The Legend Mackinnon (18 page)

His grin was a bit wild and a lot cocky. “Aye. Wow.”

She smoothed a hand over his face and his grin turned to a tender smile that softened her heart and tugged at her soul. “Are you okay?” She remembered the blood on his sleeve. “You saved my life, Duncan. Twice you put yourself in front of a bullet for me.”

“I canno’ be hurt, Maggie. And even if I could, I couldna let anyone harm ye.”

“But the blood, I saw—”

He pressed a finger to her lips. “Aye, I bleed, and I feel pain, but I’m no’ a mortal, real and true, Maggie. I canno’ die.” His smile faded completely. “For you can only do that once.”

She craned her neck and ran her hand along his arm. “You’re healed? But how? Is that where you’ve been? In some sort of purgatory health clinic?”

Duncan laughed. “Ye are quite a woman, Maggie mine,
and I love the sharp side of yer wit. I was with Them. The wounds I sustained no longer plague me.”

There was something more, something he wasn’t telling her, something she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. But there would be no secrets between them. Not now.

“What did They want with you? I thought you couldn’t return to purgatory until your month was up?”

“I willna lie to ye, Maggie. My time here is done, my lesson, for this visit perhaps, has been learned.”

Her heart felt like someone had snatched it into a fist. “Because you saved my life?”

He nodded.

“Then it’s not true,” she said quietly, her heart breaking. “You can die twice.”

“Ah, Maggie, please dinna cry.”

Cry? She realized then that tears were coursing down her cheeks.

“I never want to hurt you, lass. I never meant—”

She silenced him with a finger pressed against his lips. Lips she’d never taste again. God, could one person really bear so much in one day? “No, don’t apologize,” she managed. “You saved my life, Duncan.” Her voice caught, but no matter how hard she tried, she could not stem the tide of tears. “I’m sorry I’m crying, it’s just …” She buried her head against his shoulder and held on tight. “I’ll miss you.”

She felt his finger beneath her chin but did not want to look into those eyes again. Fierce gray eyes that were capable of saying so much. But he persisted and she reluctantly lifted her head.

“Ye have a choice to make, Maggie. I’ll no’ bring ye more pain then ye can bear, but if ye’ll have me, I’ve asked to complete the remainder of my time on earth. With you.”

“Don’t tease me,” she warned.

“Never.”

“Really?” Hope blossomed inside her.

“Aye. We have twenty-one days.”

Maggie refused to let her mind progress beyond that deadline. If it hurt this much to think about losing him now, in three weeks it would kill her. But could she really let him go right now?

“I want them all,” she said, knowing there had never been any other choice. “This thing with Judd and now with the journals and Cailean coming into my life … I have a lot to think about. I don’t know what the future holds for me. But for the next three weeks, I want you. Will you have me, Duncan? This Claren woman?”

He grinned. “Aye, that I will. And often if ye’ll allow it.”

Maggie laughed, suddenly delighted and overwhelmed with this latest twist of fate. “Well, I believe, before we were so rudely interrupted earlier, you were about to ravish me.”

“Was I?” He leaned down and planted a searing kiss on her lips that left her breathless. “I seem tae recall it as bein’ the other way around.”

“I can think of a really great place to settle this argument.”

Duncan didn’t need a map. She liked that in a man.

T
he feather bed seemed to absorb their bodies like a cloud, just as her clothes somehow disappeared.

“Ye were wrong, Maggie,” he said hoarsely.

“About?”

“Ye said yer body was excruciatingly average. And here I find you are perfection.”

“If I recall, you were the one who said I had nothing you hadn’t seen before.” She arched a playful brow.

“I was a cad, Maggie. And a bastard fer certain. You are an exquisite creation of God’s own hand and it is blessed I am to have the honor of touching you.”

Spoken so sincerely; his words stunned her. He reached for the sash that surrounded his waist, but she put her hand on his, stopping him. “If you don’t mind. I’d rather do this part the old-fashioned way.”

Duncan’s wicked grin surfaced. “Yer just wantin’ to see wha I wear beneath me kilt.”

She laughed. “I’ll finally discover what women have been wondering about for ages.” She slid her hands up his hard thighs.

