Chapter Thirty-Nine
“Every parting is a form of death, as every reunion is a type of heaven.”
~Tryon Edwards
When Brian turned to help Angel, she was already sliding down the icy slope not far from where they’d first met. “Please help me, Brian; I think Simon’s badly hurt.”
Once they pulled the dog up the hill, the animal managed to gain a wobbly footing. When Angel slid her hands over the dog’s ribs, he wanted those hands sliding down his sides. The dog’s whimpered pain refocused his attention on the animal. “I think he might have a few broken ribs.”
“Aye, lass, ‘twould appear so.” Brian untied a wool plaid scarf from his neck and used it to bind Simon’s ribs. “I’ll carry him back to your car. I saw it in the parking lot below.” The minute they put the dog in the back seat and closed the door, Angel spun on Brian like a wild animal, flailing at his chest with balled fists. “Where in the hell have you been? Why didn’t you come home or contact us? I thought you’d gone back in time.” Tears streamed down her face and mucus dripped from her nose. She screamed and pounded on his chest, and he accepted her released fury while slowly pulling her into an embrace. Finally, her rage almost spent, she leaned her forehead against his chest. “How could you do that to me, to my family? You’re supposed to be an honorable man. What’s so honorable about running away?”
He understood the need to rail against the unjustness of situations beyond one’s control, and he owed her the right to vent her spleen. He had acted cowardly, even if, in his defense, he believed he’d acted prudently allowing the family privacy with their grief.
He pulled her against him, her arms pinned against his chest. soothing her with Gaelic phrases while repeatedly kissing her temple and face. “Hush now, my brave, braw lass. My beautiful Angel, I’ve missed you, too. I’ve missed you with an ache so dear it has robbed my sleep and filtered through every waking second we’ve been apart. I’m so sorry to have disappointed you. Again. Will you forgive me, Angel? Will you give us another chance? I want to be the man you deserve, and I’ve come back to tell you I cannae live without you. You are my world, my heart, my reason to breathe.”
Angel looked into his eyes and ran her hands over his face. “Are you really here?”
“Aye, my Angel, I’m here, and I’ll never leave you again. I vow this on my life, my family’s honor.” He took her face between his hands and kissed her sweet lips, the pure nectar he needed to survive.
When she stepped away, crossing her arms over her chest, a bruising scowl on her face, he braced for the choice words to come. “I am not your woman. You haven’t earned the right to make such a claim. In fact, I am my own woman and always will be. Do you hear me, Angus Brian Cameron? I might forgive—might—mind you, but you do not now, nor will you ever, own me. Put that barbaric notion right out of your head.”
He held her gaze steadily hardly believing that she might give them a chance. “Will you give us another try, then?” The sudden need to exonerate himself loosened his tongue. “I’ve been working on a construction job, extra hours too. I’ve earned a decent amount of money, enough to repay your father for his expenses on my behalf. Enough that I believe I’ll be able to earn a sufficient income to provide a life for us, Angel. I’d hoped to ask your father…and you, for permission to court you properly.”
“Court me properly? What the hell, Brian, it’s time for you to move out of the seventeenth century. I decide if we’ll court. I decide if I’ll give you another chance to be in my life. And in case you’ve forgotten, we’ve gone a bit beyond courting already.”
She was the most confounding, exasperating woman he’d ever met, and he loved her to distraction. If he had to beg, he’d get down on his knees and beg. He couldn’t face life without her.
Unfortunately, she’d managed to hit all his hot buttons in a few short sentences, riling his Highlander ire. Not the least because once again he’d found her in the hands of a ruffian, a despicable man who didn’t deserve to breathe air in the same universe as her. “Damn it, Angel. What de ye want from me? I’m trying to do the right thing. I’m declaring myself and laying my heart open to you. I’ve worked hard to reimburse your family for their help, to earn their respect, to demonstrate that I’m not a…how do you call it…a freeloader. And to be worthy of your respect as well.”
Despite his frustration, he bent on one knee on the cold, frozen gravel. “Please, Angel-mine. Tell me, what can I do to regain your favor? Please, can ye not find it in your heart to forgive a man who would lay down his life for you? I vow, Angel, I’ll do my best to never fail you again. And if I make a mistake, I’ll not run away. I’ll beg your forgiveness. I promise you this, I’ll always find a way to make things right.”
