Highland Shift (Highland Destiny: 1) (23 page)

He stopped then, and they just looked at each other.
Last night, we could have lifted the curse, if only we’d talked to each other.

Despite the dire circumstances in which they found themselves, Elena realized that they had each acted out of love. They had each been trying to protect the other. Seated on his lap, locked in the cell, Elena was happier than she ever thought she could be.

Twice now, Elena had pictured something in her mind, something that affected her profoundly, and somehow Faolan had been able to see what she was imagining. It was as though she were a human projector. She wondered if she could do it intentionally. Faolan was still looking deep in her eyes, so Elena imagined loving him, that he was the owner of her heart and soul. His eyes changed, and she knew he was seeing into her, that she was successful in projecting her thoughts.

Now for something a bit more complicated
. She visualized the two of them, on the couch. She was telegraphing the images from when she slid between his legs in the library, their hands together, stroking, tasting. She shifted the image yet again, and thought of the tub, her legs draped over the side, Faolan lifting her to his mouth.

Faolan’s breathing was fast and ragged. Still he said nothing.

Elena shifted from memory to a mental request.
Make love to me, Faolan. Right here, right now.
 

“
Och, love, I doona’ know how you are doing that,” he said in a strangled whisper, “but there is more I must tell you. Worthington never plans to let us go. Apparently, that mirror is what he has been looking for all these years. Or at least a big part of it. He thinks it will show him how to get all his desires. He thinks I can show him how to make it work, but I doona’ know how.”

Elena realized she might have the answer, but it was not going to be one Worthington liked. “When I looked in the spell book, I think there were two different spells. I couldn’t read them, but they’re illustrated, so I have a pretty good idea about the two of them. In one, the man turned into the wolf on his own, I expect he was a shape shifter.

“In the other spell, the man was forced to a wolf shape. The background included a full moon and the spell caster was pointing to the mirror. The mirror reflected the spell onto the wolf. The mirror won’t show anyone who looks at it how to get what he desires. It will only show the cursed man his true desire, his true heart, so that the curse can be lifted. The mirror will never show Worthington anything,” Elena finished triumphantly.

Faolan looked at her in surprise, and after thinking about it for a minute, he agreed. It felt right to both of them. Elena expected Faolan to feel happiness, but she could still
sense his feelings and he was despondent. “What’s wrong, Faolan? Worthington can’t force you to do his bidding. You’ll soon be free of your curse.”

“It’s too late, Elena,” Faolan cried. “You have not realized the day, but Worthington did. ‘
Tis why he left us in here tonight. ‘Tis the full moon.” He looked at her, horror for what he would soon become, what he soon would do, filled his eyes.

Elena climbed out of Faolan’s lap, kissed his head to show she wasn’t afraid and to reassure him that she just needed to move around in order to think. She had forgotten how cold it was; sitting on Faolan’s lap was like having her own private furnace. She wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.

She took a bottle of water and handed one to Faolan, then ate a few crackers and some cheese. Faolan declined when she offered to share. He was alternately watching her pace and staring out at the darkening sky. Elena wondered how long until moonrise.

“About two hours,” Faolan answered her thought.

Hmm…I’ll  have to be careful with my new power.
He smiled in response.
Still not careful enough, apparently.

Elena reorganized the cell and asked Faolan to help her move the tapestry so that it laid completely flat, providing a luxurious floor covering in their otherwise barren cell. She brought over the blankets and the bottle of whisky and piled everything else off to the side. Faolan was watching, but Elena was keeping her mind a blank for now.

Faolan was looking at the bottle of whisky, and suddenly she could hear
his
thoughts. He considered then dismissed the idea of trying to get himself drunk enough to pass out, maybe sleep through the moon. Then he considered asking her to drink the whisky so she would pass out before he changed, before he killed her.

There it is. He would kill me.
Not because he wanted to but because an enchantment hundreds of years ago changed his essential nature. Elena had roughly two hours to live. Two scant hours to think about her life, to remember all the loved ones, all the good times.

Except there hasn’t been much happiness in my life, not until now.

Faolan needed to know about her, to understand her life. She’d made him see the champagne, she’d made a body appear on the floor,
surely she could make him see what her life had been like before him. Elena knelt in front of Faolan, making sure she had his attention. She focused on bringing her memories to life for Faolan to see. She showed him the lonely little girl she’d been, The days alone in the apartment, the night her mother left her forever for a bottle of vodka. She pictured Grandda, who loved her in his gruff silent way but left too, dying after only a few short years. Then there was a series of foster parents, before she broke free with the help of college loans and two jobs. The scenes flashed by, Elena didn’t want to spend much time thinking about them, just long enough for Faolan to see, to get a sense of her life.

She showed him Marty, who seemingly rode in on his white horse to give the poor little girl a happily-ever-after ending. When she remembered the scenes of Marty asking if she was ready to, “Give it up,” as he’d liked to say about her virginity, Faolan growled. Then Elena showed Faolan that humiliating scene when Worthington had come to tell her it had all been a lie.

Finally, Elena showed Faolan how the real happiness in her life started the moment he had stepped behind her in line at the airport. His earthy scent played to her soul, their first earth-shattering kiss, and their most intimate moments. Elena smiled and looked at him, making sure he followed it all.

Cupping his face in her hands, Elena pressed her forehead to his, needing him to understand this most important point.
When I was lost, your magick awoke, and you saved me. I know you love me, and I love you. If my life is to end this night in this room, then I want to go with your loving arms around me, with you inside of me, finally a woman.
Your
woman.

