The Morrigan: Damaged Deities (17 page)

Slipping it out of the bag, she shrugged it on to find it fit as though it has been custom-made for her. 

It had to have been from Kade. 

Somehow during the time she’d been riding, he’d managed to procure the luxury item.  And despite all her self-warnings and proclamations of professionalism, Morrie smiled at his consideration. 

She might have been an immortal being, but she still loved presents.

C
HAPTER
F
IFTEEN

“For they marveled at the beautiful, comely appearance he showed them that day compared with the low, arrogant shape of magic in which they had seen him the night before.”

Táin Bó Cúailnge

With the coat draped over her arm, Morrie was just shrugging her bag over her shoulder when Lorna appeared at her door.

“Transportation is ready, lass,” she said, lifting Morrie’s bag strap off her shoulder.  Fighting an annoyed huff, Morrie followed her down the hall and downstairs. 

Instead of heading straight to the front door, they instead turned down the hallway leading to the back of the home.  Morrie pulled her coat on and buttoned it.

Grey light and green grass greeted them on the other side of a dark, wooden door.  They stepped out onto the vast back lawn where a sleek, black helicopter waited, blades swirling. 

With his dark hair blowing against his face, Kade squinted against the wind as he waited by the helicopter.  He spotted Morrie and smiled.

She was doomed.

The rugged and wicked Scot was dressed like the wealthy businessman and landowner he was.  A dark grey suit peeked from beneath a thick black wool coat, set against his tan skin to make him look mysterious and dangerous. 

And she was going to be alone with him on a private helicopter. 

“How long of a flight is it?” Morrie yelled above the roar of the quickening blades.

“What?” the elderly lady cried back.

Morrie shook her head and muttered, “Nevermind.” 

She’d already set herself on this path and now she’d just have to take her chances with the man. 

As soon as she crossed the distance of the lawn, a uniformed man ran around the front of the helicopter and reached for the bag Lorna handed him.

“This is Hume,” Kade introduced her to the man with her bag.  He had a hint of grey at this temples and fine lines at his eyes, and Morrie thought he must have been quite handsome in his youth. “He’s our pilot for this adventure.”

“Miss Brandon,” Hume tipped his cap at her. “Pleasure tae make yer acquaintance.  Anywhere ye wish tae go, anytime, I’m yer man.”

“Nice to meet you,” her voice strained to find itself above the roar of wind. 

Hume opened the side door.  He moved to offer his hand to Morrie, but Kade intercepted, sending him back to his post with a look. 

Standing close, Kade towered over her.

“Thank you for the coat,” she said suddenly, looking up in time to catch Kade’s surprise at her statement.

“Ye’re welcome,” he answered, as if it were nothing.  He smiled and ran his hand down her coat’s lapel, his knuckles skimming her breasts and stealing the breath from her lungs at their touch. “Ye look beautiful in it.  I knew ye would.”

He offered her his hand. 

Taking a deep breath, Morrie placed her hand in his, stepped up into the helicopter and did her best to ignore the butterflies his touch set to dance in her stomach.

The interior of the helicopter was a mixture of white and wood paneling with adjustable ambient lighting.  It offered white leather passenger seats with tall backs—four of them, on rails to be rearranged at the passengers’ whim.  The soft seat cushions hugged Morrie’s back when she sat down. 

With their spacious size, she felt grateful for the distance it created between her and Kade; a distance he soon destroyed when he reached over her and brought the seatbelts forward over her shoulders.  She could barely contain a gasp when his knuckles grazed her breasts again as he clicked the locks together. 

At least he had the sense to look sheepish in his efforts.  Cheeks pink, he kept his gaze down and his grin almost under control as he sat back and buckled in, himself. 

The doors came down, silencing the loud blades.  Soft music replaced the noise.

“Welcome aboard the EC145,” Hume’s voice came on over an intercom. “We have a small break in the rain and clear skies ahead of us to Edinburgh.  Arrival time is in one hour.  Please enjoy the flight.” 

The intercom clicked off and with barely a shake, they were off the ground, the sprawling manor growing smaller and further from them. 

“Thank ye for coming wi‘ me,” Kade’s soft voice grabbed her attention. “These events can be burdensome alone.”

“Do you have to attend them often?”

“Aye,” he answered and turned in his seat to her, letting his eyes study her face. “When I’m available.”

“Your brother doesn’t go?” Morrie asked weakly, not really interested anymore as she found herself falling into the thick darkness of his eyes.  It had been a few days since they were this close and his presence hit her like a hammer all over again.

“No.” His inspection continued, lingering on her lips as thick lashes hooded his eyes.

“Why is that?”

Morrie forced herself to keep asking questions.  They seemed the only anchor from falling into a whirlpool of arousal that was quickly engulfing her in this close space of solitude and luxury leather. 

“He doesn’t like tae go out at night.”

Morrie frowned and her earlier suspicions regarding Kamden’s true nature were once again stirred. “Agoraphobia?” 

Kade grinned, drawing Morrie’s gaze to his lips.  Noticing, something changed in Kade’s expression, turning darker and predatory.

