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“I can’t decide if you’re playing at some warped kind of seduction or if you’re daft. I have to tell you at this point, my money’s on daft,” drawled Reynolds in a teasing voice that belayed the steel in his eyes.
“You have to admit, she’s magnificent,” responded Sean.
“You don’t need to twist my arm to get me to agree with you, but I am warning you, Winter is not to be trifled with. If you play her false and she doesn’t kill you, I will.” The amused tone had left Reynolds’ voice and it now matched the dark aura of his eyes.
Sean grinned at him, beginning to like the lynx-shifter more than he’d thought possible. With a smirk dancing around his face, he made to follow Winter, looking back at Reynolds and waggling his eyebrows. Reynolds shook his head and laughed but made no move to follow or stop him.
He made the top of the stairs just in time to see her disappear through a door at one end of the hall. Sean looked down the other way to see a set of double doors leading into another room, presumably Reynolds. That settled it. They weren’t lovers, which was good as he’d hate to have to kill the lynx-shifter.
Making his way down the hall, he thought about barging in, and decided that for once, discretion might well be the better part of valor. He knocked softly.
Winter threw open the door. “What do you want?”
“At the risk of having you bring your whole clowder down on my head, you.” Seeing her bristle, he continued, “But as that seems to be a way off, I’m asking if you’ll do me a favor and help me understand what it is you do here at Windsong.”
He thought for a moment she would refuse him. Instead, she seemed to consider his words and then stepped back to allow him to enter her room.
“I have a bottle of hundred-year-old Macallan’s that Colby gave me for my birthday. Would you care to have a drink with me out on my balcony?”
“I take it you have something more than the warmth of your smile to keep the cold at bay?”
She laughed. “Maybe I was wrong; you might have a shred of a sense of humor after all. And yes, I have a lovely hand-crafted fire pit made by one of our artisans. He created it just for me and it heats the entire balcony without me having to worry about it catching things on fire. I like to sit out there when I have things to think about.”
“I would very much like to share a drink and some time with you,” he said gallantly.
Reynolds seemed to understand that Winter was more than what Sean had initially assumed her to be...more than a pleasing compilation of face and figure, more than a body to sink himself into when the need arose.
Her lethal skill set was one aspect of this: surprising, something that forced him to look past the assumptions and deeper, into the heart of the woman.
Reynolds wasn’t just trying to warn him of Winter’s lethal skills, but to try and guide him toward a different way of dealing with her. He didn’t like that the lynx-shifter knew her better than he did and the idea that his mate had endured the training necessary to acquire those skills was repulsive to his alpha sensibilities. And yet, if he was being honest, the very fact that she had done so and had acquired skills far beyond those of other she-cats in his clan turned him on in a way no other woman had ever been able to.
He looked around the richly paneled room. Unlike the other rooms he’d seen at Windsong, including his own, hers was not as heavily adorned. Instead of tapestries and small clusters of paintings or collections, there was a masterful painting of the Scottish Highlands over the massive fireplace. He walked over to observe it more closely.
“I didn’t know Hogson did a painting of the Highlands.”
“You know Hogson’s work?”
Sean nodded. “He did a number of works with Scottish villages as the subject. I didn’t know he’d gotten this far north.”
“It, too, was a gift from Colby. I’d just returned to Windsong. It was my birthday, and I was alone and feeling sorry for myself, which is stupid because you’re only alone at Windsong if you want to be. Colby’s says it’s my dour Scottish nature that makes me retreat sometimes. I think he might be right. Anyway, he knew I liked Hogson and thought it might bring me some comfort,” she said, handing him a tumbler with a good deal of what he knew to be outrageously expensive whiskey.
“The two of you seem to take a great deal of comfort in one another.”
“We’re good friends and we’ve saved each other’s lives more than once.” Sean growled and she narrowed her eyes. “If that’s you expressing some kind of misplaced jealousy, I ought to let you stew in your own juices. There is nothing, and I do mean nothing, romantic between Colby and me.” She shook her head as she opened the door to the balcony and a cold arctic blast hit him full on. “I promise it’s warmer once you sit down by the fire.”
“Why did you tell me that—about you and Colby, I mean,”
“I’m not sure. I guess I just wanted you to know that.”
“You remain unclaimed.”
“By my choice. I’ve had plenty of offers.”
Sean smiled ruefully. “Yes, the deputy was quick to inform me of that.”
She chuckled, a delightful feminine sound he found preferable to the giggle so many women used. He rather imagined Winter wasn’t above a good belly laugh if the situation called for it.
“Don’t hold it against Derek. He’s a good friend and he was just giving you a raft of shit. People who know who you are—not just the alpha of the Curaidh snow leopards—but that you had been bonded to me at one point…”
