Sin cast them a sullen glare. “They started it.”
“Oh well, that makes it right then.” Tsking, she cast a chiding look to all of them. “Now, children, I have work to be about. What say the five of you make nice and return to your food?”
“My stomach votes for food.” Simon stepped forward and something in his demeanor reminded her of a lad trying to make amends for his wrongdoing. “For the record, I wasn’t in on this. I was merely an innocent observer.”
She fought down her smile. “I am quite sure, Simon, thank you.”
He nodded and left.
Reluctantly the MacAllisters followed, but they kept glancing back over their shoulders as if to see if Sin would follow. No doubt, they intended to renew their bloodlust at first chance.
As Sin started to go, Callie caught his hand and pulled him back toward her. She reached up and brushed her hand through his tousled hair. “You know, I think I like this teasing side of you.”
Immediately, she saw a shadow descend over his eyes. He pulled away, but didn’t go far.
“Where were you last night?” she asked. “I know you didn’t return to bed.”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Why?”
He shrugged.
Callie moved toward him, wanting him to open up to her again like he’d done last night. “Sin, why must you withdraw from me? I thought we had settled some of this last night.”
Sin swallowed as he saw the hurt in her eyes. He wanted desperately to reach out, pull her into his arms and kiss her until they were both blind from the pleasure of it. He wanted to feel himself inside her again. To hold her for the rest of eternity and yet he dare not.
This morning had taught him well the depth of her clan’s hatred for him. They would never accept him and he would never ask her to leave them. They were her family and though she might call him that, too, he didn’t believe it.
Callie barely knew him.
She’d spent her life caring for her clan, having them care for her. There was a bond between her and her people he refused to shatter.
What the two of them had...
It was unlike anything he’d ever experienced, but that didn’t really mean much to a man who had seldom had anything at all.
It was lust he felt for her. Petty and sordid. There was nothing more to it. He was incapable of anything better than that and he knew it.
“I’d best be getting back to my brothers.”
Callie sighed wistfully as her husband left. He hadn’t bothered to answer her.
“How can you stand to let that Sassenach touch you?”
She gasped in startled alarm as she heard Dermot’s voice from the loft above. She looked up trying to see him through the breaks in the wooden planks, but couldn’t find him. “What are you doing up there, Dermot MacNeely?”
She heard a soft, girlish giggle followed by him shushing the lass. Callie’s face flamed at the thought of what they had overheard and what the two of them had been doing up there.
Dermot jumped down from the loft. Belting his plaid, he approached her. “You need to send him back to England where he belongs.”
She glanced to the ceiling where the lass was still hidden, but obviously would have little trouble overhearing them. “This is not a discussion I plan to have with you. Most especially not here.”
Dermot grabbed her arm and hauled her outside. “There is talk in the clan. If you don’t send that Sassenach home, there are those who will do it for you. And he’ll be going back to Henry in pieces.”
She pulled her arm from his grasp. “Who is saying that?”
“You know who.”
