Highlander's Beloved 02 - A Highlander's Passion (6 page)

Kenzie hadna ridden bareback since her early teens. She used to imagine that the way she and Bryce looked when they did was identical to the way their Highland ancestors had. Today, with his arm around her in a possessive hold, her childhood imaginings returned to life. Allowing the steed to take his time through the brush of the woods, Bryce kept his whiskered cheek next to hers, almost as if he couldna bear to break contact.

“What do ye ken about children getting tubes in their ears?”

She turned her head to gaze into his dark eyes. “Not much. Is that what Colleen needs?”

“
ʼ
Tis what the doctor claims. Me wee sweet bairn has another ear infection. Her third this year. When she gets them, they also give her a sore throat. It means another round of antibiotics, which doctors hate prescribing more and more.” He sighed and glanced away for a few beats. “But inserting tubes means surgery, and ye ken how a da worries.”

No, she didna. But she kent Bryce was a very protective parent. “Ye could always get a second opinion.
ʼ
Twouldn’t hurt, would it?”

His arm tightened around her and his bright teeth flashed in a smile. “Aye. A bonnie idea. I’ll do that.” He kissed her neck. “Do ye think ye’ll enjoy working for Effie? She’s got a heart of gold, that one.”

“Yes. She treats me verra well.”

“
ʼ
Tis how everyone should treat ye.” They exited the wooded area, and Bryce kneed the stallion so that it made several large laps around the pasture rimming the loch, each one faster than the last, while he held her to his chest and whispered various points of conversation in her ear. Talking had always come easy to them when they were young, and it was the same today. Finally, he led his mount to the back steps. “I’m thinking we should ride like this more often. Just ye and me, snuggled on one fine horse.”

“I keep waiting for ye to yell at me fer going off on me own and fer making ye stop whatever important stuff ye were doing to come rescue a stupid woman like me.”

Bryce swung his leg from Zeus’s back before jumping off. He reached to encircle her waist with his hands. Once he had her off, he held her so that they were eyeball to eyeball. “I am not Duncan. I am a Matheson. In our family, we honor our women. And get it through yer head: I plan to romance ye until yer mine. In time, ye will be so happy, and ye willna remember the bastard’s name. Only mine. Ye’ll only think of me.”

“Then what? How soon will the romance change to harshness and beatings?” She bit her lower lip and kept her gaze on his.

He leaned his forehead to hers. “Och, me sweet luv, what a pair we are. I’ve had to overcome commitment problems and ye’ve got major trust issues to work through.” He slid her down his kilt against the fullness of his cock, then cupped her chin. “Just so ye know: I’m in this for the long haul. I might get angry from time to time and aye, I’ll yell, but I will never call ye names nor strike ye. Love doesna work that way.” He gave her another quick kiss, grabbed Zeus’s mane, and jumped onto the horse’s back. “I’ll call ye tonight after Colleen’s asleep. And this time ye better not have me going to fukin’ voice mail.” He winked before leaning over his horse’s head and nudging him. Together, they galloped around the loch and across the open field toward the hills like the warrior she’d always imagined he could be.

She swiveled to find three faces peering at her through the window at the back door. Effie’s was beaming with that bawdy gleam in her eye. Mary Kate looked half out of her mind with worry. And the lemon sucker, known to one and all as Isobel, scowled so hard it was a wonder the glass didna shatter.

Well, so much for sneaking in without explaining why Bryce brought me home in me stocking feet.

The door flew open and the first one to practically fall out was Effie in her pink baffies. “Oh, sweet Jesus, was the sex so good he knocked the boots right off your feet? I remember once my heavy-hung Morris knocked my socks off, but never my boots. Whew! That must have been one humdinger of a sex session.”

Isobel wailed and rolled her eyes before storming back inside, no doubt for another lemon to suck on.

Mary Kate was blushing so hard, all she could do was open and close her mouth, her gaze bouncing from her pink-haired boss to Kenzie’s stocking feet.

Och God, she needed to change the topic. “Mary Kate, that sandwich ye made me was the best I’ve ever eaten. I swear no one could have made one any better.”

The young cook blushed all the more and bobbed, a smile curling the corners of her lips. “I thank ye, miss. What happened to yer boots, if ye dinna mind me asking?”

Kenzie told them the story, and both women got rather dreamy-eyed. Of course, Effie was the first one to speak her mind. “He rescued you.” Her face took on a wistful countenance. “Why, he never even took the time to saddle his horse! He knew you were in trouble and he rode bareback, hell-bent for leather, as we say in the States.”

