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She smiled at him and held out her hand. He dropped his guitar to the ground and strode across his back garden, jumping the fence between the two cottages in one fluid movement.

David reached her and took her hand in his. Not one word was spoken.

The connection between them was sealed as a jolt of heat ran up Megan’s arm. He looked down at her, and his dark gaze held hers for a long moment before he took her in his arms and held her tightly against him.

Relief coursed through her body as he embraced her as though he’d never let her go. Warmth radiated through her and her heart drummed in her chest. She quivered with the effort of suppressing the emotion clogging her throat and wrapped her arms around his back.

“I heard my song.” She kept her voice soft and parted her lips as he lifted his head.

“I wrote it because I didn’t know where to look for you.” Holding her eyes with his dark gaze, his deep voice sent a shiver coursing through her.

“I know. That’s why I came back.”

Slowly his lips lowered to hers as though they had all the time in the world.

“I meant every word, you know.” He murmured against her lips and the vibration of his words sent the warmth rushing lower. “I love you, Megan. I want you in my life, wherever we are.”

His words filled her with joy and his touch drifted over her lightly; the sensation of intimacy held a promise of their future.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Two languorous days passed exploring each other and finding out about the other. Most of the time was spent in bed in David’s cottage. Megan hadn’t even entered the McLaren cottage.

She shivered as a finger ran lazily down her back. Propped on her stomach with her hands beneath her chin, she drank in the sight of David lying beside her on the bed. The look he returned went straight to her heart, cementing the feelings and words they had shared over the past two days.

Megan reached across and tangled her fingers in David’s hair, wrapping a curl around her finger. Rolling over onto her back, she pulled his head across to hers and slid her lips slowly over his.

“I still can’t believe I found you so easily.” She smiled as he deepened the kiss and she let his hair go as he lay beside her. His skin was warm against hers and his fingers trailed down her side. “It was meant to be.”

“Hey, I was trying hard over here too,” he said. “I wasn’t going to give up. Alice told me I would find you.” He raised himself up on one elbow. “You know I don’t understand all this time slip stuff, but she said she was a part of us finding each other.”

“Do you know where she ended up?” Megan wondered if David knew. He’d told her about Alice’s trip to hospital and her insistence in staying back in 1971.

“No, I often wondered. She’s never come back through the slip in the summers I have visited here. I’ve not seen anyone in her cottage until a particularly beautiful lady arrived a few weeks ago.”

Megan smiled sadly and touched his hand. “Beth told me. Alice passed away three years ago and she’s buried in the small cemetery in the village.”

David looked away and stared towards the window for a while. “She must have been close to eighty?”

“Yes, she lived to a fine age. I’m sure Beth and her family have no idea about the stones and her travels. She kept herself very private and lost contact with them as she got older. The cottage is the only remaining link to her.” Megan turned her head towards him and held his gaze. “A bit like a reclusive rock star I was in love with when I was a teenager. Very private.”

“No more travelling through stones?”

He nodded. “I have to go back to do some promotion for this album, and a couple of tours. Then for a few more albums and in about ten years for a reunion. Bear died in the eighties.” He leaned over and kissed her briefly. “Come on, lazybones. We’ve got a visit to make. Time to get up.”

Megan squealed as he slapped her bare bottom. Long legs and a sexy naked butt disappeared into the small bathroom and the shower began to run. He was right; they had a visit to make, but she’d join him in the shower first. She slid out of bed and followed him into the bathroom.

By the time they walked through the village and passed the Abbey, the sun was low in the western sky. They’d stopped at the village store and chatted to Jules as they’d bought a bunch of flowers to take with them. Streaks of pink and gold surrounded the low hills around them as David pushed open the gate to the small cemetery behind the Abbey. The air was still and quiet and a mystical sense enveloped them as they walked between the headstones.

“I’m sure she knows we got together.” David crouched beside a simple black marble plaque and read the words. “Alice Elizabeth McLaren, d. 10 November 2008. No birth date?”

“Beth said that was in her will. She stipulated there was to be no age on her plaque and they couldn’t understand why but they respected her wishes.”

“She was a sweet lady.” David stood and wandered over to another grave and Megan followed him and placed the last of the flowers next to the simple wooden cross.

“Bear was a good man, too.”

As they turned to leave the grave, a flash of light lit the sky and highlighted the three stone markers ahead of them. David took Megan in his arms and kissed her.