A Time & Place for Every Laird (28 page)

“You’re a real nag, you know that?”

“I know.”  She blinked back the tears burning at her eyes.  Danny really was the most impossible brother but damn, it was nice to know how much he really cared.

“Just pull over there,” Claire pointed to the corner of the parking lot away from her car.  Danny had insisted on carrying them the entire way, keeping her and Hugh safely hidden in the back of the van throughout the short ferry ride in case the NSA was monitoring the security feed, now that they knew for certain that she was in Seattle.  Her brother had been full of admonishment since learning of her near apprehension at Pike’s Market that afternoon, washing away any lingering sentiment Claire had been feeling for him.

She’d been called an idiot more than once
in the past hour.  Numbskull.  Moron, nitwit, nincompoop—that was a nice throwback to their childhood, though it was an insult she had delivered more often than received.

Parking in an empty space, Danny shut off the van and turned in his seat.  “Well, I guess this is it,” he said.  “Try not to
do anything stupid, all right?  Or in this case, stupider than you already have.  Just stay off the grid. No buses, no public transportation.  Be at the dock in Blaine by five in the morning the day after tomorrow.”

“How are we to take the ferry then?”

“Just take Robert’s car.”

Claire rolled her eyes at his casual direction
.  “You want me to steal Uncle Robert’s car?”

“Borrow,” Danny emphasized.  “It’s not like you’re not going to bring it back.”

Claire looked at him expressionlessly while Hugh shook Danny’s hand and thanked him one last time.  Commanding Claire to stay put while he scouted the area, Hugh slid open the van door and disappeared.

Danny
leveled a stern look at her the moment Hugh was out of sight.  “I saw that frown when I said that about Robert’s car.  Claire …” he paused, running a hand through his hair.  “Shit.  You do know that you can’t go to Scotland with him, don’t you?”

Shaking her head, Claire stared at her brother in disbelief. 
“What are you talking about?  Of course I have to go with him.”

Danny ran both hands through his hair
then.  “You cannot be this stupid, Claire.  Not if this is going to work.”

“We’ll be fine,” she insisted stubbornly.

“Damn it, Claire!  Always, always got to have things your way, don’t you?”

“You think I always get things my way?” she asked in disbelief.  “I and my personal history beg to differ.  Besides, I have to go with him.  Hugh isn’t ready to face the modern world alone yet. 
He hasn’t even seen an ATM or the inside of a bank yet, much less knowing about anything like utility hookups or tax forms.  He’s going to need some help, and I plan to be the one to give it to him.”

Claire started to scoot out of the van but Danny caught her arm tightly and pulled her back to face him.  “
You get on that plane with him and the NSA will tear a hole through everyone that was on it,” he told her bluntly. “When they can’t get him on paper, they will start going through the airport and customs surveillance footage.  Then they will have his picture and that will be that.  You get him on that plane and get out of Vancouver before they know you were ever there and he
might
have a chance of making this thing work.”

The truth of it all resounded in her
, but Claire’s heart denied his words.  She wouldn’t let Hugh go.  She couldn’t.  “He can’t go alone.”

Danny laughed harshly.  “Give him some credit, will you?  I don’t know who he is or was but Hugh is freakin’ smart
. He’s a survivor.  He’ll be fine.”

Clenching her teeth to stop a
biting retort, Claire shook her head once more, but knew that all her reasons for going were just an excuse.  Danny was right.  Hugh would undoubtedly find his way without her help or anyone else’s.  He was brilliant and resourceful, and that charm of his would probably take him anywhere he wanted to go.  “But …”

“No buts,
Sis,” he interrupted.  “I get it, I really do.  I never thought I’d see you look at a guy like that again, but you can’t have him.  Not now.  Maybe not ever.  As long as they think you know where he is, they’ll follow you.  They’re tenacious like that.  Believe me, I know.”

Claire stared at him, her heart
thudding heavily in her chest as his words echoed in her mind and heart. 
Not now.  Maybe not ever.
 
No
, she thought, feeling the tears well once more.  Not tears of gratitude this time but tears of loss.  How could she let Hugh go?  Let him walk away?  He needed her.

