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He was a man of contradiction. Once upon a time, he’d told me he couldn’t hack Scotland—it was too quiet and didn’t offer enough to keep him occupied.
“But I thought—”
“I miss home,” he said in a sad, soft voice.
I bit my lip and rubbed my eyes. “Yes, I miss home, too.”
“I miss the castle, I miss the land, I miss Harold and Morag. I miss everything. Miss letting the dog out to hunt and roam free.”
I smiled and sighed at the same time. “We can’t raise a baby in that castle.”
“I ken that,” he spoke softly, stroking my hair behind my ears. “Now we have the lodge, maybe I could start renovations on the castle.”
I searched his eyes, seeking the truth. “That’s what you want?”
“We could gi’ it a go, make a business out of it. How about it?”
“You’ve worked so hard on this house, Caelan.”
“Maybe I caught the bug and want to keep renovating.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re good at everything. You could do anything.”
He nodded, seeming to imply he knew how out of left field this was. “Things change, Flora. My love for you though, nae. Now I’ve been honest, I’m no gonna say it’ll be easy, but we’ll figure things out.”
Swallowing hard, I said, “I really thought it was that you were missing the job.”
He took a deep breath and grimaced. “I left that job a long time ago. The freelance gig was just… killing time. I was lost before I met you.”
Leaning forward, he kissed my nose. My cheek. Curled his fingers into my hair, then kissed me softly on the mouth, stirring my desire… despite him having serviced me plenty last night (our first time together since the birth).
“Caelan, if you could tell me about this mission, would you?”
He stared down his nose. “I wouldna.”
“Why?”
“Well, I’m gonna huv to do some crazy shit to get it done.”
I saw his dark sense of humour in those big hazel eyes of his and felt slightly reassured.
“When will you go?”
“When I’ve assembled my team.”
“Don’t they have one ready and waiting for you?”
He shook his head side to side, slowly. “I need a team who’ll care nought for rules, Flora. If they want someone to get this done, then they will damn well let me do it… my way.”
“I don’t like it, Caelan. Not one bit.”
“A week,” he said. “I’ll need a week to prepare.”
He forcefully rolled me so I was tucked into him and we were spooning. His arms were tight around me, the baby was quiet, then his deep breathing seemed to intimate I should go back to sleep. Just like that.
So I did.
***