“Aye, and he never put anything on under his kilt.” Mary Kate’s face turned stoplight red. “I saw his bare arse and his ballocks when he got off his horse.” She looked at Effie and winked. The two women leaned their shoulders against each other and laughed. “I wonder if his tadger got horse hair in it?” The two women sniggered all the more.

Kenzie hiked her chin, stormed past the giggling women, and rubbed her arse. “No. It was pressed somewhere else.”

“Oh…oh…” Effie sputtered as she and the cook followed Kenzie inside. “Brings new meaning to a saddle horn, doesn’t it?” The two women burst into laughter again. “Mary Kate, do you have enough to fix the same sandwich you made for her? If so, we’ll just have them for supper. I don’t know about Kenzie, but I could use a nap after my doctor’s visit. A sandwich and a salad you could just put in the refrigerator for us would be great, and then you can go home early. We’ll load the dishwasher and clean the kitchen for you, darling.”

Kenzie did feel cruddy from her long hike through the mountains. “I could use a shower and a nap. Then”—she glared at Effie—“ye will tell me all about that mysterious doctor’s visit.”

Dusk was darkening the bedroom when Kenzie woke. She rolled out of bed, slipped on her slippers, and brushed her hair. She found Effie at the breakfast table writing a letter, the grayish vapor swirling behind the old woman again, more active now, putting on a violent exhibition. Kenzie hadn’t noticed it earlier after Bryce brought her home. What would make it come and go? She needed to call Aunt Una and ask what she kent of such things.

“Sparrow, do you know how to use a computer?”

“A little. Why?”

Effie smiled; her blue contact lens was out and her different-colored eyes focused on Kenzie. “It seems our antics this afternoon were too much for Isobel, the prissy lady, and she’s resigned. She’s asked for a letter of recommendation. I think I have a suitable one written by hand, but it would look better if we could print it out.”

“Sure, I can do that. There’s a computer in me suite of rooms. I’m sorry if I caused her to leave. I know you relied on her a lot.”

“Pshaw. She is one sour-assed woman. I’ll be glad to see the door hit her ass on the way out. She’s disliked me from the moment I moved in and started to redecorate the house from the way Uncle Angus had it for years.” She shrugged. “Isobel and I are different types of people. I like to have fun; she likes to follow rules and routines. I know she bossed poor Mary Kate around something awful, which was a damn shame. I can’t say I’m sorry to see her go. She created a lot of tension.”

Kenzie pulled the sandwiches and salads out of the refrigerator. “How soon is she leaving?”

“Two weeks, which should give us enough time to find a replacement housekeeper for this big ole house. Someone who’s more laid-back and can laugh while she works. It’s only because Uncle Angus thought a lot of Isobel that I’m giving her a glowing reference.”

Kenzie was proud of her boss’s fairness. The woman acted like a bampot at times, but there was a great deal of intelligence in her head and even more kindness in her heart. Kenzie set the table and poured lemonade. “Ye thought a lot of yer uncle Angus, didna ya?” Thunder rumbled in the distance, and she opened the back door to let in the cooler air the storm would bring.

Effie set aside her writing materials and opened the windows. “Oh, Sparrow, I was so shocked when Uncle Angus willed me this estate. I hadn’t seen him since I was a young teenager, although we did remain pen pals, especially after his wife passed away.”

She took her seat again. “This entire house was decorated as a tribute to hunting, dogs, and bears.” The old woman shuddered. “Creighton offered to help with the painting and wallpapering, but I don’t think he had a clue how much I wanted changed.” She sipped her drink before pouring salad dressing over her bowl of greens. “You should have seen his dark eyebrows shoot up when I showed him the wallpaper I wanted for this room.” She glanced around. “I ask you, what’s wrong with blue morning glories climbing yellow trellises? Looks quite cheerful to me.” She chuffed a laugh. “Men, what do they know?”

“The house really is too big for the two of us, Kenzie.” Effie gestured with an open hand to the room on the other side of the kitchen. “The dining room has a table large enough to seat sixteen. Can you imagine the two of us eating at that massive thing? The whole room has an unholy echo about it. I much prefer to take my meals either here in this cheery breakfast area or the sunroom.”

She placed a napkin on her lap. “You were painting when I left for my appointment. Did you get much done?”

