Highlander's Seduction (The Matheson Brothers Book 3) Read Free

pail and Olaf filled it with his catch before the two of them walked back along the beach toward her. With a smile, Olaf stopped and gazed at her. “How are you this eve, Cherub?”
    “I’m very well. How is Amelia?”
    “A little anxious following the recent battle on these shores. ’Tis good to see you’re back.”
    “I can never stay away from my kin here for long.” Thankfully she’d only been gone a short time. Bending, she rustled Joseph’s windblown brown locks. “Tell your mama I shall visit her soon, now that I’ve returned to this time.”
    “I will.” Joseph ogled her sparkly skin. “Mama said she saw your papa beyond the veil, and more than once when she traveled there. She said the king’s skin glitters too.”
    “Aye, his does. Each eldest child born within the royal line holds such sparkly skin as mine.” She was one of seven, the eldest of all her siblings. She kissed Joseph’s cheek. His mother was like a sister to her, and Joseph was the first and only child born to a time-walker. Like his mother, he too would be an immortal, his soul having been blood bound to Amelia’s through his birth.
    Olaf wrapped an arm around Joseph’s shoulder. “I’ve caught plenty of fish this eve, Cherub. Are you able to join us for the evening meal?”
    “I wish I could, but there is a man I must wait here to meet. My thanks though for your kind invitation.”
    “Then you must come as soon as you can. Amelia misses you.”
    “As I miss her. Tell her I shall visit on the morrow.”
    “I will. Take care.” Olaf squeezed her arm then led Joseph up the trail and through the gate into the village. Amelia and her kin were so happy here, and she too couldn’t have been happier for them. Joseph was a treasure, a child who brought such delight to one and all who met him.
    With a soft sigh, she turned her gaze back toward Matheson House. This coming encounter was one that tore at her. She was to meet her soul bound mate and then turn him away. Life wasn’t fair, but then that she’d learnt well over the centuries.
    Down the trail toward the sea-gate landing, a warrior with midnight black locks brushing his shoulders ran. He bounded aboard a skiff, released the mooring rope then coiled and stored it under the center seat. With the oars in hand, he rowed.
    Once he cleared the bay, he tucked his oars away and raised the sail. The wind filled it with a hearty slap and with his feet braced wide along one side and the ropes in hand, he steered the skiff as it shot off like an arrow toward her.
    Her fae senses reached out toward his and butterflies abounded in her belly. Kirk’s drive to reach the village was honed completely in on her, the one woman who was meant to be his, and the one woman she intended to deny him of. Finding his chosen one had consumed him these past five years, just as it had his two identical brothers who’d now found their mates. Although never once had she known that ’twas her Kirk searched for. If only she had, then she could have let him down far sooner and thus allowed him to move on and enjoy his life.
    The wind plastered Kirk’s billowy white tunic against his muscled chest and sent the sword holstered at his side swaying. He would be here within a minute or two and there was naught more she could do now but anxiously await his arrival.
    Over her shoulder, the need of those within the houses of stone and clay cloistered so tightly together called out to her and touched her very heart. Throughout the days and years to come, so many would need her aid and that knowledge firmed her stance. Their people couldn’t lose another time-walker, a fact she hoped her mate could accept.
    With her decision made, she dissolved into a mist and became as one with the very air itself, the element she commanded. ’Twas best Kirk not have her image in his mind. If he did, then that would make their parting all the more harder.
    Kirk steered his skiff toward land, lowered the sail as he neared the