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He had been pacing on the other side and stopped the moment I crossed in this time. Neither of us moved or spoke until we did. I reached the door just as he opened it.
“I wanted to tell you—” I began.
“I know,” he said and hoisted me up to crush his lips to mine.
I was against the door before he let me slide down to my feet. He was hard and ready for me.
Then he stopped. “What in the devil is this?” He waved a hand at my outfit.
“Oh, that.” I laughed. The habit I wore was customary for the time period I’d been in. The shift underneath was what I’d worn when I’d left the present to go to the nunnery. It was all I’d had of Duncan, and I had taken good care of it.
“It wasn’t in your letters.” He held up the thumb drive.
“You found that?” I’d gone back in time and put it in the pocket of the bag my mother had packed for emergencies and sent with me that time with Fabian.
“I read each and every word,” he said.
“So you know?” That I was Cináed’s mother, I didn’t say.
My habit soon forgotten, Duncan said, “It was always you.”
I nodded, grateful that the shadows beneath his eyes were mostly gone, the burden of guilt lifted from his heart. “He’s our son,” I said.
“You were there.” He cupped my cheek, and I nuzzled into his palm.
I knew what his statement meant. “I told him to call for you. I was the “dead” girl next to the one you remembered. It was me who told her to stay. I couldn’t change that, as much as I wanted to.”
“Because we aren’t meant to change the past.”
I nodded my head. “Exactly. We can’t. If that’s what they want from me…” I trailed off, remembering his almost betrayal.
It was his turn to give me a brisk shake of his head. “You know who you are now.”
“I do. I can travel in time, but that’s a side benefit for my real job. I’m supposed to help souls cross over.”
He nodded. “You are also the portal between worlds. Some see you as the end to a never-ending war.”
“Between heaven and hell?”
He shook his head. “It’s more complicated than that. When God gave humans free will, he stopped fighting against demons. A faction of us couldn’t give up. Our purpose has always been to overcome evil. We couldn’t just stop.”
I cupped his face but didn’t ask specifics. Duncan lived by a code, and I respected him for it. He would tell me all he could. “They named you king.”
“In the vacuum of power, one was needed. I had no desire for the job.”
I summed it up. “But you took it anyway. It’s the crown in the room in the tower.”
He sighed. “My way of getting out of it was to come here. The McAllisters were a part of a bigger plan.”
“Names mean power.” It clicked in my head from books I’d read at the nunnery. “Allister, Allistar, Allisdar are all forms of Alexander. They mean ‘defender of man.’”
“Names do have power,” he said, neither confirming nor denying what I was implying.
“Like Duncan. It means ‘warrior.’ In fact, in Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, Duncan is the king of Scotland. Did you ever meet Shakespeare?”
He didn’t answer that. “Elin means ‘light.’ Or another Welsh meaning is ‘most beautiful woman.’”
I might have melted a little and lost interest in words. He fought to remove the habit that covered me head to toe, which shouldn’t have been complicated, but in our frenzy it was.
When I was finally naked, he tossed me on the bed and placed kisses from my belly before suckling my breast.
“You’re still wearing clothes,” I complained until he gave me numerous reasons not to.
I lay panting with my pleasure still coating his lips before he removed his clothes. “I’ve waited four hundred years for this,” he said, wedging himself between my thighs. When he pushed forward, he sank so deep, my back arched up to take more of him. “You are mine,” he declared with a guttural groan.
“I’m yours,” I agreed.
There was nothing slow in our lovemaking this time. He was as greedy as I was. He flipped us over, leaving me astride him, a move that would have brought out my shy side long ago. Now I went for what I wanted, grinding my hips so that his cock glided over a spot inside that made my toes curl.
For two inexperienced people, we knew much. Me from watching too much TV. I had a feeling he’d seen a lot in his years as well. Though he’d made reference to bedding other women, I didn’t allow myself to think too much on that.
He rose up with me still in his lap. He kissed me fiercely, and it was not hard to tell how much he missed me.