No, that wasn’t it at all, was it?  It was
her.  She didn’t want him to go.  She didn’t want Hugh to leave her alone once more, not when it seemed that life—which had long ago left her standing alone by the side of the road—had suddenly seen fit to pick her up once more. 

“Good-bye, Danny,” she said, getting out of the van.

“Claire,” he pleaded.  “Be realistic.”

Claire pulled the door shut and walked numbly to
ward Goose, not caring if the entire NSA saw her do it.  Getting in the car, she slammed the door and stared dully out the windshield.  She had to let Hugh go.  Truth that it might be, some part of her refused to digest it. 

She couldn’t go through that
again.

With a sigh, Claire pulled
her phone out of her purse and turned it on.  Thumbing across the pictures, she pulled up a picture of her husband taken the last time he’d been home on leave.  Matt was smiling that light, teasing smile he had always worn.  The smile she always thought of when she pictured him.  Hugh had been right. Claire had enshrined Matt in her memories, making him perfect in her mind.  He had been far from perfect.  Claire forced herself to remember that.  To remember that they had fought like normal couples.  To remember that Matt had had bad habits.  Done things that annoyed her from time to time.

But she had loved him and he had loved her.  Claire stroked her thumb across the imag
e tenderly.  She had been happy and in losing that happiness, had almost been destroyed.

Emptiness had filled her, lived within her for years. 
Hugh had been right.  She had lived in fear of loving and losing once more. The anger over his loss and the subsequent fear of trying again had ruled her life.  Now, somehow, Claire was filled again.  Miraculously, amazingly filled.  Filled with joy and anticipation and love because of Hugh.  He wasn’t perfect either, not by a long shot.  Hugh was superior and occasionally condescending. That sense of entitlement had probably been ingrained in him from birth.  But he was perfect for her.  There was that laughter, that challenge—he would always call her out on her stubborn flaws and bad habits!  And he challenged her mind as well.

How was she to give that up willingly?  How was she supposed to, in essence, hold the door open for it as it walked away from her
again?

The car door opened and Hugh sl
id into the seat.  “I told ye tae wait.”

“Sorry,” Claire mumbled as she swiped the picture away before turning off the phone and throwing it in the backseat.  “Can we go?”

“Aye.  I dinnae see anything suspicious, so let’s make haste.”

Nodding, Claire started Goose up and backed out the parking space
, heading through the twilight back to Robert’s.  She knew she should be making plans for their departure, needed to do so sooner rather than later, but she couldn’t get Danny’s warnings out of her head.  She didn’t want to lose Hugh, but really, what was more important?  Her happiness or his freedom?  If she didn’t let him go there was ample chance that they would have neither.

“Sorcha?  Are ye all right?” Hugh asked, taking her free hand between his and chafing it lightly.  His hand was rough, hard
, and warm.  The press of his skin against hers made her hand tingle.  She would have to remember that feeling.

“Sorcha?”

“I’m fine,” she lied woodenly.

“
We should pack our things tonight and be ready tae leave tomorrow evening,” Hugh said, not recognizing—perhaps for the first time—the falsehood on her lips, as he was too busy making the plans she could not.  “We dinnae want tae cause undue troubles for yer uncle, so I believe it best if we dinnae leave yer car there tae be found but somewhere else along the way before we leave the island.  If we’re tae meet this boat by dawn and this Blaine is three hours away, as yer brother said, we will need tae leave in the early morning hours.  What time is the last ferry?”

“What? 
Oh, about one in the morning.”

Hugh
nodded thoughtfully.  “We will have the day then to gather our things with plenty of time to rest if necessary before we leave.  That would be best, do ye agree?”

“Yes,” Claire agreed stiffly.  “Whatever you think.”

She could feel Hugh’s eyes on her, wondering at her sudden capitulation no doubt, but Claire finished the drive in silence until the garage door fell protectively behind them.

“Sorcha?” Hugh lifted her chin until he was able to meet her eyes.  “I will keep ye safe, I swear it.  I willnae let any harm come tae ye.”

