CHAPTER 7
Payton watched Sam, feeling like he could hardly breathe. The pain was almost unbearable. She was really pushing him toward his limit. Yet still he needed to be near her, almost more than he needed air to breathe. She made him feel more alive than anything else in the last 270 years. But he knew he couldn’t carry on like this for much longer. He would have to talk to Sean.
All day, Payton had tried to ignore the pain. He’d even reached out to touch her when she told him she was feeling homesick. Seeing her upset was almost as bad as touching her. He wasn’t sure he could survive a full night of torment. He’d probably collapse. But he didn’t want her to see what she did to him—at least not yet.
Payton couldn’t lie to her, and he couldn’t explain anything without frightening her. And that, he definitely did not want to do. Since they’d arrived at the beach, he had felt something besides the pain. Warmth! He had felt the warm sun on his skin. He knew it was impossible. There was no such thing as warm or cold for him. And yet, he knew he was being warmed all the same.
All this has to mean something, he told himself. He wished that he could concentrate, but his eyes kept turning to the water. That crazy girl had jumped into the water wearing only her purple underwear.
His reaction to her body surprised him. He had found her pretty beforehand, true, yet her looks had held as little importance to him as all the other beautiful things he perceived but was unaffected by.
Payton desperately waited to see her come out of the water. The pain was slightly milder since she had gone swimming. Still, he wished he could have gone in after her.
Sam was walking toward him, dripping wet. Her hair clung to her shoulders and back, and goose bumps covered her entire body. She wrapped her arms around herself and started running. Payton couldn’t take his eyes off her. He got up and handed the blanket to her, his eyes taking in her slender body. Feelings arose in him, feelings that he had long forgotten.
Sam’s icy, wet fingers brushed Payton’s arm, and he flinched in pain. And that was the first moment he was able to fully comprehend the force of the curse. Up until then, there hadn’t been anyone in his life he wanted to be close to. Feeling desire for the first time, Payton could hardly bear to be in the same town as Sam.
But he swore to himself that he would no longer let the curse rule his life. Something would have to change.
An entire night and a full day of searing pain and burning torture later, Payton had dropped Sam off in Aviemore. Since her package of sightseeing tours was over, she wouldn’t be able to meet up with him as easily. The next few days, she was scheduled to accompany her host dad to his class, and she also had to write up a history report for her teacher back in the States. But she had promised get in touch with Payton just as soon as she could.
He was torn. On the one hand, he was very happy when the burning died down. Yet on the other hand, he believed more and more that this girl was meant for him. Why else would fate have led him to her? Why would he have almost run her over on her first day in Scotland? Why had he happened to drive by when she’d missed the bus? And why did she look so much like the woman he hadn’t been able to save? For whose death he was, in fact, responsible? Had the curse led her to him? To punish him even more? It had been such a long time already.
His SUV left the main road and bumped over a rarely used field to a lonely cottage. He’d been intending to talk to Sean at home, but the last two days had just been too much. His desire to be close to Sam was so strong. And somewhere, deep down, underneath the red-hot pain that poured over everything like a river of lava, he could feel tenderness. The desire to be close to someone, and to be loved—he’d never known it before. And damn it, if it meant pain, then bring on the pain. He wanted to bear it, so he could feel the indescribable feeling of her skin on his.
He felt as if he were being torn into pieces. Never in the past centuries had he thought he was capable of it. Of falling in love!
That’s why he’d gone to his secret refuge. If he’d gone home, Sean would have known something was up, and he certainly wouldn’t have been happy. And the others? To tell the truth, he didn’t really care about them. But he had sworn his brother Blair an oath, and was therefore forced to obey him. He decided to keep his secret for a bit, at least until he really knew what was going on.