She didn’t move, simply stood there with her head cocked to one side, wiping her runny nose on the sleeve of her coat, studying him with an inscrutable look. He stood and paced back and forth in front of her until the poor dog’s whining stopped him. “Don’t you think we should get Simon to the house and tend to his injuries?” Perhaps if he convinced her to return to the house, the morning’s distress would settle enough for them to engage in a rational conversation.
The reunion at the house took Brian by surprise. He’d expected harsh rebukes, at the very least. But Granny M pinched his cheeks and pulled him into a hard embrace. Alistair gave him the traditional Highland forearm clasp and clapped his shoulder repeatedly. Even Lauren, who was far less demonstrative than the other family members, embraced him firmly then turned away tears glistening on her lashes.
When Granny turned to Angel and saw blood stains on her clothes, she fussed and fumed over her appearance. Angel said she’d slipped in the snow trying to get to the dog when he went over the hill. Clearly, by the expressions greeting her comment, no one bought her explanation.
“You might as well tell them, Angel.” Brian stepped beside her.
“Fine, fine. I ran into Pete. He was strung out on something and not very pleasant. I might have broken his nose. But then, Brian came on the scene and finished the job.” She didn’t want to provide more detail, and her final comment redirected everyone’s attention back to Brian.
They peppered him with questions about his job and the things he’d done while away and offered a few feeble admonishments for his failure to contact them or return for the holiday celebration.
“You have the right of it. I should have come back or contacted the family. Foolishly, I couldnae figure out the confounded telephone contraption, and I didnae have your telephone number.”
Angel interjected, “And your stupid male pride probably prevented you from asking any of the men on the job for help. And you couldn’t bother to look up the phone number in a telephone book.” She phrased it as a satirical statement, not a question, for she had his measure perfectly.
He rolled his shoulders and smiled sheepishly. “Aye, I still have much to learn, but I’m getting wiser to the ways of this time every day. I have no right to ask your forgiveness, but I ask for it anyway.”
After Angel had changed into clean clothes, the entire family joined the revelry outside engaging in slushy snowball fights on the streets of San Francisco. A snowfall to this degree hadn’t happened in the city in fifty years. The day ended with a hearty stew and a rich port to warm everyone.
When it was time to retire, the family insisted Brian take Daniel’s room again. Late that night, as he tried to calm his mind and body, he heard Angel moving about the room above his. Evidently, Morpheus had not visited her either. He’d never entered her room before, but found himself standing outside her door seconds later, tapping lightly on the window. When the door opened, a curtain of crystal beads glinted in the moonlight. She pushed them aside and pulled him in without a word.
Dressed in a cotton shirt that stopped at mid-thigh, she leaned against the bedpost watching him. He turned about the room. An odd lamp sat on her nightstand, emitting a blue light from its glass dome and inside, globes of blue gelatinous material floated into strange shapes. He bent down to examine it more closely.
“It’s a lava lamp.” Mesmerized by the interior, he hadn’t heard her move beside him.
“What’s inside it?”
“Some type of liquid wax. It heats at the bottom and then floats to the top where it cools and sinks back down. But you didn’t come to my room to ask about my lamp.”
He pulled her into his arms and kissed her forehead. The bathrobe he’d hastily pulled on slipped open to his waist, and the heat of her body against his drove him insane. He wanted to strip her bare and bury himself into her heated sheath. He wanted to lick, and taste, and rock her world as she rocked his by merely walking into a room. It took every ounce of reserve he possessed not to pounce on her like a ravenous, starving beast.
“No, a cuisle mo chridhe, mo leannan. ‘Tis not why I’ve come to you. Do you understand my words, pulse of my heart, my darling?”
“I understand.” Her voice turned to a breathy sigh against his ear.
“I’ve come because I couldnae stay away from you for another minute. Will you have me, Angel; will you forgive me and give us a chance for a grand life together?”