The warmth of his hand felt like fire against the flush of her cheeks.  Hard and rough against the softness he must feel.  Remember it, her heart cried.  Memorize it because it is all you will have left.

But
it wouldn’t be enough.

Yes,
even if it killed her to do it, she would let him go to ensure his freedom, but she needed more than the memory of a few gentle kisses, Claire decided.  If she was truly going to let happiness walk away from her once more, then damn it, she was going have something more spectacular to remember.

“Sorcha?  What troubles ye, lass?” Hugh asked, finding her alone on the balcony outside her bedchamber late that night.

Sorcha
visibly started at his words, turning away from the rail but gripping it behind her back with both hands.  “Nothing, Hugh.  I’m fine.”

The words were
as transparently false as her habit of introducing a new topic when another was uncomfortable, and Hugh had to wonder what had unsettled her so.  Sorcha had been abnormally withdrawn ever since their return to the island, which was to say she participated in their conversations, including another more in depth dissection of human evolution, but her thoughts were clearly elsewhere.  Her eyes followed him unblinkingly as if she were studying every inch of his person. It might have been that her thoughts had returned to the offer he had made back at the marketplace, and Hugh wondered if her considerations were leaning toward joining him or not.

Perhaps he had asked too much, too soon.

Or perhaps she was simply not as confident of their success with the plan they had laid out as he was.  It was certainly an easier topic to broach, and Hugh cursed himself for his sudden cowardice.  “Do ye hae a concern over our strategy, lass?  Is that what preoccupies ye?”

She was chewing her lip uncertainly.  Her feet were bare, one on top of the other as if it might warm the one beneath it.  She looked smaller and more nervous than Hugh had yet seen her. 
“I do worry about getting into Canada safely,” she murmured.

There was some truth in the confession
, but Hugh could tell that wasn’t the whole of it.  Something more was bothering her. If it was not their strategic departure, there had to be something else that had changed her mood between their arrival on the island and their return to the beach house.  “Did Danny say something to distress ye?”

Sorcha blinked and met his gaze
, and Hugh knew that he had the right of it.  “What is it?  What did he say?”

“Nothing.”

Also patently untrue. 

“Come now, lass,” Hugh murmured as he approached her.  “After our time together, I’ve become a fair hand at telling when yer lying.  What is it?”

Tilting her head back to look at him, she said, “You said I was a terrible liar.”

“Aye, that’s why it is so easy to see it.”  Hugh cupped her cheeks in his hands and bent his head, brushing a tender kiss across her lips.  He meant for it to be only a kiss of affection but Sorcha’
s dewy lips unexpectedly clung to his.  Nostrils flaring, he inhaled the warm scent of her, citrus and floral.  The heady desire of being so close to her when he had endeavored to keep his distance set his heart pounding heavily, his body tensing with the need to pull her close. 

Her soft lips parted with a sigh, encouraging him to deepen the kiss. 
Easing away, Hugh looked down at her in surprise.  She looked soft and sweetly feminine with her hair loose around her shoulders, her lovely face pale in the muted glow of the moon, but her eyes shone like jewels as she caught her lip between her teeth once more as if she were suddenly nervous.

“
There is nae need to worry so, my love,” he said, hoping to reassure this unexpectedly vulnerable woman who up to this point had shown nothing but spit and fire.  “I swear tae ye, all will be well.”

“I know it will,” she said softly, looking up at him through her thick lashes.  Hugh felt her hand against his waist and her fingers curling
into the fabric of his t-shirt before her palm flattened against him and smoothed across his ribcage and over his chest. Skin met skin as her fingers tickled at his neck above his collar and curved around to tease the hair at his nape, and Hugh swallowed deeply.  “Sorcha, what are ye about, lass?”

Lifting herself on
to her toes, Sorcha kissed him once and then again, sighing against his lips.  Hugh’s fists clenched, fighting the urge to grab her, to pull her closer.  All week he had fought this.  Even with permission to flirt as outrageously as he chose, Hugh had resisted the temptation to touch her, knowing that once he succumbed, he wouldn’t be able stop.  The theory had become truth, and soon he had been taking any opportunity to hold her hand or touch her.  Each tiny caress was a torment.  He had wanted her too much; knowing that she wanted him as well, knowing that she was tempted and teetering on the edge of surrender had only inflamed that desire.  He hadn’t been able to touch her without longing for more, and didn’t trust himself to kiss her lest he take so much more.

