BEFORE RETURNING TO Dun Aran, Lachlan asked Kinley to accompany him to Loch Sìorraidh. “I ken you’ve lost the battle madness, and regained your memories, but there is something that I need to do with you there.”

She hoped it wasn’t taking a swim, as the loch was bitterly cold. And she was still feeling a bit wobbly after spending too much time as PTSD Kinley. On the other hand, the man had dragged her out of the abyss, and kept her from hurting anyone until he could talk her down. Yeah, she’d pretty much do anything for him. Even wear pantyhose, as soon as they were invented.

“Okay.”

Lachlan rode Selon without his saddle so she could sit pillion, and took her to a sheltered cove on the side opposite the castle. Once there he put the stallion in a fenced meadow and walked down to the bank with Kinley.

“Hot stuff,” she said, watching wisps of steam skate across the rippling surface.

But on the path just ahead, something glinted in the dirt. She bent down to pick up an old silver coin stamped with the head of a chinless woman encircled by letters.

“Eye vee Ulia Maesa vee cee,” she read and handed it to Lachlan. “Doesn’t look Scottish.”

“Roman,” he said. Instead of keeping it, or tossing it in the lake, he dropped it and ground it into the dirt with his heel. “’Tis where they brought us after we were beaten and captured. They offered me their pretty coin, and freedom for me and some of my men, if I would betray the magic folk.”

Kinley looked out over the loch at the forbidding towers of the castle. “And you said no.”

“I spit in the tribune’s face,” he said and glanced at her. “’Twas the finest moment of my mortal life. Or the second finest. I kicked him in the bawbag just before I died.”

She laughed, but caught herself. “I’m sorry. I know it’s not funny. But holy cow. What a great way to check out.”

He began stripping out of his clothes. “Would you care to test the waters with me, lass?”

A minute later she’d stripped as well, and he held her hand as he waded into the depths. She trailed behind him into the very warm cove, until the steaming surface covered her shoulders. Lachlan held her at arm’s length as he scooped up a handful of water, and poured it over her head.

Kinley smiled and blinked the water from her eyes. “Mind telling me what you’re doing?”

“Washing away your sorrows,” he said and repeated the drenching move until her hair flattened against her scalp and water beaded on her lashes. “The loch saved us to become the clan. It gave us immortal life. Now I wish it to protect and heal you. By bathing you in these waters, I entreat the gods to favor me and make this so.”

“Too bad it can’t do that for my battle madness.”

Her temple suddenly itched, as did the whip marks on her face and body. When she tentatively touched the stoning wound, it seemed a little smaller, and felt a lot better.

“You are healing,” he told her, sounding a little smug now.

She looked down at the water, and saw the lash mark disappearing from her torso.

“Why me? I’m not an immortal or a McDonnel.”

“But you are one of us,” he said and brought her hand up to his chest. “You pledged yourself to me and the clan. The gods ken your heart. They favor the valiant, Kinley lass.”

“Sounds good to me,” she said with a little smile. That he still had faith after what he’d been through impressed her. “But if that’s how you really feel, then why did you tell the druids to send me back to my own time?”

“You were listening to us,” he muttered, and looked to the sky. “Now I ken why you left.” Lachlan touched her cheek. “You heard them tell me that you had been brought here against your will. That explained so much of your fear and anger, and shamed me for no’ seeing it. I realized I had seduced you without once asking if you wished to stay with me. I ken naught of your trials. In that moment, I never hated myself so much.”

Kinley suppressed a smile. “Actually, I have to cop to the seducing part. I knew what would happen, and I stayed in your bed chamber any way.” She tapped her cheek with her finger. “I also didn’t tell you I was from the future, not even after you spilled the beans about being an immortal and all. So I think it’s on both of us.”

“I confess, I am curious,” he said, tracing the line of her upper lip. “How far did you travel?

“More than eight hundred years. I was born in the year nineteen eight-nine.” She nodded as his brows arched. “My world is very different, very advanced. We have machines and gadgets for everything. Guns instead of swords. Cars instead of horses. War is still the same, but we got better at it—and worse.”

Kinley described San Diego for him, and all the things she loved about it: the seaside, the canyons, and her grandmother’s house.

“But as much as I miss double cheeseburgers, dark roast coffee, and unscented skin lotion, I don’t want to go back to the twenty-first century. I was badly injured during my last tour in Afghanistan, and I was close to dying from my wounds when I crossed over into your time. Coming through the grove completely healed me. I don’t even have scars.” She pressed her hand against his chest, circling her fingertips over his serpent ink. “I just wish it had done something with my PTSD, what you call battle madness.”

“The battle madness may have saved you, lass. We think you were captured and tortured by the undead.” He traced the lash welt on her shoulder, which no longer hurt at all. “They use thorned whips that leave such marks.”

As the sun painted the surface of the loch with the last of its rays, the final veil of darkness lifted from Kinley’s mind. She remembered the boy leading her into the cave, and transforming into a Roman.

“They were waiting for me to come back to the grove,” she said, frowning. “One of them made himself look like a kid, and lured me into a trap. They dug out a tunnel in a hill.”

“The legion can take on the appearance of mortals they drain, but it lasts only for one night,” Lachlan told her. “They wouldnae stand watch in such a place without reason. Did they tell you why?”

She met his gaze. “Yes. They wanted to know where Dun Aran is. That’s why they tortured me. My fear, combined with the whipping, must have been what made me lose it. I burned them all to ash.” It made her shudder to remember how savagely she had killed the undead.

He took hold of her hands. “You defended yourself against creatures who would have beaten you to death.”

“I know, I just…” she stopped and shook her head. “I’ve spent my entire adult life saving people. I’m sick, Lachlan, but I’m not a killer. Crossing over did more to me than heal my injuries. It gave me this god-awful fire power.”

