Page 68 of Loched in Love

There are no modern amenities and no gleaming stainless steel or electric appliances, just thick dark wood beams arching overhead and a massive hand carved stone hearth sitting cold at the center.

Elaborate faded velvet drapes hang beside large iron rimmed windows that overlook the glowing blue lagoon, while large high backed and cushioned chairs sit around a huge captain’s table. Everything is covered in a light century’s old stillness and dust.

A soft ache blooms in my chest at the realization as I glance around. He hasn’t stepped foot in this place for hundreds of years.

He’d been trapped in that moat for three hundred years while this, his home, sat frozen over time, waiting for him to come back. That would be a nightmare.

A sharp, cheerful squeak cuts through my thoughts, and I look down as two of the sleek and wet river otters waddle their little bodies through the open cabin door. One of them sits up on its hind legs, chirping excitedly while the other uses its front paws to roll a heavy, perfectly polished sphere of solid gold across the rug, it stopping right against the toe of my hiking boot.

“For me?” I bend down to pick up the surprisingly heavy gold ball. It catches the ambient light filtering through the dust covered windows and gleams flawlessly.

The otter gives a proud little bark and does a clumsy somersault before scampering back out toward the waters of the lagoon.

Okay, it’s official. This place is a miracle and other than the cows, the otters are probably the cutest animals I’ve ever seen in my life.

And I’m madly and hopelessly in love with their landlord.

“Great, your roommates have better manners than most humans I know,” I murmur.

Standing on the deck of the galleon ship, emerald light pulses gently from the bioluminescent moss on the cavern walls that casts a soft blue glow across the black waters, and my eyes track to the glittering heap of historical gold piled carelessly in a corner cave.

“You’re suddenly quiet,” Lachlan says, his voice a low hum that sends ripples floating down my spine.

He steps up behind me on the deck of the ancient ship, and I turn around as a breathless smile spreads across my lips. I reach up with my fingers to run it through the soft hair of his red beard, in awe of him.

“I’m just trying to process all of this,” I whisper, looking around the ship and then back into his piercing blue gaze. “A lagoon, a pirate ship, there’s a literal mountain of gold that Smaug or Captain Jack Sparrow wouldn’t say no to, and then there’s you.”

Lachlan wraps his heavy arms around my waist and pulls me flush against his chest.

“Aye, there’s me, but the gold is nothing. There’s piles of it beneath the ocean so much it’s like the sand in some places, Elena,” he murmurs, pressing a lingering kiss to my head at my temple. “The ship you’re standing on is a relic, but you, my flower, you are the only treasure in this cave that matters to me. Come, I want to show you something. If you’re up for it?”

I smile up at him. “Yeah, I’m fine. Better than fine.”

He takes my hand, his large fingers weaving through mine. He guides me down the galleon’s planked and wooden passageway, his grip steady as we walk over the cool damp earth to the adjacent cavern. And as we approach, the light catches on the immense and staggering scale of his hoard.

Before us rises a mountain of wealth and coins from forgotten empires, forming a shifting foundation topped by glittering cascades of jewels. It’s breathtaking, but when I look up, Lachlan’s gaze is centered directly on me.

“I need you to know that I prize you above all else, my Elena,” he murmurs, his voice thickening with raw emotion. He reaches out, and his palm gently cups the back of my neck and his fingers begin to massage there. “I’d burn everything in this cave to the ground if it meant I could have you. I waited centuries for you, and I’d do it all again if it meant you being here in my arms.”

My breath hitches. The gravity of his gaze makes the beautiful cavern fade into nothingness. I step into him, my boots crunching slightly on a rogue scattering of gold coins as I close the final inch between us.

When his lips meet mine, the passion is instant. A low and territorial growl vibrates deep in his chest, a sound I can feel vibrating through my own ribs.

He breaks the kiss for a fraction of a second, just long enough to lift me and sweep me off my feet into his powerful hold. I gasp and wrap my legs instinctively around his hips as he backs me up against a smooth damp cave wall near the edge of the glittering mountain.

“Elena,” he groans against my mouth, his breath hot and ragged as the scent of cucumber melon and hot male overtakes my senses.

His hands hold me steady as his palms move firm and rough against my skin while he holds me pinned to him. The rough texture of the pillar feels icy against my back, a cool contrast to the heat of him that seems to come in waves as his skin burns and chases away the chill in the air.

I lean into him, my fingers tugging desperately at his hair as he devours me, his lips working mine as he kisses me senseless until I’m a ball of need in his arms.

Lachlan pulls away and buries his face in the curve of my neck as I breathe hard. The sound of our uneven and shared breathing echoes off the high cavern walls mixing with the soft sound of water lapping at the shore, while below us the gigantic pile of gold shifts slightly sounding like the chime of bells in a vast and quiet space.

Slowly he pulls back another inch, and his dark blue-green gaze burning into mine with unchecked hunger that makes my middle ache with need. He shifts his weight and slides me down his body until my boots meet the floor of the cave, but he doesn’t let me go.

He looks from my gaze down to the immense wealth beside us then back to my face, a raw and seductive grin pulling at the corner of his mouth.

“Hundreds of years amassing what’s beneath your feet,” he says, his voice a low vibration of gravel. He takes my hand and leads me a step forward. He catches my waist again and his large hands slide down to the curve of my thighs as his gaze darkens. “I want you right here, atop my treasure, if you’re willing. I want to cover you in diamonds and emeralds and rubies and show you that you’re the greatest treasure I could possess. And make no mistake Elena, I do mean to possess you. But it means you’ll have me too,” he says, kissing the tips of my fingers and placing them over his heart.