Kenzie shook her head. “Not as much as I’d hoped. I got a phone call that put me in a bad mood.”

“From Bryce?” Effie watched her as she chewed, obviously waiting fer an answer.

“Yes.” Should she tell her? As her Wiccan sister, surely she could trust the American. “Bryce and I have a long and complicated history.” While they ate, Kenzie shared and cried and confided.

Effie reached across the table and held Kenzie’s hands. “So now he wants you back, and you’re afraid to trust him. You’ve had enough heartache, haven’t you?”

Kenzie nodded and wiped her eyes with her napkin. “I love him. I always have. But he’s cast me aside twice. I canna go through it again, so it’s as if I look fer anything he says or does to argue with him about. Sometimes I’m not verra nice, and I dinna like that I act that way.”

Effie leaned back and flipped her fork over and over a few times. “I’m guessing you’re trying to get a rise out of him. You want to push him to the edge, just to see what he’ll do. Will he push back? Hit back? Or walk away?”

“It’s like all at once, he’s coming on strong. I dinna ken how to handle it all.”

“I guess he’s hoping you’re ready to move on. He wants to stake his claim before another man does.” Effie bit into her sandwich and moaned. “Oh, you were right. This is so good.”

Kenzie stood to gather their dirty salad bowls. “It took him four, five years to mourn his wife. All he wants to give
me
is six freakin’ months.”

“Yes, but he loved his wife. Did you love Duncan? There’s a difference. I see a combined destiny in both your auras.” Effie gave that rapscallion smile she had. Her and her damned auras. Kenzie wasna believing it for a minute, even though she could see them herself.

Kenzie opened the top of the cookie jar. “Now, about your doctor’s visit.”

Effie drank more of her lemonade as lightning snapped and crackled. “Oh, that. It was one of those horrendous days of having doctors push and prod at me before sending me for lab work where Dracula’s cousin drained blood from both sides.” She extended arms that bore cotton balls and Band-Aids in the bend of each elbow.

Effie’s aura had grayed and the ominous smoky vapor behind her had grown and sprouted tentacles that undulated about the old woman’s body, yet didna touch her. Was she ill? Was the illness growing in strength? Or was the vapor caused by something else? Was an evil force lurking about that Kenzie needed to protect her Wiccan sister from?

A rustling outside the windows snagged Kenzie’s attention. Azure blue eyes bore into hers.
Pay close attention. Above all, protect her.
A blink of her eyes, and the lynx was gone. If he was ever there at all.

Why was the specter of vapor growing at such an alarming rate? What danger did it portend?

“I’m a cancer survivor.” Effie reached for one of the cookies Kenzie carried over on a plate. “About eight years ago I had both breasts removed and reconstructive surgery.” Motioning to her breasts with two fingers, she winked. “I’d thought of getting bigger ones, but Morris said he liked me the size I was. So, for him, I kept the girls little. I suppose, for my size, implants any bigger would have made me look top-heavy. Every year I have a complete checkup. This year, with a new doctor, the process was more intense and tiring. Things are done a little differently in Scotland than at the University of Virginia Hospital.”

“What did the doctor tell you?”

“He won’t know anything until the lab results are back. A week at the most, he claims.”

Breast cancer? Double mastectomy?
My God. And I think
I’ve
been through a lot.
A protective strength packed Kenzie’s soul, something she’d never before experienced. With her gaze fixated on the swirling vapor, anger projected from her mind.

“The powers of me coven order ye

Return to whence ye came.

No more of her weakness shall ye see

May yer evil burn in eternal flame.”

Her eyes widened as the vapor absorbed its tentacles, then the specter swirled in a soundless charcoal cyclone, bouncing and ricocheting off the walls and ceiling as if to display the clout of its anger. Ordinarily, she’d be afraid, but the lynx had told her she had infinite power, and, with every drop of Scottish blood within her, she’d keep Effie safe.

“So, it’s me. I’m your first charge,” Effie said, peering at Kenzie with dual-colored eyes.

“How do ye ken?”

“When it comes to the use of your powers, I am privy to your thoughts and your psychic warnings. By your power, you protected me. You handled that quite well.” Effie shifted her shoulders and pumped a fist, her eyes widened. “Girl, you were bitchin’! I’m very proud of you. Upstairs, you will tell me what you saw so I know how to adapt your lesson this evening to guide you on the path set before you. Blessed be, my Sparrow.”