He thought her head turned, but he couldn’t be sure. Without thinking, he dove into the waves and started to swim as if his life depended on it, every stroke strong and determined. He’d grown up swimming in the waters around the Isles and usually won the speed events when his clan participated in the Highland games, but the current of the sound was ruthless. The time it was taking to reach her seemed interminable. He checked her position every time he lifted his head to take a breath.
He was about halfway there when he heard her voice. “Lachlan…”
It was so soft, he thought he’d imagined it. He paused for only a second, then heard it again. “Lachlan…” The plea in her voice cut through him like a knife. He heard her hope. Her trust. She believed in him. And it ate at him. He couldn’t let her down.
“Hurry. I can’t—”
The choking sound stopped his heart. Her head bobbed once with the waves and disappeared.
“Flora!” The voice that tore from him was not his own. He felt as if his heart were being ripped out of his chest. She was only about fifty feet away. His body exploded with uncontrollable rage. He wasn’t going to be able to reach her in time. “Hold on!” he yelled, even though he knew she couldn’t hear him, right before he dove into the water.
He swam to the place he’d last seen her. Swam until his lungs were about to explode. Only knowing that hers were doing the same kept him going. He tried opening his eyes underwater, but the salt burned and it was too damn dark to see anything. Swimming near the bottom, he reached around blindly, grabbing for anything.
His lungs were burning, screaming for air. He couldn’t hold his breath much longer.Think of her. She’s drowning, damn it.He was frantic now. Reaching wildly around him. Suddenly, mercifully, he felt something. His fingers tangled in something too fine to be kelp. Her hair. He could have cried with relief. He’d found her. Pulling her harshly against him, he wrapped his arm around her stomach, holding her snuggly under her ribs, and shot to the surface.
When his head broke through the water, he gasped in air. But she still fell limply against him. Lifeless. “Flora!” He heard the raw panic in his voice. Panic that had shred the last bit of his reserve. He couldn’t lose her. Instinctively, he jerked her hard against him, hitching his arm against her stomach. The swift movement caused her to spasm, and she choked, seawater gurgling from her mouth. He turned her around to face him. Cradling her face in his hands, he urged her with his voice. “Flora. God. I’ve got you. Can you hear me?”
Her eyes fluttered and closed. But she was alive.
He pressed his lips on her forehead, tasting only salty seawater. She was like ice. He brought his face to hers, cheek to cheek, and felt the unmistakable wisp of her breath on his neck. Shallow but true. His skin prickled, every nerve ending flared at the sweet sensation. But he could not savor it for long.
The danger wasn’t over.
Rolling her around so that she floated on her back, he swam her to shore. A much easier proposition than on the way out. Reaching the safety of the beach, he lifted her in his arms, wrenching her from the steel jaws of the sea that had tried to claim her.
He carried her a few feet up the beach and set her down carefully, kneeling beside her.
“Flora.” He shook her shoulders gently. “Wake up.”
She looked so still. So horribly still. “Flora.” He shook her gently, his chest squeezing painfully. “Please wake up. I need you to wake up.”I need you.
Her eyes fluttered again and then—blissfully—opened. And he found himself looking into the achingly familiar fathomless depths. He felt a rush of relief so strong, he could have wept. Instead he kissed her.
He knew there wasn’t time, that he had to get her back, but he couldn’t help it. He needed to know that she was alive.
His mouth covered hers in a searing kiss, as if he could warm the cold from her lips with the heat of his passion. He kissed her with a raw desperation born of fear. With all the intensity of the emotions she’d exposed inside him. He told her with his lips what he couldn’t admit to himself.
In that one brief instant, he told her so much. When he lifted his head, her eyes met his and he could see her surprise.
“Lachlan, I…” Her eyes fluttered again, then closed as she slipped back into unconsciousness.
For a moment, he thought she’d died. Fear gripped him again as pressed his hand against her chest, relieved to feel the precious beat of her heart. He swore, still breathing hard as he gathered her in his arms again. The currents of the sound had sapped him of his strength, but he knew that if he did not get her back to the keep, to warmth, she would die.
There was nothing more he could do for her until he got her back to the castle. Her shallow breath against the open V in his shirt would be all the assurance he would have. He held on to it like a precious talisman. A lifeline that gave him strength where there was none.
His breath came hard and heavy between his lips. His legs burned with each dragging step across the sandy beach. Her normally insignificant weight grew heavier and heavier as he climbed swiftly and steadily up the rocky path. Pressing on. Using every last reserve of energy.
He wouldn’t let himself think about how cold she was. How long she’d been in the freezing water. He swallowed. How long she’d been underneath. He wouldn’t think about the pallor of her skin resting against his sopping shirt. Her bloodless lips. The dark shadows under her eyes. It was just the moonlight….
God take him, she wouldn’t die.He wouldn’t let her. As if by the sheer force of his will, he would defy anyone, God or man, who sought to take her from him.
She was his. She’d belonged to him from the first moment he’d seen her. And not because of his devil’s bargain with her cousin Argyll that would ensure his brother’s safety and his clan’s future. No, the truth was far more elemental than that.
The fierce pounding in his chest did not lie. Gilly had been right. He did care for her. For the first time in his life, he couldn’t deny an emotional attachment to a woman—he’d thought himself dedicated to his family and clan alone. He was wrong.
Finally, he’d reached the top of the path and his horse. Beyond exhausted, he was moving mechanically, instinct, forged by years of pushing himself to the limit of endurance, taking over. He needed every last ounce of it right now. After laying her across his saddle, he mounted behind her and nestled her in his arms again, then rode hard for the keep.
He didn’t take the time to explain to the men he passed along the way but simply ordered them to spread the word that he’d found her and to return to the castle.
