Bannockburn Binding (Beloved Bloody Time) (16 page)

His eyes widened. “You
like
this!” he accused.

“It works, Lee.”

Lee closed his eyes. “Tell me, highlander, that this isn’t you giving up again. That you’re not simply washing your hands of her because you can’t see any way of keeping her.”

Rob leaned forward and cuffed the back of Lee’s head. Lee jerked his eyes opened. His lips parted in surprise.

Rob spread his hands, to indicate the cottage. “Do I
look
like I’ve given up? Does the room you just stepped from speak of giving up?”

“Then, somewhere inside this nonsense, you have a plan?” Lee asked.

Rob grinned. “I have a plan. You just have to decide what part you play in that plan.”

Lee took a deep breath, straightening his shoulders. “Beyond being a father to your child once we go back to our time?”

“You haven’t accepted even that much, yet,” Rob pointed out.

“The only thing stopping me was Tally’s objection and she clearly does not object.” Lee shrugged. “I accept.”

Rob smiled and kissed Tally’s hand, sending her a searing glance, one that seemed to be loaded with hot promise, before returning his gaze back to Lee. “That just leaves deciding how much of a father you’ll be before you go back to your time.”

Tally’s body, already suffering from the push-pull of unexpected emotional spikes and powerful arousals, bloomed anew with silvery excitement that seemed to spread right to her toes and finger tips.

Lee grew very still, his eyes narrowing as he stared at Rob. Then his gaze flickered to Tally. She jumped again, for the look he sent her was hot with raw, unshielded hunger. He wasn’t hiding his feelings.

Her pussy throbbed with the possibilities that searing glance hinted at.

Lee swallowed as he turned his gaze back to Rob. “This isn’t the solution I had in mind,” he breathed.

“You didn’t have a solution in mind at all,” Rob said gently. “You’ve been going around in circles, unable to break out of your deadlock, for weeks.”

Lee drew in a shuddering breath. “Now who is mind-reading?” he accused.

Rob stood up, letting go of Tally’s hand. “It took me a day of hard thinking, but I finally figured out everything you didn’t tell me, that night you got drunk.”

Lee got drunk
? Tally stared at Lee, bewildered. She had never seen him drink more than a single glass of anything alcoholic while he had been back here. He was always sober, always polite. Always distant. As usual.

Rob faced Lee, looking him in the eye. “You’ve always wanted Tally. That’s not a secret between any of us now. And you haven’t liked being back here in human form, watching me and Tally together. But what has been steadily making you harder and harder to live with these last few weeks, what has compounded your misery, is that you started to want me, too.”

Lee grimaced. His gaze slithered away from both of them.

“That’s what made you get drunk that night,” Rob continued. “You kept talking around the point, leading up to it and using Tally as the focus, but never quite making the leap. My kiss and my sudden departure the next day must have terrified you.”

Lee sighed. “You may not know what retrograde spectral analysis is, Robert MacKenzie. You’re anything but ignorant, though. You make me feel quite stupid and transparent.” He curled and uncurled his fists once more. “So where do we go from here, then? Does your ambition have a solution for this mess, too?”

Rob looked surprised. “What mess?”

Lee frowned. He glanced at Tally, then back at Rob.

Tally caught her breath as she realized the truth and a sudden silvery bright rush of adrenal spike her body. She gripped the edges of the table, almost dizzy with it. Rob couldn’t possibly mean…. But it was hard to see why else he would look so surprised.

Oh my sweet Robert!
She mentally breathed, as her body throbbed with joy and possibilities.

Lee was starting to breathe hard as meanings and possibilities occurred to him, too. He glanced back at the doorway he had walked through a few moments before.

“It’s your choice,” Rob said quietly. “I’ve already chosen, but I won’t force my choice on anyone here. Tally must choose, too. There’s too much forcing of women in this world for either of us to contribute to it here.”

“I want you both,” Tally said quickly. “And I want you both to be together…if Lee wants it.”

Lee drew in a sharp breath.

