Highlander's Bride: Medieval Romance (The Fae Book 1) by Joanne Wadsworth

snatched her hand away. “Have you fully healed?”
    “Aye, and those who are soul bound need the touch of their chosen one. I can no more release you than you can truly pull away.”
    “Soul bound we might be, but enemies we still are.”
    “You’ll never be my enemy, Kyla. You’re Isaiah and Grace’s daughter, a mind-walker and one of the fae. Even afore you were kidnapped, I knew you’d one day be mine. Since I’ve been gone all I’ve wished to do is return so I might hold you in my arms again. I’m certainly prepared for any battle to claim you.” His golden gaze swirled and when she touched her mind to his, his thoughts barreled through with such fierce intensity. He wasn’t leaving, not without her.
    “Where have you been this past month?” So many times she’d tried to reach him, to touch her mind to his only each time she’d came up against a black hole of nothingness. “You said you arrived through one of Cherub’s portals.”
    “Aye, our fae princess, following my rescue from Carron’s dungeons, took me to a place far beyond these lands, to Ivanson Castle in the twenty-first century.”
    “I’ve yet to meet Cherub, but she and my foster father have battled many a time. I did though see her that night you escaped. I watched from my chamber window as she stood within the inner bailey and whipped up a storm that kept our warriors away from the dungeon’s entrance. She truly took you to the future?”
    “She did, and once there, I was attended to by a healer, a great physician who also aided me in my physical transformation. Things are so different in that time. Medical advances have been made, progress which boggles the mind.” He lowered his gaze and swept it over her lips then lower still, down her neck before he gulped, his throat working hard. “You need to don your shift. I cannae quite see below the water’s surface, but I know what’s there all the same. I watched you from the trees afore I made my presence known.”
    She should be embarrassed, particularly with the way he now held her, but that emotion didn’t arise. Being with her chosen one filled her with such need, far beyond anything else. “Hold onto me while I put it on.”
    “Of course.” His grip on her waist tightened.
    “Thank you.” She shimmied the clingy cotton over her head and pulled it down before clutching his broad shoulders. “When you were last here you asked about your father and I couldnae answer you as I wished to. Niall’s well and his bond with Muirin deepens. Duncan rode out this morn to Ardan House to check on his training.”
    “I didnae care for the underhanded way Muirin ensured my father’s capture and mine, yet I understand why she did so.” He curled his fingers into her hips. “They’re soul bound, and none should ever separate those who are. That goes for us as well. I want my chosen one, have waited far too long to join us together in all ways.” He swam with her back toward the bank, lifted her up onto the mossy edge then heaved himself up beside her. Water sluiced down his body, plastering his tunic to his chest and thighs.
    “Sometimes things go beyond our control.”
    “As they have for us.” He picked up her hand, gently uncurled her fingers and spread her palm against his chest, right over the pounding beat of his heart.
    “I love Duncan and Coll. They were my lifeline after my abduction, have looked after me each and every day since.” She caressed his chest, her fingers playing with the loosened ties at the V of his tunic.
    “I’m glad you had them, but now you also have me.” He tipped her back onto the lush moss and laid down half over top of her.
    “Ronan.” She should push him away, only this might be the only opportunity she ever had to experience a few moments of his touch, a sliver of time she desperately desired afore she spoke vows with Duncan. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
    “Allow our bond to strengthen.” He pulled her onto her side so