Authors: Rosanna Leo
Steadying herself on the banister, she dashed upstairs to change into something that didn’t resemble the attire of a woman who’d stopped caring. She squirted herself with some old perfume, hoping it still smelled decent and not like cat pee. She brushed her teeth and hair. Clad in a silky tunic, leggings, and black, high-heeled ankle boots that hadn’t seen the light since Frank was alive, she descended to meet her selkie escorts.
Edan whistled as she came down the stairs. Jamie grinned.
Mack just glared at her some more, his nostrils flared, and his brows knit together. She saw his Adam’s apple bob in his throat. Her own bobbed in response.
Something told her the evening was going to be no less difficult, no less of a draining exercise in lust avoidance, than the day had been.
* * * *
“I can’t believe Orkney has a honky-tonk bar,” Beth piped up as they entered the club. She glanced at the peanuts on the floor and the bright, multicolored lights over the jukebox. Perhaps it wasn’t quite like an American bar. This one was populated, not only by thirtysomething Orcadians but also by the older, tweed-wearing set as well. Beth suppressed a smile at the sight of a few grizzled, old Orcadians clutching their favorite brews, molded to their seats as they shook they heads in disapproval at the flirting young lads and lasses.
Jamie motioned to a booth in back. He and Edan waved to a few folks as they wound their way through the bar. Once again, Beth giggled at the female heads that turned toward the three selkie men. Those women had no idea what they were dealing with. They were powerless against the Kirk brothers. One actually dribbled her drink as Mack walked by, so taken by the particular curve of his biceps.
If Beth were some sort of shrink, she’d write a paper about the phenomenon. “Mass Female Hysteria Caused By Devilishly Handsome Selkies.”
And yet, the whole time Mack’s arm was wrapped around her waist, a possessive clamp. She was surprised to see a couple of male heads snap up as she passed. That hadn’t happened in a dog’s age. However, Mack gave the stink eye to any man who happened to turn in her direction.
Like a mate might. She couldn’t help but feel a determined flutter of need at his show of greedy affection.
They found their booth and slid in, Mack close beside her. As his brothers went off in search of drinks for the group, Mack touched her cheek and turned her face toward him. “You are my mate. Your pouting today, pretty as it was, will not change the fact.”
“I wasn’t pouting.”
“Oh, yes, beauty. You were, just as you are now.” And then, as if to emphasize his point, he pressed against her bottom lip with his thumb, sending merciless heat streaking down into her sex. He touched her teeth with his thumb, and God forgive her, as much as she tried to control herself, her tongue slipped out to lick at his thumb.
Scrumptious. He was like candy to her.
Mack groaned and pulled her flush against him. Their mouths met, unable to do anything but melt in a frenzied fit of passion. Their lips fit together expertly, and their tongues joined as if two parts of the same whole. Moisture drenched Beth’s panties, the new panties she’d had to put on before heading to the club because the others were a wet waste of space.
How was she supposed to fight this when his touches raised goose bumps all over her body and when his kisses were ambrosia? It wasn’t enough that he had punishing good looks. Did he have to feel like her kindred spirit too? She was one weak human woman. She didn’t possess the fortitude to keep this up.
She pulled away from him. “Mack, please. We can’t.”
His features darkened with aborted lust. “I want you, Beth, and I know you want me.” He breathed in. “Do you honestly think I can’t smell your arousal each time I brush by you? Do you believe you can live without me when everything in you is screaming to be taken by me? You know we’re meant to be together, just as you know you need your next breath.”
“This is going too fast.” She snatched at her breath, feeling it very well could be her last the way her heart was pounding. “What does this all mean? It’s too much.”
Mack pulled her close, so close their breaths were one and the same. “I know it’s crazy, Beth, but if I’m not in the same room as you, I go insane. I need to have you near me. I need to be able to touch you.” He rested his head on her shoulder, nuzzling her neck and making her knees wobble.
Damn. She knew things were moving too quickly for comfort with Mack. Between his bizarre declarations and the fact their bodies seemed meant to touch, Beth didn’t know if she was coming or going. She did feel connected to Mack. She didn’t understand it, but there it was.
