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He laughed into my hair and curled around me, spooning up close. He held my breasts in his hands and didn’t think to change his shorts. He wasn’t bothered and neither was I.
“What did ye think when you first saw me?” he asked.
“Some women were looking at you and I didn’t like it.”
“Really,” he coughed.
“I didn’t like it. I still don’t like it.”
Silence. A few minutes passed.
“I huvna… not even with everything that happened. I huvna been with anyone else. Unless you count Eric’s dirty mouth.”
I processed that for a while, eventually whispering, “What was that all about?”
“It was me, telling him I hated him. That I was only doing it with the hope he’d get over it and finally leave us alone. That I despise him. Could ne’er want him. Ever.” Caelan took a breath. “Only with your scent in the room and the thought of you did I make it. Just to get him to see, he means nought to me.”
I swallowed hard. “It was horrible. How he took it. How he didn’t seem to mind.”
“Aye, I ken how it must’ve looked. That’s the way he wanted it, though. And I wanted him to have it, take it, and be done wi’ it, once and for all.”
I stroked my fingers through his forearm hair. “He won’t ever be done with us, will he?”
“I’ve a mind to agree.”
He kissed my neck and cradled me tight. The wind whooshed through the room and he tossed a sheet over us. It was the last thing I remembered as we sank into sleep.
Chapter Forty
~ Caelan – Past ~
It was their first night at the castle together. Earlier that day, she’d tried to drown herself in the loch and he’d nearly had a heart attack. He thought she had a death wish or, in her grief for her father, was trying to make herself feel alive. It had nearly put him in a tailspin—watching her almost drown, barely able to swim to him with those leaden arms of hers—and he was not one for letting situations get to him. He was in love with Flora by then though, hook, line and sinker. Not only beautiful, but she was clever and witty. Broken and in need of protection.
He couldn’t help it; he had a fetish for women in need. When he first met Dani, she’d had a violent ex and that’s how they got together. Even though he hadn’t loved her, it had continued on for some time. Mostly because he was a dick. A little because he didn’t like being alone. When Dani died in action, he was more upset than he’d anticipated and became a Grade A wanker, putting it about.
Those were the times when Eric would encourage, “Go on, give her one for me.”
He was ashamed of himself for his past. That wasn’t really him. He’d never been a shagger, not until Dani died. Eric didn’t help, telling him he was free now, he could do what he wanted.
Back to Flora. He had a sense this woman was broken. In ways he couldn’t imagine. Deep beneath the hardened shell, she was really very vulnerable—and that night, he was about to find out just how much.
After eating their pheasant pie, and a pudding Morag had made that might have sunk a ship let alone a human being, Flora and he made small talk. She asked about the land, his age, his horses, such like. He was completely unprepared for the direction the conversation eventually took.
“You’ve never been married, then?” The food and fire had made her glow and he was busy thinking about her legs in that jumper dress. Throwing her onto the floor and ravishing her…
“Nae.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not in my nature, I suppose.” Too many questions for this early in the day. He didn’t really know what he was saying; he was only trying to stop her going deeper.
I’ll marry you, one day, though, he thought.
“So, you wouldn’t ever marry? What about kids?”
Warning bells! “I’m no sure.”
“I see.”
