“Ya should have gone to see Nate,” Angus said.

Erin pulled her face from her hand and stared at her surprisingly sympathetic bed partner who’d helped her shower and made her a double strength cup of tea.

“Feck no. Nate would have ransacked our poor kitchen and taken out the rest of that magic brew. I slept like a babe last night. Next time I’ll know better than to have a second. I’m just glad you were wise enough to limit yerself. In fact, I’m amazed ya did.”

“Just trying to stay out of the fecking box,” Angus teased. “I knew when ya couldn’t stand up that it had taken yer legs. I should have stopped ya, but it was nice to see ya so relaxed.”

“I remember everything I said, so quit tiptoeing around the fact I tried to seduce ya.”

Angus laughed. “Oh, ya did seduce me. Then ya fell asleep when I carried ya to bed.”

Erin groaned. “My filters were gone.”

“And I enjoyed every minute of it,” Angus proclaimed.

He grinned as Erin dropped her head back into her hand. She’d been doing that for most of the day. He felt bad… he did. It was really his fault after all. But it was also kind of nice to know the stalwart Erin O’Shea could be that vulnerable once in a while. It made her… what?

Angus tilted his head and searched his mind for a word. Likeable, he decided. Seeing Erin suffering made her likeable. For once, she wasn’t spitting meanness at him.

“How’s Mia doing with Kor-el?”

Erin lifted her head and shrugged. “She won’t be back until her trial time ends. That could be a week or two. The choice is hers. She’s required to spend at least one week. My guess is we won’t see her for a bit.”

Angus nodded. “It’s a bit like having the honeymoon before the marriage, isn’t it?”

Erin nodded her head… slowly. “That very thought crossed my mind as well.” She turned and looked for the folder. “Here. Look at this. It will help ya pass the time. I haven’t been able to bring myself to do it and I sure can’t fecking deal with it today.”

The desks were close enough that Angus could lean and take the folder from her hand. He had quite a long reach in his youth, but aging had robbed him of it. His mind hadn’t quite accepted that his body was back to being like it used to be. The adjustment was like growing from a boy to a man for a second time in his life.

“The woman in there is our next victim. The aliens are her intendeds,” Erin reminded him.

“Victim?” The word made Angus laugh. “Is that how you view the women? Maybe it’s the aliens who are the victims.”

“Blackmailers can’t be victims… I don’t think. Feck, my head is heavy.” Giving up, Erin crossed her arms and lay her head on them. “I’m going to nap, Angus. Wake me in a bit. I don’t want any of our guards to catch me sleeping. Any one of them would take it straight to Nate. The man has spies everywhere.”

“That’s God’s truth and ya are a smart woman for knowing it,” Angus sang. “Sleep, my lovely. I’m ready to lie for ya if anyone surprises us. It will be good practice for me since we have to do so much of it here.”

His grin was wide as Erin’s chuckles over his teasing echoed off the top of her desk. Moments after, she was sound asleep and softly snoring. His smile lasted until he opened the folder.

“Bollocks,” Angus said, lifting the woman’s photograph from it. “Even with all that metal hanging off yer face, ya still look like one of mine, lass. Who the hell are ya?”

* * *

Angus let Erin sleep most of the afternoon because she seemed to need it. Luckily he woke her just before Darcone came to escort them. She was in the bathroom when the suspicious guard arrived and came out as if it were perfectly normal for her face to be creased from her sleeves. At least her eyes looked refreshed.

Erin’s tired sigh beside him as they walked down the hall together had Angus taking her hand. She looked at him and smiled at the support. “I could lay right down now and not get up until tomorrow morning.”

Angus grinned. “Food will help with some of that tiredness. If ya still feel tired after, ya can turn in early.”

“While ya work without me?” Erin asked.

“Work on what?” Angus asked back, confused.

“That folder under yer arm there,” Erin said, pointing at it.

“Oh,” Angus said, nodding at her observation. “I thought we’d discuss something about it over dinner.”

“Alright,” Erin said. “I’m sorry I wasn’t more help today.”

Angus laughed. “It’s not like the fecking airship was going to crash without ya paying attention to the women and aliens. Everyone has an off day once in a while.”

Erin nodded. “Don’t be so nice to me. It makes me nervous.”

That made him laugh which earned him a glare from Darcone. Apparently, none of their watchers had a fecking sense of humor.

Up ahead, Berg was standing outside their door.

“Look, Erin… Berg is here,” Angus teased.

“Berg is here,” Berg said like always, smiling at them both.

A slap on his arm was the only chastisement he got, but Angus knew he couldn’t push Erin too far where Berg or Toorg were concerned. Just as he’d explained to Nate, Erin was partial to both the handsome giants.

Food arrived moments after they did. Erin served it and they got down to eating with still little passing between them. It was a comfortable kind of silence, but not something he was used to having with her. Plus, he’d never been a quiet man, except when reading.

When their food was gone, Angus watched Erin put their dishes back on the cart. “I have something to share, when ya are ready to hear it.”

“Let me take care of this first.”

Duties done, Erin came back and took the seat across from him. Angus rose and fetched the folder from the table by the sofa. He took the photo of the woman out and handed it to Erin. “Here. See what ya think.”

Erin studied the face in front of her for a few seconds. “I feel like I know this woman. Do ya suppose she’s a version of someone we knew back home?”

“No. I think this one hits a little closer to the reality we found in Universe 1,” Angus said. “Flip the picture and read her name.”

