The Draig Series
By Lisa Dawn Wadler
Publisher: Soul Mate
Publishing
Genre: time travel romance
Rescuing the man
tied to a tree seemed like a rational decision. Claire is a smart, capable
bookkeeper who happens to work at a martial arts academy. She has no idea the
door she walked through to save the bound man would leave her trapped in 13th
century Scotland. She is unable to regret the night of passion shared with Ian,
even though it happened with the threat of death just outside the door. She
pretends to be content with Ian’s friendship, knowing his people must come
first. Compelled by honor and tormented by desire, is being his woman, while he
marries another, enough?
Ian, Laird of
the Draig Clan, is a man trapped by fate. Forced by necessity to marry a woman
he has never met, her dowry is essential to save his clan. However, he is in
love with the woman who saved his life and then spent one night in his arms.
Duty prevents Ian from being able to marry Claire as custom, honor, and his
heart demand. Drawn to her, believing they share the same desires and dreams in
life, he finally offers her the only option available, a place by his side and
in his bed.
Claire and Ian
are bound together in love and then ripped apart by deception and a plot to
destroy the Draig clan. Facing the final battle alone and unarmed, Claire saves
them all. The ultimate challenge is forgiving Ian for sending her away.
Claire closed
her eyes. “No, Ian.” Scooting back away from him, she sat up, forcing his body
to give her space as her shaking hands tried to put her gown in order. “We
should have never . . . this should have never happened. I need to go.” She
rose to her feet only to nd him blocking her way. He wrapped his arms around
her.
Ian spoke with
the passion burning within in him. “Please, Claire, hear me. There is a way.
You and I were meant to be together. Dinna deny that you feel it, too. ‘Tis nay
only passion that binds us, it runs far deeper for us both.”
Not wanting to
hear what he had to say, yet unable to move away, her head rested against Ian’s
chest. Claire pleaded with him. “Please don’t do this. We both know what you
need to do.”
Holding her
tightly, Ian responded, “Aye, we do. But we can still be together.” Claire stiffened
at the words. “Hear me before you assume. There are many in my position that
have wed solely for gain. These men have done as needed, as I will do. Yet they
have also kept what they wished to have, the woman who stirs their heart. I am
trying to ask you to be this, the woman who is with me because of the love
between us. We can build a life this way. It would be us together every day and
every night. You would be mine.”
Ian’s words were
barely spoken before Claire pushed him away. “You are asking me to be your . .
. your . . .?”
Ian retorted
quickly, “Dinna speak the word you reach for. It would never be that way
between us.” His hands reached for her but were left with only air.
Backing away
from his reach, she knew what he meant. Claire also knew that it was wrong in
so many ways. How does he not see it? How does he not see the root of it? A
strange yet welcome feeling of calm passed over her as she saw what Ian was
missing. She willed herself to speak. “You don’t get it do you?”
Ian tried to
close the gap between them only to have Claire back away. Ian stopped moving.
“What I see is a way for us to be together.”
Claire laughed
even as the tears began to fall. “You’ve never ever met her, this Mairi. What
if . . . Ian? What if she is someone you could be happy with? You don’t even
know.”
“It does nay
matter who she is or what she offers, ‘tis obligation and no more.” Ian replied
as his gaze searched her face.
She heard her
voice from so far away. “But you don’t know. It could be a good marriage. I
will not be in the middle of something that could be.” Claire’s sobs clouded
her words. “I can’t take that risk, and I won’t. If you could be happy, I would
only be in the way. Eventually things between us would change.”
Ian stepped
closer. “Claire, she will never be you. You are everything to me. Dinna you
see? In all ways I treat you as my own. You sit at my right at every meal. ‘Tis
my dagger you use to cut your meat, the dagger that marks me as laird. ‘Tis
your company I seek each day and every night. You wear the best I have to
offer. I heed your council in all matters. We spend our evenings together
before the re sharing and enjoying one another. I love you, Claire, and I ken
that you love me.”
“And somehow
that isn’t enough.” With all of the pain and anguish carried in her, Claire
cried out, “It would kill me, Ian. She is going to be your wife. I know full
well she will give you a family, the heirs you need. It would kill me to be
waiting for you, knowing you were with her. Even if you despise her, it would
tear me up inside.” Ian’s brow wrinkled as he absorbed her words, and she saw
her meaning take hold. “I’m not that person, Ian. I can’t be that person. And
if you love me, you won’t ask me to live like that.” Not waiting for more, afraid
he would try to change her mind and that she would let him, Claire grabbed her
skirts in hand and finally ran.
In an attempt to
save the world from destruction, physicist Major Samantha Sykes opens a door in
time. Her plan to travel into the past to change the future has unexpected
consequences. Trapped in 11th century Scotland, her mission is complicated by
the love she never knew she was seeking.
Laird Faolan of
the Draig clan has one desire: to claim the woman who fell through time and
make her his. He will do everything in his power to convince Samantha that she
belongs with him for all time.
Opening the door
in time brings Samantha and Faolan together. Fate, destiny, and responsibility
are at odds. The forces that brought them together may be their undoing.
Will their love
survive Samantha’s journey back to her world to save time, or will the
centuries that stretch between them tear them apart?
