She shrugged. “It’s difficult. Yes, we were close while we were together. We stood up for each other, but as soon as we reached eighteen and were out on our own, no one ever came back.”
“You either?”
“I didn’t go back, but I kept in touch with my foster parents through cards and phone calls while in college. They hadn’t taken in any more children after us six, and when the last one left, they wanted some time alone. Six months later, my foster mother died of a heart attack. My foster dad died a year later.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was a long time ago,” she said, and cleared her throat. She hadn’t thought of her foster parents in years. “They were the only family I remember.”
“At least you were no’ alone.”
“No. What about you? What was your family like?”
Arran grinned and chuckled. “Like most Highland families. My da was a hard man. Hard living, hard loving, and hard fighting. But he and me mum loved each other fiercely.”
“Did you have any brothers or sisters?”
Several long minutes went by where Arran didn’t say anything. A muscle ticced in his jaw. “I had a sister,” he finally said.
“Younger?”
“Aye. She was a bonny lass. So full of laughter and innocence. I was five years older than Shelley, but that didna stop us from being close.”
The way he spoke—softly, almost as if he were afraid even to be discussing it—caused a pang in her chest. “I’m sorry. It must have been hard for you to outlive them all.”
“I outlived them, but no’ in the way you think.”
She shouldn’t pry, but she was curious about everything in Arran’s life. “This is obviously painful. Let’s change the subject.”
“Deirdre discovered my family was one of the original Warriors, you see,” Arran said. “What she’d do is send her wyrran after men who she thought might have a god bound inside them.”
“Wyrran?” Ronnie turned in her seat to face him. “I read about them on the Internet yesterday. What were they?”
“Read about them?” he asked as he glanced at her.
“Yes. I did a search on Druids. A Cairn Toul Mountain came up in the search, as did wyrran.”
“Cairn Toul is where Deirdre lived. Her magic was the ability to communicate with rock. She was able to construct a fortress inside the mountain. It was her home, and the rocks obeyed her.”
Ronnie shivered just thinking about it. “That’s where she held you? Cairn Toul?”
He gave a single nod.
“For how long?”
“I lost track of time. Decades. She tortured and tried to turn me to her side. I never gave in.”
She reached over and put her hand atop his, which rested on the center console. As always, a current passed through them. “I’m sorry, Arran.”
“I survived,” he said, never taking his eyes off the road. “It made me stronger, made me learn to control my god that much sooner.”
“How did the wyrran factor into this? Where did they come from?”
“Deirdre. She created them with her black magic. They were small, hairless yellow creatures with shrieks that would burst eardrums.”
“I saw pictures on the Net. A year ago, they were seen in Scotland. I thought it was a hoax.”
“No hoax. They were here because Deirdre was here. Declan brought her forward in time to combine their magic. But Deirdre didna work with anyone. She wanted no one to get in the way of her ruling the world.”
Ronnie licked her lips as she tried to put everything in some kind of time line in her head to keep it straight. “Were you still in her mountain when she was brought forward?”
“Nay. Fallon and Lucan had mounted an attack with the other Warriors to free Quinn, whom Deirdre had captured. That’s how I came to be involved with the MacLeods. Quinn and I became friends in that cursed mountain, so when he asked me to return with him to the castle, I didna think twice about it. I’d have a place to live and get to fight Deirdre.”
“A win-win situation,” Ronnie said with a smile.
Arran laughed. “Something like that.”
“I gather your family was already dead by then?”
His smile slipped and a shadow flitted over his face. “My family was killed when Deirdre sent the wyrran after me. Shelley was literally torn to pieces before my eyes. I can still hear her screams. And I couldna do anything to help her, since the wyrran held me.”
“This seems so inadequate to say, but … I’m sorry, Arran.”
She looked out the window, suddenly realizing how good her life had been compared to his. He’d had his family taken from him, and he’d been thrown into evil.
Yet he had survived, just as she had. They had that in common.
As well as coming from a world of magic, a world very few knew about.
CHAPTER
TWENTY
Arran gave the Range Rover keys to the valet when they reached the hotel. Their bags were taken by an attendant, and Arran had no choice but to follow Ronnie inside.
