Page 18 of Scot of Seduction

Who!?

The anger made his blood boil.

“Cat?” he called to her, moving around the room fast and packing as quickly as he could. He knew the sooner they were out of that room and far from the memory of their intimate conversations from the night before, the better. “Little Catreena?” he called, rounding the bed and shaking it a little beside her, just enough to wake her.

“Dinnae call me that,” she said sleepily. “I told ye.”

“Ye’ll always be little Catreena tae me.”

“I ken.” Her eyes slid open to arrow slits. “That’s what angers me so much.”

He felt a fierceness in his chest toward her, not of anger, but of passion instead. He sighed deeply, his thoughts a whir.

She was too young for him. Always had been, always would be. That’s what he had told himself for a long time now. Yet, Catreena was ten only years younger than him.

That’s nae so great a difference, is it?

His eyes slid down to her lips once again. He wasn’t even sure if she noticed, though she sat up in the bed.

“We need tae get going,” he said, turning to business again, his tone plain and matter of fact. “We dinnae want Cillian Grant’s scouts tae have a chance tae find out we’re here. We’ll get tae the MacBean castle this morning. Ye’ll be safe there.”

“Aye, aye, I ken. Ye seem tae think it more impenetrable than our own castle.” She swung her feet off the bed.

“And one more thing.” He halted by the door, glancing back toward her. “Yer braithers dinnae find out we slept side by side, aye?”

“Agreed.” She nodded heartily. “Somehow, I think going and singing joyfully about it tae Bran today wouldnae go down well, dae ye?”

He hurried out of the door as fast as he possibly could. All the Mackintoshes he considered like family, but he was particularly close to Bran, and they were now brothers-in-law. He could quite easily imagine Bran’s friendship turning to hatred, however.

“He’d gut me fer this,” Tad muttered as he waited in the corridor for Catreena to be ready.

Catreena felt a calm settling over her as the MacBean astle came into view. On a rocky outcrop overlooking the ocean, it was perched high, quite above any other landmass or building around it. At the foot of the hills and nestled near the beach was the local town, busy as it always was with people, but even more so on a sunny May day like today. The stony path leading to the curtain walls of the castle was flanked with luscious green grass and bushes, leading all the way to the white-stone courtyard that fluttered with emblems and flags, reflecting the MacBean clan and its friendship with the Mackintoshes.

Catreena looked around as they entered the courtyard. As much as she wouldn’t admit it to anyone, it did feel safer there. Because of its position, it could be more easily defended in the heat of battle. But there was something more to it. She had known this castle for so long, visited it so many times, it was rather like a second home.

Tad halted his horse alongside hers as Catreena slowly descended, brushing a hand down the mare’s nose, who snorted softly at her touch. She thought Tad watched what she was doing rather intently, then put it down to her imagination.

“Are ye all right?” Tad asked, jumping down from his own horse and coming to stand beside her. He cast a glance to the other soldiers and guards, but as they had moved off to deal with the other things, it left them quite alone to talk in whispers. “Ye have barely said a word tae me all morning.”

That is because ye seem tae be avoiding riding beside me.

She clamped her lips tight, not wanting this petty thought to enter her head.

“I was surprised, that’s all,” she whispered, her thoughts going back to what had upset her when she woke that morning.

“By what?”

“I didnae see ye get out of the bed this morning,” she said simply, watching as his brow furrowed a little.

“Is that never talking about it again?” he asked huskily.

“I imagine ye leapt from the bed, didnae ye?” She laughed, trying her best to make it seem as if she had not minded, and really found it quite amusing. “Were ye so shocked at the idea of sleeping beside me?”

His lips fell open and she turned her back on him. She couldn’t possibly describe her true feelings, that she had felt isolated, alone, like he was repelled by her. She rather suspected he had run from the bed when he realized how close they had become beneath those covers after the nightmare. He had been a different man in the night – quiet, vulnerable, even hurt. It was someone she wished to care for, someone she wished to protect.

The man I saw last night, I willnae be seeing again.

The doors to the keep flew open.