Faolan turned in the chair before the fire
and stared at her with cold, dark eyes. Even bathed only in shadows from the
fire, she could see that the warm chocolate gaze she remembered from the
afternoon had been replaced by hurt and anger. Like a coward, she looked away
and noticed the flames from the fire. The logs held the same pattern as the
ones that burned in her hearth. Even hurt, he had left her the gift and made
sure she was comfortable.
Samantha closed the door without facing the
exit. Her hand held out the branch. “I wanted to thank you for this and for
every other item you left on my pillow. It was only tonight I realized they
were from you.” She stumbled through an apology. “Every single one made me smile.”
Still Faolan only stared, so she continued,
“You left the hall today before I was finished. While it’s true that the safety
of the men has to come first, that had no bearing on what almost happened
between you and me. There is no way I would or could ever think about, I mean I
wouldn’t . . . From the moment we rode onto your lands, my men have been safe.
I’ve known that. So you and I have had nothing to do with them.”
Faolan looked away from her, and Samantha saw
the dagger in his hands. Not held in threat, but his concentration seemed
focused on the metal. He nally spoke while his hands toyed with the weapon.
“What would have happened earlier if we had nay been disturbed?”
Samantha felt the sadness in her voice for
what had been lost. “We would have had a perfect afternoon.”
Faolan rose to his feet and placed the dagger
on the table. While he made no move to walk, he turned to face her. “I would
have claimed you as my own. I would have kept you in that meadow until you
agreed to enter my gates as my wife.”
“Then we would be there arguing, which ends
the idea of a perfect afternoon.”
Her humor had no place in the confrontation,
and she knew it as soon as the comment left her mouth. Faolan marched to stand
in front of her. “Why is it more preferable for me to use you for quick
pleasure than to ask you to stand by my side for all time?” He demanded.
The eyes that glared held no warmth and
threatened to pierce the little control she still had. Boomer was right; Faolan
deserved the truth, and she hated it.
Her hand reached up to touch his face, and
Faolan stepped backward out of her reach. Tears pricked at the rejection. She
mustered her courage. “I don’t have all of time to offer you.” Samantha told
him everything she had explained to Boomer and finished with, “There is
virtually no probability that I will return.”
The withheld tears fell when horror crossed
his features. In the last few days, she had cried more than she had in the last
five years. The emotions brought to the surface by involvement in life brought
joy and pain. Unfortunately, the night before her would bring the strongest
pain. Love had no place in her limited time, and she knew it.
“You are amazing and wonderful, and if I
could be with you, I would without any hesitation. I can’t do that to you. Find
a woman who will be here and love her.” Her words choked on a sob. “I know that
your family is essential to making the future better. Continue this line and
know that I wished I could have been here with you.”
Samantha wiped the tears with the sleeve of
her gown, though more fell to take the place of ones erased. She added, “I’m
close to finding my way back. I can feel it.” She paused to clear her throat.
“In the morning, I’ll start to finish what I began five years ago. I only ask
that the men can stay here if they choose. Only Boomer comes with me.”
Without a word, Faolan closed the short
distance and pulled Samantha hard against his chest. Her face buried in the
warmth of his chest as she cried and let out the anguish of goodbye. His hand
held her braid while the other soothed her back, and she savored the last
embrace.
When her sobs slowed, Faolan said, “I go with
you.”
Her head shook. “You missed the part where
your line needs to continue, and that means you stay here.” She left out that
there was no way she would bring him into the misery left in her time.
The deep inhale could be felt as could the
resignation at the exhale, and Faolan didn’t argue. When he spoke, he offered,
“Your men are home here.”
“I know,” she whispered against his chest.
Samantha offered no resistance when he lifted
her chin and shifted her body to find her eyes. “While you said a great many
things, I dinna hear the word impossible.”
“Please don’t.” At his sweet thought, another
tear fell.
His lips brushed her forehead, and he
replied, “Spend the last of your days as my wife.”
She closed her eyes at the request. Samantha
whispered, “Then what? How long will you wait for me to return when you know I
won’t? I can’t do that to you.”
Faolan’s thumb wiped the moisture from her
cheek. “Then I vow nay to wait.”
Against her wishes, the chuckle left her
throat. She opened her eyes and found warm ones on her. Samantha said, “It’s
probably for the best if I say goodbye.”
Samantha knew it would happen. Faolan lifted
her face enough to place his lips against hers. Every brush sent tingles
through her body. As his tongue sought entry, she complied. It began soft and
sweet and carried an air of innocence. Then he demanded more as he pulled her
body against his and kissed her with no control.
Faolan pulled away abruptly, he whispered,
“Give me this night.”
The smile broke free on her face. It
shouldn’t have surprised her that goodbye didn’t work. Samantha placed her
hands on his cheeks and felt the soft stubble that graced his face at the end
of each day. Her rational mind knew it would only make leaving harder. Yet the
side of her Faolan had brought to life wanted him, wanted to know what it felt
like to be loved by such an amazing man. She nodded. “Just now, Faolan. It’s
all I have to offer you.”
Lisa began
writing after reading yet another romance novel where the heroine needed a man
to rescue her from physical harm. While a firm believer in the strong
alpha-male hero in any story, she wondered what would happen if that hero met a
woman who was able to take care of herself physically. Using her several years
of Tae Kwon Do training and mixing in time travel, her multi-award winning
debut novel, The Draig Series was born.
Lisa lives in
the Chicago suburbs and is married to her high school sweetheart. They have two
children and one very spoiled dog.
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