Page 5 of Shaw

“In my next life, I will, Shaw.” She leaned in to press her lips to his.

As the current sucked them beneath the surface, Julianne kissed the man in her arms with all her heart. It didn’t matter that they now spun together like a helicopter about to crash. He was warm and alive and tasted like some darkly decadent chocolate. Oh, she could have kissed every inch of this man, he was such a gorgeous sexy beast. She hoped he would die knowing he had been loved, if only for a few moments.

Do you wish live? a deep man’s voice asked inside her head.

That sounded like the guy she was kissing, Julianne thought, and closed her eyes. I’m a lifeguard. What do you think?

A soft chuckle came, along with a lighter female voice that asked, Do you wish live so you may guard his life?

Julianne thought of the terrible sorrow in the tattooed man’s eyes. Despite all of her own problems, seeing his agony had cut through her like a huge knife. Yes.

The furious sound of the sea quieted as green and blue lights sparkled around them. For a moment she wondered if she had drowned along with the man, for she couldn’t move or breathe. Then the terrible force of the water vanished, as if they had somehow escaped the rip current. Her injured leg suddenly seemed perfectly fine as she kicked her feet. The water surrounding them was far too warm for the Pacific, however, and the light was wrong.

What the heck is this?

Keeping a firm grip on her guy she swam up toward the light. The moment they broke the surface Julianne took in a huge, mountainous white-beached island surrounded by shoals, islets and a wall of mist. She looked at her rescue, who was staring back at her wide-eyed. With the sunlight pouring over him he looked like something out of an erotic dream.

“My lady.” he said, putting his hands on her waist as they both treaded water. “We’re saved.”

“Looks that way.” Julianne gave him another smacking kiss before she nodded toward the island. “Come on, let’s hit the beach.”

Chapter Two

Shaw swam alongside the woman who had come back in time with him, still confused by why that had occurred. An hour past he’d been wandering the shores of the empty island where he’d exiled himself, trying to decide if it was time to die. In the fading light of sunset he had spied the silver and green bauble rolling in the surf. Because that particular ring had belonged to his brother’s first wife, and had been enchanted by his sire to save those in danger, he decided to retrieve it. If nothing else, it would be found with his blackened bones when the clan came to look for him.

The moment he’d plucked the ring from the water his eyes had filled with blue and green light of a triggered Fae enchantment.

A heartbeat later he’d been dropped into a cold, merciless vortex that had spat him out in a place of strange mountains and rocky shores that he did not recognize. The iciness of the sea shocked him as much as his view of the unfamiliar coast. Then a long-limbed, beautiful fair female who appeared naked but for a strange red chemise had run into the ocean and come for him. They had both become victims of the savage offshore currents, and Shaw had made his impossible wish.

End me, only permit her live.

Perhaps his entreaty had stirred the magic that resided in Lady Joana’s ring, or Prince Mar’s water magic. Something not of the mortal realm had returned him to his home, and saved his brave, beautiful rescuer from drowning by sending her with him.

“You okay, dude?” she asked

Shaw nodded, although agreeing was far from truth. His mouth still throbbed from the first, passionate kiss she’d bestowed on him. It had tasted nothing of desperation and everything warm and honeyed, the caress of a woman yearning for him behind her cheerful smile. In response his heart yet seemed determined to pound its way out of his chest. Never had any female bestowed such affection on him, or with such devastating effect. Had traveling through time turned him back into a lad? Why would she present him with such a gift? Why had she called him her man, for that matter?

Dinnae reckon she’s come so she may cure you, his sullen heart muttered. You shall forever remain cursed.

For now he could take pleasure in her generous compassion which, had she known what he truly was, she would never have lavished on him. Being so close to her made him wonder why the men of her time had left her wholly unguarded. The fact that the lady wore that scandalously brief scarlet garment that barely covered her torso and strange writing in white that rose and fell across her bountiful chebs seemed not to concern her in the slightest degree. To keep the rest of the clan from falling on their faces Shaw would have to immediately borrow a tartan to wrap around her.

The thought of returning to the clan’s stronghold made his gut clench. He’d fled the island a week past, and after what he’d done to the Cait Sith, the clan’s shape-shifting enemy, he’d decided to never again return.

The woman reached the shallows before he did, but when she found her footing she turned and waited for him to join her rather than going ashore. She had strange eyes, large and unusual, the color of burnished bronze coins inlaid with pale sapphire. His confusion returned as he recalled the lady merrow in his dreams, whose eyes had been the same colors. Yet that fish-tailed creature had not been clad in red, nor had she spoken in such a strange accent.

“Sure you’re all right, Shaw?” she asked when he came alongside her. “You’re looking a little wasted there.”

“Aye.” He had not realized the woman stood as tall as he. Would there be no end to the wonders she possessed? “Tell me your name, my lady.”

“Oh, sorry. Julianne Scott.” She slung her arm around him and gave him a quick, squeezing embrace. “You have no idea just how lucky we are, my man. We just beat the Pacific Ocean, which does not like to lose. I don’t know where we are, or how we got here, but this totally slaps.”

Her sunny happiness tugged at him as if she’d skewered him with an unseen harpoon; he couldn’t resist touching her. The moment he put his arm around her the beast inside him stirred and slithered through him, but in a fashion it had never before done. It always wished to kill, but now only seemed interested in beholding her through his eyes.

Beauty. The rusty sound of the dark thing rumbled at the back of his mind like a purr. Such beauty.

“’Tis more you should ken,” Shaw said, trying to ignore the quaking in his core. “The ring I placed on your hand brought me to the sea near your home, I reckon. The magic returned you with me to mine.” He paused, waiting for her to screech or stalk off. When she did neither he asked, “Didnae you hear me, my lady?”

As she looked around and frowned, Julianne made a vague sound.