“But you put yourself in danger!”
“As did you,” he returned. Having stayed calm until now, Tiernan allowed himself some release. “You should have left, gone home as I suggested, but you would not.”
“I couldn’t!”
Responding to her raised voice, he tersely said, “I beg to differ! Nevertheless, when you did not, the least you could have done was taken precautions.” Now that the crisis was over, he was angry with her for putting herself in jeopardy. “I offered to help you twice today and you refused.”
“This was my battle to fight!”
“’Twas our battle, Ella. When you care for another person, you share the bad, as well as the good.”
She blinked and her voice cracked. “You c-care for me?”
“Aye.” Feeling his ire settle, Tiernan stroked the side of her face and thought about what Kate had said. Still, he couldn’t put his true feelings into words.
She swallowed hard and dropped her gaze. “Oh.”
Tiernan’s breath caught in his throat. She hadn’t returned the sentiment. Her confusion dashed through him like knives to his heart.
Then she looked up and said, “I was drawn to you from the first, only I didn’t want to be. You were too dangerous to be around.”
“I did warn you.”
“I don’t mean the prophecy. You were as comfortable with your psychic abilities as my father was with his… and you tried to make me use mine. That made me afraid of getting too close.”
“Are you afraid now?”
“Right at this moment?”
“Aye.”
She placed a palm on his bare chest. “How could I be after what you did for me?”
Too aware of her touching him, of his wanting to touch her, hold her, Tiernan was frozen to inaction. He wasn’t frozen to her reaction to him, however—longing mixed with hesitation—or to his own feelings that were quickly spinning out of control.
He loved her, really loved her, something he’d never thought would happen to him. He hadn’t been able to admit it to himself until he’d ridden onto the rez and had seen her in trouble. Then he had known.
His head went light with the wanting and he swayed a little closer so that his chest brushed her breasts. He felt her nipples pebble against his bare flesh and got an immediate erection. Never breaking the gaze that connected them, she ran her hand up over his neck to cup his cheek. Sweet torture, he thought, knowing he should back off.
“Oh, Tiernan,” she breathed.
Just hearing his name whispered over her lips was his undoing. He had to return her touch, taste her mouth again, hold her just for a moment.
That’s all it could ever be between them, he thought hazily and with remorse, as he crushed his mouth against hers.
Anything more would place her in mortal danger again, and this time he might not be able to save her.
***
The stress of the day melted away while in Tiernan’s arms. Though Ella knew the danger wasn’t over yet and wouldn’t be until they’d uncovered and stopped the villain permanently, she couldn’t stop herself. Losing herself in the kiss, in the feel of his body pressed against hers, she slid her hands around his neck, scraped her nails down his back until he groaned into her mouth.
Her body quickened even before he grabbed her butt and pulled her tight against him. She couldn’t get close enough to suit her, not unless she wrapped herself around him and drew him inside her.
Rocking against him, she told him what she wanted without words. And when he murmured, “Nah-nah,” against her mouth and tried to push her away, she dug her nails into his back and kissed him harder. She wasn’t going to let any prophecy keep them apart! He fought her for a moment, but halfheartedly, and in the end, she got her way.
Still locked in a passionate kiss, they fell to the ground, soft with pine needles, and rolled one over the other, Ella landing on top. She pulled her skirts up so that he could put his hands on her.
Seared by his fingers sliding over her cotton panties, she pushed against his hand while unbuttoning her long-sleeved blouse. She could feel his other hand, unzipping his pants, releasing himself, and the picture she had in her mind was enough to make her juices flow.
Ella reached to touch him and was gratified when Tiernan cupped her breasts and thumbed her nipples into aching peaks. Wanting to be joined with him now, she somehow managed to tear her panties away, then found him and sank slowly down his length. She gasped as every inch of her body quickened. There was a rightness to their joining. No matter what happened after—no matter the dangers they faced—they would do it together and they would prevail.
Nothing and no one could pull them apart after this.
***
Tiernan awoke hours later with a weight pressed into his side. The moon was nearly full, allowing him to see Red Crow nearby, snuffling through pine needles for something to eat. As his head cleared and his eyes focused, Tiernan realized what the weight pressing into him was.
Ella….
Then he remembered they’d spent hours making love, and according to his cell, more hours sleeping. ’Twas not so long before dawn—they had some decisions to make.
Ella was half naked, wearing only her skirt and bra and cowboy boots. He’d gotten the blouse off her, had seen the burn scars on the inside of her left arm that she carried as a reminder of what had happened to her da. She’d tried to put out the fire—such bravery and her only thirteen at the time! Tiernan could hardly believe it.
Just as he could hardly believe he’d fallen in love with Ella Thunder. Or that he had acted on it!
Realizing what he’d done, Tiernan was horrified.
How could he have lost his head like that?
He’d spent most of his life vowing never to fall in love and if he fell in love never to consummate it. He’d listened to Kate and gone after Ella to fight for her.
He hadn’t meant to make love to her.
Filled with guilt, he sat up, dropped his head in his hands and moaned.
“What’s wrong?” came Ella’s voice, still soft with sleep.
“I should not have done it,” he agonized. “Should never have touched you. Now you are doomed!”
“Ohhhh….” She pushed herself up next to him. “Not the curse again.”
“Why will you not believe me? You, more than anyone, know what is possible.”
As she pulled on her blouse, she tried to reason with him. “I’ve already been in mortal danger and you saved me.”
“But that was before we…” Before they’d made love. And it was love, so deep that he feared it would break his heart if any harm came to Ella because of him. “You must leave. Go far from here, away from me—”
“I’m not going anywhere!”
He tried to reason with her. “I will continue the investigation without you.”
“Forget it!” She got to her feet and buttoned the blouse. “Just stop being so… so… ridiculous!”
He shot to his feet next to her. “’Tis not ridiculous. If you do not go on your own, I’ll—”
“What? Are you threatening me now? I didn’t know macho was your style.”
He looked down into her face, now as closed off from him as were her emotions. Earlier, he’d lost himself in that connection, had never felt so fulfilled, but now he simply felt empty.