The Sunstone Brooch : Time Travel Romance Katherine Logan (no david read aloud TXT) 📖

but I have to admit I am anxious to get back to the ranch.”

“Then go,” she said without really considering what that would mean if he did.

He dropped his head and gave it a little shake. “I don’t want to go home for my convenience. I want to go for us. Once you see the ranch, I bet you’ll fall in love with it, just like this city boy did. As much as you enjoy sunsets, you’ll go nuts when you see Colorado’s.”

“That’s the way I felt growing up in North Dakota.”

“So the plan is to FaceTime with George and your friend Barb to let them know you’re safe. Then we’ll go with JC. When we get back, we’ll go to New York City.”

They hadn’t made plans for Tavis’s rescue, so the discussion wasn’t over. But she was okay with banking the rest of the decisions until they got back from Bhutan.

“Let’s pack up and go home.” She took his hand and tugged him out of the chair. If he hadn’t wanted to stand up, one little tug in the opposite direction would have toppled her into his lap, and she was proud of him for resisting the urge to do just that.

“How come I think the ranch and sunsets aren’t all you want to show me?” she teased.

He winked. “Wait till you see the theater, my dear.”

65

Jarlshof (1125)—Tavis

Astrid threw her arms around Tavis’s neck, and he hugged her to him, digging his fingers deep into her thick, blond, waist-length hair, fragrant with the fresh, briny scent of the sea. The hot, unfettered sensations from contact with her after so long stunned him.

Astrid parted her lips, and he kissed her senseless, right there in the middle of the longhouse, momentarily ignoring the other women standing nearby, who were now weeping over Erik’s body.

Astrid broke the kiss. “Father said you would come soon but didn’t say why.” Her chin quivered when she looked across the room at the bodies of Erik and his horse, and she blinked back tears. She looked back up at Tavis. “Are you hurt?” She ran her hands down his chest and arms then clasped the sides of his face. “I don’t see any blood. Tell me you’re not hurt.”

“I’m not hurt.” God, he was so glad to see her, to hold her in his arms again, to feel her luscious body beneath the long green dress and white apron. Her breasts felt heavier, and her hips broader. But he didn’t care if she put on a few pounds.

“I arrived after the attack was over. There wasn’t anything I could do. He was already dead.”

She took Tavis’s hand, and together they stood near Erik’s body while tears streamed down her cheeks. “Was it a bear?”

Tavis nodded. “A grizzly.”

She shivered, then used a corner of her apron to wipe her face. “My father told me he was protecting the woman called Ensley. Did she die?”

“No. She’s safe. Erik fought the bear until Elliott’s grandson arrived and killed it.”

“The Keeper’s grandson?” She glanced to the ceiling, at the skylights cut into the thatched roof for light and ventilation. “That would be”—she tapped her chin—“Blane or Lance.”

Tavis kissed her again. “Ah, but there is one more grandchild.” He had drawn a family tree with all the MacKlenna Clan members, and she painted it on the wall so others would know the Keeper’s family and where she and Tavis fit in.

She raised her hands and pushed them into the air as if shooting a basketball. “Aus…tin. But he is injured.”

“Just his leg. He’s an excellent hunter and shot the bear four times.”

“Shot? Oh, with what you call a…gun.”

Erik’s widowed sister and her two unmarried daughters began gathering bowls of water, soap, and cleaning cloths. “You must tell the Council,” Erik’s sister said, her voice cracking.

“My husband will tell them,” Astrid said. “Come, I’ll walk with you.”

Tavis helped her with her cloak, and they left Erik’s longhouse. The house and all Erik’s belongings now belonged to Tavis. He held his wife close, sheltered under his arm, as they walked across the windy hill toward the longhouse that had been her home until her father and Erik signed the marriage agreement.

“After you meet with the Council, you will meet your son.”

The word son hit Tavis with the force of a two-by-four, and his knees nearly buckled. He’d never given much thought to having a family because he didn’t think he’d ever get married. That all changed when Erik insisted he select a wife. And now, here in a Viking settlement in the twelfth century, he had a son.

“But how’s that possible?” When he left the last time, Astrid wasn’t pregnant. Or was she? When was that?

She gasped. “Possible!” She pushed away and gave him a killer look that did make his knees buckle. And if that wasn’t enough to make her point, she reached for the dagger at her waist.

He jumped back a couple of steps.

You asshole. You all but accused her of infidelity.

He put his hand over hers so she wouldn’t pull the dagger on him. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you.”

“Offend?” The killer look flared again. “I don’t know that word.”

“Make you mad. Hurt your feelings.”

She shoved his hand away. “I am your wife. As long as you live, I belong to you. No one else.”

He pulled her to him again, stroking her hair with soft caresses. “I’m your husband, Astrid. As long as you live, I belong to you. No one else.”

“But you are gone for months at a time. Other men take women wherever they go.”

“I’m not like other men, and if you ever doubted that, Erik would have told you not to worry.” A hint of self-doubt colored his tone when he remembered how close he and Emily came to having drunk sex. Fortunately, they sobered up before it could happen, and their make-out session hadn’t affected their friendship.

“Erik told me. But it was hard not knowing when you’d return.”

“He would