Duncan leaned back and crossed his arms behind his head. “I’m yours to explore.” He winked at her. “Go gentle with me, Maggie. It’s been a long time.”

Maggie didn’t know whether to laugh or choke. “I’m not sure I’ll be worth the three hundred year build up,” she said. “Of course,
any
woman would probably be—”

The rest of the sentence left her on a whoosh of air and she found herself on her back, Duncan’s heavy weight pushing her deeply into the duvet.

“I didna manage to exist without a woman for so long because any would do, Maggie. There is only one woman for me in all eternity and she is here in my arms.”

Maggie’s throat closed. There had never been anyone in her life who had made her feel so singularly special, so cherished. How had she found this immense gift in the one man fate had proclaimed she couldn’t have?

Duncan smoothed a fingertip along her temple and down over her cheek. “My declaration brings you sorrow, Maggie?”

Her eyes burned. “I promised myself I’d enjoy what we would have and not mourn what we could not.” He pressed his forehead gently to hers and she squeezed her eyes shut as an enormous pain threatened to crush her very soul.

“Och, Maggie,” he said roughly. “Dinna fash yerself over that which is to come. The future can hold many wondrous things that we canno’ foresee in even our wildest imaginings. You are testament of that.” He kissed her
cheeks. “Open yer eyes, Maggie.” When she didn’t respond, he kissed them gently. “Look at me.” He kissed her nose and the corners of her mouth. “Please.”

She opened them. “I thought I could handle this.” She began to tremble. “I’m not sure I can. I look at you and I want you so badly and … and …”

“Share that kiss with me now, Maggie.”

Confused, she stopped and sniffed. “What?”

“I said once that when we kissed, it would be sharing, not taking or giving. This is a gift. Doona waste it away. Share it with me.” He moved his head, closing half the distance between them. “Meet me here, Maggie.”

Her breath came in shallow gasps as her lips met his. He opened his mouth on hers, then with a deep groan pulled her into a fierce embrace. And she was lost. Thrillingly, willfully lost.

It was a kiss, a sharing, like none she’d ever known, all the more intimate for its patience and indulgence. In that moment she felt she could kiss him for all eternity and still want for more.

When his lips finally left hers, he dipped back quickly for a small kiss on the corner of her mouth, as if he had to have one last taste. She kissed the curve of his chin, knowing exactly how he felt.

He raised his head enough so she could look into his eyes. If she’d thought she’d seen intensity in them before, she hadn’t known the true meaning of the word. She wondered if the same emotion was reflected in her own eyes. She certainly felt it. How could one kiss rock her so deeply, affect her so unquestionably?

“Will that be enough to last you, lass?” His voice was rough with emotion, but there was a twinkle in the depths of his eyes and the slightest of curves to the corners of his mouth.

“If I had to go through my life and be allowed only one kiss, I would choose one of yours, Duncan MacKinnon.”
She smiled and reached down to tug at his waistband. “Now about that other demonstration …”

There was a faint sound of bagpipes floating through the air and then she felt his bare chest pressed against hers. He nudged a knee between her thighs and she welcomed him instantly.

“So,” she said a bit breathlessly, “am I not to know the answer?”

He settled between her legs and nudged upward, making her gasp as he himself groaned. “Ye have yer answer.”

Maggie laughed and gasped again as he pressed just inside of her. “I’ll remember that.”

Through clenched teeth, he said, “I’ll see to it that ye do.”

She shifted her hips and pulled him deeply inside her. He groaned long and loud, his hands diving into her hair as he angled her mouth for a searing kiss. He claimed her with his mouth as surely as he did with his magnificent body.

Their bodies moved together easily, the rhythm increasing, both of them panting, almost drowning one another in feverish kisses. Then Duncan broke free from her mouth and reared up on his hands, thrusting deeply inside her, making her back arch fully to meet him.

His eyes held an unholy light and she wondered, in that moment, if he too felt the sensation of timelessness that she felt. He held her hips and pulled her to him even as he thrust more deeply into her. Her body clenched, wound tighter, spiraled higher, then shattered, into a million sparkling pieces of perfect pleasure.

