The Morrigan: Damaged Deities (22 page)

She squeezed his hand. “I’m pretty tired.  Could you take me back to the room?”

“Aye, lass.”

C
HAPTER
N
INETEEN

“Then it was that the Morrigan daughter of Aed Ernmas came from the fairy dwellings to destroy Cuchulain. For she had threatened on the Cattle-raid of Regomaina that she would come to undo Cuchulain…Thither then the Morrigan came in the shape of a white, hornless, red-eared heifer… Cuchulain made an unerring cast from his sling-stick at her, so that he shattered one of the Morrigan’s eyes.”

Táin Bó Cúailnge

Though short, the ride home had been a somber one with no conversation to be had. 

In the elevator up to their suite, Kade remained silent and pensive.  He’d removed his coat and placed it around Morrie’s shoulders, teasing her with his delicious scent, but otherwise he had kept his distance. 

Morrie couldn’t stand seeing him this way, so unlike the man she’d quickly gotten to know.  He embodied strength, overpowering and invulnerable. 

That a man who at times appeared immortal could be struck so low by his mother’s words. 

So when he opened the hotel room door and stood back to let her in, Morrie did the only thing she knew to do.

They had barely entered the suite when Morrie threw off Kade’s jacket and spun around, pushing him back against the door as she attacked his lips. 

Stretched out as high as she could go on her toes, she pressed her body against his and clung to his neck, hoping to steal his sorrows with her kiss. 

Stunned for only a moment, Kade then wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, melting into her lips. 

The kiss had started out urgent, but sweet—needed.  It quickly erupted into a fire of want and passion, their tongues delving deep. 

Kade broke away to ask between hurried breaths, “Wha’ happened tae professional?”

“Did I say you could stop?” Morrie glared at him. 

Kade grinned and quickly obliged.

Morrie couldn’t seem to get close enough and Kade must have felt the same as he cupped her ass in his large hand and lifted her easily, bringing her face level with his.

His other hand burned against her bare back, pressing her breasts into his hard chest. 

Their two bodies melded into one, Kade spun them around and Morrie was now the one pressed between the door and the wall of Kade’s body. 

She pulled his bowtie loose and tugged the buttons of his shirt free, slipping her hand inside to feel the warmth of his soft skin against her palm. 

While her head seemed to swim from the breathless passion of his kisses, a feeling of familiarity struck her hard, bringing her out of her dreamy state. 

His lips, his tongue, his taste—it all conjured a sense of remembrance, a deeply rooted connection like taking the path home after a long absence.

And once again the memory of Chulainn flashed in her mind and Morrie was reminded of what was lost.

“Wait!”

Breaking the kiss with a gasp, Morrie held Kade back with her hand pressed against his chest, his arm wrapped around her waist.  Against the door, his body was like a warm cocoon with Morrie still held tight inside.

With his eyes closed the restraint of holding back from her etched its way deeply on Kade’s face, his lips pressed firmly together. 

He dropped his forehead to hers, his chest rapidly rising and falling and asked, “Aye, lass?”

Morrie clutched his shirtfront in her fist, still waging a battle with her emotions and mind—for once unable to determine the outcome of its war—while she blinked up at him. 

To stall her inner fight a little longer, she remembered the chess set on the balcony and latched onto a way out.

Voice shaky, she asked, “Do you play chess?”

A small frown danced between his brow before Kade opened his eyes, their dark, chocolate orbs so close to hers. 

Taking in what she said, he quickly grasped her suggestion lying deeper beneath the actual question.  And unlike any other man she had known, including her own Celtic hero, he met her with patience and understanding.

“Aye.” Grinning, he took a step back though he kept his arm around her. “Do ye wish tae get yer ass beat?”

Under a shade of dark lashes, Morrie smiled up at him and accepted his challenge.

T
he fire crackled and licked at the cold night air, quickly spreading across the wood chips in the stone pit. 

Kade stepped back from its warmth and turned as Morrie walked out onto the balcony, two glasses in one hand, a bottle of whiskey and the hem of her gown in the other.  Her bare feet slapped lightly across the patio’s stone floor, and despite the formal dress he was reminded of her youth. 

For once, she looked relaxed, a smile hinting at her lips and with his hands on his hips, Kade watched her move towards him, completely enthralled.

He had already set up the game board on the large circular sofa, the dark wood gleaming against the cream colored cushions. 

Morrie set the glasses and whiskey down along the stone edge of the fire pit and adjusting her gown, sat down with one knee tucked beneath her. 

The firelight glowed red against the bare thigh of the leg draped off the side of the sofa.  She smiled up at him, cocking an eyebrow in invitation.

Shaking his head, Kade shoved a hand in his hair, messing it up more, smiled and sat down opposite her. 

The chessboard and its set pieces rested between them.

“Ye play the game often?” he gestured that she take the first move. 

“I’ve played the game all my life.” 

With the tips of her little fingers, she slid her pawn forward—a move called the King’s Gambit.  Kade knew already it was going to be a slow, quiet and brutal game. 

