Adrienne plucked irritably at the rosebush.
"I don't think he quite understands the full necessity of clear and timely communication. Timely meaning now. Where exactly is Uster, anyway?" She fully considered trying to find a horse and go there herself. How dare he just up and abandon her? Not that she minded entirely being where she was—Dalkeith-Upon-the-Sea was certainly lovely, but what if she got zipped back to her own time for good and never saw him again?
Damned if that didn't put things in an entirely different perspective. A few soldiers of the war raging within her breast got up and traitorously switched camp on the heels of that thought.
How had she failed to realize that she could disappear and never see the man she was married to again? That she had no control over it whatsoever? Twenty more soldiers marched over to the Hawk's side of the fracas raging inside her. Holy cow.
Don't you wonder, Adrienne, what it would feel like to lie down next to him in the sizzling heat of magnificent passion?
Okay. She had one soldier left on her side and his name was Mr. Suspicious N. Fearful.
Traitors! She frowned at the Hawk's new camp. Just thinking about him made her feel hot. She trailed her fingers in the fountain's sparkling, chemical-free water.
She couldn't imagine never seeing this beautiful fountain again, never smelling the lavender virgin air of 1513. No Lydia, no Tavis. No castle by the sea. No Laird Hawk, man of steel and blazing passion. Just Seattle and bitter memories and fear keeping her inside her house. The 1990s, bargain packaged with smog and ozone holes.
She doubted Hawk would ever try to send her on vacations alone. He seemed to be the kind of man who would treasure his wife and keep her close to his side if the woman allowed it. Close to that beautifully muscled side, and under that kilt…
"Dream a wicked dream," she sighed softly. Adrienne squeezed her eyes tightly shut and dropped her head in her hands. A long eternity of questions tumbled through her head, and slowly but surely Adrienne helped the last little soldier to his feet, dusted him off, and let him lean on her as she walked him over to the other side of the war. She had made her decision. She would try.
She raised her head from her hands slowly to meet Adam's piercing gaze. How long had he been standing there watching her with worship in his eyes. Dark eyes, black as hate. Now where had that come from?
"You hate the Hawk, don't you, Adam?" she asked in a flash of crystal-clear intuition.
He smiled appreciatively. "You women are like that. Cut to the quick of it with a canny eye. But hate attaches a great deal of importance to its predicate," he mocked as he dropped himself beside her on the ledge.
"Don't play word games with me, Adam. Answer my question."
"This would please you? Honesty from a man?"
"Yes."
He shrugged a beautiful, sun-kissed shoulder. "I hate the Hawk."
"Why?" Adrienne asked indignantly.
"He's a fool. He fails to cede appropriate due to your beauty, Beauty."
"To my what?" The least important thing about her.
The smithy flashed a blinding smile. "He seeks but to spread them, to slip between your thighs, but those love-slick dewy petals I would immortalize."
Adrienne stiffened. "That's very poetic, but there's no need to be rude, Adam. And you don't even know me."
"I can think of nothing I'd rather do with my time than spend it knowing you. In the biblical sense, since you find my other references too graphic. Is that pretty enough for you?"
"Who are you?"
"I can be anyone you want me to be."
"But who are you!" she repeated stubbornly.
"I am the man you've needed all your life. I can give you whatever you wish before you even realize you're wishing for it. I can fill your every longing, heal your every wound, right your every wrong. You have enemies? Not with me at your side. You have hunger? I will find the most succulent, ripe morsel and feed you with my bare hands. You have pain? I will ease it. Bad dreams? I will chase them a sunder. Regrets? I will go back and undo them. Command me, Beauty, and I am yours."
Adrienne shot him a withering look. "The only regrets I have are all centered around beautiful men. So I suggest you get yourself out of my—"
"You find me beautiful?"
Something about this man's eyes was just not quite right. "Aesthetically speaking," she clarified.
"As beautiful as the Hawk?"
Adrienne paused. She could be cutting at times, but when push came to shove it was her nature to go out of her way not to hurt people's feelings. Adrienne preferred to maintain her silence when her opinion was not the answer sought, and in this case, her silence was answer enough.
Adam's jaw tightened.