Edge of Time (Langston Brothers Series) Read online

  Pain swirling through her, Marissa tore away from the man whose pleas ripped at the tenuous seams of her soul. “Craig, I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I can’t!” Quickly pulling the front of her dress together, she warred with the knowledge that she wanted nothing more than to be ensconced in his warm embrace, know the rapture of making love with him. She looked into his face one last time and… the agony etched across his handsome features rent what remained of her paper thin resolve.

  She melted.

  Crumpling to her knees, she pressed parted lips to his. “Craig, oh God… I want you!” He grabbed her face between his hands, eyes searching hers before he took her lips in a desperate exchange. She’d never be entirely sure how it happened but suddenly she was floating, his arms locked around her as he lifted her against him. He did not utter a sound as he pressed her back onto the sofa. Today, the weight of his body settling over her wasn’t suffocating. It was the embrace her entire soul longed for, and she opened to him in welcome.

  Dragging his pale blue shirt up, she pulled it over his head, letting her fingers trail the honed expanse of his back. He groaned.

  “My love. Are you sure about this?”

  “Yes.” Her tongue dipped into his mouth, beckoning him closer.

  “Really certain?” He lifted her layers of petticoats until his hand found the curve of her thigh. “I don’t think I can control myself if you run from me screaming a second time.”

  “I was never screaming,” she breathed against his mouth, but as his fingers slid further up her leg she wanted to. Oh! How she wanted to scream. “Craig, wait!”

  “Christ, Marissa.” His entire body tensed as though he wanted to pull away and simply couldn’t. “Are we going to do this or not? I really can’t take it anymore.” His lips caught hers again. “You make it damn near impossible for me to behave as any sort of gentleman.”

  “Before we start,” she said, which was apparently going to be soon because he was quite obviously ready, now, and so was she, “there is something I have to tell you.”

  Craig settled himself between her legs, pulling her more securely beneath him, tracing the path of her hip with the flat of his palm. “I don’t care,” he murmured pressing deliberate, feather light kisses to the line of her jaw and down her throat to the swell of her breasts.

  “But—”

  “I’m not naïve, Marissa. You were engaged once. I don’t care if you’ve been with another man.”

  A glitter of tears blurred Marissa’s vision. Why did she want to cry at a time like this? “I--I think… I love you,” she whispered, twining her fingers through his softly curling hair, searching the intense blue of his eyes; eyes so incredibly soft and adoring.

  “And I you,” he murmured, and then they were beyond words, locked together, moving as one. She cried out again and again for him to hold her closer… tighter. She couldn’t get enough of him. She felt him in every fracture of her damaged soul, and her body tingled everywhere, ready to shatter from pure physical pleasure, but there was more…

  When he held her close, so close she could scarcely breathe—she didn’t want to breathe—she could feel his heart pounding a frantic rhythm against her own. It tripped the cadence to a dance that was all their own. She wanted to hold that sound, that sensation, to leave it imprinted in her mind and heart forever.

  And when it was over, he kissed her sweetly, hold her in his powerful arms and again she wanted to cry, this time, not from joy, but from sorrow. How could she have done this to him? To herself?

  Pulling away she made a miserable attempt to smile. “I have to go,” she said, unable to meet his gaze as she dressed, struggling to pull down the mountain of petticoats he’d pushed up around her waist and fasten buttons at the front of her gown.

  “Marissa, no. Don’t leave. What is wrong? Is it because of what we did? I truly want to marry you. Please, tell me you are all right.”

  Oh, God, she moaned internally. His hand on her elbow was compassionate and gentle, and still he had absolutely no idea that this was it, all they would ever have, or why it must be so. It was over. Over.

  “I’m... fine,” she said, taking a step away, her legs leaden. “I just need to get back to Carolyn’s.”

  “I understand. Let me get dressed. I’ll walk you home.” He turned to find his shirt and trousers, and she took the opportunity to flee.

