Charmed by His Love (39 page)

“Hush. Listen. Do ye hear that soft thumping?” he asked conversationally as he pressed his palms against the granite and felt it begin to pulse in rhythm with his own thumping heart. “I’m waking the mountain up from its nap, Peg.” He pressed harder, feeling his hands heating up as the granite slowly softened to the consistency of putty.

Duncan closed his eyes against the brilliant swirls of white energy that suddenly pulsed around him, but not before realizing it was coming from
him
instead of the walls of the cave. He put the backs of his hands together and slipped them inside the yielding granite, then spread the wall with no more effort than opening a curtain.

Peg slammed into him with the force of her entire weight, sending him sprawling onto his back as he wrapped his arms around her with a laugh.

“Ohmigod. Ohmigod,” she muttered. “How did you do that?”

He kissed the top of her head, squeezing her so hard she squeaked. “By magic.”

She looked at him, then reared away as far as his embrace would allow. “You … Your eyes are … they’re … ohmigod, they’re
green
.”

He gave a chuckle. “I’m fairly certain they’ve always been green.”

“No,
green
green. A brighter … scarier green.”

He pulled her down and kissed her, not stopping until he
felt her soften against him, only to sigh when he realized she wasn’t returning the kiss.

She was back to being contrary, he guessed.

She sat up straddling him the moment he stopped and held out her hand. “Here; I believe these are what you were after?”

Duncan lifted his head just enough to see the two dark cuffs she was holding, then dropped back with another sigh. “You can keep them, as I just realized I don’t need them after all.”

She slapped them down on his chest hard enough to make him grunt, then leaned forward until her face was right over his—he assumed so he could better see her scowl. “I just risked dying a slow, gruesome death to get your
instrument of power
, and you’re telling me you don’t need it?” she said far too softly.

He shook his head, fighting back a grin. “Nay, I wouldn’t have let ye rot in there, Peg. It’s just not in me to give up.” He finally let his grin escape. “I would have kept bringing ye food and water until Mac got back and freed you if I couldn’t jackhammer the granite to get ye out.”

“Two months?” she whispered, her own eyes growing a bit scary. “You expected me to sit there with my hand stuck in a hole for
two months
?” She picked up the cuffs and shook them in front of his face. “I have no idea what in hell these are, but you’re going to wear them if I have to hit you over the head with a blunt object and put them on you myself.”

He took them from her and sat up, only allowing her to scramble back as far as his thighs. He grabbed her left wrist and, ignoring her gasp, slipped the smaller cuff on over her hand—watching with satisfaction as it immediately molded itself to her arm just above her wrist.

She gasped again when she tried to get it off but couldn’t. “Ohmigod,” she whispered, lifting huge worried eyes to his. “What did you just do?”

He started to slip his own cuff down over his right hand, but then quickly switched it to his dominant left hand and felt it gently close over his arm. “I believe I just sealed our fates together—forever.” He took hold of her face to lift her gaze to his. “Ye know a man who works around heavy machinery can’t wear a wedding band.”

“A … a … wed … a wedding band?” She tried to look at his wrist only to lift her arm to see her own cuff when he wouldn’t let go of her face. “Aren’t you supposed to … Do you honestly expect me to believe …”

Duncan nodded when she fell silent, and he brushed his thumbs over her pale cheeks. “We’ll have a ceremony for the sake of the children, of course, but ye need to know it’s only a formality.”

“You’re supposed to
ask
,” she snapped.

“Will ye marry me, Peg?”

“No.”

“Christ, you’re contrary—which is exactly why I didn’t ask,” he said, watching a flush of red spread across her cheeks. He leaned down until his nose was touching hers. “Too late, lass; you became mine last night.”

She went back to scowling at him as she lifted her arm to see the cuff again, and her eyes suddenly widened and she snapped her gaze to his. “Hey, does that mean this is
my
instrument of power? Can I … do stuff, too?”

Duncan pulled her into his embrace to hide his horror even as he gave a bark of laughter. “Absolutely not. Ye have to be
born
a magic-maker,” he blatantly lied. Holy hell, just the idea of Peg being able to
do stuff
sent chills down his spine—just like it had Ian’s, his nephew had said, when he’d realized Roger de Keage had given Jessie a small staff.

“Then why do I have to wear a bracelet?” Peg muttered against his chest.

“For the same reason you’d wear a wedding band; to know who ye belong to.”

He felt more than heard her sigh. “You are so old-fashioned.”

“And charmed,” he whispered against her hair, giving her another squeeze. “Let’s not forget what a bastard I’m going to be growing old with you. Are ye ready to go home now, Peg?”

She tilted her head back to look up at him. “You can’t … um,
act
like a husband or anything,” she said, her cheeks flushing again, “until after we’re married in a church in front of the children. Wait; how am I going to explain to them that I just up and decided to marry you out of the blue? We haven’t even gone on a real date.”

Well, if she wasn’t quite reconciled to the fact they already
were married in the eyes of Providence, at least she was acknowledging they
were
getting married. “Jacob already gave me permission to ask you,” he said past his grin. “And he even offered to let me sleep in one of the bunk beds you were going to buy him.”

“When did he say that?”

“The first day I was in that recliner in your new house. He told me I didn’t have to be afraid when you
get all scowly
, because you’re really all soft inside.” He pulled her toward him, stopping just shy of their lips touching. “So I guess ye better go talk with your preacher when we get back this morning and see if he can marry us this evening,” he finished, just before kissing her.

And damn if she didn’t kiss him back—until his words apparently sank in and she reared away. “This evening!” She must have seen he was serious because she went perfectly still. “But Mac gave Olivia at least a week to put a wedding together.”

“Do I look like Mac?” he asked quietly.

