Silent Vows (24 page)

Everyone jumped. “Enough of this.” Ian tossed his hands to the dogs who had moved far away from the table when the arguing had begun. “Even the dogs are sick of this conversation. If the men want to go alone, they go.”

“That’s it? What the men say sticks, and we can say nothing?” Liz sputtered.

“You can say what you want, lass. But it will make no difference.” Ian was firm and met her stare.

Liz pushed away from the table and threw her napkin on her plate. “Great! That’s just great.” She stood and left the table.

Todd watched her go and dared his eyes to meet Myra’s. They narrowed with sorrow before falling to her hands.

Shit!

****

“Women.” Myra accepted the glass.

“Damn right women. Women that aren’t us.”

She tossed back half a glass in one gulp.

“I thought you didn’t like Fin.”

“I don’t—not like you mean anyway.” She coughed. “But are you going to sit back and let him lead Todd to who knows who? Have him introduce your guy to the hotties in town?”

“I don’t think Todd will go through with it.”

“You can bet your ass he would. Men suck that way. Anything in a willing skirt and off they go.”

“I’m a willing skirt, and he hasn’t jumped on me.” Myra put her glass down.

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“He would if your father wasn’t just outside your door.”

“I don’t know, Lizzy. He hasn’t even attempted.”

“He values his head. Can’t blame him for that.”

“If he wants someone else, maybe I should let him go?”

Liz rolled her eyes. “He doesn’t want someone else. Damn, listen to you. He wants you, and it’s high time you remind him of that.” Liz gestured with her glass, “He’s just outside that door.”

Torn, Myra didn’t know what to do. “I couldn’t go to him. What if someone heard us?”

Liz appeared lost in thought before she asked,

“How about a spell?”

“A what?”

“Just a little silence spell.” They had been working on many things over the past months, using Tara’s book as guidance. Lizzy had taken to studying the books on witchcraft. In fact, Lizzy seemed obsessed with mastering everything Druid. Myra remembered her saying that the only way to defeat Grainna was to get inside her mind.

“I remember a spell about keeping silent in both secrets and noise.” Her hopeful expression worried Myra on a deep level.

“I don’t know.”

“Coward.”

Myra sat up taller and felt the challenge Liz had given her. “Fine.”

Lizzy jumped up and found the books hidden in a secret hole in the wall. She took the one she needed and returned to the bed. She flipped through the pages until she found what she wanted. “Here. It suggests using an object to charm.”

“What does that mean?”

“Like a lucky rabbit’s foot.”

“A foot of a rabbit?” Myra wrinkled her nose at the thought.

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Lizzy laughed while she scanned the room. She uncrossed her legs, walked over to the vanity, and removed a cord used to hold her hair back. “This should work.”

Myra blushed and shook her head. “I don’t believe I’m doing this. ‘Tis wonderful.”

Lizzy chuckled. “He won’t know what hit him.”

They used a small cup and filled it with water and a dash of lavender. With great care, they cast their circle. Somehow, the power within the circle of candles bound their thoughts, their energy, their gifts and made them stronger. Uniting them.

Liz slowly added the cord to their moist mixture.

She closed her eyes. Myra followed her lead.

“Nature calls Myra to her man, we ask for silence from within. Use this object to keep the quiet, to help her with her desperate plight. If the Ancients will it so, we ask this please so she can go.”

At first, there was nothing, not a tingle in the air, not a spark from the flame. Then, the candle that heated the cup grew bright and blue before blowing itself out.

“That was corny,” Lizzy said, rolling her eyes.

“Did it work?”

“I’m not sure.” Liz removed the cord and wiped off some of the moisture. “Let’s test it.”

Liz stepped outside the room and into the dark hall. Myra placed the cord on the handle and closed it. Once alone in the room Myra called out to Liz.

She did it quietly at first and then louder.

Lizzy poked her head inside and whispered,

“You’re supposed to yell.”

“I did.”

They giggled like teenagers when they hustled back in the room.

