His hands come up on the counter on each side of me, hemming me in. “Join me in the library. You can pick out a book or watch something on TV.”
I can feel his body heat against my back, his breath tinged with Bordeaux. “I’m going back up to my room, I’m still tired,” I lie. “Goodnight.”
His hands slip away from the sink and he steps back. “Goodnight.” I watch him leave the kitchen, still gripping the counter because my treacherous knees are weak.
Chapter Twelve
In which Isla is wined and dined.
Dougal…
“How is she doing?”
It’s been ten days since I brought Isla to the lodge, and keeping up with my responsibilities in the real world is becoming difficult. My brothers have stepped in for me, but this can’t last much longer.
Cormac ran through crucial business talk quickly on the conference call, and now we’re winding down. Looking out the window, I see Isla pacing back and forth on the terrace. Her ever-present guards step up behind her as soon as she puts her foot on the grass. Glaring at them, she goes back to pacing on the flagstone.
“About as well as you might expect,” I chuckle as I watch her following the guard's patrol patterns. “She’s looking for a way out. She’s good. I’ve had to alter the guard’s rotation and patrol schedule every night.”
He chuckled. “You’re lucky she can’t fly the helicopter.”
“At this point, it’s probably the only thing keeping her here,” I agree.
“You’re going to have to decide when you can bring her back without her bolting like a spooked horse,” he says. “If you continue flying that helicopter in and out of there we’ll have to build an airport.”
“Each flight also increases the risk of someone finding out where we are,” I sigh, rubbing the back of my neck.
“She’s a smart lass, she understood the implications when she - reluctantly - agreed to marry ya’,” he points out. “Have you tried talking to her, getting to know her better?”
Rolling my eyes, I can feel a headache building.
“No, brother. I’ve locked her in her room aside from time out for beatings in the great room. Of course, I’ve tried to talk to her! She keeps away from me as much as possible. I insist we eat together but she answers in monosyllables. And I’m one charming bastard!”
He’s laughing, the heartless prick.
“The word has spread,” I groan, “people will be expecting to see us out together. Dragging her into cocktail parties in handcuffs isn’t a good look.”
Isla moves to the other side of the terrace, closely examining the pitted road leading from the lodge.
“Look. She’s the daughter of a Chieftain. The girl most likely would have ended up in an arranged marriage, she understands how this world works,” he says. “Sit her down tonight. Be honest about your future together. See how she handles it.”
Isla is doing pushups now, a cold, set expression on her lovely face.
“Aye,” I press my thumb and forefinger to the bridge of my nose. “It’ll go grand.”
Isla…
The sun’s setting when I join Dougal on the same terrace where I’d been studying my escape options all day. I doubt this is a coincidence.
“Angus said you wanted to see me.”
“Aye,” he pulls out a chair for me at the table, which is beautifully set with china and flowers. All the lanterns around us are lit, sending a soft glow over the rough stone of the terrace. “I thought we’d have dinner out here tonight. Ideally, before the sun completely sets. Once it’s behind the mountains, the temperatures drop like a bag of dirt.”
“Or a bag of bodies overboard at a certain port?”
“You remember our first meeting.” He gives me a grin that can only be described as evil. "I’m touched, wife.”
“Don’t be,” I say, hiding behind my wine glass, “it was such a troubling statement that I suspect most people could never forget it.”
