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She clung to him, letting him pull her against his chest, murmuring words that flowed like a song.

She did feel safe. She wasn’t quite sure why.

“What did ye dream, lass?”

Kris, who’d been slowly relaxing in the warm, sweet cocoon that they’d made, stiffened. Liam ran a palm down her back and whispered, “Shhh.”

Why did the soft burr of his voice in her hair make her want to shhh? She’d never been one for cuddling or comfort. Perhaps because she’d hadn’t had either one in a very long time.

“Ye don’t have t’ tell me if ye dinnae want to.”

“I—” She took a breath, thrilled when it didn’t catch in the middle and make her feel again like a child. “I do.”

Perhaps it would help.

“I was in the loch,” she said. “But I wasn’t alone. I think I saw…” She paused, unwilling to admit it but unable to stop. “Nessie.”

“Understandable,” he said, still petting her.

Kris looked into his face, but the night was so dark she could see nothing but the shimmer of his eyes. They reminded her of the shimmer of eyes she’d seen in the depths of the loch, and she didn’t like it.

“Why is that understandable?” she demanded.

“Ye are here for her, are ye not?”

“How do you know that?”

“Lass.” He ran a hand over her hair. “Everyone in Drumnadrochit knows that.”

She sighed. He was right.

“Go on,” he said.

“I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t find the surface. She came, and she whirled around me, and I think…” She paused, searching her mind for the dream, or had it been a memory? “I think she saved me.”

“Did she now?”

Kris sat up, and Liam let her go, keeping one hand on her back and rubbing. “She pushed me, and I fought because I thought she pushed me down, but really she pushed me up. Without her, I would have flailed around in the water, thinking up was down and down was up until I drowned. But why would she do that?”

“ ’Twas just a dream,” he said. “Do ye truly think the Loch Ness Monster saved ye from drowning?”

Kris stared into the darkness and admitted the truth: “Something did.”

“I thought ye didnae believe in Nessie.”

Kris tilted her head. “You’re the one who said you’d never seen her.”

“I havenae.”

“And strangely, no one around here has ever seen you but me.”

He laughed. “That’s not true.”

“No matter who I ask, they haven’t heard of you. There are no Grants in Drumnadrochit named Liam. Although perhaps you might be one of the Grants in Dores.”

“Is that so?” he murmured.

Question with a question. He was definitely hiding something. But then, wasn’t she?

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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