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Liam shook off the sudden melancholy. Kris was here; so was he. Yes, she’d leave, but that was for the best. If she stayed—

He stiffened, pausing mid-step as Kris continued on. They came unstuck, and Liam was suddenly as cold as if he’d just dived into the loch.

“You all right?” She offered her hand. He stared at it for several seconds before he took it with a nod.

Once they were away from the village, the night grew even darker. They said nothing; however, the silence wasn’t awkward. Liam had never been with a woman who didn’t want to talk all the time. Not that he’d been with so very many, at least not lately, despite what that ass Dougal Scott had implied.

The man had never liked him, and the feeling, even before tonight, was mutual. Dougal Scott was just one of those people who rubbed Liam, and a lot of others, the wrong way.

Liam glanced at Kris. Should he say something about Dougal’s implication that Liam was the village lothario?

Probably.

Before he could, a movement near the loch distracted him. There, in the trees, a shadow slid from one to another and then on to the next. Silent, stealthy, whoever lurked there was very good. But Liam knew the banks of the loch better than anyone, and that shadow could slither all it liked, but that shadow did not belong.

Kris stared straight ahead, oblivious. Why wouldn’t she be? She didn’t have the training, the experience, the background that he had. It was only through pure luck that she’d survived thus far.

The idea of someone stalking her, perhaps killing her, made his skin prickle and his heart beat ever faster. The mental image of Kris in the loch with Nessie scared him more than anything had in—

Actually, nothing had ever scared him. He did not like that suddenly something could.

Liam considered running into the forest and grabbing the culprit, but if he did, he’d have to leave Kris alone, and he couldn’t.

He’d see her safely home. Tucked into bed with the door locked.

The door. The lock. He’d broken it.

“Maybe you should stay at a hotel,” Liam murmured.

“Why?”

He could barely see her face; the night was so damn dark. “Your door’s broken,” he said. “Ye shouldnae stay there until it’s fixed.”

“It is fixed. Rob had a note on his door. I thought that maybe you—?”

“No,” Liam murmured. He’d been a little … busy all day. He always was.

He didn’t care for that note, although why would anyone who wanted to do her harm have Rob fix the door?

They reached the cottage, and Kris used her new key on the new lock. Liam was so glad to see it. If the door had still been broken he would have had to stay here; then he wouldn’t have been able to slip out and discover who had followed them.

His luck, it would be Dougal Scott. The ass.

“Dougal,” he began. “What he said…”

Liam paused. Dougal didn’t know about Liam’s past—he couldn’t—the man had just assumed. Unfortunately, he’d assumed correctly.

Kris walked inside and switched on the light. “Which is it?”

“Which?” Liam repeated.

“Effy said you were too long alone. Dougal implied you have more women than the Pasha of…” She spread her hands. “Pashaville.”

Liam wanted to smack both Effy and Dougal, or perhaps knock their heads together. Kris had been lied to so often she trusted no one at all. He wished he could say that she should trust him, but he was lying, too, and he wasn’t going to stop. But he could clear up this misunderstanding.

Liam shut the door, then crossed the room until he stood so close Kris had to crane her neck to see his face.

“Both,” he said.

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