He moved his arm, tugging her in a little closer against his side. “Then I’d reckon ye had someaught to hide from me, and I wouldnae be nearly as friendly as I have been.”
“‘Friendly’?” she repeated, lifting an eyebrow. “Is that what you’ve been?”
Belatedly it occurred to her that she shouldn’t bait him, but he only sent her an unreadable sideways glance. “Ye’ve nae idea, lass. Now. Has anyone been into Ian’s papers or his office since he passed?” he asked.
“My father came to collect an account book, and there was a schedule His Grace needed, and I started to straighten things up, but nothing else. And that was only the first fortnight or so. Only the maids and perhaps Duffy have been in there since.”
“Who collected the schedule?” he pursued, his voice hardening as she mentioned Dunncraigh.
“Donnach. They were all in business together. That doesn’t signify anything nefarious.”
“Nae to ye, perhaps.I’mnae that naïve.”
Naïve. No one had called her that in a very long time. They walked past an oak tree with one down-hanging branch, an old swing with frayed rope still hanging above the grass. She’d swung in that tree, when she and her father came down from Inverness to stay at Geiry Hall with the MacCreaths. It seemed like another lifetime ago, but she could still remember the wind rushing past her, and her happy shrieks as Callum pushed her far higher than she should have allowed herself to go.
But she wasn’t that girl, any longer. She was eight-and-twenty, for goodness’ sake, with a six-year-olddaughter and a third of an empire to manage—at least for the moment. She’d never forgotten her responsibilities before now, but just walking beside Callum caused all sorts of odd, uncomfortable, heady thoughts to surface. She didn’t like it. He didn’t fit with any of her plans.
“I should have asked,” she made herself say, “do you have a family? Children? A wife?”
He glanced up toward the house. “Nae. I sold my horse here to buy passage to America, and sold everything else I owned to purchase some land in Kentucky. From there I bartered for what I needed, did some fur trapping and scouting until I could put together enough blunt to begin distilling whisky. That’s nae a life for a woman, or a bairn.”
“But you said you were wealthy even without your inheritance.”
“Aye. I am now. And I live in a fort surrounded by trees and a million acres of wildlands, filled with bear, wolves, Indians, panthers, and winters that would put the Highlands to shame. I’m a powerful man there, because I damned well earned it with my own two hands. I’ve nae been celibate, mind ye, but I dunnae live a life that’s fit to share.”
“Youdidn’tlive a life fit to share,” she corrected, trying to ignore both his comment about celibacy and the nonsensical flash of… jealousy, she could almost call it, that made the fingers of her free hand coil. That made no sense. Almost the entire time she’d known him before his flight from Scotland, he’d had one young lass or another pining after him. He’dneverbeen one for celibacy. But seeing how magnificent he looked now, how single-minded and… centered he’d become, could easily be mesmerizing.
“This isn’t a fort surrounded by Indians and wilderness,” she continued, trying to find the reasonable toneshe’d meant to adopt. “You’re Lord Geiry, now. You have villagers and businesses here that require your attention.” She stopped, trying to pull him to a halt beside her. He likely could have kept going without pause while she dragged behind him in the mud, but instead he faced her. “You do mean to stay here, don’t you? In Scotland?”
“I’ve nae decided that yet,” he said, glancing over her head back toward the church. “I reckon that depends on whether I have to drag Dunncraigh to hell, or I can shove him into the pit.”
Her breath caught. “You truly mean you would sacrifice yourself for some… vengeance that you don’t even know is merited? Callum, that’s horrific.” And if for a brief moment she’d allowed herself to panic at the thought of being left alone again, he didn’t need to know that.
To her surprise, he gave a short laugh. “I’d have thought ye’d be happy to be rid of me.” He resumed walking, his firm grip over her hand keeping her moving with him. “Or am I wrong about that?”
“I suppose my answer depends on your plans,” she returned, wishing this odd… ease at being back in his company would go bury itself back in the graveyard where it belonged. No, not ease, precisely, because he continued to unsettle her. Trust, perhaps. She’d been injured in his company, but never more than scrapes and bruises. Looking to him for protection, though—logically it made no sense. For goodness’ sake, she had a safe, predictable, kind beau for that. “I want to be happy you’ve returned. But the last time you were here, you were chaos personified. You can’t deny that.”
“Nae. I cannae.”
“I’m not so certain that’s changed.”
Callum nodded, unexpectedly veering them off the path and heading them toward the stable. Did he wantto look at the phaeton now? She would have preferred that he examine the vehicle by himself; personally she didn’t like being anywhere near it.
At the side of the stable, the one farthest from the house, he stopped and dropped his arm, loosing her grip on his sleeve. His gaze holding hers in a way that made her heart skitter a little, he dug into one of his pockets and produced a five-pound note. Wordlessly he took her hand and placed the paper in it, curling her fingers over the money.
“What are you—”
“I dunnae want to be nice right now,” he murmured.
Callum put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back against the stable’s exterior wall, then leaned down and took her mouth in a hard, warm kiss. Heat speared through her, putting the lie to whatever she wanted to tell herself about how wrong this was and how much she didn’t want it. Want him.
With a low moan he tilted her head up, plundering her mouth. Rebecca grabbed onto his lapels, holding on both to keep her balance and because she had the mad desire to climb inside him, to be so close that no space existed between them. His tongue invaded her mouth, tangling with hers, his breath hard against her cheek.
When he tugged her gown up past her knees, his big hand splayed along her bare thigh, she groaned. God, she could feel him, feel his arousal pressed against her through his trousers and her muslin skirts. And she wanted him. For a year she’d slept alone, and even before that except on the occasions Ian visited her bed, and abruptly it felt like decades. Eons.
Thank goodness she knew better than to fall for him. Rebecca kissed him back, hot and openmouthed, wondering if he had any idea that if he’d kissed her ten years ago as he was doing now, she likely would have throwncaution, logic, and self-preservation to the wind and gone with him anywhere he wished.
A good portion of her still wanted to do so, still felt the pull of him against her better judgment. But she was a woman grown now, and one with a child and responsibilities and employees and all of those futures resting on her shoulders. And he… He wanted revenge, and had openly declared that he didn’t care if he lived past the moment he found it.