Erin did. “Holy mother of the earth… Brianna Elizabeth MacNamara. She’s related to ya, Angus.”

“Not to me, woman. Let’s not get that carried away,” Angus reminded her. “But I bet she’s related to Angus 1. She looks just like my children.”

“How did I not see her in the group?” Erin asked, meeting Angus’s gaze across the table. “She looks like a human pin cushion with all those long metal things hanging off her face and ears. That’s pretty fecking hard to miss. I got to preview all the current women and see their photos. They’re in the fecking tablet Toorg gave me, but I don’t know how to get the pictures or the information out of it yet.”

Angus shook his head. “We need to meet with Nate and find out what he knows about this… and why he never told us. He had to know we’d eventually figure it out when we saw her.”

Erin snorted. “Nate is a strange one sometimes.”

Angus snorted too. “I visit with him when I can because I want to know what he’s thinking where we’re concerned. I have no doubt he could say one sentence and we’d never know what hit us.”

“Ya don’t trust him even a little, do ya?” Erin guessed.

Angus shrugged. “Nate’s motivated by the same reasoning which brought us here, and his family has been involved in saving New Earth for four generations. So no, I don’t trust him, or Director John either. We’re to meet the mysterious Guardians in a few months. I’m already saving up questions to ask them, though it will no doubt be a waste of breath.”

Erin laid the photo on the table. “Let’s have a look at the aliens in her folder.”

Angus shook his head. Seeing would only make it worse. “No, let’s wait until tomorrow to look at them.”

“Darcone is fecking in there, isn’t he?” Erin asked.

Angus frowned and nodded. “Yes. His was the first one I saw.”

Erin laughed. “I bet he’s in every folder… match or not. Darcone was in Mia’s and in the first woman’s folder I matched. Poor scary looking bastard. They’re desperate, aren’t they?”

Angus grinned. “It might actually work this time. Brianna’s pretty scary herself with all those metal things in her face.”

Erin grinned and nodded. “I was thinking the same, but didn’t want to insult yer kin. I did that before and ya nearly took my head off.”

“Ya get a pass on this one, since she technically did not come from my loins,” Angus teased. “Erin?”

“Yes, Angus?”

“This may be a bit forward, but I’m ready to go to bed with ya again.”

Erin handed the photo back and watched as it got put away. “But what if I’m not sleepy yet?”

“That would be a perfect situation,” Angus said, putting his hand on the table palm up. When Erin laughed and put her hand in his, he smiled widely at her. “I know it’s a little late to be confessing, but I’m falling for ya at long last.”

“Or at least yer cock is,” Erin teased.

Angus thought about and then shrugged. “I guess I’ll know for sure once he and I both get all we want from ya.”

“I need a shower and to wash my hair. Don’t fall asleep until I’m done.”

Angus smiled. “No worries. I’ve decided to stay here with ya and work on being better minded about it. One day we’ll visit the waterfall room in the castle together. We’ll play for hours and have Carleton send the world away from us.”

Erin sighed and closed her eyes. “That sounds like a visit to heaven.”

“Yes, it does.” Angus squeezed her hand until her eyes popped open. “Don’t fall asleep in the shower. I have plans for ya.”

Ducking her head and smiling, Erin pulled her hand from his and stood. She walked to where Angus was seated. “Turn your chair out toward me.”

When he complied without question, she straddled his lap and sat on his thighs, moving her head to his shoulder while she wrapped him in her arms. She heard Angus make some sort of growling sound and then she was being slid closer. His rising cock beneath her woke her up completely.

Angus ran possessive hands up her back and across her hips before lifting her breasts against him. His mouth stayed away from hers, but he traveled her neck, nibbling and sucking as he explored.

Erin used her hands to turn Angus’s face to hers. His eyes were clouded with lust. She imagined hers looked the same. “I always feel this for ya… morning, noon, or night. Sitting in yer lap is yet another dream come true. Thank ya for that.”

Angus rose with Erin wrapped around him. She was no small woman, but then he was no small man. They were equals in a way he’d never been with any other woman—not his dead wife nor the women of his youth that he once thought he’d fancied.

Erin’s long limbs wrapped him snugly and made the need to sink into her worse—a unique talent she alone possessed.

“Ya are going to have to shower later. I’ve decided I can’t wait another minute to be in ya. This isn’t going to be that lovely long time ya want so bad, but we’ll get to that eventually. Right now I just want to have another one of those fast and furious first times. I may even want a couple of those before we sleep.”

“Okay,” Erin said as sadly as possible, sighing in Angus’s ear. “I guess I’ll take my ten seconds and be grateful.” She yelled his name when he smacked her hard on the rear for teasing him. “Ya bastard! I know yer ego can’t be smarting that bad.”

“Not as much as yer arse will be if ya keep playing with my emotions instead of my cock.”

Giggling at his dramatic statement, Erin hugged Angus tight as he carried her to the bed. Little did the man know that him ripping the clothes from her with needy, trembling hands exceeded any dream she’d managed to have before that moment.

Hands on both breasts, Angus hungrily meshed his mouth with hers as he moved over her. Their delight in each other was total and she couldn’t imagine not being under this man as often as she could.

“If yer cock was made of solid gold, I couldn’t like it any better. It properly fills up all the places inside me that need filling in the most delightful way a man could ever do. Goddess knows, I want to take care of yer talented member as well as yer hard-headed self,” she whispered, trying hard not to laugh.

When Angus finally slid inside her, he called her name over and over with every stroke.

It was the most perfect first time a woman could ever wish for in any life she might live.