“Mmmmm,” she moaned, remembering that chocolate was only one more of the many things she missed while she stayed here. “A big mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream on top would be so perfect on a night like this.”
“We do have cream in this time, you realize. When we return to Dun Ard, we could manage to make the whipped cream you speak of.” Colin shifted his position, lying down on one side, his head propped on his arm as he stared at her. “Though we’ve nothing now to replace the chocolate to go with that cream.”
“That wouldn’t work. I wasn’t thinking of real whipped-in-a-bowl cream.” If they were going to compare her century’s food with his, he was going to lose. Big-time. “My whipped cream comes in a can that you keep in the fridge. It’s cold and sweet, and you shake it up and spray it out in little designs and curlicues. On absolutely anything. Strawberries or hot chocolate or even straight into your mouth if you’re having a really horrible day.”
She fully intended to expand on the variety of wonderful uses and to make sure he understood that the straight-into-your-mouth thing was unsanitary and totally frowned on in some quarters, but he was giving her that look again. The one that made her throat dry out. Probably because all the liquid in her body was flowing south.
Damn, but he was good to look at.
“I’ve something I need to tell you, Abby, though it’s another that I’m no at all comfortable with the telling.”
He reached out to her, tracing the back of his index finger along the curve of her cheek, a move that sent chills racing through her body to places that were nowhere near her face.
“You already told me you thought I was beautiful. You don’t have to say it again.” Though, heaven knew, it was perhaps the most wonderful thing she’d ever heard. Not just because it stroked her ego, but because it came from him.
“No.” His finger moved to gently cover her lips. “What I need to say is more than that. I need to share that which is in my heart.”
Abby clasped her hands in her lap, locking her fingers together to prevent his seeing the trembling that was beyond her ability to control.
“You told me once that for the whole of yer life you’d felt the need to come to Scotland to search for something ancient. Something that waited here, just for you to find it. I’d put to you, wife, it was no a thing which called to you at all. I’d have you consider that it was my soul calling out to yers to be found.”
His words hung in the air, vibrating in the space between them as he held her gaze, staring into her eyes. It was as if he looked into the depths of her heart to uncover her deepest, darkest desires, examining each one in turn until she had no secrets left from him.
“I believe I ken now the reason the Fae sent me to you in the first place.”
Abby couldn’t speak, couldn’t move, couldn’t even think straight. If he’d truly seen into her heart, if he truly knew she believed him to be The One, if he knew that she really had wished him into the future with her, and that she was responsible for ripping him out of his world and putting his kinsmen in jeopardy, what would he think of her then? She’d almost rather have him simply trying to seduce her.
“It’s the same reason they sent you here by my side when they returned me to my own time.” He moved his hand to cup her chin, his thumb feathering over her bottom lip as he continued. “We are destined to be together, you and I, my Abby. We are Soulmates. Two halves of the same whole. Only together will we be complete. I love you, Abigail. These are the words I need you to hear.”
Roderick’s advice had eaten away at him all day. Colin knew by this time tomorrow he and Abby would reach the most dangerous part of their journey. Though he’d not hesitate to give his life to save hers, he didn’t want to risk either of their lives with so much left unsaid.
He had seen his friend’s pain and recognized the truth of the things Roderick had told him. Losing forever the opportunity to share how he felt with Abby would stain even his afterlife with the unending sorrow of regret. Roderick’s advice was sound. Once heeded, it had only been a matter of gathering his own courage to act on that advice.
Now that the words he’d struggled to find all day had finally passed his lips, Colin waited, his heart poundingin his chest. If Abby was going to reject him, it would be now.
She covered his fingers with hers, drawing them away from her face and clasping them tightly between her two hands.
“You don’t have to say things you don’t really mean to get me to sleep with you. You should know that by now. I haven’t made any secret of the fact that I’m attracted to you.”
Her voice shook even as her hands trembled against his. That she feared rejection as much as he did was clear to him now.
“What you feel is no a matter of attraction, wife. It’s the love shared by those souls meant to be together.”
As the only physical proof he could think to show her, he opened her hand, brushing his index finger over the healing wound that marred her soft palm.
“An accident with Jonathan’s knife,” she explained, her voice soft and breathless as he stroked his finger over the spot again.
“An accident I felt in my dreams because of our connection. One that called me to find you. To protect you.” He opened his hand next to hers to once again display the twin to her wound.
She caught up his hand, tracing her finger over the mark in his palm. “I’d forgotten this. You were going to tell me about it, but with everything that happened, I forgot. How can something like this be possible?”
Her beautiful eyes had rounded, whether in fear or amazement, he couldn’t be sure. He knew only that he wanted to shield her, to hold her as she came to terms with the reality of what he told her. He lifted hishand from her grasp to caress the back of her neck and draw her down to him. Her lips were warm and eager against his.
“We are fated to be together. Together from the beginning of time until the end of time,” he whispered before losing himself in her kiss.
His mother had been right. This woman was his destiny. On some level he had known it from the moment he’d first laid eyes on her. His own foolish pride and arrogance had been the barrier that had kept him from recognizing it, from admitting it. Roderick’s pain had broken that barrier.
“Thank the Fates,” he murmured, trailing his lips down the soft skin of her throat.