Rob grinned. “Tally was ahead of you on this, then.” He walked over to Tally and picked up her hand once more and tugged it, bringing her up off the table and to the floor. He led her over to the door Lee had walked through. At the brink he turned back toward Lee. “Join us if you wish,” he told him.

He led Tally over to the bed and lifted her onto it. It was a low bed, but surprisingly comfortable and the pillows were thick and downy. Rob laid a possessive hand on her belly, that was still only softly rounded. “I’ve missed you, these last few days,” he told her. “I’ve spent my spare time thinking of all the things I would do to you when I finally got you to myself once more.”

The door creaked open and Lee stepped into the room. “Goddamn you to hell, Rob.”

“Quite likely,” Rob agreed. He was smiling. He held out the hand that wasn’t on her belly. “Come here and feel for yourself how your son grows.”

Chapter Twelve

Ryan could see Brenden was speaking to someone, but there was no-one in his office, so he assumed he was vocalizing his side of a call, as some people did when they were alone.

But when he pushed open the heavy door and stepped inside, the big chair in front of Brenden’s desk swivelled. Pritti was sitting cross-legged on the seat and was short enough that her head didn’t show above the back of it.

“Mr. Desmond,” she said in her girl-child’s voice.

“Am I interrupting?” Ryan asked, taking in Brenden’s darkened features and the fact that he was standing.

“Not at all,” Brenden said heavily. “Pritti was just leaving.”

Pritti blinked. Ryan caught a fleeting expression of surprise, but she slithered off the chair and headed for the door. When she was level with Ryan, she stopped.

“Pritti…” Brenden rumbled warningly.

“I must,” she said, not looking at him. “You’re biased, Brenden. You’re not listening to me properly.”

Ryan hid his surprise. “Tell me what Brenden is not hearing,” he coaxed.

“It’s about Villeneuve,” she said. The use of the Frenchman’s last name sounded odd, when everyone at the Agency called him by his given name. Pritti carried her own prejudices, it seemed.

“I tell you, you’re imagining things, girl,” Brenden interjected.

She poked her tongue at him and turned so her back was to him.

“What about Charbonneau?” Ryan said patiently. “The training proceeds?”

“He knows the basics. We’ve shared blood, so now he can jump when he’s ready. Justin is very good at hammering safety into him and we won’t let him jump until he understands the importance of the markers. He listens well.”

It was a dry recitation of a standard training cycle.

“But…” Ryan coaxed.

“He listens
too
well!” Pritti burst out. “He listens and asks too many questions and they’re all the wrong ones. He knows too much already.”

“Well, naturally he would. He came to us and that is the first time it has happened. He did his homework before he approached us. We just need to fill in the holes.”

She threaded her hands together and pushed them down, like she was trying to hold something in.

“What is it?” Ryan added.

“He is always asking about the arrival chambers. How we track travellers and when do we know they are returning.” She bit her lips. “He is vampire, so I cannot read his mind, but there is something there he is not sharing with us.”

“You didn’t try to read his mind, did you?”

“No, no.” She waved the thought away like it was an irritating fly. “I said I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

Ryan looked up at Brenden. “He still hasn’t shared his reasons for wanting to travel,” he pointed out.

“True,” Brenden said with a sigh and sat down.

“Perhaps it’s time we insisted upon an answer,” Ryan suggested. “I’ll talk to him. Later. Pritti, will you tell him to come and see me?”

She nodded and headed for the door.

“You came to see me for something?” Brenden asked Ryan as the door shut behind Pritti.

“Nayara isn’t back from Scotland yet?”

“Very soon, if she hasn’t arrived already,” Brenden replied, glancing at the atomic clock read-out built into his desk.

“Then I’ll have to ask you to do it. I don’t have time to wait. I need our client profile on a man—human—called Cáel Stelios. He was the one—”

“We pulled out of France, when Ezra died. I remember. I can have it sent to your office. I’m surprised you didn’t dig it up from there.”

“I can’t. He’s there.”