  She left his house at a dead run. A fissure the size of the Grand Canyon cracked straight down the middle of her heart. I’m no better than Brian, she told herself, sprinting across the street and causing a team of huge horses to swerve in their path. Harsh, silent sobs tore from her burning lungs and after several blocks of running she didn’t merely feel as if she were suffocating, she actually was. Near collapse, she ducked into an alley, silent tears streaming down her cheeks.

  Craig would live, she decided. If she could survive Brian Whitely’s betrayal, then Craig Langston could survive hers.

  But could she live without him?

  * * *

  Slumped exhaustedly over a desk at the hospital Marissa pretended to roll bandages while she dozed. She hadn’t slept well in days, searching tirelessly for a way home and fearing the moment her resolve to leave this place, leave Craig, would shatter. Of course whenever the resolve wavered the whispers about the “lady doctor from Atlanta” helped to steel her will. Traitor… whore… and of course the uncouth propositions, “Hey, lady doc, how much to have you come by my place tonight?” She couldn’t stay here. She’d even taken to wishing upon every shooting star gracing the nighttime sky.

  “Marissa.”

  “Yes?” Her head snapped up and she jumped so quickly the chair toppled backward. “Sorry,” she mumbled in embarrassment as Genie and a balding gentleman of about fifty approached.

  She righted the chair and clung to its back as Genie said, “Marissa this is Sheriff Hudson. Sheriff, my niece Marissa McClafferty. She was with me when we first saw the man digging in the woods behind my barn.”

  In some surprise Marissa managed to smile at the gentleman. She’d all but forgotten the man with the lantern in the woods.

  The sheriff offered a polite greeting before providing the women with an update. “As you know I’ve had deputies watching your farmhouse for some time now, but up until last night we hadn’t found sign that anyone had walked through your woods much less been digging out there.”

  Genie nodded. “What happened last night, Sheriff?”

  “My deputy, Rogers, spotted a lantern in the woods behind the barn and high tailed it over to see what was going on. Whoever it was got out of there before he could catch him; and I’ll be damned if we could find anything later. I tell you we couldn’t find a single footprint much less any sign of digging. There was nothing. It was almost as though he saw a ghost out there!” The sheriff shook his head in bewilderment. “We’re going to keep an eye out, but I think you ladies should remain in town for the time being.” Marissa and Genie quickly assented.

  A ghost? Something, some bit of half-recognized knowledge hovered just on the periphery of Marissa’s mind, but in its exhausted haze her brain couldn’t quite wrap around the idea. A ghost. The haunted woods. Time travel. People disappearing every twenty years...

  “What is this about a man digging in your woods?” Craig’s deep voice successfully scattered the swirl of thoughts from her sleep deprived brain and sent her heart to tripping. “This isn’t about Paul Christenson following Marissa again is it?”

  “Dr. Langston.” Sheriff Hudson extended a hand and Craig took it. “No, Mr. Christenson seems to have been leaving this young lady alone, but a while back Mrs. Harris and her niece saw a man digging in the woods beyond their barn. We haven’t been able to find much, but I think it best they remain in town for the time being.”

  Turning his smoldering gaze to Marissa, Craig crossed burly arms over his chest. “That is why y
ou’ve been staying with Carolyn? Why didn’t you tell me?” His tone was accusing.

  “There was nothing to tell, Craig.”

  “You don’t think Paul could be the one in the woods?”

  Marissa only half-listened as Craig discussed the situation with the sheriff. She continued grappling with the thought foremost in her mind. A ghost? Disappearances every twenty years… She must appear to those on the other side of the portal as a mysterious disappearance, and—

  Marissa’s eyes snapped open. The Epiphany hit with monumental force. A ghost? Marissa thought of the wraithlike silhouettes she’d seen before being sucked into 1863. Could the man digging in the woods really be a window to the future? Could the entire legend about a murderer in the woods really be more about a wormhole through time? The wormhole back to her time?

