“Again, I’m not the first MacTavish who started off with a wife that thought it was a temporary measure.” Rubbing my forehead, I try to control my temper. “And they’ve all turned out to be happy matches. Ours will be, too.”
Arabella’s lashes are a thick fan against her cheekbones; her skin is flushed faintly pink as she sleeps. She’s curled up against that cashmere blanket like a kitten and I’ve never been so jealous of a piece of fabric before.
“I have to be honest,” Michael grins, finishing his drink, “when I heard about your midnight trip to the registrar’s, I swear I heard the clip-clopping of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. You’re the last one of us I pictured settling down.”
“Old man, ye need to trick some innocent creature who has not met ye before and get her to marry ye before she realizes you’re about to become the next Chieftain of the MacTavish Clan.”
“I’m not old,” Michael scowls, “I’m thirty-three, ye arse.”
The truth is, Michael, the oldest son of our Chieftain Uncle Cormac, has been pretending for years that he’s not pining for Sophie. She’s the daughter of his family’s housekeeper and currently away at Uni. It seems mean-spirited to give him shite about it.
Maybe I’ll save that for the next time he tries to take the piss with me.
“Does Mum know yet?” I ask, knowing the news likely spread like wildfire through the clan before I even ravished my bride after the ceremony. Groaning silently, I try to will my unmanageable cock back down. Sporting a stonner in front of my father is unacceptable, even for me.
“Aye, of course.” His blue eyes are twinkling and I can tell he’s fighting a grin. “She’s wanting a face to face meeting as soon as possible.”
“Of course she is,” I groan.
“I was thinking that we could hire an instructor for weekly classes in sign language,” Kai offers.
“It’s a grand idea,” Da agrees. “Do ye know…” his voice drops to a murmur, “how long Arabella has before her hearing is completely gone?”
“Unlike my brother here, I dinnae want to paw through her private medical records. I’ll wait for her to tell me. But the sign language lessons are… thank ye. I appreciate ye wanting to be part of it.”
Kai shrugs. “She’s one of us. Of course we do.”
This is it.
This is why all the other infuriating, exhausting, ridiculous shite my family can come up with means nothing in the face of family loyalty. They’ve accepted Arabella in without a second’s hesitation; the same way we’ve welcomed every shell-shocked MacTavish bride.
My wife will find that her new family makes putting up with all my reckless, impulsive actions more than worth it.
Take the piss - UK slang for intentionally annoying someone.
Stonner - Scottish slang for an erection.
Chapter Sixteen
In which Logan is a high-handed bastard.
Arabella…
I already know my new husband is reckless and impulsive. Deadly. Loves his explosives. Spectacular in bed, at least from the bits and pieces my hungover brain has managed to patch together.
I’m adding high-handed to the list.
“Excuse me?”
Logan is rapidly texting someone as we lounge in the back of the black SUV, one of several that were lined up at the private airfield where we landed. Apparently, the MacTavishes dinnae bother with public transport of any kind.
“Ye moved my things withoutaskingme? That’s outrageous! That’s disrespectful!”
He has the nerve to look mildly surprised at my anger. “Well… not everything,” he allows. “I sent one of our female guards to pack your clothes. I’m not letting any man go through your underwear drawer.” He winks and I swear I just want to smack that grin off his face. “But just the essentials for now, aye? Ye can decide how you want to handle the rest.”
Looking out the window, I can see we’re nowhere near downtown Glasgow and my apartment. The SUV is heading toward Blythswood Hill, the most expensive real estate in the city.
“Why aren’t ye taking me home?”
