“Is it okay if I tell him?” she asked Cian.
He shrugged. “Aye, I suppose so.”
She said over her shoulder, “There’s a summoning spell—Lialth bree che bree, Cian MacKeltar, drachme se-sidh—but it won’t work right now because—”
Even as she was about to explain that not enough time had elapsed since that morning when he’d last been out, the runes carved into the ornate frame began to blaze with a brilliant inner light and the parameters of the library felt suddenly skewed. Her jaw dropped.
Cian looked just as startled as she. Then his dark eyes blazed with exultation. “Mayhap because the last two times were so short, lass,” he exclaimed hoarsely. “Who cares the why of it?”
He pushed forward, reaching for her. One moment Jessi had her palms pressed to cool glass, the next it was full black and icy, and then the warm strength of his hands was closing around hers. He separated from the mirror, peeling away from the silvery rippling pool, walking her backwards, his gilt-whisky eyes glittering with passion and lust not-to-be-denied.
She shivered with anticipation.
Distantly, she heard Chloe and Gwen’s startled exclamations, then heard nothing more when he ducked his head and slanted his mouth hungrily over hers. She melted into him, against the hot steel of his big body, threading her fingers into his braids, parting her lips, yielding utterly to him.
Abruptly, he dragged his mouth from hers. “Is this castle warded, kinsmen?” he grated over her shoulder.
One of the twins answered, “Well, aye—”
“Think you two puny Druids can hold this keep for a single night?” Cian cut him off.
“We two puny Druids,” one of the twins spat, “could hold—”
“—this keep for a blethering eternity if we so wished,” the other twin finished.
“Good. Go do it. Get the bloody hell out of here.”
He slanted his mouth over Jessica’s again.
Behind the passionately entwined couple, Drustan’s eyes narrowed, his nostrils flared. “Of all the arrogant—”
“Remember the day I trapped you in the garderobe and you finally remembered who I was, my love?” Gwen interrupted softly.
Drustan swallowed the rest of his words. Did he ever! He’d been nigh crazed with desire for her. Naught in the world could have stopped him from making love to her then and there. In fact, they’d doffed every scrap of clothing the two of them had worn, right there in the great hall, and to this day, he was uncertain if they’d had an audience. And to this day, he still didn’t care.
Which was exactly how it appeared Cian and Jessica were feeling. In fact, there went the man’s shirt soaring over her head, to land on a lamp. The delicate stained-glass shade wobbled a precarious moment, then settled.
Drustan had no desire to see any more of his ancestor than he was currently seeing.
Except, he thought, scrutinizing the man’s sculpted upper torso, blethering hell, what are those tattoos? Had another Keltar fallen from grace? If so, how far? He had wee bairn sleeping abovestairs, a wife and clan to protect, and he’d like to know what to expect. Who and what was this man and what was he doing here? And why did he have an Unseelie Hallow? He wanted explanations, by God, he deserved explanations. This was his castle, his world. He was the senior Keltar male, after all! Or . . . er, och, he had been the senior Keltar male until a few moments ago!
His scowl deepened. If his ninth-century ancestor thought he was going to usurp lairdly duties of the clan based on birth order, he was sadly mistaken.
He regarded him irritably, but despite his displeasure, his expression softened.
Cian and Jessica were kissing like the world might come crashing to an end at any moment.
And Drustan knew exactly how that felt. Each time he kissed his wife, each time he held their precious twins in his arms, it seemed the world couldn’t possibly grant him time enough to love, even if it spun out to eternity.
He didn’t need to try deep-listening to his ancestor to know the woman Cian was kissing was his mate.
Some things required no explanations.
The matching of a Keltar with his woman was one of them.
He heard the metal groan of a zipper. His or hers, he didn’t know. Nor was he about to stand about and find out.
His questions would have to wait.
Pivoting, he ushered the lot of them from the library.
* * *
21
The moment Jessi heard the snick of the library door as it closed behind the MacKeltars, her body tensed and her pulse began to race nervously.
They were alone, Cian was free of the mirror, and she was touching him. She couldn’t have asked for more, yet all of a sudden she felt weirded out about it.