“Can I ask ye something?”
We took our bowls of Stovie into the great room, lighting a fire and curling up under a blanket on the couch.
“Aye, of course.” I hand her a glass of wine.
Her cheeks are still flushed from her orgasm and she hides a grin. “Um… there was a moment, not that I was thinking clearly, but did ye come?”
“Goddamnit lass!” Now I’m the one who’s likely turning red. “That was so fecking hot. You turn me back into my component parts. I’m all dick and no brains. So aye, I pushed my cock against the counter and came in my sweatpants like a fecking teenage boy. Ya happy?”
“Kind of.” The poor lass’s shoulders are shaking; she’s trying so hard to hold back a laugh. “I thought so when ye went upstairs to change. I mean, it’s flattering. Also, it would be selfish for me to be enjoying something that good all by myself. Thank ye, though. My head feels so much better.”
“I did that forscience.”I point my finger at her sternly, “Dinnae ye forget it.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
In which there is girl talk and excessive energy drinks.
Arabella…
Logan slipped out of bed in the middle of the night, kissing my shoulder before my half-conscious self could ask where he was going. He dinnae send me a text with any information, and I’m not feeling like sending him one because of it.
So, when he wasn’t back by mid-morning, I went in search of Hamish. Nothing more humbling than having to ask my bodyguard where my husband is.
“Hey, Hamish. Would ye happen to know the whereabouts of your boss right now?”
He’s in another dark suit looking suitably stern and bodyguard-ish. “I must admit that I dinnae know, Mrs. MacTavish, but he did ask me to tell ye that you’re having a visitor around noon.”
“This dinnae seem like a lifestyle that encourages surprises,” I say sourly. Ah, there’s the slightest bit of a twinkle in his eye.
“Traditionally ye would be correct, Ma’am.”
My mysterious visitor turns out to be Xenia. I’d seen and met her briefly on the jet heading back from Copenhagen, but she seemed buried under a pile of laptops and not really in a mental space for a ‘get to know ye’ conversation. She looks like she should be at a country club meeting, planning one of the interminable galas I used to work at as a server. She’s even wearing a sweater set andpearls.
“Nice to see you again, Arabella. I can call you Arabella, correct?” She holds out her hand to shake mine in a well-bred way.
“Oh,pleasecall me Arabella. Since the insta-wedding with Logan, I’m getting nothing but Mrs. MacTavish this, and Ma’am that.”
“This does not surprise me,” she chuckles, “however, I’m about to make your day so much better.” Hamish and another dark-suited minion are carrying in a pile of boxes, and she leads the way upstairs to one of the guest bedrooms.
Part of me is wrestling with a fierce bout of jealousy. How doessheknow the layout of my husband’s house so well? And why am I getting so crabbit about it? I’ve been married to the man for… what. Four days?
This is a temporary thing,I remind myself.
It dinnae make me feel any better.
“I’m pretty familiar with all four of these houses in the Square,” she says with a bit of a knowing smile. “My partner Georges and I installed all their security features.”
“I see.” I’m embarrassed to be so transparent.
“So, Logan says you’ll be doing some remote tutoring so you’d need a good system for that. And since you’re starting your postgraduate program next fall, you’ll need a few security upgrades to-”
“I beg your pardon?”
Xenia’s pulling all manner of computer equipment from the pile of boxes, but she continues to face me, rolling her eyes as she speaks. “This comes as a surprise? Jesus Christ, thesemen… I’d like to tell you that this is the first time a MacTavish man has autocratically ordered big life changes for their new wife without her knowledge, but that would be a lie. You did know about the remote tutoring plans for your students at the Wallace School?”
“Aye, that I knew about,” I say wryly.
“Well, I noted in your background report that you were intending to return to school for your postgraduate degree in special education?”