  Slipping past Craig, who was deep in conversation with the sheriff, she hoped to escape without his immediately following, but she should have known better. He was hot on her heels in less than two heartbeats.

  “Marissa, stop,” he commanded. “I demand to know what is going on.”

  Damn it! Marissa swore to herself, she’d taken a wrong turn in her haste to escape and inadvertently backed herself into a corner. Whirling, she sought to get past him again. “Craig, I don’t have time for this. I have to go. Now!” She shoved against his chest. Dear God, she thought, momentarily dumbstruck as her palms struck the rock hardness of him. How can any man be so damned solid?

  Shaking her head, she squeezed past him, but Craig would have none of it. Seizing her about the waist he pressed close, backing her up until she hit the wall, forcing her to look into his eyes.

  His breath was hot on her face as he whispered, “Where are you going, Marissa?”

  “None of your business.” She was trapped between the solid wall of brick at her back and the solid wall of flesh at her front.

  “None of my business? You agreed to be my wife which makes wherever you’re running off to very much my business.”

  “Your wife?” She sputtered in disbelief. “I realize the words yes and sex sort of rhyme, but where I come from they do not mean the same thing. I never said I’d marry you!”

  “Well, where I come from yes and sex do mean the same thing when immediately preceded by a marriage proposal.” The hurt in his eyes wrung her heart until she was certain blood no longer flowed through it. “You said you loved me, Marissa.”

  “I said I think… I…” Craig shifted even closer, pressing the length of his hard frame provocatively against her, effectively scattering the remnants of her argument to the wind. His eyes burned into her with an intensity that bordered fire and once again she sensed his fire seeping into her. Paralyzed she could nothing but allow her lids to flutter closed and accept the gentle caress he bestowed upon her lips.

  All too soon a voice pierced the intimate shroud enveloping the pair, finally dragging them apart. “Dr. Langston! You are needed in the operating room.”

  “This isn’t over,” Craig growled huskily, pulling her roughly against him. Before she could mount any sort of protest he took her lips in another hot kiss.

  Abruptly breaking off the exchange Craig strode without a backward glance out of the secluded hall, leaving her completely alone.

  Her heart shattered. If her theory proved true, this was the last time she’d ever see him.

  Edge of Time 230

  Nine

  Craig rushed with determination along the busy streets of Charleston. Of all the days to be unable to escape that infernal hospital it had to be today! Marissa had left in a variable huff near an hour ago and after their rather bizarre conversation he was near desperate to speak with her, and discover what the hell was going on.

  He should have realized something was amiss after they’d made love, but he’d been too lost in his own bliss, too ecstatic to have won her, to recognize that even as she gave herself to him she was pulling away. Until now he’d never entertained the thought of not being with her. And now he couldn’t stand it.

  After reaching Carolyn Reed’s house he took the stairs two at a time. “Is Marissa home?” he demanded before Carolyn managed to open the door more than a few inches.

  Startled Carolyn shook her head. “No, I’m afraid she went out for a ride some time ago. But you’re more than welcome to wait for her.”

  In total frustration he raked a hand through his hair. “No, I’ll try back later. Thanks anyway.” Turning on a heel he strode away deep in thought. So she’d gone for a ride? She should know better than to go off alone! Ridiculous as the accusations were she was a suspected Yankee spy, for Christ sake!

  It took another fifteen minutes to retrieve his buckskin gelding, Jeb, and his outlook on the future grew bleaker by the second. Being with Marissa was better than anything he could have imagined, and to think of life without her… That life quite simply was not worth living.

  He loved her.

  He loved the way she stubbed her toe ten times a day, and the way her face flushed red when she swore about it. He loved the way she compulsively cleaned and organized and then reorganized everything. And he loved the fact he knew her well enough to recognize that most of her reorganization efforts happened when she was upset.

