He'd learned young and learned well that he possessed one thing a woman wanted, hence he'd perfected his skills and taken comfort from the knowledge that while women might eschew intimacy with him, they never turned him away from their beds. He was always welcome there. Even when their husband was in the next room, a fact that had only deepened his cynicism involving so-called matters of the heart.
Except Chloe. She was the one woman he'd tried to seduce that had refused him.
Yet remained at his side.
Aye, but how long will she remain there when she discovers what you are?
He had no answer for that, only a relentless determination to have all of her that he could. And if that determination was more akin to the desperation of a drowning man than a courageous one, so be it. The night he'd tempted death and danced on the slippery terrace wall above the snow-covered city of Manhattan—and fallen on the safe side—he'd made a promise to himself: that he would not yield to despair again. He would fight it any way he could, with any weapon he could find, till the bitter end.
"Where is she?" he hissed, surging to his feet.
Gwen blinked. "It's wonderful to see you, too, Dageus," she said sweetly. "Nice of you to drop in. We've only been waiting forever." "Where?"
"Relax. She's upstairs taking a long shower. The poor girl traveled for an entire day and, though she said she slept a bit on the plane, she's clearly exhausted. What on earth have you been doing to her? I adore her, by the way," Gwen added, smiling. "She's a brainy geek like me. Now, can I have a hug?"
His tension ebbed slowly, aided by the knowledge that if Chloe was safe anywhere, it was within these walls. He'd personally chiseled the protection spells into the cornerstones when the castle had been built. So long as she remained within them, no harm would find her.
He skirted the sofa and opened his arms to Gwen, the woman who'd once saved his life. The woman he'd pledged his own to protect. " 'Tis good to see you again, lass, and you're looking lovely as ever." He bent his head to kiss her.
"No lips," Drustan warned. "Unless you wish me to be kissing Chloe."
Dageus averted his face swiftly. "How are the wee bairn, lass?" he asked, with a glance at her rounded belly. Gwen beamed and prattled on about her most recent doctor's visit. When she paused finally for a breath, she peered at him intently. "Has Drustan told you our idea yet?"
Dageus shook his head. He was still having a hard time fathoming that Drustan had known he was dark all this time. A hard time believing he was home, that his brother had welcomed him. Had, in fact, been waiting for him.
"You're my brother," Drustan said quietly, and Dageus knew that he'd read his feelings in that uncanny way his twin had. "I would never turn my back on you. It wounds me that you thought I would."
"I but thought to fix it myself, Drustan."
"You hate to ask for help. You always have. You've ever shouldered more than your share of the burden. You had no right to sacrifice yourself for me—"
"Doona even start with me—"
"I didn't ask you to—"
"Och, you rather be dead!"
"Enough!" Gwen snapped. "Stop it, both of you. We could sit here for hours arguing about who should or should not have done what. And what would that accomplish? Nothing. We have a problem. We'll fix it."
Dageus hooked a ladder-back chair with his foot, turned it about and dropped into it backward, stretching his legs around the frame, resting his forearms on the top of the back. He took a perverse pleasure in seeing his elder brother chastened. Drustan was well met by his wee, brilliant wife. The bond betwixt them was a precious thing.
"We've given this a lot of thought," Gwen said, "and we think we can send someone back to warn you before the tower burns, that it's going to burn. That way you can prevent the fire, which would save Drustan, and keep you from ever turning dark."
Dageus shook his head. "Nay, lass. It wouldn't work."
"What mean you? 'Tis a brilliant solution," Drustan protested.
"Not only doona we have someone we could send, because that person might be forever stuck in the past, but I doona believe it would change me now."
"No, Drustan and I thought of that," Gwen insisted. "If the person was one you met as a result of turning dark, like—oh, say, gee, Chloe—the same thing that happened to me should happen to her. She'd be sent back to her own time the moment she succeeded in changing your future."
"Chloe goes nowhere without me. And she doesn't know. You didn't tell her, did you?" The tension was back again. He'd been so caught up in seeing his brother again, so relieved to be accepted, that he'd forgotten to warn Gwen to say naught to Chloe of his plight.