With his own pawn, he accepted the King’s Gambit.

The game was on.

“There’s a lot o’ strategy in horse training?” He poured them both drinks while she made her next move.

Morrie shrugged. “Yes, I suppose there is.  There always must be when confronting a greater opponent.”  Her round eyes met his, dancing with firelight.

Kade smiled. “I doubt there are many opponents that can best ye.”

Something like pride and possibly sorrow passed across her gaze as she dropped it back down to the board. “Not many, no.” 

She took his pawn with her bishop.  Kade placed his knight in sight of her pawn.  The corner of her lips lifted just a bit.

“Who taught you to play?”

“No one,” he answered her, watching her keen eyes study the board. “I sort of picked it up over time, experience being my teacher.”

Nodding her understanding, she made her next move. “Not a bad strategist, yourself.”

“Kristian and I would play a lot.” His brother’s name slipped out and as always, Kade felt the pain it always brought with it. “He used tae toss the board after I beat him.  We had several sets around the house because o’ it.”

The game continued.  She sacrificed some of her pieces early, but seemed to have done it for a more aggressive development, opening up the lanes.

“Why does your mother blame you for his death?”

That denim gaze of hers had turned intense, focused on Kade in a way that made him feel like he’d been laid bare.  And he wondered if that question wasn’t the purpose of her chess game request all along. 

A distraction to help him voice his demons. 

“After his father died, Kristian looked up tae me as a replacement.”

“
His
?” Morrie asked, missing nothing.

“I doona share a father with Kamden and Kris.  Malcolm MacLeod adopted me after he married my mother.”

“So Kamden and Kristian are your half-brothers?”

“Aye.”

The lass grew pensive even while she mulled her moves. “I knew a Malcolm MacLeod once.” 

“No’ likely the same man.” Kade saw her half-hearted shrug of concession, but knew it was impossible for the wee, young lass to have known his stepfather.  The man passed long before Morrie had been born.

“So Kris looked up to you as a father.” Her knight moved to the center of the board where it quickly dominated the space. 

“Aye, he did.” Frowning, Kade found it difficult to focus on both the board and the conversation. “Kamden has always kept tae himself, not goin’ outside much.  Kris was an energetic, wild lad.  He was headstrong and willful, reckless.  I indulged that behavior of his.  I thought him tae be immortal and treated him as such, even though I knew better.  When he went tae the loch, I should have been there tae stop him, but I had my own demons I was fighting.”

He attacked her bishop. 

“Sometimes things happen that we can’t control.  Sometimes those who are willful will do whatever they want, not matter our efforts to deter them.  Sometimes, it’s their fate and fate is a powerful bitch to fight.”

Her bishop lost, she pushed Kade’s queen and knight to poor squares and took the edge.  But he barely noticed.

Kade wondered if she didn’t speak from her own experiences. “Do ye get along with yer sisters?”

Drinking the last bit of whiskey in her glass, Morrie licked her lips and smiled.

“Depends on what day it is.”

“Are they in the horse business as well?”

“Bev is a special investigator for the New Orleans Police Department and Macy is an advisor in the US Arab Consulate.” She looked up and grinned. “So no, they are not in the horse business.”

As an odd feeling seemed to nag and scratch at Kade, something about the three sisters that didn’t quite settle with him, Morrie made a critical move on the board.  Kade’s queen was boxed in and he couldn’t take the two pawns that held her there.

“They both seem very young for such positions.”

Kade scowled at the board, knowing he was losing ground in the battle.  It had looked so easy before then, her pieces relenting to him one after another.  But he feared now they had been sacrifices made for a bigger gain.

“They’re very ambitious.” Kade noted that Morrie had all of her minor pieces and queen on powerful, central squares and complete control of the center. 

Who’s ambitious?

Both of her rooks were left unprotected, his bishop and queen in positions of attack.  Kade had never been one to show mercy, war did not allow for it.  He took both pieces.

Picking up his glass, he looked up to find Morrie smiling at him.  Her cheeks flushed either from the fire or the whiskey, he wasn’t sure. 

But he loved how it looked on her, the way her hair fell in messy waves across her shoulders.  The way she wore her formal gown like comfortable pajamas, confident in her body. 

Even if she couldn’t match him in chess, he knew she was a formidable opponent.

“War is hell,” he grinned and took a sip of his whiskey.

“Oh, I know,” she purred back.  With a delicate touch, she moved her piece, stopping his queen and entirely cutting it off from defending his king.

In a flurry of movements, they brought the game to its inevitable conclusion, shocking though it may have been to Kade. 

Try as he might, he could not check her king and couldn’t defend his own, despite having more players in the game. 

With ruthless cunning, Morrie made her final sacrifice and her queen fell to Kade.  But with just a few moves left, he realized that with a bloodthirst not seen in a very long time, it was the price she paid for victory. 

Morrie checkmated his king with her bishop.

Stunned, Kade looked up at her, unable to utter anything for a moment. 

He finally found his voice and sputtered, “No one ever beats me in…chess!”