With his hand on her lower back, they walked inside. He noticed the way men looked at Ronnie. She was in jeans, boots, and another plaid shirt with her hair in a bun and no makeup, and still men ogled her.
Arran caught the eyes of several of the men watching her and stared them down until they looked away. He might not have an official claim to her, but she was under his protection.
And in his eyes, she was his for the time being.
They walked onto the lift, and he kept his hand on her back as she pushed the number of their floor. She glanced at him. The last hour of their drive had been quiet as their desire rose with each mile that passed beneath the tires. Knowing he was going to have her to himself made his cock hard with anticipation.
He still couldn’t believe he’d told her about his sister. Only Quinn had known about her. But even Quinn didn’t know the entire story.
“Ready?” Ronnie asked when the bell rung and the lift doors opened. She then handed him what looked like a credit card.
There were still times Arran was amazed at how the world had changed in four hundred years. He took the room key and followed her into the hallway.
“It seems the hotel is pretty booked. We’re going to have to share a room.”
Arran bit back a groan as he thought about sharing a room with Ronnie, of climbing into the same bed with her and wrapping his body around hers.
Of finally seeing her wheat-colored hair down and about her shoulders.
He grimaced as his aching rod strained against his jeans.
“Since Andy booked your room yesterday and the hotel messed up, I was able to get us a two-bedroom suite.”
Two rooms. Damn. But it didn’t dissuade him from finally taking her in his arms again. He knew she felt the same craving, the same driving hunger that was within him.
It had been pure hell not kissing her again. He couldn’t look at her without remembering the feel of her soft curves against him. Or how she moaned when their tongues had first touched.
He wanted that and so much more. Her skin, bared of every stitch of clothing. He wanted to pull the pins from her hair and sink his fingers into her locks. He’d been fantasizing about spreading her hair out on the pillow after he’d divested her of her clothes.
Oh, yes, he wanted her kisses, but he had plans for much, much more.
Arran cleared his throat when he saw her staring at him. What had she said? It took him a moment to remember. “I could’ve paid for my own. I’ll gladly pay for the entire suite.”
“There’s no need.”
But Arran was going to make sure of it.
He smiled as his gaze fastened on her hips swaying side to side. “Jeans or a ball gown,” he murmured with a grin.
“What?” she asked over her shoulder.
Arran’s grin widened. “Nothing.”
He watched as she stopped at their door and slid the slim key into the lock. When the light turned green, Arran reached around her and opened the door.
She looked up at him, their faces inches apart. The world halted as he looked down at her mouth. He remembered the taste of her all too well, the softness of her lips and the silkiness of her skin.
He leaned closer, closing the gap between them. He dragged his gaze from her lips and looked deep into her hazel eyes. His balls tightened, and it grew difficult to breathe when he saw the desire there.
She wasn’t trying to hide it. In fact, it was as if she wanted him to know. He gripped the door handle harder as he fought not to throw her over his shoulder and find the first bed he came to.
Ronnie deserved to be wooed, which meant he had to get himself under control. He might want her, but he refused to be a brute about it.
She inhaled, her chest rising as her breasts pushed against the material of the shirt. Yearning came off her in waves. It nearly broke through the control Arran had on his own passion.
He craved her. Desperately.
Her passion matched his, and he knew she wanted him as well. There was no one else watching them, no one to interfere.
She was the one who molded her body against his. Her head tilted up, the invitation clear in her hazel eyes. He wasn’t about to ignore it.
With a groan, he slanted his mouth over hers. She wrapped her arms around him and parted her lips. Their tongues touched as he deepened the kiss until she was bent over his arms, her fingers threaded through his hair.
He maneuvered them inside the suite and turned so that he pressed her against the door. His body was engulfed with longing, with need stark and fierce.
Ronnie moaned as their kiss turned fiery, the desire no longer contained. Whatever restraint he had vanished when she came to him.
He was reaching for the pins in her hair, intent on seeing just how long it was, when his phone rang.
