Needed By The Highlander - Rebecca Preston Page 0,67
attraction to him, that was for sure — but that didn’t mean that there was anything real between them. She had to keep her wits about her — had to think with her head and not her heart. Yes, he was gorgeous. Yes, that kiss had made her feel things she’d never felt before, deep in her chest. But she couldn’t just throw herself at him and hope for the best — she had to be smart, had to take care of herself. She didn’t know enough about this strange new world to risk her health and happiness for a man who may not feel as seriously about her as she did about him.
At the very least, she thought with a blush that spread across her face even in the dark of her room, she’d talk to the other women about contraceptive options. Maybe she’d ask Kay — she’d been a vet in the future, she’d know a little about medicine. God, she wasn’t looking forward to that conversation. Kay was going to be so excited that she was actually considering a relationship with Niall… even if it was just sex.
She finally fell into a troubled sleep — it was plagued with strange dreams that kept almost waking her up. Dreams about Niall, mostly, appearing to her as a knight in shining armor, mounted on a beautiful steed… but as she looked closer, she realized that the horse’s mane and tail were dripping wet, and that its soulful eyes were black, not brown… then it opened its jaws to reveal sharp, jagged teeth, dripping with the blood of the missing fisherman, poised to strike her, to tear her flesh apart… but when she raised her arms to protect herself, she realized she was holding a baby. A baby with Niall’s eyes, with her dark hair, and — it opened its mouth and she screamed — the Kelpie’s terrifying, serrated teeth…
She sat bolt upright in bed, breathing hard. It was just after dawn, and her heart was pounding as though she’d run a mile, the bedsheets wet with sweat. God, what was going on with her? A kiss shouldn’t have stirred up such ridiculous dreams. Get a grip, she told herself crossly, swinging her legs out of bed. There were more important things to be gotten on with than her stupid feelings for the stupid handsome harbormaster who had, stupidly, kissed her the night before and successfully ruined her night’s sleep and, probably, life.
Not that she was being dramatic about it, or anything.
She headed up to breakfast alone, glad that Niall had clearly already risen and headed out to the docks. On the way, she hesitated by the docks to gauge the general sentiment as quickly as she could, scanning the faces of the fishermen as they brought in their catches. There were less fish on the docks than she was used to seeing, which was a worry… but it was better that their catches take a hit than anyone else getting eaten whole by those monstrous horse creatures that Maggie had described to her. The image she had in her mind of the Kelpies was frightening… she almost wished that she could see one in the flesh, just because she felt like the reality couldn’t be nearly as scary as her image of it.
One thing she noticed — there was no sign of Perry MacCullen among the men on the docks. She thought she recognized one or two of the men who’d been holding spears in his little group of monster-hunting vigilantes, but Perry himself was nowhere to be seen. Had he already finished his catch for the day? Was he taking the day off? She found herself wondering whether it might not be better for everyone if Perry was eaten by a Kelpie himself… then chastened herself for that ungracious thought. He was just a scared, angry man who’d lost his brothers. He didn’t deserve death at the hands — or hooves — of a monster.
These thoughts engaged her fully as she headed up the stairs, and she realized belatedly that this was what should be on her mind right now — not her relationship with Niall, whatever it was. There were monsters about, killing people. How could she think about kissing some (admittedly handsome) man when such horrors were happening? She owed it to this community that had taken her in to dedicate all of her energies to getting rid of the monsters that were killing fishermen.