In response, a satisfied hum rolled deep in her throat as she snuggled closer until his erection pressed against her belly, hard and demanding. Her cool fingers snaked up his chest and slipped into the hair at the back of his neck. She raked her nails across his shoulders pushing the robe down his arms, tugged loose the sash at his waist, and pushed it off until he stood before her completely naked. She stepped back one foot, pulled her shirt over her head, skimmed a hand down his chest and across his abdomen until she held his thrusting manhood in her grasp. Her fingers slid down to the base and up again squeezing gently. She traced one finger around the bulbous top and slid it through the liquid at the tip.
He tossed her back onto the bed and climbed over her, parted her thighs with his knee and rested his hips there. His tongue plunged into her mouth, swirling and urging heated responses until he gently bit her full lower lip and trailed kisses down her throat. Resting on his elbows, he slid his hands under each breast and lifted one to his mouth as he tweaked the hard, raised nipple of the other. Sliding a hand down her silky skin—God, how he loved her skin—he reached between them and rubbed the head of his cock into her wetness, slipping into her tight heat. He stilled before fully embedding himself. “Tell me now, Angel, that this joining is not for a moment’s passion. Please, tell me you’ll have me in your life, now and forever.”
She smacked his shoulder playfully, lifted her hips, and thrust her pelvis forward forcing his length into her depths. “Shut up, you daft Highlander. I wouldn’t let you back in my bed if I didn’t want to try again. We can discuss details later. Right now, I want this and so do you.”
That was the end of rational discussion, thought, or questions. For the next hour, they touched, and tasted, and thrust to the highest pinnacles of pleasure until they both lay tangled in a sweating heap in each other’s arms.
Brian pushed dampened locks of hair away from her face as they faced each other on the bed. “Tomorrow, Angel, I intend to speak with your father.” She started to protest. “Hush now, and let me finish. I love you, and not because you rescued me when I landed in this strange world. ‘Tis my belief we are and have always been destined to find each other. I love you for your spirit, your joy, your goodness of heart. You are my other half, my heart, and I hope to God you feel at least some modicum of the same for me.”
He had never imagined he would expose his heart so completely. If, however, his words won her heart, it would be worth the groveling, the raw exposure. If she rejected his troth, he had no idea what he’d do next, but he’d think of something.
Angel lifted up on one elbow and touched his lips with a kiss as light as a butterfly’s touch. One hand slid across his forehead, and a finger traced the arch of his brow. “Thank you for those beautiful words.”
She hesitated for a half-second, and his heart crashed in his chest. “I love you, too, my beautiful San Francisco Highlander. I’ll agree to this business of you asking my father’s permission so long as you acknowledge that we will be equal partners in this life, that we will share everything and keep nothing back, that you will never again disappear without a word.
“No, strike that. You must promise never to disappear…at all.”
A breath whooshed out of him. “I promise, Angel-mine, we will always be together. Will you marry me, become my wife? I don’t want to wait. I’ll work hard. I’ll take as many jobs as necessary to provide a life for us.”
She pushed up so she could stare down on his chiseled face, glowing under the soft blue light. “I should make you squirm a bit, but yes, yes, I’ll marry you.” He tried to pull her down, but she pushed back. “One minute, please. I intend to continue with my studies, and I think you might want to consider school as well. So, you’ll not rush me to give you babies.”
His startled expression at the mention of babies gave her pause. “You do eventually want children, don’t you? Wow, we have a lot yet to discover about each other’s hopes for the future. Perhaps we should slow down.” She didn’t want to slow down, but couldn’t resist jabbing at him a little.
He pulled her under him, trapping her hands above her head, latching onto one breast with his teeth then sucking deeply. “You tease me, lass, we have already gone far past any slow-down portion in this relationship.”
Angel moved under him and lightly bit his earlobe. “I suppose that’s true. We need to discuss some plans though. The folks will be happy to have us live with them for a time until we’re finished with school and have the resources to set up our own home. Especially after losing…” A choked sob caught her words.
He gentled the sudden tremor in her body by pulling her into a tight embrace. “We’ll wait however long the appropriate period of mourning is, but I want to ask for your hand properly, from your father. Is that acceptable?”
She nodded against his shoulder and tucked herself under his chin.