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He’d agreed to go with Fin, but the look Myra sent him at the dinner table paralyzed him with guilt.

What the hell did he have to be guilty about? It wasn’t as if they were married or anything. Since when did a bachelor have to concern himself with the whims of a woman? Isn’t that why he’d remained a bachelor for so long, because he didn’t want to answer to anyone other than himself? He sighed, knowing this was only partially why he’d never married.

He punched his pillow and tried in vain to turn off his thoughts. He would go to the village tomorrow to meet one of the women Fin knew, and if he didn’t get some sleep he wouldn’t be able to...damn!

Myra’s big doe eyes flashed in his head. Who was he kidding? He wouldn’t be able to anyway!

When had life gotten so complicated? And where the hell did the conscience come from?

He cursed women. All of them. Then turned to his side and tried to find some rest.

His mind finally started to drift when he heard the latch of his door. Instinctively, he reached for his weapon before he realized it was hidden in a panel on the opposite side of his room. A small dagger on his bedside table was the only thing available. He inched his hand over to it.

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****

I made it
.

Before she opened her eyes, she heard Todd’s sporadic breathing. It was in a pattern that told her he wasn’t asleep. When she opened her eyes, Todd was alert, his wide-eyed gaze focused on her. His jaw was slightly ajar, and his expression seemed confused.

With a confidence Myra didn’t know she had, she pushed away from the door and walked to his bed. Her heartbeat rose even faster, but now it was for an entirely different reason. What if he sent her away? Could she face him again if he did?

She stopped short of his bed and pulled her lips into a knowing smile. His chest moved faster telling her he wasn’t unaffected by her presence. He lifted himself up on his elbows, but didn’t say a word.

Slowly, she untied the belt holding her night robe in place, and with one bold move, removed any doubt from Todd’s mind what her purpose in being there was.

He shivered.

“You look cold. Maybe I can help.” Lizzy told her to use that line. From the way Todd licked his lips, she knew it worked.

Every inch of her skin was clothed in nothing more than the flame from the fire behind. His eyes swept over her.

Myra sauntered to his side, just out of reach and tossed her head back.

He gulped.

A wicked smile creased her face. “Thirsty?”

“Oh, yeah,” he managed, before he reached out and tugged her to his bed.

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His mouth found hers in a probing kiss that took on a life of its own. The months of longing poured into their embrace. His bruising kiss threatened to leave a mark both physical and mental.

Thoroughly, she savored each touch, each taste.

Weeks of desperation and dancing around their desires were over. She was finally in his arms again, exploring, touching, feeling his body press against hers. His firm hand wound behind her neck. His fingers, cool against her hot skin held her close, refusing to let go.

Over and over she called his name, responding to every touch with a gasp, a moan. His lips released hers, and he pushed her to his side. His smoldering gaze focused on the taunt pink nipple he grazed with the palm of his hand.

“God, I’ve missed you.” His mouth took possession where his hand had been. Her body arched up while her fingers dug into his back.

“Oh, Todd.” She let the sensation of his mouth, teeth and tongue travel through her body sending shockwaves of indescribable pleasure over her. Her body clenched, heated, and wanted more than ever.

Her hands dove to his erection, curled around it and stroked its length. He all but collapsed on top of her at the pleasure she gave. Her hips thrusting with every stroke of her palm against his hard length brought her name from his lips. When she felt the moisture bead at the crown, she smiled under his kiss, knowing how much she pleased him.

Through slit lids, she enjoyed watching as she drove him mad. She chuckled to herself at the power she held and pushed him over so she could look down on him. His eyes opened and watched her as she stroked him. As his body shuddered, she held back, waited then touched him again. He pulled her down in another searing kiss, more desperate than the last.

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“I’m going to explode if you continue that,” he warned. She released her hold and let her thigh brush against his. He tried to roll her beneath him, but she wouldn’t give him that view.

“Not this time,” she whispered.