  Turning up the dusty drive of the Harris farm Craig didn’t immediately see Marissa. Carolyn’s ancient bay grazed beneath a tree, that damned rooster was staring him down—really someone should just shoot the miserable creature and drop it in a stewpot—but the one he sought was nowhere to be seen. A rapid search of the house revealed no sign she’d been inside, and a quick surveillance of the grounds lent no clue as to her whereabouts. Grace and Fredrick must already be gone for the day as not even the older couple seemed to be around. Where could she be? Sweeping the gray cap of his head he raked a thoughtful hand through his hair, turning a slow circle about the front yard. The only place he hadn’t searched was… the woods.

  Would she really have ventured into those woods alone? Anxiously he glanced upward, nearly dark. The mysterious digger could be out there even now.

  * * *

  The woods were dark, forbidding, with an aura that screamed haunted. Mist curled around the trees and the air was so unnaturally still that Marissa jumped like a scared rabbit when a squirrel leapt from one branch to another. This was probably the stupidest thing she’d ever done, but it could be her one chance to get back home. The road back to television, a hot shower, and away from Craig…

  A strong fist gripped her arm in a steely vise.

  Sheer panic coursed through her and she jerked violently to escape her would be captor, cutting loose a bloodcurdling scream, though she knew there wasn’t another soul around. What was I thinking to come out here alone? Getting back to the future is not worth being murdered!

  Whirling, she beat ferociously at the man, attempting to hit, bite, claw, kick or whatever other measures would secure her freedom. It wasn’t until she caught a glimpse of intense blue eyes that she stopped fighting.

  “Jesus Christ, Marissa!” Craig stumbled back a step, holding a hand over his left eye where she’d struck him.

  “Craig.” Her eyes widened in alarm as she clasped her hands to her face. “Oh my God.” She stepped forward. “I am so sorry. I didn’t realize it was you!”

  Swiftly he yanked his head away from her probing hands.

  “Come on let me look at it.” She stood on tip toe to get a better look, but Craig stubbornly refused to move his hand. “Oh, I swear, doctors are the biggest babies!” She threw up her hands in a show of defeat. “It’s your own fault, you know. If you hadn’t snuck up on me this never would have happened.”

  Craig turned a dubious one-eyed look to her. “Is that so?” Finally daring to move his hand he tentatively opened the injured eye. “Damn it, what were you doing out here in the first place?”

  “Nothing.”

 
“Nothing?”

  “Nothing,” she repeated turning away from him. “Besides it’s none of your business!”

  “Marissa, there is someone, a madman for all we know, out here digging in the woods for reasons I’m sure only the devil knows. I therefore believe it is very much my business if you decide to come traipsing about the woods unaccompanied. Good God, you could have been killed!”

  “Oh, please.” Marissa rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. “You’re being melodramatic. I made short work of you.”

  “Touché.” He bowed in mock salute. “I never imagined such fury could erupt from a woman so small.”

  “That I can take care of myself is beside the point because it’s still none of your business what I do with my time!”

  Striding forward he shot back. “You are impossible! You know that?”

  “Thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment,” she retorted, giving him a show of her back again.

  “Well it wasn’t intended as one.” The tense muscle in his jaw bulged. “You still haven’t answered my question as to why you came out here in the first place.”

  She spun back around, mouth open. “I—”

  He raised a silencing finger. “And do not say that it’s none of my business.”

  Raising her chin in a haughty gesture she shrugged. “I was curious.” Curious? The excuse sounded ridiculous even to her so she covered with another spurt of anger. “Oh why do you care anyway?”

  “Rahhh!” Craig roared, taking a step back to glare at her. “How can you even ask that? I asked you to be my wife, goddamn it.” He clasped a hand over his chest for emphasis. “I love you! I don’t see any reason why there should be confusion as to why I care when you decide to go strolling through a madman’s backyard. Curious? God, Marissa!”

  She startled at the force of his words. He was shouting. He’d never shouted at her before. More than that… his anger bordered on rage and she stood squarely at the center of his wrath. His hands clenched into meaty fists. Abruptly he pivoted, driving one into a nearby tree. A shower of bark rained down on the forest floor.