“No, I’ll not take you here,” Faolan roared, jumping to his feet and moving to the far side of the chamber. “Doona’ you understand? I will kill you, and that will kill me. At least it will kill my soul.”

He desperately looked around the room. “I will wrap you in the tapestry, roll you up to hide you, and maybe I can fight it. Maybe we could use the blankets to tie my hands to the bars, or bind my mouth. ‘Tis not enough whisky to knock me out, love, I’m sorry. If you drank it, you wouldna know what was happening. Damn it, I canna do it, Elena.”

Elena waited patiently for him to finish,
then tried something different. He’d said she was his light, so she concentrated on projecting her love in the form of a pure white light, flowing into him. She focused on controlling that light, that feeling, on filling every part of him with her light, just as his love filled every part of her.

She crossed the floor to stand directly in front of him, nose to chest, considering the difference in their heights, and placed her hands on his chest. They could both feel it. A wave of pure energy poured from Elena, from her hands, into Faolan, bringing peace to his troubled mind. She felt strong and full of purpose.
Tomorrow might never be. This night is our destiny.

Faolan placed his hand on top of Elena’s, and the energy began to flow both ways. He filled her with his love. They stared into each other’s eyes, and Elena wondered at the connection. Something was changing; something spiritual was happening.

“Love me, Faolan.”

“Elena, you know I do.”

With a groan, he swept Elena up into his arms, and she wrapped her legs around his waist and put her hands on his face. Still looking into his eyes, she kissed him, and the world shifted once again. The movement was more than just their own personal earthquake; everything around them shimmered in Elena’s peripheral vision.

Faolan staggered under the motion of the shift, then held Elena tighter and deepened the kiss. His mouth covered hers, pressing gently, molding her lips to his. He rained kisses on her face and neck, lightly touching, teasing. His kisses claimed her. She felt light-headed at the passion flowing between them.

As though unable to stand the barest of separation, Faolan unzipped the back of her dress, slipped it over her head while Elena squeezed her legs even tighter around his waist. His hands returned to cup the bare cheeks of her ass. Elena loosened Faolan’s hair, raking her nails through silky strands. The fine cover of hair on his chest brushed against Elena’s breasts, raising chill bumps.

Lowering them to the floor, Faolan settled Elena on the blanket-covered tapestry. He kissed her, tongue thrusting, promising her infinite pleasure. She captured his tongue before releasing it, traced his lips, and pulled gently on his lower lip with her mouth. He rested his weight on one side and slid a hand from her hip along her waist and continued upward to cup her breast. The lacy bra was dark against her
skin, her breasts were full and tight with desire.

Faolan traced the scalloped-edged lace with his tongue and rubbed the pads of his thumbs against the soft undersides of her breasts until she cried out with pleasure. When he finally unfastened her bra and drew a nipple fully into his mouth, Elena arched her back and pulled his head tighter against her breast. Faolan massaged one breast, alternately licking, suckling, and nipping, and just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, he switched to the other breast and started over. 

Elena pushed at him and he rolled onto his back to let her slip out from under him.
.
She straddled his hips, feeling his erection between her legs. Her mouth and tongue explored every chiseled ridge of his stomach and chest. She rose on her hands and knees so she could reach his mouth, she kissed him deeply.

Faolan cupped her face, gently, before running his long fingers down her cheek, along her jawline, and feather-light over her lips. When she sucked his finger into her mouth, her eyes locked on his, they both saw what she planned to do next.

Then Elena was suddenly on her back again and her breath left her in a whoosh.

“Not this time, love. This time is for you, from start to finish.”

His words flamed the fire deep within, and Elena reached to pull him closer, but he smiled and caught both of her hands in one of his, pinning them above her head. With his free hand, he unbuttoned his jeans and pushed them down to his hips, taking his underwear with them. With a little more effort, he got them down around his knees, then kicked them the rest of the way off. The only thing separating them now was her lacy thong.

He moved both of his knees between her thighs and pushed her legs wide apart. Faolan kept her hands pinned, covered her body with his, then ravaged her face and
neck with his kisses. His hair brushed silkily against her skin, caressing a thousand places at once. He traced a path to her breast with his tongue while his unrestrained manhood traced a lower path, velvety smooth, hot as a brand.

He lingered for a few minutes at her breasts, before tasting every part of her stomach. When he reached the thong, he caught it with his teeth and pulled it tight between her folds. He kissed the spot where the thong disappeared. He pulled himself back up, covering her mouth with kisses, and the press of his erection against brought her close to the edge.

“Oh God, Faolan, please, I’m ready, I want you,” she panted.

“Where do you want me, love?” he purred. He pressed against her, pumping languidly, teasing her.

“Please now. I want you in me.” She gasped, and he stopped moving, leaving her breathless, begging for release from this exquisite torture.

He let go of her hands and ever so slowly kissed his way back down her stomach and kept going all the way to her ankles. Then he started a long, slow journey back up, one leg at a time, kissing his way to the spot they joined, and then back, never coming quite close enough. Her hips began moving, seeking his lips, his tongue.

Every strand of his hair, every touch of his hand, every bite, kiss, and lick, sent a thousand signals at once. Elena’s nerves were on fire.
Oh God, I can’t breathe without him.
When his mouth finally found her clitoris, Elena moaned with pleasure. “I’m so ready, Faolan,”
I might just,
“Oh,”
might just,
“I can’t, ah, ah, ah...” She came with the slightest touch of his lips through the cloth.

“I love that you are so ready for me, lass,” Faolan laughed. Laying his cheek against her pubic bone, he let her recover slightly before starting again.

Elena lay there panting, shuddering, wanting more. “If you stop now,” she gasped out, “I will hurt you!”