“No,” he answered hard and leaned forward. “Must we keep talking about my brother?”

“I suppose not.” Much like the night they first met, Morrie became entranced, but this time by his lips. 

 Lips that were steadily moving closer, closer and she knew he wanted to kiss her, was going to kiss her.  And she wanted to be kissed. 

Swallowing against a dry throat, Morrie squeaked, “Anything to drink?”

The question effectively stopped Kade and brought them out of the magnetic pull drawing them together.  He blinked and sat back.

“Aye, o’ course.”  He looked around, slow to come out of his daze before he reached to his left and pressed against a panel in the wall.  A mini bar appeared with crystal decanters twinkling in lights. “Whiskey, champagne?”

“Whiskey,” she answered and inhaled deeply. “A double.”

Kade grinned, but said nothing. 

With the light clinking of crystal, he filled two tumblers with the dark amber and handed the fuller one to her.

“Tae new adventures,” he raised his glass, a smile teasing at his lips. 

Morrie nodded and tapped her glass’s rim to his before throwing its entire contents down her throat.  The warm liquid raced through her body, but seemed to do little to douse her desire.

“Another please?”

K
ade froze, his glass still suspended before his lips. 

The lass was full of surprises.

He smiled from behind its rim before he threw his drink back and bowed slightly, reaching for the decanter of whiskey. 

Kade poured Morrie another glass.

Did she need to get drunk to spend a night with him?  Or was she as nervous as he was, the world thrown into a tizzy at just being in her presence? 

Her lips full and rosy, she offered him a small smile of thanks and raised her glass before taking a drink.

In his brother’s study, Kade had thought himself lucky.  Jumping at the chance to get Morrie alone, but now that they were together, hurling through the air like two bombs ready to explode, he doubted his chances.  What if she turned him down?  What if he moved too fast? 

What if he couldn’t control himself?

When the wee beauty held him in her little hand that first night, his only thought had been to bed her as quickly as possible. 

But the more he was around Morrie Brandon from Oklahoma, the more he wanted to know her, to talk to her and hear her talk.  He loved the questions she asked.  He loved her voice—melodious and soft, but able to take a harsh and sarcastic edge that made it both beautiful and sexy as hell. 

She was a mystery—a tiny thing, a delicate doll that held in her petite body an explosive power.  Kade needed to tap into that deep well of hers.

Yet this was dangerous ground.  The last time he allowed a woman to capture him so, it had destroyed him. 

 Kade was no stranger to females and could easily find himself in their bed, but often it seemed he was seeking a satisfaction they couldn’t give, a void they couldn’t fulfill and while he would ensure they left with every need met and then some, he always found himself disappointed.  He hadn’t been rough with past lovers, but he hadn’t been kind either. 

Above everything, honesty was the most important to Kade—something his first lover couldn’t,
wouldn’t
give him.  And he felt he owed it to his past conquests to be honest with them, to ensure they were aware they would never be more than that night’s entertainment.

But Morrie was different. 

He found himself being careful with her, even though he knew she was strong enough to match his passion with her own.

He wanted to take it slow.  He wasn’t going to fuck things up with the first woman who enticed and fascinated him more than anything in the world. 

That meant he couldn’t let her keep knocking back the whiskey. 

Already her cheeks were flushed, her round, blue eyes alight like stars. 

She smiled so easily now between sips that Kade knew that smile could control him if she so wanted it. 

The connection between them couldn’t be denied and if she looked at him like she had earlier, watching his lips like she wanted to capture them as her prize, his delusions of taking things slow would be done before they ever began.

“Have ye been tae Scotland before?” he cleared his throat, making the conscious effort to keep things casual. 

Hugging her half-filled tumbler against her chest, Morrie nodded and looked out the window.  She rested her head against the glass. Her dark eyelashes shaded her eyes as her lids hung heavy.  The Scottish landscape passed across her vision.

“Yes, I have,” she answered, almost wistful. “A very, very long time ago.”

Kade frowned. “When you were a wee babe, then?”

Handing her glass to him, Morrie shook her head and sat up. 

“Is it hot in here?” she asked while pulling the buttons of her coat free. 

Arching her back, her breasts strained against her sweater as she shrugged her coat off and renewed Kade’s already painful erection. 

Adjusting uncomfortably in his seat, he took her coat and gave her back her drink. 

Tossing the coat on the chair opposite him, he scrubbed his palm over his face, shoving his fingers into his hair, and tried like hell to get the image of Morrie naked and arching her back while riding him out of his mind.

Fighting back a growl of frustration, he tried to change direction.

“Have ye traveled much in yer profession?” Her squirming around in her chair was doing things to him; he’d never exhibited such control.  In order to keep that control intact, he poured and drank another glass. “Do ye often get tae travel abroad?”

Sighing with annoyance, Morrie stood up and spun around, facing Kade where he sat.  Running her hand over his shoulder, she gripped him by the back of the neck and bent one knee up onto the chair at his thigh.  By the time she brought the other up, straddling his lap, his eyes were wide, words failing him.