Now she was luring him into passion’s
dark fire, tempting and teasing, and Hugh braced himself against the onslaught of lust that hardened his body, resisting his body’s call to plunder her sweet depths.  He had no wish to be faced with the guilt and remorse that would surely plague her if he did so.  “Lass, ye hae tae stop this.”

“Shh,” she blew against his ear, kissing his jaw and neck.  Then her hands were beneath his shirt, her palms on his stomach, his chest
, pushing it upward.  “Lift your arms.”

The request was so faint Hugh wasn’t entirely sure if she voiced it or he imagined i
t, but he lifted his arms and helped her pull the shirt over his head.  Then her hands were on his chest again, burning a path around him as she pressed a hot kiss there.  She rubbed her cheek against him, purring like a kitten as she kissed her way upward once more.  Her lips were hot, her tongue unbearably arousing as they grazed his neck and the underside of his chin.  With a groan, Hugh looked up at the ceiling, praying for help as her mouth closed over the base of his throat.

Then she was tugging at him again, forcing him to look down at her.  Those purple eyes were dark and heated. 
Insistent.  “This isnae what ye want, lass.”

“Oh
, but it is.  It is what I’ve been waiting for all night,” she whispered, stretching to kiss him once more.  Then she took his hand and pressed his palm against her heart.  It was beating erratically, matching her breathing.  “I want you, Hugh.  My heart is pounding like this for you.”

By God, but Hugh had never wanted a woman as badly as he wanted his one.
  He wanted to possess her, become one with her, but he wanted to be completely alone with her.  To have her be his fully.  “I told ye, I cannae share ye, lass.  I want ye too badly tae hae ye hold back.”

“I won’t,”
Sorcha offered the softly spoken promise as her arms twined together behind his neck and she lifted herself, her lithe body pressed against the hard length of him.  “I couldn’t.”

With a groan, Hugh surrendered to
the heady desire raging through his veins. 

With a powerful arm around her waist, Hugh lifted Claire against his muscled chest as his lips took her with all the passion and desire that had building between them for the last several days.  His mouth devoured hers as he carried her into the bedroom, his tongue plunging as a groan rumbled deep within his chest.  Breathless, Claire clung to him in complete surrender, allowing him to plunder at his will.  Her head was already swimming, but when Hugh cupped her bottom and lifted her against his rigid length, her head fell back dizzily as her blood surged and roared in her ears.

Yes, this was exactly what she needed.

“Oh, God,” the words escaped her with a moan as his mouth descended on her neck, nipping and licking at the side of her throat.  She ran her fingers through his hair, knotting, pulling him closer.  “I feel like I’m going to faint. It’s so … so … mmm … ohh, Hugh.”

“I want ye, lass.  I
’ve ne’er wanted anything so badly in my life,” he growled thickly.  His hand was up the back of her shirt, his hot, rough palm searing her skin as he pushed her shirt up.  He tugged then swore, easing back from her.  “Ye hae too many clothes on.”

Claire swayed unsteadily
, her head spinning euphorically when Hugh set her back on her feet and began to pull her shirt up … then down.  He swore.  Then reached to unzip the North Face fleece vest she wore and Claire looked down, realizing what the difficulty was.  She did have too many clothes on.  In typical Seattle fashion, she had dressed for the unpredictable May day in layers.  The vest over a long-sleeve T-shirt with another short sleeve T under that.  Helpfully, she shrugged out of the vest and pulled the first T-shirt over her head before Hugh helped with the second.

“
My fumbling wi’ yer masculine attire belies the fact that I was once skilled at undressing a lady,” he murmured in a thickened brogue as it came off.

Claire smiled at that.  “I bet you were.”

He reached down to unbutton her jeans.  “I ne’er tried to remove another’s trousers before.”

“I should hope not,” she teased, pushing down the jeans and stepping out of them only to hear Hugh release an anguished moan.  “What is it?”

