Page 59 of Her Highland Prophecy
“Thank you,” she said, leaning her head onto his shoulder. He pressed a kiss onto her head in acknowledgement.
As the sun rose slowly in the sky above them, they laid back on the grass, with Diana pressed up against Gordain, her head leaning on his shoulder. She was warm and comfortable with her ear pressed up against his heart, the gentle throbbing lulling her to sleep. His fingers combed through her short hair every so often, adding to the content feeling surrounding them.
A loud bird cry startled her awake sometime later making her snap up. Her eyes met with Gordain’s. She thought he might have already been looking at her when the bird made a sound.
The sweet feeling that had surrounded them every time they had been so close rose to a crescendo. Gordain’s hand in her hair and the other around her waist suddenly felt as hot as a fire where they touched her, but she did not want to resist.
She wasn’t sure who moved first. One moment their faces were inches from one another, and the next his lips were on hers and they were kissing.
A sting of electricity coursed through her causing her toes to curl at the delicious sensation, even as her arms wrapped around his neck with one of them buried in his thick, red hair.
Gordain pushed her gently until she was lying on her back and then hovered over her, completely taking over the kiss. Their lips met wetly again, top lip, then the bottom. A playful nibble, a joyful press.
It was unlike any kiss she had ever received in her life and she was certain that it had to do more with who was kissing her than anything else.
When Gordain tilted her head gently and slid his tongue against her lips, she opened her mouth to it becoming lost in sensation once more. A gasping moan left her as his tongue caressed hers and then proceeded to map out her mouth like he was staking claim.
She was done. Unable to think of anything but him, her body awash with sensations, she surrendered to his kiss entirely.
Eventually, she was forced to end the kiss to draw air.
She pulled back to breathe, her lungs screaming at her. Gordain kept pressing soft kisses along her cheek, down her neck, leaving a blazing trail of heat behind them. She sighed heavily and tilted her head further to give him better access.
As her breathing calmed, the reality of what was happening reasserted itself unpleasantly.
“Gordain, stop,” she said, pushing against him. “We can’t do this.”
He pulled back slowly, his face betraying his confusion.
“I dinnae understand,” he said after a moment.
“I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have let it go this far,” she said. He had to understand. “I’m leaving in less than two weeks.”
It was an inadequate explanation, but she hoped that he understood anyway. Judging from the bewildered gaze he was giving her, he didn’t, and she would have to try to explain more fully.
“You…you are very important to me,” she started. His eyes were riveted on her own. “And I am leaving soon so I don’t want to start something we know will end in heartbreak for both of us.”
He seemed lost in thought for a moment, but then cleared his throat.
“What if ye didnae return to yer time? Ye could stay here, with me.”
He looked at her with an intensely hopeful look on his handsome face that she almost wanted to agree with him so he would keep looking like that. But she knew that she couldn’t.
“Gordain—” she started, unsure how to tell him in a way that would hurt him less. It was not necessary. Her tone seemed to have clued him in and she watched helplessly as his eyes shuttered and darkened. He looked away from her.
“I see,” was all he said, and he pulled back from her fully to sit back, making sure that he was no longer touching her.
“I care for you, Gordain.” He looked at her in disbelief. “I do,” she repeated. “But can’t you see that I need to return to my own time? My sister is there and my father. My whole life. How can I turn my back on them?”
Her voice had turned pleading by the end of her speech, begging for him to understand how her heart was torn. If she stayed with him then she would have to say goodbye to everything she had ever known. And Grace, who had always been the most important thing in her life.
But the idea of leaving him behind did not sit well with her either. His handsome face had become almost as dear to her as her sister’s had in a very short time. She would miss the way he teased her and the sound of his Scottish burr when he spoke.
She would even miss some of the other people she had met while she stayed in the Castle. Mabel and Joan, Bhaltair and even Eleanor and Mairi, who she had met more recently but who had both stolen a small part of her heart for their own.
It was an impossible dilemma, but she still could not fathom not returning to Grace, which is why she had asked him to stop.
“I wish things were different,” she said. “And that I was free to stay here with you.”
