Chapter Nineteen
Why in the world did she fret so? Emma paced around the room like a caged beast and kept looking at the thing strapped to her left arm. Torin shifted his weight to the center of the countertop. Observed from this perch atop the kitchen cabinet, Emma’s agitated moves all about the cottage made no sense whatsoever. He glanced at the bare countertops and frowned at the empty table. Only the sweet scent of the smoldering peat burning in the hearth pervaded the room. Darkness drew near. Why didn’t she prepare herself a meal or an evening pot of that noxious black brew she loved so?
A loud rap shook the front door causing Emma to jump. Torin tensed, scowling first at the door and then turned to study Emma’s face. Distress shadowed her wrinkled brow. The woman dreaded whatever lurked on the other side of the weathered oak doorway. In one fluid motion, he withdrew a throwing dirk from inside his boot and lowered his feet to the floor. From this vantage point, he could attack the intruder before whatever stood on the other side of the threshold realized Torin’s blade waited inside.
Her lips flattened into a determined line, Emma stared at the doorknob as though the shining brass orb was about to bite her. Inhaling a deep, fortifying breath, she swung the door open wide. “Hello, Dr. Mackenzie. You’re right on time.”
“Ye may call me Alex and I told ye I was prompt.”
“So you did. Alex.” Emma jutted her chin up a notch; a forced smile strained across her face.
Torin palmed the haft of the dirk, settling it firmer in his hand. Who was this Alex Mackenzie? Taking in Emma’s strained expression toward the man standing in the doorway, instant dislike burned in the center of his chest. The man must be a threat, some sort of intruder. Emma didn’t like this man. Why had she opened the door and invited him in?
“Just let me grab my jacket and we can go.” Emma jerked her coat from the back of the stool with an irritated yank.
Alex’s mouth tightened and one brow lifted a bit higher. “If ye intend to be hostile the entire evening, ’twill defeat the purpose of the meal.”
Torin eased closer to Emma. He didn’t like the fact that this Alex Mackenzie read her so well. Emma’s frustration hung heavy in the air. The tension in his chest eased a bit replaced by flaming curiosity. If she despised the man so verra much, why was she leaving with him? Did the man hold some advantage over her?
“I am not hostile, Alex,” Emma snapped through gritted teeth. “I’m just tired.”
At this retort, both dark brows arched higher over Alex’s deep set blue eyes. Amusement sparkled in their depths. “Well, we’ll try to make an early evening of it then. I willna keep ye out overly long.”
Torin bristled, peering closer at the taunting doctor’s face. Emma was a fool if she believed this man wanted nothing but a meal. The cur toyed with her; his jeering words shielded a yearning soul. Torin stepped between Emma and Alex, locking his hands against his sides to keep from shoving the man back out the door. “Ye must not go with this man, Emma. Dinna trust his shielded gaze.”
Emma’s eyes widened. Her gaze darted about the room searching for the source of the disembodied voice.
“What’s wrong? Have ye forgotten something?” Alex frowned, his head tilting to one side as though he were a devoted dog listening intently to his master.
Emma licked her lips and cleared her throat as she hugged her jacket to her chest. “Nothing. I was just checking the room to make sure I didn’t leave anything I needed behind.”
Torin leaned closer and whispered against the side of her face. “Ye canna go. Tell him to leave. If ye do not, I will.” His lips brushed against the satin curve of her ear. Lore, she smells wondrous. He inhaled another deep breath of the sweet warmth of her skin. The tantalizing scent triggered a long forgotten ache.
Emma brushed a hand against the side of her face as though waving away a flying insect. Pressing her trembling fingers against her forehead, she leaned against the wing-backed chair sitting beside the door. “You know, Alex, I suddenly don’t feel very well at all. Would you mind if we did this another time?”
With a narrow-eyed frown, Alex stepped closer and peered into her face. “Ye do seem a bit pale. Do ye feel as though ye have fever?”
Torin chuckled, tracing his fingertips down the silk of her neck. “She’s no’ got a fever but I can tell ye her warmth feels as delicious and mouth-watering as a bit of bread just taken from the hearth.”
Emma’s ivory skin flushed a flaming red that crept all the way to her hairline. She slapped her hand against her throat as she hissed between clenched teeth. “Stop touching me!”
Confusion registered on Alex’s face as he raised both hands into the air. “I didna touch ye. I merely asked if ye thought ye had fever.”
Emma threw her jacket across the chair then rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m not sure. I kind of feel a bit achy. I think I better stay in and rest tonight. I’m probably still adjusting to the different time zone and the change of climate.”