“Which you have used only against the undead,” he reminded her. “To save my life, and your own.” He cradled her face between his palms. “’Tis a gift from the gods. What does that tell you?”

“That the undead shouldn’t mess with me?” she tried to joke, and then sighed. “I don’t understand it. I don’t think I want to. What I want is to stay here, and be with you, if you’ll have me.”

“I’ve had you,” he said and kissed the space between her brows. “I’ll want you for as long as I walk the earth.” He touched his lips to her right cheekbone. “I never wish to wake again without you in my arms.” He kissed her mouth, slowly and thoroughly. “I love you, Kinley Chandler.”

She wanted to jump on him right then, but there was more to be said.

“What about the druids wanting to lock me up? No matter how much I like it, they’re right about me not belonging here. I have knowledge of the future. Aside from the fire power, I think that makes me more than a little dangerous.”

“I am Laird of the McDonnels, and that is no small thing,” he said. “Thousands of clansman answer to me. I protect mortals here and on the mainland. Druid kind are our allies, but they are no’ clan. They have no power or sway over me and mine. They will honor your pledge to me, and my claim on you.” He touched his brow to hers. “Or they will discuss it with the snake.”

Kinley grinned and touched his ink. “It’s good to be the snake.”

“Aye,” he said and hoisted her out of the water. He waded up to the embankment with her, where he knelt and placed her on a soft bed of cool moss. “We could return to the stronghold, but the men will get between us and our bed.”

Our bed.

Kinley felt her eyes sting as he lay down beside her. “Can’t have that.”

Tiny red and amber lights winked around them as fireflies came out to spangle the grasses. The heat from the cove rolled over the bank to cover them in a warm mist. Kinley felt it as she stroked Lachlan’s shoulder and arm, and watched his dark eyes as he tugged her closer. Everything about the man was a holiday. Looking at him was Christmas morning. Feeling his hands on her was the Fourth of July. The way he made her feel as he touched his mouth to hers was all of her happiest birthdays, bundled into one.

When he eased her onto her back to kiss her breasts she breathed in the scent of him, the loch-kissed coolness that made her heat up so fast she felt as if she’d burned with fever. Seeing his mouth envelope her nipple, and feeling the tug of his hungry sucking, sent a bolt of sensation straight to her clit. The dull throb of her temple dwindled away to nothing as her whole body lit up with need.

“Lachlan,” she whispered. She worked her fingers into his thick mane, and wavered for a moment as he nuzzled her other breast. She felt his hand press between her thighs and his thumb part her. “Oh, that’s really not fair.”

“You’ll have your fun later,” he muttered against her breast. “Right now ’tis time for mine.”

Her nipples were all for that, but the rest of her was about to riot. Then he slid down, parting her legs and putting his mouth to her, and Kinley clamped a hand over her mouth to keep the shriek of delight in her throat. His tongue traveled and probed and licked, wandering and laving and making her hips rock back against him. Her back bowed when he slid two fingers deep inside her, pumping them in and out as he suckled her pearl and worked his thumb against her bottom pucker, all at once.

Lachlan watched her face, and dragged the edge of his teeth over her clit.

Kinley thrashed, trying to resist the bliss, and then it took her and flung her into the stars, reshaping her into this mewling, frantic, heaving shower of heat and light and pleasure. So much pleasure. She loved it, she loved him, and still it wasn’t enough.

“Oh, please please I need you to come into me I need–”

“I ken, my lovely.” Smoothly he came up over her, his mouth catching her cries and his cock finding her and pushing in deep. “There now, you have me, and you’re so bonny, look at you.”

The strong muscles inside her gripped him like a fist, and when she dragged his head down to hers she took his mouth and let her tongue dance with his. This was what she wanted, this joining that made them one.

“Lachlan,” she breathed his name into his mouth. “You make me beautiful.”

He covered her face with kisses as he worked in her, his thick shaft filling every inch of her inside before gliding back out. “’Twas too much to have you gone from me. You’ll no’ do that again, if it means I keep you like this, under me, on me, every day, every night. Oh gods you’re whiskey in my blood and hot honey on my cock.”

He fucked her to another climax, muffling her whimpers with his deep, delicious kisses, and then drew up her leg to penetrate her even deeper. Once he had buried himself to his root he braced himself over her and began to pound her with hard, heavy thrusts that made them both gasp and shake.

As the fireflies danced around them Kinley wrapped her arms around his neck, clutching him as his chest heaved against her aching breasts and his back muscles tightened. Then a deep guttural sound erupted from him, and he plowed into her with one final, soul-shattering stroke.

“I love you,” she whispered against his ear as his shaft swelled inside her. “I love your hands and your mouth and your beautiful cock. I love your soul. I’ll always be in your bed, waiting for you. Naked and aching and wanting you, Lachlan. Always.”

He tucked her face against his neck, his big body shuddering as he jetted into her pussy, unleashing stream after stream of his come to fill her softness. The warm, wet flood set her off again, so they finished together in the dark that only they shared, filled with stars that went on for eternity.

When Kinley opened her eyes she chuckled, and threaded her fingers through Lachlan’s hair to dislodge a dozen fireflies sparkling in the strands.

“Looks like lightning bugs really love you, too.”

“It’s the serpent. Me they but tolerate.” He rolled to his side, holding her against him so their bodies remained merged, and brushed away some bits of moss clinging to her back. His hand moved to her shoulder, and rubbed the spot where the lash mark had been, before he touched her temple. “There now. The gods heard me and answered. You’re healed.”

“Hooray.” Kinley kissed his fingers. “Now, about our bed. Is there a back way to get to it?”

“We’ll go sleep in the hayloft,” he said. “I had Seoc build a bed there for me.”