Page 19 of Katie's Highlander (Highland Protector 3)
’Tis no use a fightin’ it.“Aye, well. I wished for the chance for us to get to know one another better. Apparently, I shouldha taken care for what I wished. Yes, lass. Authentic. Every last bit of it.” Ramsay unbuckled his seatbelt, shoved open the door, then paused with one boot on the ground and looked back at her. “Come with me, if ye dare.”
Katie dared. She exited the vehicle and rounded it before Ramsay had a chance to close the door and join her. “So, this was here when your family bought the land? Have you had a sample tested to date it? Have you notified anyone?” She hurried over to the altar stones, circling them like a vulture about to settle on a plump carcass.
Where the hell is Athair?Ramsay glanced around the clearing, ignoring Katie’s excited questions as she explored the bit of MacDara land that no outsiders had ever seen before. The area appeared empty except for the three towering stone obelisks hemmed around a fourth large sarsen stone, the altar table that stretched the diameter of the holy place if the sacred henge had been made into a full circle in the clearing.
“Should ye have brought her here, brother? Ye ken he may have called down the powers?”
Ramsay turned. All three of his brothers, Alec, Grant, and Ross, stood in a line behind him. Esme was there too, looking more worried than he’d e’er seen the lass look before.
And then he felt it in the air, in the subtle shifting energy of the place. Katie had been right to force him to bring her. She was welcomed here—summoned, in fact.
“Aye,” he answered, nodding at his eldest brother, Alec. “ ’Tis meant t’be.”
“This is incredible,” Katie called out from behind the tallest center stone. “There’re etchings! I think it’s ogham!”
“Ye dare desecrate this holy place in such garb?”
“And there he is,” said Grant, next to the eldest of the MacDara brothers. He motioned toward the point in the henge that snugged up to a rise in the summit of the mountain, a rise tall enough for a steel door etched with ancient Celtic symbols to be sunk in the mountain’s side.
Emrys stood in the entry of the tunnels, partially shielded by the door, as though ready at any moment to duck back inside. “Where are yer colors, boy? Ye dinna come to the altar dressed as ye are. Yer a protector and ye ken better than that.”
“I told you that you should’ve worn your kilt today,” Esme said in a loud whisper.
“Hush’t, Esme.” Ramsay didna give a damn about clothing right now. His main concern was his father and what might happen if the old man noticed Katie watching him from behind one of the stones. He took a few steps closer, stopping when Emrys shifted back farther into the tunnel and nearly disappeared behind the door. “Forgive me,Athair.The summons was urgent, and I had no time t’change.”
“ ’Tis no’ my forgiveness ye should seek,” Emrys said while still standing behind the door. Only his grizzled head and the tips of his fingers holding the door could now be seen. “ ’Tis the goddesses ye offend. Strip off that garb now. ’Tis an abomination.” Emrys pointed a shaking finger toward the long stone table in the center of the circle. “Yer proper clothing awaits ye. It rests beside the altar.”
From where he stood, he could clearly see Katie behind the center obelisk, grinning at him like a truant schoolgirl. She winked, made an up-and-down motion with one finger toward his body, then gave him a thumbs-up.
So, she thought he should strip t’go along withAthair? Fine. At the moment, he didna ken if he was aroused or pissed. But if she wished him naked, then naked he would be.
Ramsay glanced back at his brothers. They shrugged in unison, then Ross grabbed hold of Esme by the shoulders and spun her about so her back was toward Ramsay.
“This is feckin’ ridiculous,” Ramsay muttered between clenched teeth as he peeled off his shirt, kicked off his boots, and shed his jeans. He wasna ashamed of his man parts but this was no’ the way he preferred to introduce them t’Katie. Bare as the day he was born, he threw back his shoulders and looked Katie in the eye as he strode to the altar stone and searched for whatever his addled father had put there for him t’wear.
Brows arched clear to her hairline and mouth slightly ajar, Katie’s eyes rounded wider than he’d e’er seen them. Each time she dipped her gaze downward, her cheeks burned a brighter shade of red. She finally gave him a quick nod, a sly smile, and two thumbs-up this time.
He took a deep breath, taking some small solace in the fact that Katie obviously liked what she saw. This solace triggered even more for her to admire. He fully faced her and jutted his chin to a daring angle.See what ye’ve done t’me, lass?
Katie’s brows rose even higher and she pressed one hand to her chest.
“Don yer clothes, boy, and bring yer lass forward.”
Ramsay’s hard-on immediately bowed its head.
Athairknew of Katie’s presence.
Ramsay turned to his father who was still shielding himself behind the door. He widened his stance, subtly nodding to his brothers to work their way closer as he keptAthair’sattention. Naked or not—he’d allow no harm t’come to Katie. He kept his voice pitched to a firm, controlled tone. “Time t’end this,Athair.This is North Carolina. The future. Fight yer way through the fog of yer mind, m’chieftain.Fight against the confusion.”
His father sidled out from behind the door and allowed it to ease shut. He remained at one side of it, close enough to yank the door back open and retreat into the safety of the tunnels if he so desired.
“I have no confusion, boy.” With gnarled hands, he whipped his black druid’s cloak off his shoulders and revealed his ancient robes topped with the battle-scarred chestplate of the High Druid Chieftain. Emrys nodded at Ramsay. “Now don yer armor, Protector.”
Armor?Ramsay shot a quick glance behind the altar stone and spotted the clothing. A kilt, the colors of an ancient protector, was neatly folded and waiting beside the black leather breastplate he’d carved with goddess knots and symbols long ago, long before they’d arrived in modern day North Carolina. Handcrafted boots were there too. He’d carefully worked the leather of the breastplate while training with Dwyn and Scota, preparing it for the day he’d sworn his fealty to the goddesses and received his spear.
What the hell is this?Ramsay looked to his brothers for a clue as to what might happen next and made the slightestget to him nowmotion toward Emrys. The looks all three gave as they edged closer were less than reassuring. Grudgingly, he scooped up the garb and donned it, discovering as he did so that his spear was also waiting behind the stone table.
As he crouched and strapped on the leather shin guard over his boot, he glanced at Katie. She stared back at him, mouth slightly agape as she snugged up against the obelisk.
