Chapter 24

 

 

Straddling Malcolm on the bed with his shaft still nestled inside her, Vic gazed into his startled eyes, but he didn’t see her. He gazed at something beyond her, something out of sight. She stroked the hair off his sweaty brow. His lips didn’t respond when she kissed him.

She never wanted to let him go. She never realized until this moment how much she wanted to stay with him.

He shuddered, and his head fell onto her shoulder.

She cradled him close to protect him from whatever he saw out there in space. He rasped in her ear, “Ye winnae forget, will ye, lass? Ye winnae forget this when ye go back?”

“No,” she whispered. “I won’t forget. I’ll never forget.”

“Ye’ll come and find me over there, will ye no’?”

She kissed his forehead. “I’ll come and find you. That’s the first thing I’ll do.”

He hesitated. “I dinnae want to let ye go.”

“I don’t want to go.” Vic’s throat tightened at the thought of parting from him after what just happened. How could she feel this way about someone she barely knew? How could she have only discovered him now, when she was about to lose him?

A small, choking sound came out of his throat, but he still didn’t raise his head. She held him for all she was worth.

The words came out of a forgotten corner of her soul, growing out of her deepest need to become true. “Don’t make me go back. Let me stay here with you. Whatever happens, let me face it with you.”

“Och, lass!” His head shot up.

Before she knew what hit her, he was kissing her all over. He nibbled her lips and planted kisses all over her face and eyes and neck. Even when she’d spoke those fateful words, she already knew she had to go back. She had to pass this information about the tundra beetle to Ned and Ree. They couldn’t make the formula without it. They could spend the next several generations searching for the tundra beetle and never find out what she’d read in that book.

His kisses hurt all the more because she knew they couldn’t last—not like this. Her heart ached to keep holding him, but it couldn’t be—not yet, anyway.

One kiss at a time, the ardor cooled between them. It had to, or she could never tear herself away. He pulsed into her on soft waves of motion, caressing the inner territory where his being joined with hers, but the future propelled them apart.

His eyes cleared, and she found him staring up at her. She petted his cheeks and raked his hair back, but they both knew what would happen next. He kissed her in delicious union, then reclined back on the bed while she got dressed. Dread and grief no longer oppressed him. His countenance shone in a way she had never witnessed before. He actually looked happy for the first time since she’d first met him.

She put on her shift and corset, then her dress. She pulled her hair into a knot behind her head and put all her stuff in her handbag.

“Why do ye no’ put on the clothes ye were wearing when ye arrived?” he asked. “Ye’ll fit in better than in this thing.”

She made a face. “I couldn’t put those on again. Don’t ask me what I’ll wear when I get back, but it won’t be that.”

“Why no’?” he asked. “Is that no’ what ye always wear?”

“That’s what I always wore before I came here, but I won’t wear it again,” she replied. “I’ll have to change.”

“Why?” he asked. “Is it no good?”

“No,” she snapped. “It’s no good.”

He folded his elbow behind his head. “I dinnae understand ye, lass.”

“Neither do I,” she admitted. “Things changed over here. I met you.”

For whatever reason, that didn’t surprise him at all. He swung his feet to the floor and picked up his kilt, buckling it around his waist while she finished gathering her things. She tucked her phone into her handbag next to Nikolai Wainwright’s book. Boyd would probably never miss it.

At last, she slipped the strap of her handbag over her shoulder and faced Malcolm. “I’m ready when you are.”

He took her in his arms and kissed her one long, last time. She reveled in his skin, his bare chest, his powerful arms holding her. His lips cast a burnished golden light over her.

Would things be the same between them when she got home? What if he forgot about her? What if he fell for some other girl along the way? Three hundred years was a long time to wait.

He broke away, his dark eyes filling her whole world. “I’ll never forget, lassie. Remember that. I’ll never forget. I’ll be waiting on the other side.”

He gave her a quick peck, and then he raised his hand and traced his thumb back and forth across her forehead as he mumbled some words in a different language. “Eshmun Hamilcar hanno ashtzaph byblos rae; Zephon anana akilokipok silatuyok anik toe; Takiyok keorvik suluk yo; Uyarak ek chua lo.”

The crashing, tearing, flying sensation she’d first experienced in the park hit her in all its force. She somersaulted through black space going a mile a minute, clutching her bundle for dear life. She tumbled head over heel with no idea where she was or where she was going, but the journey didn’t terrify her as much this time. She understood what was happening. She was going home, and she would see Malcolm on the other side.

All at once, something hit her with tremendous force. Rustling leaves flashed past her head as branches whipped her face. They scratched through her hair and ripped her clothes, but they couldn’t slow the momentum of her flight. Without warning, she smashed into something solid and slumped onto the cold, hard ground. She lay battered and broken, her hair draping around her head so she couldn’t see anything.

Just then, a light touch brushed her shoulder. “Are you okay? That was crazy. I never saw anything like it.”

The American accent sounded strange after listening to Scots for so long. How long had she been gone? She picked up her head to find a ragged homeless black man stooping over her.

“Here, honey,” he said, extending his hand. “Let me help you up.”

She rubbed her head after he got her on her feet. “Where am I?”

“You’re on the corner of Stanyan and McAllister. Don’t you remember? You came flying around that corner and slammed into that wall going a million miles an hour. How you survived it without breaking every bone in your body, I’ll never know.”

Vic shook the fog out of her head. Stanyan and McAllister? She was in San Francisco, not far from the park but still a ways away from the spot where she’d disappeared.

She rubbed her aching shoulder. “Can you tell me what day it is?”

“It’s Wednesday,” the man told her.

“I mean, what date,” she returned. “What’s the date?”

He frowned. “Well, now, I’m not exactly sure.”

She turned away. “Thanks so much for your help. I gotta go.”

“Hey!” he called back. “Maybe we should call an ambulance. You could have a head injury.”

She hurried down the street thinking a thousand things at once. She wasn’t far from Ree’s apartment. She could run over there and drop off the information right now.

She got three blocks before she became aware of people staring at her. She was back in the real world, dressed for the eighteenth century. She had to change her clothes.

Stopping dead in her tracks, all the competing demands on her time and attention dwindled to a single speck that dominated her mind. She snatched her phone out of her handbag and hit the power button. Her chest pinched, waiting for the network signal to light up. She fumbled at getting the Google app open and touching the microphone button, then spoke into the speaker. “Malcolm Gunn, San Francisco.”

A circular image rotated around and around while the device considered her request. Then the screen blinked and his face appeared along with a bunch of other information.

Time stood still as she stared down at the screen. CEO, Allied Chemical. Malcolm—CEO of Allied Chemical? Was that even possible? Did Ned and Ree know about this?

Ree had negotiated with the CEO of Allied Chemical about their attempted takeover of Primary Industries. Did Ree know the enemy CEO was really an Angui in disguise?

Underneath the title, she read the address of Allied’s San Francisco headquarters. He wouldn’t be far away after he sent her through the portal. He would stick close.

She raced down the street, toward the address.