Gifted Thief (Highland Magic #1)(45)

‘And say what? Please don’t eat us?’

‘No. Say there’s a river. The River Tay’s near here, right? It leads to the sea. Use your psychometry to glean enough words to tell this thing that it can get back home. We didn’t bring it here but we can help it escape.’

For what seemed like an eternity there was absolute silence, not just from Jamie but from the stoor worm as well. It pulled its tentacle towards its horror of a mouth again. Now my toes were only inches away from those teeth.

Jamie screeched then he clicked. The stoor worm’s jaws opened wider and I knew it was about to bite. I squeezed my eyes shut while Jamie whined. My life should have been flashing in front of my eyes right about now but all I could think about was how pointless all this was. I held my breath. Hopefully death would come quickly.

Nothing happened. There was a series of clicks from the worm but unless my adrenaline had truly kicked in to the point where I could feel zero pain, it wasn’t actually eating me. I lifted up one eyelid. The worm’s blind eyes were turned in Jamie’s direction. It hissed and spat. Jamie whined once more then I fell to the ground with a heavy thump as the worm released its hold on me. It withdrew every tentacle, lifted its head up in sea-monster acknowledgement and a heartbeat later it slithered out of the window and vanished.

I stared at the spot it had just vacated. Pushing away the urge to scream, I scrambled to my feet and lurched to the window. The stoor worm was already on the ground, its body snaking with incredible speed towards the Tay. A few Sidhe standing around far below shrieked, but the worm paid them no attention. Before I could draw another breath, it was out of sight.

Jamie shook his head in disbelief. ‘It worked. I’ve never used my Gift before to learn another tongue. I thought what I had was useless unless it involved archaeology or analysing a murder weapon.’

I refrained from telling him that I had had the same thought. Psychometry generally meant you could touch an object and learn its history because the object’s energy field would transfer knowledge to someone gifted enough to understand it. Using psychometry to communicate with a sea monster had seemed like the longest of long shots.

I looked at him as he got to his feet. ‘I thought I was a goner,’ I told him, honestly, my heart still rattling around my ribcage.

He nodded. ‘Me too. How did you know it would leave like that?’

‘Because it didn’t want to be here either. Someone used their Gift to drag it here from whichever sea depths it came from. It was angry and scared so it attacked us.’

He held my gaze. ‘I can’t believe we’re still alive.’

I fervently agreed. ‘We make a good team.’ Without thinking, I reached over and gave him a tight hug. His arms wrapped round my body, holding me close. He smelled really good.

He sucked in a breath and pulled back slightly, looking into my eyes. ‘I’m shaking,’ he muttered.

‘Adrenaline,’ I said, more breathily than I’d intended.

We stared at each other then his gaze dropped to my mouth. I licked my lips and he groaned. A second later we were kissing, a frantic ‘seize the moment’ kind of action that left us both gasping for air. His mouth pressed hard on mine, stealing away my breath.

‘This is a mistake,’ he told me as he curled one hand round my head and the other round my waist.

‘Textbook,’ I agreed.

My fingers fumbled with his shirt, undoing the buttons and pulling his shirt free. He grabbed my top, virtually ripping it off me and running his hands up and down my bare skin.

‘We should stop.’

‘Mmm.’

His mouth trailed down towards my collarbone. I felt the damp sheen of sweat but I had no idea whether it was from him or from me.

‘You smell like worm.’

I sniffed and grinned. ‘So do you.’

His fingers tugged at the waistband of my jeans, then dipped below. Coherent thought fled. This had nothing to do with Jamie and me and everything to do with the consuming desire to remind ourselves that we were alive. I fumbled with his trousers, getting the zip caught in the fabric and cursing. Giving up, I knelt down and yanked. There was a loud rip. Within moments we were naked, clinging to each other and falling backwards onto the hard floor. His expression was tense and filled with concentration but, as our bodies rose to meet each other, he began to relax.

It was fast and unromantic but, sod it, it was fulfilling.

Drenched in sweat, we collapsed against the wall. ‘Shit,’ he swore. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…’

I touched his cheek. ‘I wanted it too. Don’t apologise.’

Then the door opened. Both Jamie and I froze, our heads turning guiltily towards the interloper. Byron. Of course it was.

His expression was impenetrable as he stared at us with granite-flecked eyes. Jamie sprang up, snatching his clothes to cover himself. I considered doing the same but I wasn’t going to let Byron make me feel ashamed for doing what had felt so natural. It wasn’t like I’d committed adultery. If he wanted to judge, he could go ahead. Besides, he’d already seen me virtually naked.

‘There were reports of a disturbance,’ he bit out. ‘Except now I can see it wasn’t a disturbance at all.’

Jamie flushed. ‘There was a monster. It tried to eat us,’ he said quickly, in a vain effort to explain away our actions.