Page 19 of Shaw

“Whenever you lie, you talk a little too fast, say a little too much, and do this.” She lifted her hands and made them into fists. “You do the same thing whenever you talk about your Big Bad. Anyway, you should never play strip poker with me. I’ll own your naked butt.”

He made an impatient sound and stalked over to the gap-toothed wall. When she joined him, Shaw nodded at the holes in the mist.

“I didnae see the breaks in the barrier that night,” he said softly. “I’m blinded when I move swiftly with my affliction. Like me, all the world plunges into blackness. Connal doesnae ken such.”

“If that happens, then wouldn’t you smack into a tree, or fall off a cliff?” she asked. “Oh, wait, I get it. The ink takes over and does the steering for you.”

“I dinnae ken what the facking thing manages, nor do I care.” He ducked his head. “Forgive me, but speaking of such prods my temper. When I permit the spirit move me, I but wish leave and a moment later I’m in another place.”

“Like me, then. So why don’t you ask it about all these things it does, and maybe ask for some changes?” Julianne gestured toward his arm. “Can’t you, I don’t know, have a sit-down with it?”

Shaw gave her a slightly frustrated look. “I dinnae ken what means sit-down.”

“When my ex demanded I sign over my parents’ farm to him—he refused to agree to the divorce unless I did—my attorney suggested we meet and talk. Everyone sits down when you do that in my time, which is why we call it that.” She tried to think of a comparison. “We need to get you and the dark thing to like compromise on stuff. Wouldn’t it be lit if you could talk to it the way you do with the healer?”

“Duncan ever parlays with me over my affliction. The beast doesnae possess language.” Suddenly he went still, and his lips barely moved as he muttered, “Beauty…such beauty.”

From the way he paled Julianne imagined he’d just realized something, but wondered how that could be beautiful. “You okay, Shaw? Don’t pass out. You’re too big for me to handle out of the water.”

“Aye.” He dragged a hand over his face, his chest rising as he inhaled and suddenly stretched out his arm to her. “Hold my hand, please.”

She wondered why he’d want that, but went ahead and curled her fingers around his. All the excitement in her breasts abruptly died down to that warm glowy sensation again. He tugged her closer, turning to face her. His eyes hadn’t gone black again, but they had definitely gotten darker.

“Do you recall the moment we first stood together in the shallows of the bay?” When she nodded he drew their linked hands up. “You embraced me, and in that moment the beast reckoned you a beauty. I heard the thing no’ speaking, but thinking.”

“Not sure what you mean,” Julianne admitted. “You mean like you read its mind? Does it even have a mind if it’s never been a person?”

“Before you came here with me, all I ever sensed from the darkness, ’twas the endless and wordless need for killing. Death, ’tis all for which the thing hungers.” His gaze shifted to their linked hands. “Now the beast thinks on you, and desires stay near you.”

“So it thinks I’m hot instead of just wanting to kill me. Right. That happens all the time.” She considered that. “Are you sure that wanting is coming from the darkness?”

Shaw frowned. “Why ask you thus?”

“Maybe you’re the one who thinks I’m pretty.” That thought pleased her a lot, although she wasn’t sure why. “You’re the son of a Fae water dude. Caroline said I’m the stuff of Finfolk wet dreams. Not that they’d have dry dreams. But I am pretty hot, and maybe I’m the gal you’ve been dreaming about, too.”

Shaw caught her and whirled her around, pressing her between his body and the tower wall, the edge of which hit her butt. A moment later he hoisted her up onto it, sitting her there and stepping between her thighs. Everything suddenly got real.

This is so not a good idea when I’m still married, Julianne thought as her body instantly disagreed. “Hey, you know, maybe we should have a sit-down about this, like next week or something.”

“I dinnae think you pretty hot,” Shaw said, his face so close to hers his breath warmed her mouth. “I think you lovely beyond all other females. The scent of you alone drives me mad, and when I look upon you, you blind me, woman. When you’re near, I see no one and naught but you. I desire you as I’ve wanted naught else in centuries.” His voice dropped low as he caressed her arms. “You came in my dreams for months before I found you in your time.”

“Seriously?” He’d told her that before, but Julianne had assumed he’d been joking. “You didn’t see me until you came to my time, remember? You wouldn’t know what I looked like.”

“I cannae give you reason. ’Tis never made sense until I saw you swimming for me in that cold, dark water.” He traced his fingertips along a strand of her hair. “When I touch you I burn, and the black ice in me turns golden flame. Each time I touch you. ’Tis all I think on when I see you, or smell you, or hear your voice.”

As he spoke Julianne went drenching wet between her thighs. Why did she get so hot and bothered for this guy? No one had ever turned her up so fast, not even her ex before he went psycho. Of course, Shaw was a hundred times more attractive than Mitch, and he would never whine about using toys in bed or making homemade porn. Plus the chieftain had the whole tragic dark magic curse thing. She’d always had a soft spot for guys with hard luck stories.

Are you going to let your lonely bod and pervy boobs jump into bed with a twelfth century Scotsman everyone else thinks is Satan?

“Chief.” She waited until he stopped staring at her lips and looked into her eyes before she said, “Good dreams are fire, you know? I’ve had some nice ones myself. All those things you said were way nice, too. Maybe we click because you’re lonely and so am I. But I’ve still got a husband in my time. I can’t stay here on Caladh, either. I have to get home. I’m really sorry.”

He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close as he said, “You’re certain I cannae change your mind?”

If only he would try.

“Thanks, really, but no.” Julianne nearly rubbed her hand along his spine before she stopped herself. “Even after I get divorced, I have to keep a promise I made to my parents and protect their farm. It’s a special place, and it’s the only thing I have left of them. That’s why I need you to do something for me.”

Shaw drew back a little, looking grim again, but his voice went soft as he said, “Anything.”