He sat beside her. “No need to thank me when you don’t mean it.”
“Even so.”
“Then ‘tis my pleasure.”
“Even if you don’t mean it either?”
“Even if.” He hesitated. “Though ‘twould be a lie as I don’t want to see you ill.”
“Because you think you’ve got half a shot with me now.”
“I don’t think but know.”
There was that smugness again.
She rubbed the pads of her thumbs against her temples. A trick that usually helped stabilize her. “You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”
“Make what easy?”
“You know damn well what.” She was about to glower at him only to find the world stabilized, and her surroundings changed. “But of course, my surroundings are changed,” she whispered, blinking in wonder at the woodland. Hence the motion sickness. “I traveled back in time, didn’t I?”
“You did.” He gestured ahead. “This is my land.”
She had never seen such vibrant trees. Breathed in such fresh air. The scent of sea salt drifted on a cool breeze. Waves crashed in the distance.
“Ireland,” she murmured when a strong sense of familiarity washed over her. “In the eleventh century.”
“Ta.” He eyed her warily. “’Tis that familiar to you?”
“Seems so.”
She might be taken by her surroundings and wary of her sense of familiarity, but that didn’t keep her from noticing how close he sat. From becoming far too aware of the heat of his arm against hers. His spicy masculine scent. The sheer size and strength of his body.
“Enough of this,” she muttered, frustrated with herself. So frustrated that she tried to stand too soon only to teeter and end up in his lap. Mortified by how strongly her body reacted, she tried to wiggle off, but his arm came around her before she could get too far.
“I agree,” he said softly, his voice hoarse. “Enough, or ye’ll soon find yerself on the forest floor with me betwixt yer thighs.”
Well aware she wouldn’t stand a chance of stopping him if he tried, she stilled at his warning. At the feel of his sizable and very hard erection pressed against her backside. Heat flared under her skin. An unwelcome, almost painful need blossomed in her lower belly and pulsed between her legs. She hadn’t had sex in far too long, and her traitorous body knew it.
“Let me go, Liam,” she ground out. She stared straight ahead rather than look at him. Rather than stare into his magnetic eyes at this proximity. “Let me go or—”
“Or what?” His voice remained dangerously soft. “Ye’ll go running to Aodh?”
It would have behooved her to keep quiet when she felt his simmering jealousy, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. Anything to let him know he wouldn’t be sampling her despite the ridiculous longing she must have had for him in another life.
“I’ll go running if it means helping him.” She was so irritated that she forgot her determination not to look at him when she met his eyes. “Because Iwillhelp him if I have the means.”
Just like she’d suspected, it was a big mistake looking at him this close. He was too handsome, his kissable lips inches away.
“The only way you will have the means to save Aodh is with my help.” His pupils flared, and his gaze dropped to her lips. “And that will not be happening.”
“You forget two of my sisters are Unnamed Ones.” Her voice didn’t work quite right as he listened to her.Lookedat her. A man had never gazed at her like he was right now. As though he wanted to savor the taste of her lips. Never stop kissing her. “Sisters who are more powerful than you.” She shook her head and made things perfectly clear. “So Iwillsave Aodh if I damn well please.”
She gasped when he wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and pulled her lips so close she could feel his hot breath. Feel the heat building between them. Rage and lust all at once. A push and pull of wills. She felt his inner war. The things he wanted to say to her. Roar at her.
The things he wanted to do to her first.
“No,” she whispered, feeling his lust rise above all others. Harder to hold back. How tight his body had become beneath hers. Pent up. Desperate. And she got it because she felt and fought the same.