He bent down and with a deep, guttural groan, thrust into her one last time. “You are mine, for all eternity.” He shuddered and held her tightly as he came inside her, rocking her over and over as his body continued to convulse.

•  •  •

S
ome time later, Maggie opened her eyes and found herself nestled against his chest. The duvet had somehow found its way over them. She felt as if she were floating inside the perfect cloud. She never wanted it to end.

“I want to go to Scotland,” she said into the comfortable silence.

He hugged her. “I would love tae show ye my home.”

“I want to see it from your eyes. Share it with you.” She swallowed and added, “I’d also like to help Cailean.”

She felt the sweet pressure of his kiss on her hair. “It is a kind and gentle heart ye have, Maggie. And I’d be less than truthful if I said I wasn’t a wee bit concerned for her myself.”

Maggie lifted her head, truly surprised by the admission, but his eyes narrowed before she could speak.

“Doona expect too much. I simply want to make sure she doesna trample too heavily on MacKinnon history.”

Maggie sighed and smiled, settling back against his chest. She let her eyes drift shut. “Tell me about Scotland.”

He settled deeper into the bedcovers and sighed. “It is a wondrous, magical place.”

Maggie listened as he went on to describe the land of his birth, creating vivid mental pictures and starting a craving deep in her heart. There was pain and anguish there too, despite his best attempts to quash it. She knew that these next three weeks would put an indelible mark on the rest of her days, define who she was to become and how she would live the remainder of her life.

“Why the bagpipes?” she asked, forcing the pain away. “Every once in a while, when you wink in and out, or do something ghostly, I hear bagpipes.”

“My clan were pipers to the great Clan MacDonald,” he said. “The pipes and their music played a significant role in our lives. I know little of Scots history beyond the time of my death, but They have let it be known to me that shortly after the end of my clan, the highland clans were stripped
of many rights under a new royal regime intent on dismantling their power.”

She could feel the tension grow inside him as he spoke, his voice began to vibrate with emotion.

She flattened her palm on his chest. “Duncan, don’t. I didn’t mean to bring up a subject that would hurt you.”

“Ye wanted tae know, now let me finish. They banned the wearing of the plaid and the playing of pipes and that was only part of the tyranny they perpetrated on the highlanders in their efforts to control them and their land.” He sighed heavily and Maggie felt her heart break. “I wasn’t there to help save my clan when I should have been. Even if I had, I don’t know if I would have lived through that devastation of all I ever knew and loved. So, in honor of my people, I kept the sound of the pipes. It is the one piece of home that I can carry with me into the afterlife, the one reminder of all that has been done … and all that I left undone.”

“Oh, Duncan.” Maggie didn’t know what else to say. She simply held on to him as tightly as she could.

He pulled her on top of him and wrapped her tightly in his arms. He pressed his face to her neck and she thought she felt the hot sting of tears on her skin. “I’ve failed so badly, Maggie.”

She clasped his face between her palms. “You haven’t failed at anything, Duncan. You’re a man, not a god. The only thing you did in life was to prove you are human.” She pressed a quick kiss on his chin. “We do our best, Duncan. That’s all we can do. You did what you thought was right. So did I. I think I’ve learned from my mistakes. I think you have too.” She smiled. “Some of us just take longer than others.”

When he went to argue, she kissed his mouth shut. He was still frowning, but he said, “I think I might like arguin’ with ye.” He looked into her eyes. “But I confess it
scares me a wee bit to think I might make a mistake with you. Our time—”

Maggie pressed a finger to his lips, unsure she could survive seeing that bleak despair that threatened to fill his eyes. “You were the one who said we shouldn’t worry about what is to come.”

“I don’t ever want to forget you, Maggie.”

“You won’t,” she promised. “I’ll always be here.” She touched his forehead. “And you’ll always be here.” She placed his hand on her heart.

They met halfway, their kiss as fierce and claiming as any that had come before it.

Scotland waited for them both. But first, they would make time for this.

P
ART
T
WO
R
ORY

“… yet spirit immortal the tomb cannot bind thee.”

—
LEONARD HEATH

“… To save, to ruin, to curse, to bless,—”

—
THOMAS HOOD