She pushed him on his back and laughed at his shock. Pinning his shoulders down, her lips found his. His muscular chest rippled beneath her hands fanning out over him.

She straddled his hips and slid close, teasing him mercilessly.

Fingers stroked up her thighs and wedged between them. When he slid one finger into her moist heat, her body bucked as he passed over the tight bundle of nerves screaming to be fulfilled.

Teasing him bordered on pain for her, until finally he grabbed her hips, positioned himself, and pushed into her.

Her orgasm, instant, fierce and completely unexpected, forced a moan from her as she shuddered with her pleasure.

He almost lost it when her body clenched around him, but he stilled, forcing control over his movements until he felt her relax. Somewhere in the far reaches of his mind, Todd knew they would be found out, but he didn’t care. Couldn’t consider anything but the woman riding out her pleasure over him. Her long hair cascaded around them, billowing like a sheet of privacy, and enclosed them in a world where only the two of them existed.

Rolling limb over limb until she settled under his weight, he had her where he wanted. Her passion spent for the moment, but he knew he could draw more from her. He demanded she take more.

Slowing their frantic pace and filling her body completely, Todd’s lips joined hers, encouraging her and pleasing him when her body started to respond.

Her fingers raked into his flesh. Need built. His 213

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thrusts became more urgent and fast, until her gripping orgasm pushed him over the edge. “Myra,”

he wailed when they crashed into the blinding light.

Panting, as if they had just run the final lap in a twenty-six mile marathon, they collapsed. She murmured his name as the tremors faded to pleasant twinges.

Myra flung her hands to the side, bringing one staggered breath in after the other.

“I’m crushing you.”

“Aye,” she said, laughing. “I would not have it any other way.”

He rolled off, but kept her close. “You’re wicked, you know that.”

“If I am wicked, then how is it what we just did felt so good?”

He smiled, kissed the tip of her nose. “So very good,” he agreed.

“I’ve missed you, Todd Blakely...and missed this.”

He nodded toward the door. “I can’t believe that door hasn’t come crashing down.”

“No one can hear us.”

“Oh, honey, you are not quiet.” He laughed.

She poked a finger at his chest. “Neither are you. But Lizzy and I found a way around that.”

“What do you mean?”

“See the cord hanging on the door?”

“Yeah.”

She leaned down, traced his nipple with her tongue. “It keeps all sound inside this room, here, where it belongs.”

He bit back a groan when her head moved lower, over his stomach. “Really?” His body was already responding to her touch.

She watched him fall back on the pillows, and abandon all thoughts. “Let’s test it.” She moved lower, his cry grew louder than hers had ever been 214

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when she took him into her mouth.

****

No one was the wiser to his and Myra’s actions.

Todd quietly filled his plate with a generous portion of food. Next to him, Fin equaled his platter with that of Todd’s.

Myra and Liz arrived at the table together, speaking in hushed whispers. Todd stood and pulled out chairs for Myra and Lizzy, when they started to sit. “Good morning, ladies.”

“Good morning,” Myra called out, sneaking a glance at Todd from beneath her long, dark lashes.

“I trust you slept well?” Ian asked.

“Aye, like a baby.”

“Best night’s sleep since I got here,” Liz added.

“It was very quiet last night, don’t you think?” she asked to no one in general. She jumped as if someone had kicked her under the table.

Todd attempted to look around the room to avoid staring at Myra.

Ian’s eyes narrowed but Todd didn’t respond.

“So, when are you going into town?” Ian asked Fin.

Fin smiled over at Todd. All Todd could manage was a shrug.

“Well...” Fin sneered. “Later today, I guess.”

“Yeah,” Todd added. “Fin, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if Simon and Cian accompanied us.

They could help with the repairs, and we can get back faster.”

Fin stared at Todd, eyes narrowed. “If that is what you want.”

Myra smiled, lifted a sausage on her fork and carefully put it in her mouth. “Good sausage.”

Todd licked his lips and attempted to keep from choking. Fin’s eyes grew wide.