pencil that he’d been using last night wasn’t on the floor or on the top of the nightstand. Gelsey rolled onto her stomach and pulled open the bottom drawer.
She pushed aside a rusty old tin box and searched the drawer. Then she opened the box, hoping there might be a pencil inside. Gelsey’s breath caught in her throat as she recognized the objects in it. “Oh, my,” she murmured, pulling out a length of braided yarn.
In a single moment, she was taken back to that day, running through the meadow with Kellan chasing her, the old biscuit tin clutched in his hand. Time seemed to stand still as she pulled each item out of the box and examined it. These were all her magic talismans, bits and pieces of life that she’d kept for the powerful memories they held.
The day he’d chased her hadn’t been the first day she’d seen him. She’d watched him from behind the rocks before, fascinated by his quiet confidence and beautiful face. He’d been her first crush, the very first boy she’d ever wanted to kiss and she’d done just that.
Gelsey smiled at the memory. She’d buried the tin just for him, hoping that he’d find it and touch something that she held dear. It was such a silly idea from a silly young girl, but now Gelsey had to wonder if the magic she believed in back then had actually worked.
She pulled out a shell and held it up to her ear, listening for the sound of the sea. If she could only go back to that time in her life, back before everything had turned upside down. Where had she gone wrong? Had there been a single event that had put her on the path she’d taken?
Her parents’ divorce hadn’t helped, but plenty of children survived that. Was it the endless supply of money? Had she faced her fears and insecurities rather than trying to hide them beneath a party-girl veneer, perhaps she’d have more to show for herself at age twenty-seven.
Gelsey groaned, tipping her head back and closing her eyes. All that time lost. All that money spent. And she still felt like a seabird buffeted by the wind and unable to find a place to land. What if things didn’t work out in Ballykirk? What if this was just another disaster in a long line of disasters?
And how would Kellan feel about her once he found out who she really was? There’d been so many men, so many silly choices-and all of them captured in the tabloids. And the money. How could she ever justify it? It made her look so vacuous and incredibly careless.
And then there was the “incident.” How would she explain that to him? She’d tried to put it out of her mind, but if things didn’t go her way, she might have to spend some time in jail. Gelsey closed her eyes. How could she have been so incredibly stupid? So wrapped up in her silly little world that she’d done something with real and awful consequences.
Perhaps she’d just have to wait to tell him until it didn’t matter, until he loved her so much that nothing she said would drive him away. And if it never got to that point, he’d walk away, none the wiser, and she’d be able to keep her awful secret.
As Gelsey looked through her childhood treasures, she heard a car pull up outside the cottage. She jumped off the bed and peered through the slit in the curtains to see Kellan striding up the garden walk. With a soft curse, she quickly restored the tin to its spot in the bedside table.
“Gels? Are you up?”
With another curse, she quickly pulled a T-shirt over her head and then stood beside the bed, carefully arranging the covers. Kellan walked in. “Hi,” she said. “Just making the bed.”
He grinned, then circled around and grabbed her waist before he pulled her down onto the bed. “Don’t. We’ll just mess it up again.”
Gelsey smoothed her hand over his temple, brushing aside a lock of hair. “Why are you back here so soon?”
“I missed you,” he said. He pulled her body against his. “I missed this. You’ve made it impossible to think about anything else.”
“I find that hard to believe,” she said, unable to hide a smile of satisfaction.
“It’s true. No matter where I go, I’m thinking about your mouth…” He dropped a kiss on her lips. “And your shoulders…” He pulled aside the T-shirt and gently nibbled on the curve of her neck. “And your impossibly beautiful breasts.” Kellan wriggled down until he could nuzzle the swell of flesh beneath her T-shirt.
“You’re pathetic,” Gelsey said, laughing.
“Yes. Yes, I am.” He glanced up at her. “Actually, I came back here to get you. Jordan and Nan are helping with the painting and they insisted I bring you down. They’re making a party of it.”
Gelsey reached out for a pillow and brought it down on his head. “So you weren’t thinking about my naked body? About the naughty things I did to you last night? About the words that you whispered in my ear while you were coming inside me?”
He frowned, then groaned softly. “I wasn’t. But I am now.”
She got up on her knees and pulled her T-shirt over her head. “So, what are you going to do about it?”
His gaze slowly skimmed over her body, as exciting as a caress. Gelsey felt a familiar knot of desire tighten inside her at the look in his eyes. It was so easy to make him want her. It didn’t take much to have him hard and ready.
“Take off your clothes,” she murmured.
As she watched him slowly undress, Gelsey thought of the young boy she’d first met on the cliffs. He was still there, in the twinkling blue eyes and finely sculpted mouth, in the boyish curl at his nape and the grin that made her weak in the knees.
This was fate. They belonged together. And nothing she could say or do would shake a bond that had survived so many years. She wanted to believe it was so. She needed to believe it.
“They’re going to wonder where we are,” Kellan whispered as he pulled her down onto the bed and settled himself above her.
Gelsey drew her legs up along his hips, her toes skimming along his calves. “I’m sure we can keep it under five minutes.”
Kellan gasped, then braced himself on his elbows. “Five? Really? Why even bother, then?”
“Because five minutes in heaven is better than a day in the ordinary world.” She drew him closer and then arched against him, his shaft pressing against her sex. Slowly, he pushed inside her, filling her with his heat.
“Don’t move,” she said.
“If I don’t move, we’ll be here all day.”
“Five minutes.” Gelsey pulled him close and kissed him, lingering for a long time over his mouth until she was sure he was properly distracted. And then, in a soft voice, she began to tell a story of man and mermaid, an erotic story of two people swept away by desire. She didn’t leave out any detail, teasing him with a story of the seduction that had gone on between them from the moment they met.
His eyes were closed and Gelsey knew he was caught up in the images racing through his head. Her lips on his shaft, his teeth grazing her nipple. They didn’t need to do it in order to experience it.
She shifted beneath him, just slightly, and his breath caught in his throat. But still, she wasn’t ready for him to move. Every word she spoke was designed to bring him closer, to make his release come not from physical sensation, but from his imagination.
She sensed when he was close and then whispered in his ear. “Now you can move.”
He drew back and then drove into her in an almost desperate search for pleasure. Again and again, she felt him deep inside her and then, in a single, silent instant, he was there, tumbling over the edge in a powerful orgasm.
When he was finally sated, he collapsed on the bed beside her, his leg thrown over her hips. “I stand corrected. I’m powerless against your rather considerable charms, my dear.”
Gelsey smiled and dropped a kiss on his lips. “Five minutes.”
“Good to know,” he said. “Good for those times when we’re waiting for the water to boil for tea or for football to come on the telly. Hell, it sometimes takes five minutes to get a pint at the pub. And there’s a perfectly good closet just near the kitchen where we can-”
“Stop,” Gelsey said. “We’re only allowed to use the five-minute rule in emergencies.” She sat up. “Come on, quick shower. And then we’re going to go help with the painting.”
“What about you? Should we take another five minutes for you?”
“You can take care of me in the shower,” Gelsey said, jumping up from the bed. She grabbed his hands and
