Page 38 of What a Highlander’s Got to Do

“The point is, I need you two to keep Celia Swofford at bay, so I can . . .”

“So you can what?” Tully prodded.

Blast. Were they really his best friends? “You know.”

“Seduce this woman from nowhere?”

That. And other things.

“Just promise me. Promise me you’ll keep Celia out of my way.”

“All right,” Penny said, but Tully narrowed his gaze.

“Not so fast, my good man. Don’t you think we should at least get a glimpse of this lovely flower first? I might want her for myself.”

It was a damn good thing he wasn’t too deep in his cups, or he might have smashed Edward James Tully right in his patrician nose.

It wouldn’t have been the first time.

Penny laughed at his expression, which made him want to clobber him as well. “My friend, you have it bad. You know you’re going to have to tell us about this lovely flower.”

“Begin with where you met her,” Tully commanded.

Nick set his teeth. He knew these men. He knew them well. They wouldn’t let up until they got what they wanted, and it would be better to spill it now than to have it come up at a more awkward time.

And they excelled at awkward timings.

“I met her in the country.”

Penny’s brows rose. “Never say she’s a country girl.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Tully asked. “I’ve had more than one excellent tussle with a country girl. Did you have a tussle with her?”

Nick didn’t respond, but his blush might have spoken for him, because both his friends guffawed and slapped their knees and were otherwise annoying for several minutes.

“Well, did you?” Penny asked.

“None of your business.”

Tully put out a lip. “I thought we were your friends.”

“You are,” Nick said. “Which is why I prefer not to give you too many details. I know you.”

“I believe he’s insulting us,” Tully remarked to Penny, who nodded.

“I do believe you’re right.”

“One would think, if one were asking his friends to do one a tremendous favor—”

“Such as taking the Celia Swofford bullet for him—”

“Well said. Yes. If one were asking his friends to do him a tremendous—and dangerous—favor, one would forbear insulting said friends in the asking of it.”

“One would.”

“Oh, sod off,” Nick muttered into his glass, which he found exasperatingly empty.

Both Tully and Penny laughed.