Page 20 of Scot of Seduction

“How was the journey? I imagine Catreena gave ye short shrift when she kenned ye had tae stay a night on the journey.”

“Ye could say that.” When Tad said nothing more, both Bran and Callum exchanged a look.

“Nothing more?” Callum said with a look of surprise.

“What dae ye mean?” Tad asked.

“He means that ye and Catreena usually argue so much, that we expected ye tae go on fer minutes at a time about how awful yer journey was. Nay? Nothing? Nay complaint tae make?”

“It was as ye would expect.” Tad purposefully shrugged. “Nothing more.” The memory of the kiss flashed across his mind, as did the moment he had pressed into her neck, nuzzling close to her as if he was a pup, desperate for attention.

What kind of friend have I become?

He looked at Bran and the guilt raged.

Bran and Callum exchanged a baffled look between them again.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Tad knocked the whisky down his throat, feeling the familiar burn. It had to be his third dram at least that night, an unusual thing, so much so that Ilyssa was looking at him suspiciously across the table.

No one else seemed to have noticed. They were all busy laughing at some tale Callum was regaling about the scouts recently having fallen into a river. Catreena seemed especially enchanted by the tale. She was hanging on every word Callum was saying, her almost white hair dazzling in the light of the candles set on the table as she turned to look at him.

Tad’s hand itched to pick up the tankard beside him again when he suddenly found Bran snatched the cup away from him. Silently, his friend passed it to Ilyssa, who thrust it further down the table, beyond his reach.

Tad glowered at the pair of them. Neither of them acknowledged what they had done with words, still giving their full focus to Callum.

I’m fine. I havenae had too much.

Yet Tad was now looking around for another way he could get a drink. It didn’t help that Callum was filling up Catreena’s own cup of mead. When she reached for her tankard, their fingers brushed together. They both moved back an inch from one another, small smiles appearing on their lips.

Tad beckoned his hand at Bran.

“Give me the tankard,” he whispered beneath the cover of conversation.

“Nay chance.” Bran shook his head. “I dinnae ken why ye are drowning yerself in whisky tonight, but it isnae a good thing, Tad.”

He didn’t want to hear it. He waited until Bran looked away, then his gaze slipped back to Catreena.

She was laughing joyously at something that Callum had said to her. It made Tad’s stomach clench tight.

She doesnae smile that way with me.

He stared at her, quite unashamedly, thinking of the way in which they had been so close to one another the night before. The way she had taken over when he had lost control. The power she had had, the comfort, the way he had curled around her as they had slept…

“What’s wrong?” Bran asked, just as fresh laughter spilled from the other side of the table.

“Hmm?” Tad jerked his head toward Bran. “What?”

“What’s wrong? Because ye are staring at Catreena like the weight of the world is on yer shoulders.”

“I’m just thinking about Cillian Grant’s soldiers,” Tad lied, fearing what Bran would make of the truth. “I want ye all tae be safe here, and that night… it pains me tae say it, but she was in danger, Bran.”

“I ken.” Bran sighed. “Catreena isnae always good at recognizing when she is in danger. We’ll guard her here. Me braithers were right, she’ll be safer here.”

“Hmm.” Tad didn’t know what to say to such a thing. It was true, she would be safer from the Grant soldiers here, but whether she was safe from him, now she was in Tad’s castle, he wasn’t so sure. Catreena was featuring in far more wild imaginings of his than she had ever done before.

Catreena and Callum fell about laughing again. She tapped his shoulder, good-naturedly, and Tad’s hand clamped tightly around the knife he clutched, though he had showed little interest in eating at all. It shouldn’t have bothered him that Catreena and Callum were getting along, for Callum was his good friend as well as his advisor, but it did. It bothered him greatly indeed.