Page 62 of Loched in Love

The warmth is gone. My gentle golden retriever has vanished, replaced by a menacing and monstrous predator whose jaw is set so tight, the muscle is jumping. He stops in front of me, sending the farmer scurrying away and then turns to grab my upper arms. His grip is firm but careful not to hurt me. His chest is heaving with exertion under his jacket and begins to radiate a lot of heat.

He stares down at me and I watch the blood leave his face as a shocked expression spreads, while looking like he’s never seen me before, and my brows pinch together.

“Lachlan?” I ask, my breath catching in my throat as a sudden wave of worry hits me. “What is it? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Worse,” he whispers, his voice dropping into a rough and urgent frequency that makes the air around us feel thick and heavy.

He runs a hand through my hair and pushes it back away from my face, his gaze searching over me as he does.

His green eyes dart frantically over my shoulder, scanning the empty road as if an army is about to march over the hill.

“What’s wrong?”

“Elena, I’ve been so blind, and daft. You were doused in selkie magic. Every male with a pulse who comes into your orbit for the next day or so is going to find you completely irresistible. Not that you’re not already to me, my flower, but it’s the sea charm magic. And they quite literally won’t be able to stop themselves.”

“What?!” My jaw drops.

I look down at my clothes, smoothing my hands over my shirt. I don’t feel any different. There’s no magical glowing light, and I don’t smell anything strange, and there’s absolutely no physical sign that a supernatural beacon is currently wired directly into my skin. And yet, the terror on his face tells me he’s completely serious.

The heavy iron car keys bite into the palm of my hand as my fingers freeze around them. “Oh my god, but I don’t feel anything. Is there a magical aura around me or something? What is it?”

“Aye, something like that,” he heavily intones, his expression pinching into a sorrowful expression.

Suddenly, everything clicks into place. The overly confident guy on the train who wouldn’t take a hint. The farmer who just looked at me like I was a glass of water, and he was dying of thirst. They aren’t just being normal annoying guys, they’re reacting to a magical pheromone. Some sort of cloud that I can’t perceive above me because of Maren’s magic.

“Oh my god, that’s why every male I get near has been acting so weird, isn’t it?”

“I’m so sorry Elena. I was so focused on getting the luggage back that I didn’t think about you being human,” Lachlan mutters, a low fierce growl vibrating deep through his chest as he steps even closer, completely blocking me from the world. “The selkie’s magic on you will subtly make you appear like their deepest most inescapable desire, if they’re allowed close enough to smell you that is. We can’t stay out in the open. Not for another second.”

“I managed to get a rental car,” I blurt out, my heart starting to race with a mix of panic and a strained, dizzying brush of adrenaline. I point a shaking finger toward the tiny coupe car parked at the end of the village lot. “It’s just there.”

“Aye, it’ll do just fine,” he says, gently but firmly spinning me around and guiding me toward the vehicle. He scoops up our heavy suitcases and Maren’s cooler with one hand and his other arm wrapped securely around my waist. “We need to get inside and we’re going to lock the doors, and you’re going to drive us as fast as those tiny wheels can carry us.”

I look at the car, then at the steering wheel visibly sitting on the right side of the dashboard, and a whole new wave of panic slams into my chest. I’m going to have to drive a stick shift on the wrong side of the road while blasting an invisible siren of pure aphrodisiac monster magic on my skin.

“Right,” I swallow hard gripping the keys tight. “I meant to tell you it’ll be a bit snug, but it’s all they had.”

Lachlan stops, his nostrils flaring at the size of the tiny coupe. Before I found him petting cows like a sexy Scottish farm hand, I was hoping he would say we had time to find a different rental, but now it’s an emergency.

“I’ll be fine. We’ve got to get you out of here,” he mutters, his lips in a mulish and stubborn line.

“Okay,” I say, “let’s get locked in.”

I make it to the passenger side of the car, my fingers trembling as I jab the key into the lock and throw the door open and look up at Lachlan.

He doesn’t just step inside as he’s too tall for it, but he practically folds himself in half to fit. His massive shoulders wedge tightly against the plastic door panel, and his knees are shoved up toward his chin while his head is millimeters from pressing against the fabric of the stained ceiling. It looks like a giant trying to squeeze into a toddler’s toy car, and there’s no possibility he’s comfortable.

“Are you going to be alright in here?” I ask, tossing the cooler onto the floorboards behind my seat.

“Just drive, sweetheart,” he grunts, his green eyes darkening and scanning the ferry dock behind us. “There’s no time to find another car now. I can hear footsteps approaching, and we’ve got to get going.”

“Right, okay.” I push his door shut and run around the hood of the car before diving into the right hand driver’s seat. The moment I pull the door closed, I hit the lock button, and a loud metallic click echoes through the car, sealing us inside.

“Whew,” I breathe, staring down at the dashboard. “Okay. It’s all going to be okay. I can totally do this.” Worry wracks my insides.

“You’re going to do fine, Elena, not to worry,” Lachlan murmurs, his deep voice vibrating right through the console. He reaches a hand across the gear shift and lets his fingers rest protectively over my knee.

The affectionate touch sends a wave of warmth in my chest, a grounding anchor against the sudden spike of panic starting to rise.