Page 51 of What a Highlander’s Got to Do

“Your sister is hunting me.” He was damn lucky it was utterly inappropriate for her to follow him here, into this den of masculinity and cowardice.

“Your fault,” Penny said. “For coming tonight.”

“I had to come tonight. She was going to be here,” he muttered.

“She?” William chirped. “She who?”

Penny leaned against the mantel and chuckled. “Nick has his eye on—”

“No one,” he snapped.

“Yes,” Penny said primly. “No one from nowhere. She’s quite lovely.” He glanced at Nick. “Or not.”

“Well, you can’t leave it at that,” William said. “Do tell me more.”

But William lost Nick’s attention as Tully strolled into the room, looking far too smug. He sketched a salute and made his way to the whisky table. Nick joined him there.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he snarled.

There was no call for Tully to smirk. “It was the polite thing to do, my man. Saving a damsel in distress.”

Nick nearly choked on his own fury. “She wasn’t in distress!”

“She most certainly was. I could see it if you could not.”

“Don’t be an ass.”

Tully clapped his palm to his chest. “Me? An ass? You’re the one who didn’t tell her.”

“Tell her what?”

Nick’s vexation rose to monumental proportions as William’s irritating query floated from behind him. The bastard had followed him over. “Nothing!” he barked.

“I say. A woman with no name, who hails from nowhere. Whom you’ve failed to tell nothing . . . You can see why I am curious.”

“It’s none of your business,” Nick snapped. “All of you.”

“It is an intriguing story, I must say,” Tully said. “And she is intriguing as well.”

“Oh, you’ve met her?” Penny asked, his eyes bright.

“Indeed, I have. We danced.”

“Do tell.”

“She’s every bit as fabulous as we were led to believe.”

“Who is this woman?” William wailed. “I must know.”

Nick attempted to quell his snarl, with little success.

“In fact,” Tully said smugly, “I will be paying her a call on the morrow.”

Oh. This was the hell. Absolute hell. “You most certainly will not.”

“I will, indeed.” Tully smiled. “Do you happen to know what kind of flowers she favors?”

Daisies, but he wasn’t telling Tully that. He simply glowered.