Page 16 of Shaw

“It’s okay,” she said when he tried to shake off her grip. “I know you won’t hurt me. I’m the woman of your dreams, remember? And I don’t think your dark magical thing would attack me, either. Big Bad totally would have done that already. Maybe it likes me, too.”

Despair made his gray eyes go dull. “You cannae ken such.”

Somehow she did know she was right, although she could see she’d have a tough time convincing him of that. He hated this thing so much he wouldn’t listen to anything nice about it.

“The first time I saw you, Chief, I knew you were something—even if you were drowning, which you actually weren’t, but like I didn’t know that then.” She smiled, remembering that moment. “So now I know lots. You’re not only from the twelfth century, but you’re half-Fae, and immortal, and you’ve been through pretty scary, terrible things because of what those jerk-face slaver people did to you. But hey, you’re still alive, right?”

Shaw looked as if she’d hit him. “Some afflictions, they’re worse than death.”

“What could be worse than never being able to do anything ever again?” she countered. “I mean, yeah, it would be way cool if there’s a heaven, and we get all the stuff we wanted when we were alive. Or we get to come back and do another life. Next time I want to be smart like Valerie and have cool skills like Lark and be indie like Caroline. I also want to eat all thirty-one flavors of ice cream in a big punch bowl for breakfast every morning of my life and never get fat. But TBR I think that’s not it, Chief. This life is all we get, and we only have what we have.”

“Then what shall I do, my lady?” he asked, his eyes a soft, light gray now.

“Live with what you got, Shaw, like me. I may not be Einstein, but I’m a happy person, and I don’t hurt anybody. I get to sit on a beach waiting to rescue people for a living, which is a great job, especially when it’s little kids. So be grateful for the good stuff in your life.” She leaned in until their brows touched. “That way you don’t have to wait to see if there’s a heaven. You can be happy now.”

He smiled at last, changing his face from dark and stern to gorgeous and stunning. Bringing her hand to his lips, he kissed her knuckles. “Mayhap you’re my heaven, my lady.”

After the encounter with Shaw and Julianne, Caroline imagined Jamaran would be the first one to return to the cottage that night. While she waited on him to arrive, she stood in the garden to enjoy the scents from the night-flowering plants. Although she’d been just an average gardener back in her time, everything she touched here seemed to grow like weeds on crack. She now wondered if that could be attributed to the life-saving magic bestowed on her by the ring. That Shaw had found it after she had lost it in the surf also seemed significant, especially as he’d said the magic had swept him off to the twenty-first century.

Why would a ring enchanted to save women rescue Shaw by having a lifeguard save him in the future, and then bring them both back? Why was Julianne Scott so different from the rest of them?

The lifeguard had several fairly obvious problems, but the one that troubled her the most was Julianne’s obvious affection for the chieftain. She spoke to him in a very strange, maternal way, almost like a mother would cajole a troublesome toddler. Yet the way the woman touched Shaw and looked at him definitely swung more to the romantic. She also had a very distinct way of speaking that nagged at Caroline, for she’d definitely met someone who used the same kind of deceptively simple speech and sometimes the wrong words while expressing genuinely deep ideas.

It was in school, I’m sure of it. Caroline had dropped out at sixteen, but she still remembered some kids who had left a definite impression on her before she’d gone. There had been a small crew of them who had sat together at lunch at what they called the UN table.

A soft breath on her nape made her smile and lean back against a hard, wet chest. “Hey, lover. I’ve been waiting for you.”

“I suspected you would.” Jamaran splayed his webbed fingers across her belly, massaging her there gently. “Nyall told me he must stay at the stronghold tonight.”

Although, like her men, she could now stay underwater indefinitely without drowning, Caroline couldn’t hear the thoughts they shared with each other, something she still resented a little.

“I’ll guess that our captain is worried about Shaw, and you’re worried about our captain and I’m worried about both of you and Shaw and the nice lady lifeguard from my time.” She turned around and draped her arms around his neck. “Something very weird is going on between those two, by the way.”

Jamaran began walking her back into the cottage. “How very weird?”

“She knows a little about Shaw’s thing, but she doesn’t seem afraid of it or him,” Caroline said as he nudged open the door. “While we were talking she scolded him twice for interrupting me. Like he was a misbehaving kid. I‘ve never heard any woman talk to Shaw like that.”

“You did, the day you came to Caladh.” Jamaran picked her up, stepped over the threshold and kicked the door shut. “Mayhap she sees all of Shaw, as you do.”

“I wanted to kill him. She’s talking to him like he’s a chihuahua who just chewed up her sneaks.” As he sat down with her in the big chair by the hearth she sighed. “I don’t know why I’m worried. Julianne obviously isn’t falling for his pretty face. It’s not like that guy needs anyone to look out for him, either.”

“Shaw’s ever needed someone to care for him,” her lover said, surprising her. “He wouldnae ask for help from his brothers, as he’s ashamed of what the Pritani made of him. Such brutes attempt turn you from caring and decent souls into monsters like them.”

“Like the Norse tried with you.” Now she regretted bringing it up and reminding him of the years he’d spent enslaved. “I’m sorry.”

“I understand Shaw better than most,” Jamaran admitted. “You’ve no control of your person during enslavement, and must sometimes do terrible things so you may survive. When you finally escape, you cannot forget those things. They prevent you from becoming who you were before capture. They’re as wounds none see, that forever bleed.”

Caroline knew she could never have survived what Jamaran and Shaw must have suffered while enslaved. “What can I do to help them?”

“Much.” He smiled and kissed her brow. “Provide them your home as haven. They shall need a place where they may come and talk away from the eyes and ears of the clan. Offer Julianne your friendship. What she faces, ’tisnae something the other ladies may understand.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” She wondered if she should mention the other thing, and then just decided to tell him. “Julianne may seem simple and open, but she’s quite intuitive and a little scary with how well she reads everyone. It’s like I’ve met someone like her before now, but I can’t quite place it. Also, when she walked close by me in the cottage, every hair on my arms stood up.”

“’Twas from sensing some danger from her?” he asked, frowning.

“No, the opposite. Just for a second, I wanted to grab her.” She tapped a finger against her lips. “It wasn’t a sexual attraction, either. I mean, she’s beautiful, but I’ve never been into the ladies. It’s like when you’re a kid, and you look at embers in a fire. They’re so pretty when they glow you want to touch them, even when you know you shouldn’t.”

“An interesting effect.” He stroked his palm from her shoulder to her forearm. “I suffer the same when I see you.” His hand moved to cover one of her breasts. “Often.”