“If ye insist, though I wish ye would tell me now. I willna press ye. Come.” He grabbed my hand and led me to the horse. Lifting me up on the horse first, he then swung himself over so that he sat behind me.
He didn’t hesitate to slip both of his arms around my waist. After gathering the reins, Baodan placed the side of his hands directly on my thighs, holding the leather straps perilously close to the center of my legs. I gasped at the sensation. It felt oddly intimate, but he didn’t pull away nor did he act as if he were doing anything unusual.
He wiggled the reins to nudge the horse forward. Once we moved, he extended his hand to pat my knee quickly. “Ye are tense, lass. I willna let ye fall off.” He squeezed his arms around me to emphasize his point. “Lean against me and go to sleep.”
I did allow myself to relax and happily leaned against him but, while I was exhausted, I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. Not right away. “I’m not sleepy.”
“Aye, ye are. I’m sorry that I dinna return as quickly as I thought I would. Me mother was ill, and it slowed us down a bit.”
I didn’t say anything. He couldn’t help his mother’s ill health, but I couldn’t bring myself to say it was alright. If he’d returned when he said, Eoghanan wouldn’t have had to leave and Niall would never have approached me.
He reached up to touch my hairline, to examine my injury. “’Tis no so bad as it looked that first day. Does it hurt ye, lass?”
I shook my head lightly. “Not at all. Just a little scab now.”
“Good. I’m pleased to hear it.”
We rode in silence for a while. I spent the hours looking up at the stars, picking out constellations in awe. A million changes would occur in the time that spanned from the year I found myself in now to the time I was born in. Everything would change, everything except the stars.
“What are ye looking at, lass?”
He leaned forward and whispered the words in my ear. Unlike his brother’s breath that chilled me to my bones, the sound of his deep whisper warmed me all the way to my core.
“The stars. They look exactly the same three hundred and sixty-seven years from now. Well, I’m sure an astrologist would tell you they’ve changed a little, but I sure can’t tell a difference.”
His breath caught as I spoke, and I cringed as I awaited more accusations of my insanity. I’d forgotten that he’d thought me ‘daft.’
“Tell me more about your time. What are some of the things ye mentioned before? A plane and a car? What is a toilet?”
I twisted my head to look at him with pinched brows. “What? When you left you thought I was crazy. What happened?”
He laughed and I didn’t miss how his eyes lingered on my lips before he glanced upward again. I turned my head back around to face the direction of our travel.
“Aye, lass, I truly did, but me mother told me the truth. I informed her how ye screamed after someone named Morna when I found ye in the pond, and she knows of the woman’s power. Morna’s been dead a long time, but she was a powerful witch. Mother told me of all that the witch did to bring yer friend Bri here to this time as well. I’m sorry for thinking ye mad. I dinna know any of that until Mother told me.”
“Ah, I see. Well, I’m glad that you don’t think I’m crazy.”
“So tell me, lass. Tell me what all of those things are that ye spoke of.”
Truly sleepy now, I found it hard to keep my eyelids open. I started to speak, but the words came out in between yawns. “Tomorrow, I’ll tell you in the morning.”
I allowed my head to roll to the side as I started to drift into sleep, but it took longer for sleep to find me than Baodan realized. I know he wouldn’t have said what he did if he knew I could hear.
As I leaned into him, he bent downward to plant a kiss on the side of my head. “Aye, I shall happily wait until tomorrow to hear it. For every strange thing that ye utter from that beautiful mouth of yers is a pleasure to hear.”
Chapter 14
Ach, trouble found him. The lass slept soundly against him, and she made the most unusual sounds in her sleep. The sweetest, softest coos of comfort that made his position on his horse so uncomfortable he found himself immensely grateful that she wasn’t awake to know what she did to him. Each unconscious shift she made in front of him tempted him to slide his fingers up her thighs.
He shook his head to clear it. Seeing that the sun rose in the distance, he slowed Artair’s pace so that he could find a suitable place for them to stop and rest. Temptation was a downfall of being a man, he supposed. No matter that he was no longer capable of love, it didn’t stop his body from betraying him at the sight of a beautiful woman, and beautiful she was.
He’d never seen hair like hers, so red, curly and endless. A man could get lost in it, and he wished that he could do just that; to tug hard on it whilst he buried himself inside her.