Mary Robb - Down the Rabbit Hole

“My sweet, bonny Bethany.” He framed her face with his big hands and stared down into her eyes with a look so hot, so hungry, it had her shivering with anticipation. “I am completely captivated, my lady.” He pressed moist kisses over her eyelids, her cheeks, the tip of her nose.

Was the room moving? Spinning? She could feel it dip and sway with each touch, each kiss, until she was forced to close her eyes and hold on to him for fear of falling.

He lowered his head, and his lips closed around one erect nipple.

A shaft of heat pierced her heart, and she gasped and clung to him as he took her on a wild, dizzying ride, taking her higher, then higher still. A fire of such desperate need began building inside her, she feared she would surely burn to ash.

“Colin, please . . .”

“Say the words, Bethany. I’ve longed to hear you speak of your heart’s desire.”

“I . . .” Her need was so great, the words lodged in her throat like a boulder.

“Then I’ll say them for both of us. I love you, my beautiful, sweet Bethany.”

He took her then, with a fierceness that staggered them both.

As he entered her, he paused, and pressed his lips to her ear. “I am yours, my lady. Forever.”

Her body arched, her hands fisted in the bed linens. She stared blindly, a mist of passion clouding her vision. Her body was slick with the sheen that rose up between them. She could feel him struggling to be gentle, but the overwhelming need swamped him, making tenderness impossible.

It wasn’t tenderness she craved now. It was a release from the fierce passion that was building, fighting to be free.

Lungs straining, hearts thundering, they began to move, to climb. Pleasure, bordering on pain, began to build, until at last, locked in a fierce embrace, they soared to the very center of a star-filled universe. For the space of a heartbeat they paused, then stepped into the unknown. And soared.

* * *

For the longest time they lay, still joined, unable to move as they waited for their world to settle.

Against her throat he muttered thickly, “Forgive me, sweet Bethany. I was rough.”

“You weren’t.” She touched a finger to his lips to still his apology. “You were . . . amazing.”

He managed to rouse himself enough to lift his head. When he did, he caught the glint of moisture on her lashes. “Tears, my lady? I hurt you . . .”

She pressed a kiss to his lips to silence him. “These are tears of joy. I’ve never known anything like this before.”

“Nor I.” He gave a long, deep sigh of relief. “What we have found is something rare and special.”

She couldn’t help smiling. “Isn’t that what men always say to women after lovemaking?”

“Is it?” He sounded genuinely surprised.

“Are you telling me that you’ve never said such a thing before?”

“Never, my lady. You are my one. My only.”

He rolled to one side and drew her into the circle of his arms.

As she snuggled against his chest, she found herself believing him. Colin Gordon was unlike any man she’d ever met. A truly honorable man. Of that she had no doubt.

She ran a fingertip up his arm, lingering over the ridge of muscle that was oddly comforting. This man was a warrior. He would know how to defend himself against whatever evil scheme was brewing.

Though she hated to shatter this tender mood that held them in its grip, the time had come to warn him about what she’d overheard.

She touched a hand to his face, as though to soften the blow of her words.

“I’ve tried so many times to warn you about the danger that threatens. Now, Colin, you must listen.”

He went very still. “Say what you must, my lady.”

As quickly as possible she told him about the voices she’d overheard outside her balcony.

“They were little more than whispers, and I can’t identify the voices, but I’m convinced that they were plotting to kill you. And now that I’ve seen Ian’s anger, and his sister’s attempt to cover it up, I believe both Ian and Edwina want you dead.” She paused, wondering just how much to reveal. But after what they’d just shared, there was no reason to hold anything back, no matter how difficult it would be to explain.

“There’s more, Colin. I know it will sound crazy, but I need to be completely honest with you, no matter what you may think of me when you hear it.”

He ran a hand gently down her arm. “You can tell me anything, love.”

Love. It was the sweetest word she had ever heard.

She took in a deep breath. “Ever since coming here I’ve seen odd things. Things I have never seen in my world.” She paused for only a moment before saying, “Several times the women here turned into geese.” She looked up at him, then away, before going on quickly, so she wouldn’t lose her nerve, “I know it’s crazy. But it truly happened. And the men turned into animals. I’m not saying they merely reminded me of birds and animals. They actually turned into them.”

She waited for him to laugh, or to insist that she’d been dreaming. Instead she felt him draw slightly away before he asked solemnly, “What animal did I become?”

“A deer. A very large deer, with huge antlers.”

He gave her a sad smile before nodding. “Aye. A stag.”

Her brows shot up. “You’re not surprised by what I’ve told you? You know?”

“You weren’t imagining such things. They are very real.” It was Colin’s turn to take in a deep breath before explaining. “My father was an old man who still mourned the loss of my mother, his soul mate, when he met Darda Campbell and was so dazzled by her youth and beauty, he married her within days of their meeting.”

“Were you offended?”

He shook his head. “Though I cared not for her, I wanted only my father’s happiness. When it became obvious that he was not happy, I took myself off to battle, in order to give them time alone. But when I returned, and Darda learned that her new husband had named me his only heir, she came to me with a proposition. Renounce my claim to my father’s estate, and she would do all in her power to make his last years happy and peaceful. Refuse her offer, and she would place a curse on both of us.”

“What did you say to her?”

“I could not, in good conscience, accept her terms, since I believed that she did not have the well-being of my clan in mind. As for her curse, I scoffed at her attempt to frighten me.” His hand tightened on hers as his voice lowered to a whisper. “If only I had listened to her.”

“Are you saying you believe in magic? You actually believe in Darda’s curse?”

“How else to explain? Immediately after my refusal, my beloved father was dead.”

“Could Darda have killed him, just to make you believe her?”

He nodded. “It is quite possible. But soon after, Darda died by her own hand. She left a note to me, sealed in wax and stained by her own blood, saying she was taking her life so that she could never be tortured into rescinding the second half of the curse, which she’d called down upon all within the confines of this castle, and upon me.”

“Your people turn into birds or animals?”

He nodded.

“And they know it is happening?”

“They know. But they cannot change it.”

Beth could barely breathe. Even as she asked the question, she feared she already knew the answer. “What is the curse on you?”

“You have heard of the Beast of the Highlands?”

She swallowed before nodding.

“On the first night of every new moon, I must leave this body and enter the body of a great stag. I am compelled to climb to the highest reaches of Stag’s Head Peak until dawn. If I survive a hunter’s arrow, I will live for another month. But with each new moon, the curse begins anew, until a shrewd hunter’s arrow shall find me, and death shall surely claim me.”