“Stelios?”

“Yes, with Ursella Shun. They’re waiting to talk to me and I don’t know what about. There was no appointment, no warning.”

“Under the radar, huh?” Brenden said, already moving his big fingers with surprising grace across his desktop. He picked up a reading board and switched it on, then passed it across. “Here.”

Ryan settled down to read the profile, which was highly detailed. Stelios was a self-made man, ninety-six years old and on his first rejuvenation, which was why he looked like he was in his early thirties. He had a string of successful corporations he’d created and sold off and a sprawling family that counted members on all nine worlds and most of the off-world colonies. Apart from the family and the rejuvenation, Stelios reminded Ryan of Godfrey Reynard.

Except now Stelios was moving into politics. His position in the next Worlds Assembly was almost guaranteed. He had the money to grease the skids and it appeared he might have the clout to ensure it. He counted some very influential people as his friends.

What did he want with the Agency? Especially with Ursella Shun in tow? Was this more fall-out from his misfortunes in pre-Revolutionary France?

“I guess I’m going to have to talk to the man and find out what he wants the old fashioned way,” Ryan said, standing up. He handed back the board. “Tell Nayara to come to my office, when she gets back.”

* * * * *

Lee’s hand trembled as he laid it on her abdomen, so Tally rested her hand over his to reassure him. “There is no kicking yet.”

“I know,” Lee murmured. “But just the fact of it is astonishing enough.” He lay resting on one elbow next to her and it seemed so natural and right that he be there.

Rob, on her other side, placed his hand over hers and Lee’s. She glanced at him, and he nodded toward Lee. She didn’t need to read his mind to know what he was trying to wordlessly say.

Tally reached up to curl her hand around the back of Lee’s neck and draw his head down to hers. He didn’t fight her control and his lips met hers willingly. Tally gasped at the contact. It had been such a long time since she had been kissed by Lee and even then, they had not been human.

Lee’s kisses had always been the most addictive drug for her. She moaned as his tongue swept into her mouth. As a human, his kisses were electrifying…as rousing as Rob’s, but utterly different. Just as his aroma was different and his lips fitted against hers differently.

She felt his body nestle up against hers and his hand slide over her hip, lifting it. For a panicked moment she thought of Rob sitting next to her.

Then Rob’s warm, big body slid up against her back, again wordlessly reassuring her that everything was alright. Tally relaxed, letting pleasure take her and her thoughts drift away.

Lee’s kiss ended and he released her mouth, lifting his head slowly from hers. “I had forgotten how good you taste,” he whispered.

“Peaches,” Rob murmured.

“Apricots,” Lee amended.

“I don’t know what they are,” Rob replied.

“I’ll get some brought here for you to compare,” Lee told him. His eyes were narrowed and sleepy. He was aroused, Tally realized.

“What does Rob taste like?” she asked him.

Lee glanced at Rob.

Rob remained still, his body pressed up against Tally’s, his lower leg twined over hers, the plaid of his kilt tangling with the folds of her skirt. Lee leaned over her. He did not kiss Rob. Instead he gripped the front of his shirt and lifted.

Rob was brought to his knees, one between Tally’s. Lee had risen to his knees in the effort to lift Rob and now he swayed forward to press his lips against Rob’s, his hand sliding into Rob’s hair.

Tally brought her hand to her mouth, holding in any sound she might make, as she watched the erotic dance of their mouths and tongues. Deep at the pit of her abdomen, heat flared and throbbed. Her breasts swelled, the nipples hardening. Slick moisture pooled between her legs. Her arousal was stronger, more powerful than any she had ever felt from merely watching something sensual.

Lee wrapped his hand around the back of Rob’s thigh, low down where his kilt ended, just above the knee. But he did not leave it there. Smoothly, he glided the hand up the back of Rob’s thigh, under the kilt, raising the plaid up with his arm. Tally watched as Lee smoothed his hand over Rob’s hard, rounded ass, her breath escaping her in a heavy rush.