The blood drummed in Ellie’s head, pounding against her ears, all but blocking out any other sound.
The green lightning had come for her again, surrounding her only moments before, robbing her of the joy she’d felt.
Rosalyn must have been right. She was here to find a man.
The man. Her one true love.
And when she’d found him, when she’d given herself up, allowed herself the overwhelming bliss of accepting him, those damned heartless Faeries had tried to snatch it all away, just as Rosalyn had said they would. All because she hadn’t wished it right in the first place, hadn’t said the proper words.
In a panic, she’d done the only thing she could think to do. Since they’d told her it was the words that held the power, she’d given the Fae words. She’d denied her true feelings, and the light had withdrawn, winking out of existence.
Along with the light, Caden had withdrawn, too. Obviously he’d heard those words. She’d felt him tense, felt the connection between them shatter like an actual jolt of pain.
The poor guy was probably terrified that what he saw as nothing more than a little physical playtime had her babbling about love, even if it was just to deny she felt it.
Apparently men hadn’t changed that much in the last seven centuries. Any hint of commitment, and they were out of there.
Had she at last discovered her way home? Was it as simple, and as difficult, as that? She had only to accept her true feelings for Caden and then give him up.
Forever.
And at that moment, after what she’d just experienced with him, leaving him was the one thing she wasn’t prepared to do.
But it was all so confusing.
If he were truly The One, the only man in the whole of time for her, shouldn’t he have felt the connection, too? Shouldn’t he be holding her close, trying to convince her that she did, too, love him?
Instead he rolled off her body, moving just far enough away to avoid any physical contact. Add that to the fact that he said nothing at all, simply lay next to her without a single comment, and his actions spoke volumes. Way more than any pretty words he might have come up with.
And what did it matter anyway? Going home was what she wanted most. It was. Being stuck in the Godforsaken thirteen hundreds, chasing after some guy who’d made it clear he wasn’t interested in anything more than a quick tumble, sure as hell wasn’t how she wanted to spend the rest of her life.
Even if what they had just shared had been amazing, unlike anything she’d ever experienced before.
“I’m sorry.”
With the quiet words of apology, Caden stood up and walked to the bush where his clothes hung, leaving her feeling both physically and emotionally naked. She sat up and reached for her shift, letting it drop down over her head and into place.
“You don’t have anything to apologize for.” He didn’t. It was all her. She’d totally screwed up. It had been stupid to let herself get carried away with the idea that once he made love to her everything would change.
Although, in truth, everything had changed. Just not the way she’d expected.
“But I do. What we just did should no have happened. I should no have allowed you to do that.”
“Allowed me?” She looked up from fumbling with her laces, disbelief at his comment rolling through her mind. “Allowed?” As if she needed his permission for what they’d done? It might have been a stupid choice, but it had been her choice.
He kept his back to her, wrapping his plaid around his hips. “I canna even claim ignorance. I’m well aware you dinna belong to me.”
“Exactly.” Maybe she was just being sensitive and overreacting to his words. She belonged to herself and at least he acknowledged that.
He walked back to the edge of the boulder and reached out, locking his fingers around her wrist and helping her rise to her feet. Immediately he withdrew his hand, placing it behind his back as he continued to stare down at her.
“I’m only trying to say that I’d no intent to dishonor you, Ellie. I accept the fact that you belong to my brother and I’ll no ever speak of this night to anyone.”
“Just back it up there a minute, cowboy. What the hell are you talking about? I don’t belong to anybody, and certainly not to Drew.”
Caden looked up and over her head, avoiding her eyes as if preparing to deliver a lecture. “It’s Colin I speak of. The Fae sent you here for him. When I return with him, you’ll wed. And one day, I will name yer first-born son as my heir to the lairdship of the MacKiernan, just as Blane has done with me.”
Ellie stared at the man, only vaguely aware that her mouth hung open. Her shock quickly melted into anger. “Well, you’ve just got it all figured out, haven’t you? Planned my whole life, did you? Did it ever occur to you that I don’t even know this brother of yours?”
He grazed her with a look, lips pressed together, one eyebrow cocked. “It’s what you’ve been sent to do. You’ll see that he’s the one as soon as I bring him back to Dun Ard. You’ll be happy together.”
He actually sounded as if he believed that load of crap.
Ellie stood, hands on her hips, wallowing in her building fury, letting it roll over her in great whipping waves. When he looked away again, she dropped her shoulder and plowed her body into his chest, much the same move she had perfected in moving stubborn sheep up the ramp and into the back of her old pickup to take into town.
She found the resounding splash he made when he hit the water quite satisfying, topped only by his sputtering and swearing as he broke the surface of the pool.
“You listen to me, you arrogant sheepherder. I’m not marrying Colin or Drew or anybody else in this nightmare. I’m going home. Back to my own time, where I belong. I’m going to get my ranch back or make Ray Stanton wish to hell he’d never been born. And if you know what’s good for you, the next time we discuss what’s going to happen with my life, you better be asking not telling, you got that?”
Ellie stuffed her feet into her slippers and stomped back toward the campsite.
What an idiot she was.
It couldn’t be clearer to her right now that the big oaf sitting on his butt in the water back there couldn’t possibly be The One. What had she been thinking? Her true love, the other half of her soul, would never, ever be such a total ass.
And it sure as hell couldn’t be his brother—the one she’d never even met—because that green light had shown up for some reason back there by the river and this mysterious brother was nowhere near here.
As soon as she got back to Dun Ard, she and Rosalyn were having one serious sit-down. All she had to do was figure out exactly what had happened to turn the light on and then she was out of here.