Page 24 of In Bed with a Highland Brute

“Questions?”

“About me past. I cannae bear it, and I willnae have our friends poking their noses into what is past. It is done.”

“What questions?” She turned to face him once more. They turned around one another, his hand wrapped around her waist in a different way. She was delicate, and he could direct her around the floor with that touch alone. When her eyes darted down to that touch, it made a heat stir within her.

This cannae be avoided. This attraction isnae going tae go away.

“Remember our agreement? Ye cannae ask me me secrets.”

She playfully narrowed her eyes.

“Ye are a man of many secrets indeed.”

“Dinnae pretend tae be an innocent soul in this.”

“Me? I am an innocent!”

“Ye? The escort?” he hissed. She pushed away from him at the right moment. Though it was choreographed to be a moment where the pair of them stepped apart, she put more vigor into it than was supposed to be there, and it caused entertained laughs from the crowd.

“Lover’s tiff already, eh?” one voice cried.

Murdoch leveled a glare at her, reminding her of what they were doing. When he offered his hand to her once more, turning her back in so that her body was pressed to his, she didn’t pull back.

“I cannae have me brother ever discover what I have done,” she whispered as he took one of her hands. With their bodies still pressed together, he walked her back. “If he kenned…” She trailed off, blinked, then her lips flattened together. Murdoch looked down at those lips.

“Dinnae look at me like that now!”

“Like what?”

“As if ye are going tae kiss me again.”

“It would complete the illusion, would it nae?” he reminded her.

“Murdoch!”

“Aye, all right.” He looked at her eyes again. “If ye and I come clean of this tae our friends, Avery would kill me fer hiring ye.”

“And I dinnae want Avery ever tae discover what I am doing or… or why.”

Avery longed to ask her what the ‘why’ was. How could a woman as demure and proper as Eloise end up being an escort in the first place?

Aye, she must have been desperate. What other cause is there?

Yet just as he had pleaded with her not to ask questions, he knew he could not ask the same from her now.

“So, we are in agreement,” Murdoch murmured, turning her under his arm. “We have tae maintain this ruse fer our friends fer now as we decide what tae dae next. Perhaps if yer brother believes ye dae care for me, then he willnae feel the need tae run me through with his sword.”

“Dinnae count on such a thought,” Eloise nodded her head to the edge of the crowd watching on. Murdoch followed her gaze as he saw Avery waiting for him, his arms tightly folded and that same crimson tinge of anger on his cheeks.

“Well, I can live in hope,” Murdoch murmured.

“Was that a jest? Aye, ye are capable of levity in moments of darkness.”

“Ye will keep the secret too then?” he asked, needing to have her agreement once more. “We willnae tell the four of them the truth.”

“I agree without hesitation.” She turned to face him, her hands on his shoulders as he took her waist. “They will never ken the truth.”

“Good.” He launched her into the air for the end of the dance, throwing her higher than Clyde could toss Harper. It made the crowd ‘ooh’ at the appropriate moment. When he caught her, he turned her back into his arm and tilted her backward, moving his face close to hers. His eyes flitted over every part of her face, noting that this time she hadn’t yelped in fear as she had done the time before. “Ye are starting tae trust me then, Eloise?”