“You … You’re big and scary like he is. How about this coming Saturday?”

“I’m sleeping with my wife tonight, with or without a formal wedding.”

“We need a license.”

“I believe you’ll find it’s already on file at the county courthouse.”

“How?” she asked on a gasp.

“By magic.” He pulled her against him and held her head to his chest, preparing for a really big gasp. “And your new house—that
I’m
building—will be over here, Peg, and you’ll be watching sunsets from our kitchen window instead of sunrises.”

She didn’t gasp, she snorted. “Are you forgetting I have four children who’ll be riding on a school bus this fall?”

“I’ll build a road around the fiord.”

That got him his gasp. “It would have to be at least twenty miles to reach here, and that’s only one way! The bus isn’t going to drive that far for four children.”

“Then you can take them into town by boat to meet it.”

“And in the spring and fall, when the ice is rotten?”

“Bottomless is saltwater, Peg,” he said, smiling over the top of her head when he realized she needed to voice all her concerns out loud—or at least let him know what he was getting himself into. “It’s not going to freeze.”

This time he both heard and felt her heavy sigh. “The kids are never going to get their friends to come for sleepovers. First their parents wouldn’t let them stay over because I live in a falling-down doublewide, and now they’re not going to let them because I’ll be living in the middle of nowhere.”

“I’ll make sure they come.”

She tilted her head back. “You can’t fix everything, Duncan.”

“Watch me,” he said, giving her a wink just before setting her beside him. He stood up, then held out his hand. “Come on, wife,” he said just to piss her off. “The sooner we get home, the sooner you can start planning
today’s
wedding.”

Except instead of taking his hand, she started tugging on the cuff above her wrist, and Duncan reached down and lifted her to her feet. “Are ye deliberately trying to offend Providence after it gave ye such a wonderful gift?”

She stopped tugging and scowled at him. “Providence gave me this bracelet?”

“Nay, it gave you
me
,” he said, grabbing her hand just as a soft rumbling laugh echoed through the tunnel. “Did your mother warn ye about your family curse before you married William Thompson, Peg?” he asked as he led her toward the entrance.

“Yes. But I was eighteen, and all eighteen-year-olds believe bad stuff only happens to other people.”

“Did ye tell
him
about the curse before ye married?”

She gave a soft snort. “Billy said it was going to take a lot more than some dead old biddy to scare him off. One night we even went to the cemetery where Gretchen Robinson is buried and he peed on her grave.” She pulled him to a stop. “I’ll marry you today if you
promise
you’re not going to die.”

“I’m not going to die for a long, long time, Peg, I promise.”

“But how can you be so sure?” she whispered.

“Because last night when we were making love—the fourth time, I think—I saw ye lying beneath me all beautiful and filled with passion. You were … oh, eighty years old, I’m
guessing.” He caught her shoulders when she reared away with a gasp. “It was the magic’s way of letting me know everything will be okay.”

“You saw me at
eighty
?
Naked?
”

He took her hand and started walking again to hide his grin. “Ye looked damned good, too, lass, all flushed with pleasure. But ye might want to hold on to that other pair of jeans I bought ye, because I do believe they’re eventually going to fit.”

This time she gasped loud enough that the whale probably heard it down in the fiord. Duncan knew his mountain certainly did when Peg shot past him with a yelp of surprise.

“Ohmigod, something just patted me on the ass!”

If she lived to be a hundred and two—which Peg was beginning to worry might be a real possibility—she couldn’t imagine herself being any honest to God happier. She was six weeks pregnant according to Robbie’s mum, Libby, who besides being a surgeon also was a less technical … healer. That’s why a feather could have knocked Peg over when Libby had said she was having a son, considering she’d been less than a week pregnant at the time.

She’d met Libby and Michael MacBain when Duncan had taken his new little clan of heathens to Pine Creek the weekend after their rushed Monday evening wedding so his big clan could throw them an old-fashioned wedding reception. That’s when Libby had told Peg that not only was she having a boy, but that she was carrying only one. “Guaranteed,” Libby had said, a smile curving her lips as she’d added, “This time.”

With the gentle rock of the boat making her drowsy, Peg closed her eyes and tilted her head back to feel the sun’s rays on her face. She sighed contentedly at how wonderful it felt to be a wife again—even if she was married to the most contrary, scariest, never-give-up-or-give-in man on the planet.

Oh yeah, Gretchen Robinson’s bones were rattling in her grave.

Peg lifted her head to see Jacob and Peter leaning over the side when something gently bumped the boat. They were wearing matching life vests with their names embroidered on them—that she happened to know they’d switched—trying to coax Leviathan closer with gummy worms so they could pat him.

“Mom, he came!” Jacob softly whispered.

The whale always did. Peg guessed Leviathan knew the sound of their particular motor, because none of the scientists had been able to get a picture of him despite having spent two months trying. “But I don’t think he’s into gummy worms,” she warned. “And stop feeding them to Hero before you make him sick.”

“Yuck, Levi’s got stinky breath,” Peter said, scrambling away when a misty spurt came out of the whale’s blowhole.

“You would, too, if all you ate was fish and you couldn’t brush your teeth.”

“I can’t wait to show all them scientists my pictures,” Jacob said, resting his chin on his hands on the gunwale as Hero rested his doggy chin beside him, both of them eyeing Leviathan eyeing them back. “I can’t believe Mr. Steve’s gonna give us ten whole dollars just for a picture of a whale.”

“There’s the camera on the console,” Peg said, nodding toward it because she was too lazy and contented and pregnant to move. Lord, she’d forgotten how all she’d wanted to do was sleep through the first trimesters of her pregnancies. “Duncan showed you how to use it, so go on and take a bunch of pictures. Ten bucks will buy quite a few cinnamon buns.”