With a dubious look flashing across his face, Alex pursed his lips. “If ye wish, I can fetch ye a script from the chemist and bring ye some fine soup from the pub. That combined with a good night’s rest will do ye a world of good.”
Emma shook her head. “No. No…that won’t be necessary. I’m really not hungry. I think I’ll just go to bed.”
Torin grinned as Emma continued rubbing the spot on her neck his lips had just brushed. Good. He loved the way her skin pinked when she became flustered with emotions. Such a fine woman, this unyielding Emma, if only she’d existed back in his time. An impossible-to-ignore stirring filled his soul as he watched her fumble with her coat. A firm knowing registered in his mind. Emma would never be unfaithful to the one she loved. Not Emma. A woman who’d dedicated herself first to caring for her sister and then sickly children. A woman who’d not given a second thought to forsaking her own needs.
Alex frowned. A frustrated scowl knotted his brow as he turned back to the door. “Very well then. If by morning ye still feel unwell, perhaps ye best spend the day at home. Dinna feel like ye must force yourself to show up at the clinic if ye havena improved.”
With a trembling smile, Emma bobbed her head. “Don’t worry. If I’m not any better in the morning, I’ll just stay in bed.” She drummed her fingers along the top of the chair as she glanced about the room.
“Aye. Well then.” Alex fixed her with one last bewildered look then gave a curt nod as he stepped out onto the stoop. “See that ye do and if ye have need of anything, ye know where to find me.”
“She’ll no’ be needin’ a thing from you.” Torin shoved the door shut with a bang and stepped out of the in-between.
With a squeak, Emma fell back against the chair, one hand clasped against her throat. “How in the hell did you do that?”
“Ye just slide through the doorway between the dimensions and step into the space within.”
Emma’s face flamed as her green eyes narrowed into irritated slits. “Don’t you ever do that to me again. He probably thinks I’m some kind of nut job now because of the way I acted.”
“All that man thinks is that he wants ye for his own. Ye need to stay away from him, Emma.” Torin settled his feet wider apart as he tightened his fists to his sides. Emma needed to calm down and see reason. Didn’t she realize he’d just saved her from a love-starved man?
“You are an idiot.”
Her stinging words stoked the frustration already knotting in his gut. “I know what I know.” Torin ground his teeth, clenching his jaw until his face muscles ached.
“You don’t know squat.” Emma snorted. “That man, Alex, only wants us to get along so the atmosphere at the clinic won’t be so intense. He can’t stand my company any more than I can stand his. He’s doing all this for the sake of the children.”
“Ye truly believe that?” Torin stared at Emma trying to ignore how inviting she looked when righteous indignation colored her skin. How could the woman be so damn blind? Torin didn’t even have to use his mystical senses to pick up on Alex Mackenzie’s obvious interest in the fuming woman standing before him. Could she be that oblivious to her effect on men? To the temptation she presented as soon as she walked into a room? “Yer a beauty, woman, and when your scent fills the room, it teases a man until his body aches with the pain of needing to take ye.”
Emma grew still and she ran the tip of her tongue in a nervous swipe across her lips. “You’re wrong. You’ve got no idea what you’re talking about. I’m just plain old Emma. Ms. Dependable, squared.”
With a frustrated growl, Torin pulled her into his arms and clenched her tight against the hardened length of his body. “Does it feel like I’m wrong, Emma? Listen to me with what your body feels instead of with what your mind tells ye.”
Emma gasped. Against every logical reason blaring in her head, she instinctively melted into his demanding embrace until his heart hammered against her breasts. Torin didn’t feel wrong. He felt very—ready, willing, tempting and all those other adjectives setting her body on fire. A wondrous heat weakened her knees as she molded into the delicious hardness trapped beneath his kilt. She smoothed her fingers down the raised outline of the ebony tattoos circling across his bulging biceps. She’d never been with a man like Torin. Her breath caught as she met his gaze and found excruciating need reflected in his face. Could she do this? Should she?
Torin dipped his head and settled Emma’s inner debate with a kiss. He pulled her tighter against his lean hardness and opened her mouth with his. His lips, his hands, that inquisitive tongue all demanded entry—demanded complete submission. Emma’s mind whirled as her body erupted with an age-old need. Hell yes, I can do this.
Torin loosened the embrace long enough to slip his hand between their bodies and trail his fingers up the front of her shirt. He groaned as he mouthed kisses along her jaw and cupped her aching breast in the calloused palm of his hand. The coarseness of his skin teased against her sensitive nipple, hardening it to a yearning nub.
“I’ve wanted ye since ye first stepped from the beast.”