That still didn’t mean she was good for him. This was all just some lunatic farce. She’d wake up one day, and he’d be gone. She’d move to Florida and begin a new life. In six months’ time, they wouldn’t remember each other.
I could never forget him
.
As her brain raged in debate in the crowded Orkney bar, Mack spoke in soft murmurs against her ear. “You’re driving me mad, woman. Beth, you’re not the only one who’s lost a love. I have too, and I can’t let you go.”
She pulled away and looked him in his sorrowful eyes. “Who did you lose?”
Mack blinked and his gaze grew foggy with remembrance. “There was a woman I loved, many years ago. Her name was Anne. The same finman killed her.”
Although it was warm in the circle of his arms, she felt chilled, as if a wind had whipped up. “Did he do the things Eddie described? Did he take her away to Hildaland?”
Mack shook his head. “He tried, the bastard. I didn’t realize she’d gone down to the sea for a stroll. By the time I made it to the beach, I could see her on the water, suspended the way you were, walking toward a dark shape on the horizon. I recognized him as a finman, realized foul magic was at play. I called out to Anne, but I was at a distance and she didn’t hear me. I ran and ran to the shore, desperate to reach her. She was already so far out, almost with the finman. The water was deep and dark under her. As I entered the water, I shouted again. The finman turned to me, enraged that I would interrupt his progress. Rather than snatch her away, he used his powers to douse her in the water and hold her there. Even as I shifted, even as I swam to her, I saw her drown. She couldn’t swim, and the wizardry forced her under. It only seemed to take seconds for her to succumb. She was dead before I got to her.” Mack returned his gaze to her face, clear guilt etched into each crease around his eyes and mouth. “He drowned her just to spite me. Just so I wouldn’t have her. I wanted to chase him, to swim after him and not stop until my hands were around his ugly throat. But I couldn’t leave Anne floating there in the sea. I carried her to shore and brought her home. When she was buried in St. Magnus churchyard, I couldn’t leave the spot for a week. I felt dead inside. I’ve hunted finmen ever since, determined they won’t take another woman.”
Beth’s eyes overflowed upon hearing his story. She didn’t even try to brush away the tears, just let them fall. Mack leaned in and kissed a few of her tears away, moaning softly as he did so. The feel of his tongue on her skin made her want to bare herself to him, but she was too saddened by his history. He’d lost his lover, just as she’d lost her family, and Beth couldn’t help but feel the pull of the invisible chain that held them together. Their tragic pasts linked them, but something else entirely was binding them fast.
“I’m so sorry about Anne,” she whispered. “I’m sorry you lost your mate.”
Mack looked up, his eyes wide. “As much as I loved Anne, she wasn’t my mate, Beth. I’ve not felt that connection with anyone but you. I know it’s early days, and I swear I’m not mentally unstable. But I know in my heart that you are my reason for living. I’ll do anything to protect you.”
As a torrent of emotion coiled up through her core, Beth kissed him. She barely understood his words, barely comprehended her own thoughts, but she knew she needed Mack’s mouth upon hers. She smashed her lips against his, and his tongue penetrated the warmth of her mouth, finding its home there. He slid his hands down her back to her bottom, and he groaned, digging into the soft flesh of her behind.
Desire and common sense raged a war inside her head. Common sense told her to pack a bag, purchase a ticket to New Smyrna, and leave Mack Kirk far behind. Desire told her to submit, and it was winning out by a mile. “I don’t know what to do. I need you to tell me what to do.”
He leaned in, smelling so sweet, like an exotic fruit she just needed to peel and gobble up. “Just let go, Beth. Just feel.”
She dared to look him in the eye. “I’m afraid to feel.”
“I know. For years I was too.” He brushed his lips against hers, and his tongue slipped out to caress between them, making her ache with such yearning. “But I’ll help you.”
Jamie and Edan arrived with beers. Edan gave Jamie a look as if knowing they’d interrupted something. “I’m heading back to the bar to try my luck with the luscious bartender.”
Jamie grimaced. “The old one with the beard?”
“Not him, you
eejit
,” Edan said with a grunt. “The female bartender. The one with the big…” He paused, looking at Beth. “Uh, bottle of vodka. Right, that one.” He dashed off.
