The Gallaghers of Ardmore Trilogy

her hand again, nibbling along her fingers as he smiled at her over them. “About you flying off with me to places of romance and mystery and legend. I’ll show you Tintagal, where Arthur was conceived the night Merlin worked his magic on Uther so Ygraine thought she was greeting her own husband. And we’ll stayin one of those farmhouses in France and drink their wine and make love in a big feather bed. Then we’ll stroll along the canal in Venice and wonder at the grand cathedrals. Wouldn’t you like that, sweetheart?”
    “Yes, of course.” It sounded glorious, magical. Like another of his stories. “It’s just impossible.”
    “Why would that be?”
    “Because . . . I have work, and so do you.”
    He chuckled, then switched his attentions from her fingers to the side of her jaw. “And do you think my pub would crumble or your work vanish? What’s two weeks or so in the grand scheme of things, after all?”
    “Yes, that’s true, but—”
    “I’ve seen those places you spoke of.” He moved to her mouth to quietly seduce. “Now I want to see them with you.” His hands skimmed over her face, and he began to lose himself in her, the tastes and textures of her. “Come away with me, a ghra .” He murmured it, drawing her closer when she shivered.
    “I . . . I’m supposed to go back to Chicago.”
    “Don’t.” His mouth grew hotter, more possessive. “Be with me.”
    “Well . . .” Her thoughts wouldn’t line up. Every time she tried to align one, it tumbled down, scattering others. “Yes, I suppose . . .” What was a couple of weeks, after all? “In September. If you’re sure—”
    “I’m sure.” He got to his feet, then plucked her off the rock, grinning when she gave a gasp and locked her arms around his neck. “Are you thinking I’d be dropping you, now that I’ve got you? I take better care of what’s mine than that.”
    Of what was his? The phrase worried her a bit, but before she could think of how to respond, she saw the figure behind them.
    “Aidan.” Her voice was barely more than a breath.
    He tensed, tucked her under his arm to defend, then turning, relaxed again.
    The lady barely made a ripple on the air as she walked. But her pale hair gleamed in the moonlight, as did the tears.
    “Lady Gwen, out looking for the love she lost.” Pity stirred in his heart when he saw the tears glittering on her cheeks.
    “As he does. I saw him again today. I spoke with him.”
    “You’re becoming right chummy with faeries, Jude Frances.”
    She felt the wind on her face, could smell the sea. Aidan’s arm was strong and warm around her. Yet it seemed like an illusion that would vanish the moment she blinked. “I keep thinking I’ll wake up in my own bed in Chicago, and this, all of this, would have been some long, complex dream. I think it would break my heart.”
    “Then your heart’s safe.” He bent his head to kiss her. “This is no dream, and you’ve my word on it.”
    “It must hurt her to see lovers here.” She looked back. The lady’s gilded hair was flying, and her cheeks were wet. “They don’t have even that instant at dawn or sunset to reach out.”
    “A single choice can build destinies, or destroy them.”
    When she looked up at him, startled to hear him echo Carrick’s words to her, he stroked her hair. “Come, let’s go back. She makes you sad.”
    “Yes, she does.” Jude clung to Aidan’s hand now, for going down was trickier than going up. “I wish I could talk to her, and I can’t believe I’m casually saying I wish I could talk to a ghost. But I do. I’d like to ask her what she feels and thinks and wishes, and what she would change.”
    “Her tears tell me she would change everything.”
    “No, women cry for all manner of reasons. To change everything, she’d have to give up the children she’d carried inside her, raised and loved. I don’t think she could do that. Would do that. Carrick asked too much of her, and he doesn’t understand that. Maybe one day he will, then they’ll find each other.”
    “He only asked what he needed, and would have given all he had.”
    “You’re thinking like a man.”
    “Well, it’s a man I am, so how else would I think?”
    It made her laugh, that hint of irritated pride in his voice. “Exactly as you do. And because a woman thinks like a woman, it explains why the two species are as often at odds as they are in sync.”
    “I don’t mind being at odds off and on, as it