Page 18 of Love Beyond Wanting
I was so sleepy I was certain I would fall asleep the moment my head hit the pillow.Instead, the moment I lay down, my mind started racing a million miles a minute.
Mom’s obsession with Dillon’s phone calls to me didn’t make sense, and now that I had a moment to myself, they were starting to worry me.A lot.Something was amiss about the entire situation.Come morning, I was intent on finding out exactly what it was.
“You two look exhausted.”
The journey from The Isle to Cagair Castle had been a miserable one.He and Paton rode hard, but with the rain and the mud, the journey had been slower than expected.When they rode up to the front door of the castle, they were beyond weary.
“Aye, ’twas wretched weather the whole way.Thank ye for waiting up for us.”
Sydney waved a dismissive hand as Callum came outside and gathered their horses.
“It was no trouble at all.Callum will see your horses to the stables.I’d originally planned for you to sleep in this century tonight, but both of you really look like you could use a nice hot shower.Wanna sleep in the twenty-first century?”
He wasn’t sure what a shower was, but anything described asniceandhotsounded too good to pass up.
“Every muscle in my body aches, and I doona know if I will ever be able to get warm again, so if ye think there is something in yer own time that can help us with that, I’ll sleep anywhere ye wish.”
Sydney laughed.
“You’ll love it.Let’s go.”
Chapter 11
For hours I lay in the massive, perfectly soft bed with my eyes wide open and my mind churning with worry.Why had my mother been so insistent that I answer Dillon’s phone calls?It wasn’t unusual for her to be pushy about things—especially the love lives of her daughters—but in this case, it didn’t make a lot of sense to me.Shedidn’tknow Dillon that well.I met him long after she’d moved to Florida, and she’d only met him on her visits to Boston and for brief times during the first few months after the fire when she was there to care for me around the clock.She’d had way closer relationships with past boyfriends of mine.Why the sudden strong attachment to Dillon?
Had he called her and made her feel sorry for him?Had he somehow convinced her to try to plead his case to me?If so, he obviously hadn’t told her what he’d said to me.If my mother had heard that, she’d have driven across town to kick his ass herself, I was certain.
Mr.Crinkles meowed at the end of the bed and the sound reminded me to breathe.Crink, as I lovingly sometimes referred to him, was so good at picking up on my energy.He could tell when I was worked up.As I forced myself to take a deep breath, I realized how pointless my worries were.I was in Scotland.This time tomorrow, there would be hundreds of years between me and Dillon.So what if he’d called my mother?He was in the States, and I was here, and I soon wouldn’t have a phone for him to call.
“Thank you.”I sat up in the bed and leaned down to give Mr.Crinkles a quick snuggle as my worry slowly drifted away.
As my unnecessary panic came to an end, I was able to relax enough for my jet lag induced exhaustion to catch up with me, and it didn’t take long for my eyes to begin to close as I drifted off to sleep.Just as I reached the cusp of full-on unconsciousness, a sudden clanging began in the bathroom attached to my room, followed shortly by what I could only assume was Gaelic cursing.
Our escorts had arrived.
I waited for a moment before turning on the lights in the hopes that whatever trouble the man was having would end, but the unusual sounds only continued.Eventually, I decided that if I didn’t go to help him, he would wake up the whole castle.
Reaching over to the small lamp on the nightstand, I flipped on the switch and walked over to the door before attempting to address the man inside.
Knocking gently, I spoke to him.“Do you need some help?”
The clamoring stopped and a deep, accented, ridiculously sexy voice answered me.“Aye.I’d be much obliged if ye would show me how to work this, this…” He hesitated as if he were trying to remember the wordshower.
As he finished, I heard his hand reach for the knob.I looked up at him as he came into view, and the light from the bathroom spilled into my own barely-lit room.
He was a good foot taller than me, and while he was lean, he had broad shoulders that showed how strong he was and made him look especially masculine.His hair was short, but had a little bit of length on top and I couldn’t help but think that the style of his hair was remarkably modern.Except for the filthy linen shirt and kilt, he didn’t look that out of place in this time.
I scanned him for longer than was probably appropriate before I actually looked up at his face.When I finally did, he was smiling.The beauty of him caused my breath to catch in my chest on an almost auditory level.
With most of his body now in the shadow of the doorway, I couldn’t quite make out the color of his eyes, but his smile was wide and bright and his nose, while larger in the middle from what I assumed was a past break, was endearing.It made what would’ve been an intimidatingly handsome face just a little more approachable.He even had a smattering of freckles on both cheeks that I could just make out in the semi-darkness that allowed me to immediately picture what he must’ve looked like as a boy.
“Ye must be Kate, lass.Ye and yer sister resemble one another greatly.”
Taking in an embarrassingly shaky breath, I nodded as I tried to act like the grown woman I was.“Yes, I’m Kate.You’re…” I paused as I scanned through the portrait I’d seen of The Eight during my research.“Maddock?”
He grinned again and something in my stomach turned over.“Aye.How did ye know that?”
“I’ve read quite a lot about you.I did some research once I knew Laurel was there.In one of the books, there’s a portrait of all of you, and your names were below.”