Ronnie chuckled as she ended the kiss. Arran put his hands on the door on either side of her head and squeezed his eyes closed. He wanted to toss the phone away, to pick her up in his arms and find the nearest bed. He’d shut out the world and everyone in it for a few private hours with her.
His phone rang again. It reminded him that he couldn’t shut out the world, that there were dangers out there Ronnie needed protection from, and creatures that had to be stopped.
“What?” he answered brusquely.
There was a snicker before Ramsey said, “I didna interrupt anything, did I?”
A growl rumbled in Arran’s chest. He didn’t care that his words were clipped as he asked, “What do you want?”
“To see how things were going? Fallon tells me you’re in Edinburgh with the pretty Dr. Reid. Are you her bodyguard or her date?”
Arran watched Ronnie walk around the suite inspecting things, and he caught sight of her kiss-swollen lips. “Both.”
“As I figured.” Ramsey’s voice deepened as he grew more serious. “Listen, Arran, I wanted to give you a heads-up that Camdyn and Saffron are going to be there tonight.”
“Did Saffron have a vision?”
“Nay. It’s more of a precaution, with those creatures on the loose.”
“And the new darkness that was spoken about in the prophecy.”
“Aye. That as well. Gwynn has been searching, and there’s nothing definitive that says Ronnie is the one spoken about in the prophecy.”
“There are too many coincidences for it no’ to be her,” he whispered.
“Unfortunately, my friend, I agree. Until we know anything, we’ll err on the side of caution.”
Arran ran a hand through his hair and leaned back against the door. “I’m no’ going to lie and say I’m angry Camdyn and Saffron will be here.”
“That’s what I figured after what happened with those new monsters out on the loose. And there’s no update there, by the way. Logan had to physically remove Gwynn from the computer yesterday because she spent so much time searching. The fact nothing has been seen or heard has worried everyone.”
“It worries me as well. Something isna right.”
“Aye.”
“What are they waiting on?”
Ramsey huffed. “I wish I knew.”
“Any other news?” Arran asked, hoping they had either proved or disproved that another
drough
had taken Declan’s place.
Ramsey’s long pause was answer enough.
“What is it?” Arran demanded.
“Declan had an heir. It seems a distant cousin came into the wealth of the Wallaces.”
“That doesna mean anything.”
“Nay,” Ramsey said. “We took all the books on magic from the house. Even if this Jason Wallace does have magic in his blood, he willna know what to do about it.”
Arran pushed away from the door and walked into the living area to see Ronnie head into the room on the left. “A
drough
is a
drough,
Ramsey,” he whispered. “We need to be sure.”
“Already being done. Like most men of wealth, he’ll have security cameras on the property. He’s rebuilt the Wallace mansion, and from the specs, it’s exactly the same. Gwynn is going to hack into the cameras on the property so we can see what’s going on.”
“She can no’ do it all alone.”
“Oh, she’s no’. She’s got Tara, Logan, and even Cara and Marcail helping her.”
Arran smiled as he thought of Lucan’s wife, Cara, and Quinn’s wife, Marcail, helping hack into computers. Cara had been the first Druid at MacLeod Castle, over seven centuries earlier.
“I know,” Ramsey said, though Arran hadn’t spoken. “All Lucan and Quinn can do is watch as their wives become expert hackers.”
Arran snorted. Ramsey was half Druid, and though that gave his powers as a god added strength, Arran always thought Ramsey could do more than he said, some of which had been proved when Ramsey killed Declan. “Admit it, old friend, your magic allows you to see me, does it no’?”
“Nay. I just know you too well. Besides, it’s the look everyone at the castle wears while they watch Cara and Marcail. Now Reaghan and Sonya want to learn, no’ that Galen or Broc will have any say. My Tara is picking things up a little too easily.”
“I could be needed,” came Tara’s voice through the phone.
Ramsey laughed. “You’re always needed, love. As much as what Gwynn does is illegal at times, it definitely comes in handy.”
“I think I may want to learn more than I have,” Arran admitted.
“I think all of us need to. We rely on Gwynn too much, and put too much on her. I’ve seen how anxious Logan is at the amount of time she spends on the computer.”