on the present moment rather than the memory of those kisses.
Grant turned them toward a stone arch to the left of the one that had led them into the kitchen.“The well house is this way.Ye wished to see it, aye?”