His hoarse whisper triggered a series of uncontrollable shivers as molten heat flooded to her nether regions. He wanted her. That thought alone excited her almost more than his touch. “I’ve wanted you too,” she admitted in a breathless whisper. There. I said it aloud. That meant this really must be happening.
Torin swept her up into his arms, never interrupting the series of fiery kisses his eager mouth layered along her neck. He carried her to the waist-high kitchen counter and gently lowered her across it. Imprisoning her with a smoldering gaze, Torin ripped away her blouse and tossed the shredded remains to the floor. He gave an irritated huff as his attention settled on her bra. His brows knotted with an impatient scowl.
Emma planted both hands against his chest. “Wait! Don’t rip it.”
“Then ye’d best get that bit of lace out of my way, woman.”
Emma undid the front clasp, slid the bra from around her body and flung it across the room.
With a possessive growl, Torin cupped her breasts between his hands, sucking in a deep satisfied breath as he circled her nipples with his thumbs. Pressing Emma’s aching breasts together, he lowered his head and suckled them both at the same time.
Sparks of ecstasy shot through her body as he pulled her nipples deep into his warm, wet mouth. Emma arched her back and locked her legs around him, pulling his hardened body against her. A moan shuddered from the depths of her pleasure. A delicious ache peaked and exploded as she anchored her fingers in his hair and clenched his head to her breasts. It wasn’t fair. He shouldn’t be able to make her come so fast when he wasn’t even inside her.
Inside her. Emma’s mind whirled faster than the tingling orgasm rippling through her flesh. Was she really going to have unprotected sex with a man she hardly knew? Her body thrummed, pulsing with the luscious echo of the fading orgasm while at the same time heating up for the next round. Her sex-starved libido roared in protest. “He’s perfectly healthy!” The pent-up beast shoved her logical conscience against the brittle bars of her celibacy and tightened a chokehold around its throat. “You’ve been on the pill nearly half your life and hell’s bells, when was the last time we felt this damn good?”
Emma shifted her hips, sucking in a hitching breath as her thighs clenched around the hard muscular heat of Torin’s flexing torso. A seductive thrust of his hips pushed her over the edge. To hell with it. She’d get some condoms tomorrow.
Torin met her gaze with a knowing smile, then lowered his head and resumed licking slow teasing circles down the planes of her stomach. He yanked apart her jeans and pulled them down her hips, oblivious to the zipper holding them together. He ran his tongue along the sensitive skin of her inner thigh as he slid her pants the rest of the way off and tossed them to the floor.
“You’re kind of rough on clothes, aren’t you?” Emma gasped as he stepped between her bare, quivering thighs.
“Do ye mind?” Torin asked, tracing a teasing finger along the creamy white skin just above the curly nest of reddish hair hiding the treasure he sought.
Emma swallowed hard, barely able to answer as he slowly lowered his head. “Not a bit,” she choked out as he claimed her body with his mouth and dipped into her with an exploring tongue. Arching back, she laced both hands tighter in his hair, silently urging him to dive deeper, suckle her flesh harder. As he slid a finger into her depths, she shrieked when her body shattered into a series of blissful, mind-numbing spasms. Lord have mercy! Were those stars in the darkness behind her eyelids? Her pounding heartbeat roared like the drumming waves of the ocean in her ears. Emma stiffened. An unreasonable fear surged through her. She hated the sound of that damn water.
“Forget,” Torin whispered as he covered her body and pressed his forehead against hers. “I’ll not ever let the water take ye, little Emma. I swear I’ll always keep ye safe.”
Emma shuddered beneath his touch. Eyes still shut, she searched for the rasp of his deep voice beyond the sound of roaring water rushing through her head. She raked her nails down his back and pulled him deeper into her body. She needed him to make her forget. She just needed to feel.
“Forget,” Torin repeated as he shoved into her depths. With purposeful care, he settled deep within her, easing the length of his swollen shaft into her eager embrace as though she were an inexperienced virgin.
“Make me forget,” Emma rasped, arching her pelvis into his. “Please.” She pulled him harder against her body. She wanted him to pound the memories from her, needed him to hammer the fear out of her soul.
Reading her need, Torin slid out then drove back in, clutching her legs tensed against his chest. With a victorious groan, he increased the momentum and hammered into the task. Emma welcomed the glorious oblivion promised in every slamming thrust.
Emma clutched his body, crying out his name as she exploded beneath Torin’s delicious assault. Shuddering beneath him, her flesh thrummed with satisfaction as Torin roared his release in an ancient tongue. Pressing her face against his shoulder, Emma smiled as she closed her eyes. She had no idea what he’d just said but she bet it meant something good.