Jamie winked at Beth. “I’ll get to her first.” With a smile, he was after his brother.
She leaned against Mack’s wall of a chest, wanting to lose herself in him. “Show me how to feel again.”
“With pleasure,” he growled into her ear. He nibbled her earlobe and then proceeded to slide back out of the booth.
“Where are you going?” she asked, already needy for his touch again.
“Just to the jukebox,” he replied, grinning. “You are going to dance with me. And feel.”
She watched, glued to her seat as Mack inserted a couple of coins into the jukebox and selected a song. He turned to her, his lips curled in a grin. As the first rolling guitar chords of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” washed over her, making her want to move, Mack beckoned to her with a finger.
Beth’s body moved toward him, responding like a homing pigeon diving toward its destination. He pulled her into his arms and they swayed. Beth had never danced so closely with a man to anything but a romantic ballad, but Mack wouldn’t break contact with her. He moved his hard body against hers, his hands on her hips, and his erection was a thick temptation grinding against her stomach. She had to fight the need to drop to her knees, rip down his jeans, and take his cock deep in her throat. The urge, and the depth of emotion accompanying it, made her light-headed. He turned her away from the bar area toward the nearest wall and slid his hands over the curve of her bottom. His fingers dug into her ass, and Beth had to remind herself they were in public. She wanted him to nail her right to the wall. Through the damn wall. She needed him inside her at all costs.
He felt so good.
My mate
. Could it be?
He lowered his head so he could whisper against her ear. “Do you feel me, Beth? Do you feel my desire throbbing against you? My need to be joined to you again?”
The song reached its crescendo, and his hips rolled against hers in a heady foreshadowing of what he would do to her the next time they were alone. Beth closed her eyes. The way he moved was sinful. She imagined devils from the most depraved circles of hell might dance in such a fashion. All of a sudden, even her soft leggings felt tight and restrictive. She wanted them off. She wanted no barrier between their bodies. As if sensing her need, Mack reached a discreet hand toward her breast and located her distended nipple through her tunic. He tugged and she had to bite her lip not to cry out.
“Take me home, Mack,” she begged in an unfamiliar, wanton voice. “I want to feel more.”
* * * *
As Mack locked the door behind them, Beth stood shivering in the living room, unsure of where to look. Her gaze wanted to remain on his sculpted form, a body that seemed touched by God and whose perfect lines seemed to speak to her. But she felt like a smitten teenage girl every time she gave into the temptation to gaze at him in adoration.
He said she was his mate. After less than a week’s acquaintance. Most men in his situation would have run if she’d dared to utter such words.
And yet he’d been there when she’d finally expressed her grief for her family and hadn’t turned tail when he saw what a snotty, sniveling mess she was. He’d held her. He’d saved her from an aquatic monster, whose powers still stymied her. And when Mack had loved her with his body, he’d taken her out of her own body.
Her feelings for him seemed ludicrous but were bordering on the sublime.
He turned away from the door and gazed at her from his spot a few feet away. There was a twitch in his jaw muscle that made her heart skip a beat. He walked toward her, his face set with determination, and pulled her to him. Even as they stood together, she wrapped her left leg about his leg. She was having trouble being with him and not winding her body about his. Something inside her was demanding to be joined to him at all costs, at all times.
Mack picked her up, and she put both legs about his waist. He held her bottom, one hand smoothing under her shirt to feel the bare skin underneath. “No cold tables for you this time, lass. I want you laid out on a bed. Soft and warm, like that pretty place between your legs.”
Beth let go of the breath she was holding. “How is it you manage to talk dirty and make it sound romantic at the same time?”
He grinned as they ascended the final steps and headed to her bedroom. “There’s nothing unromantic about expressing how much I want you. There’s nothing unseemly about wanting to bury my face in your pussy and make you scream.”
He kicked in the bedroom door as moisture flooded her panties. Again. She wanted to listen to him say those raunchy things forever. Frank had never been so upfront about his desires. He’d been sweet and considerate, very enthusiastic, but had never talked about her nether regions or wanting to make her scream. To hear Mack express himself with such crude language just heightened the need between them and made her want him more.