And now this didn’t sound so positive. “We’ve established, then, that ye dunnae like my hobby and that I’m too uncivilized for ye. Anything else ye’d care to stab me with?”
She tugged on one of his ears. “I’m not finished. There’s one thing—one only—for which I’m grateful to Captain Robert Vale. He made me seek out someone uncivilized—unscrupulous, I thought—who was proficient at wagering. I did not expect to like you, Aden MacTaggert. I did not expect to trust you. And I certainly did not expect to fall in love with you.”
His breath stopped for a good dozen beats of his heart. “But ye did, aye?”
She lifted up on her tiptoes and kissed him, achingly soft, on the mouth. “Aye,” she whispered.
Aden kissed her back, putting his palms flat on the table on either side of her thighs. “That’s more like it,” he murmured. “Now as long as everyone knows what’s afoot, I’d like ye to stay here today while I get a bit of sleep.”
“I can do that. But first I need to know what you’re planning.”
“I’ve told ye w—”
“No, you haven’t. You’ve said you’ll take care of things, and I’m assuming you mean to wager against him, but fifty thousand pounds, Aden? If you mean to tell me that number is in your reach, I will call you a liar.”
“Dunnae call me a liar.”
“Then tell me what is going on, for God’s sake!”
He could damned well understand why she didn’t want to be kept in the dark. The men in her life hadn’t done so well at protecting her, thus far. Aden shifted to sit on the edge of the table beside her. That way he could hold her hand. “I reckon it doesnae matter if I’m a better gambler than he is, however much my pride wants me to prove that I am.”
“That’s a fair beginning,” she commented.
“Thank ye for that. So I’ve been considering, and we only need one thing from Vale. The papers.”
“The papers worth fifty thousand pounds.”
“Aye, partner. We can win them, which isnae likely given that at any minute he could refuse to put them on the table or, worse, go get a special license and wed ye to keep me from interfering.”
“That is not acceptable.” Her fingers tightened around his.
“I agree. And I’ll nae allow it. Which leaves me one other way to get the papers.”
Her fair face paled. “Aden, you arenotgoing to kill him. As much as I want him to go away, you would be throwing away your own life, as well. And that… And that is not acceptable.”
“Because ye’d miss me, lass?”
A tear ran down her cheek, and he immediately regretted teasing her. Before he could apologize, though, she sighed. “I didn’t expect any of this, you know. I don’t need to marry; my parents have seen to that. I thought I might marry, if I found someone I could love, but I never felt any great urgency. I certainly didn’t mean to like you, much less love you. All of this”—she gestured around the breakfast room with her free hand—“is so far from anything I could have imagined that it doesn’t even seem real sometimes, except for the shivers running down my spine whenever anyone says his name.”
“I dunnae have a plan to kill him.” That wasn’t exactly a promise not to do so, but it would have to suffice for now. Because if everything else failed, hehadmade a promise to save her. And he would do so. Regardless.
“Then what?”
“Lass, he’s spent his entire adult life luring men into disaster and then offering them a hand up—in exchange for becoming his man, doing his bidding. He’s broken men and left ’em gasping and desperate for air. But I reckon in all that time he’s nae sat across from a MacTaggert. From me.”
“Considering that you just said you’re not likely to win, I hope your skill matches your confidence. You’re not the only one who pays a price if you lose.”
“Dunnae ye fret, Miranda. I know what the true prize is. And it’s nae the fifty thousand pounds.” He smiled at her exasperated expression. “Winning’s nae the only way to win.”
“I am going to punch you, Aden. Right now.”
“Well, I’ve nae wish to be punched.” Taking a breath, he told her what he meant to do, and how he meant to go about it. While he did gloss over a few of the details, from her expression and the alarming paleness of her face she’d caught enough to fill in the spaces he’d left empty.
“Aden, you can’t do that.”
He tilted his head at her. “Do ye see a hole in my logic, then?”
“Y… Well, no, but don’t you realize what it will mean?”