Hugh cupped her breasts through the lacy cups of her bra, squeezing gently before thumbing her bra straps off her shoulders.  He bent his head, kissing her shoulders as he removed the straps.  One hand skimmed over her bare ribcage, over her hip, and dipped into her panties to cup her bare bottom.  “When I imagined ye without yer clothes on—and I hae a hundred times—I dinnae think ye’d be dressed like this.  I would hae had ye naked in an instant if I had.  Yer so bonny, Sorcha.  Bewitching.  Och, lass, ye’ve been driving me mad!”

His lips were on her neck once more, his hands everywhere
, moving over her as if he couldn’t get enough of the feel of her bare skin.  Claire reached behind her to unclasp her bra and let it fall down her arms and then his hands were there as well, massaging and tweaking her swollen nipples. She gasped and clung to him once more as Hugh pushed down her panties and lifted her off the floor, inviting Claire to wrap her legs around him, and she did.

Never had she felt so beautiful, so light and fragile.  In contrast to his big body, she felt wonderfully petite. 
“
I’ve
been driving
you
mad?” Claire said incredulously.  “Really?”

With a growl, Hugh lowered himself down until he was looming over her, braced by a hand on either side of her.  His head bent until their lips were inches apart, waiting
, and Claire threw her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her.  His lips took hers with none of the tenderness he had displayed before.  His mouth slanted across hers, kissing her passionately, deeply, until Claire was clinging to him, whimpering with need as she tried to raise her body to his or bring him down to her.  But Hugh did not relent.  He kissed again and again, nipping and sucking on her lips, sweeping his tongue across hers until his breathing was as labored as hers. 

The
denim of his jeans chafed against the inside of her sensitive thighs as he moved lower, his hands, mouth, and tongue exploring her entire body, licking and sucking until her body was on fire, tensing.  Panting desperately, Claire tugged at his hair, lifting his head until his blazing blue eyes met hers.  “Please.”

Nostrils flaring with lust and desire, Hugh stood and reached for the button of his jeans, his eyes never leaving hers as he kicked them off.  The
n he was over her once more, pressing Claire into the bed and lifting her legs around him.  His lips took hers fervently again as he pressed against her then thrust deeply, filling her, stretching her.  “Ahh!” Claire cried out, throwing her head back as she clutched him to her.  Her thighs trembled with ecstasy as he withdrew and plunged hard.  She clenched her thighs tightly around him but couldn’t stop the release that came swiftly and unexpectedly, sending throbbing delight coursing through her.  Sobbing with the intensity of her climax, Claire held Hugh’s body close to her.  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.  It’s just …”

Hugh shushed her, his lips tender against hers
, as he began to move inside of her again.  “Nay, lass, I’m nae done wi’ ye yet,” he murmured thickly as he thrust slowly.  “Ahh, my bonny lass.”   His hand slid up her bottom, lifting her hips higher against him.  Desire rekindled into a flame, and Claire rose to meet him as his pace increased until she was at the precipice once again.  This time she wasn’t alone.  Hugh’s arms were shaking, his hands trembling as he took them over the edge together.  His lips captured her cry of release only to join her with a low growl of pleasure as he came hard against her womb, flooding her with scorching heat as she throbbed around him.

Wrapping his arms tightly around her, Hugh rolled onto his back
, carrying Claire with him until she was sprawled across his heaving chest.  His lips skimmed down her throat lazily.  “Mé gráigh tú.  Mé adhradh tú.  Mé grá tú, mo Sorcha.  I gcónaí,” he murmured against her as his hands stroked down her back.

Claire nuzzled her cheek against his damp neck, inhaling the musky
scent of his skin as she snuggled against him. “What does that mean?”

Hugh shook his head, his hand sliding down over her bottom once more.  “It means, I
am glad that we hae another day together before we must leave.”

She didn’t believe that but Claire wasn’t in the mood to question him.  The moment was too magical, too extraordinary to question.  Instead, she sat up
, straddling him and spreading her hands over his chest.  Brushing her lips across his, she whispered with a smile, “For you, I would make all the time in the world.”