AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I can hear voices, but I can't understand the words they're saying.
Oh, screw this. I am not going to stand here waiting to find out what's going on. I shuffle over to the porch window and finally get a look at the visitor.
She's a beautiful redhead. And she just mashed her lips to Thane's.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Thane
I peel the woman's mouth away from mine and grasp both her wrists, raising them between us. The shock I'd experienced when she stepped out of her car hasn't quite worn off yet. And I dinnae know quite how to respond to this situation, especially since I can see Rebecca watching us through the window. "What the bloody hell are you doing here, Ava?"
"You asked for my help. I'm here to oblige you."
"Oblige me? Yer bum's oot the windae."
Ava cants her head to the side, which makes her short haircut sway a wee bit. Her dark-brown eyes always have a canny glint to them. "I discussed the problem with my superiors, and they agreed that I should indeed race to your rescue. You could at least thank me. It was a bloody long drive from the Inverness airport to this depressing little backwater region."
Backwater? Depressing? Most folk tend to become kinder as they age. Ava has not softened one iota.
She tips her sunglasses down to appraise my hovel. "Dear lord, please tell me that you at least have indoor plumbing."
"Oh, aye, and we discovered the telephone a few weeks ago too. But we're still working on that newfangled thing called the internet."
Ava pushes her sunglasses up again and sashays past me. "Let's go inside, darling. We have a great deal to discuss."
I move in front of her to block the way. "Tell me why you're here, Ava, or I'll toss you into the boot of your car and drive you back to the airport. Then, I'll put you in a box and send you home."
Ava removes her sunglasses and shakes her head. "You've changed, Thane. What happened to the man who would discover a geospatial anomaly and race out into the field to gather more intel? You were fearless, and it was such a turn-on. I remember all those times when we would get so randy that we would shag anywhere, anytime."
A throat-clearing behind me makes me wince---because I know who made that sound.
Naturally, Ava peers past my body to see the lass who has just walked out of the house. "Well, well, what do we have here? Must be your older sister."
"Haud yer wheesht, ye phitean."
Ava laughs. "Honestly, Thane, I'd hoped you might grow out of that Gaelic gibberish eventually. An intelligent man like you shouldn't speak in such a crude manner."
"Are ye labeling me crude because I called ye the C-word in Gaelic?"
Rebecca leans over my shoulder, so she must be standing on her tiptoes. Then she whispers, "You can't use the C-word, but you'll call her that in Gaelic?"
I respond in an equally soft voice, speaking out of the side of my mouth. "Aye. What's wrong with that?"
"Nothing, I guess. It's just kind of weird."
I return my attention to Ava. "Or are ye upset because I'm daring to speak the mother tongue of Scotland?"
"Why must you always revert to the heathen language? It's so...distasteful." She settles both her palms on my chest, and her tone becomes huskier. "Get rid of your housekeeper. Then we can fuck anywhere you like in this tiny home."
"No thank you." I walk up the steps backward, halting just in front of Rebecca. "For the last time, Ava. Tell me why you're here."
"Have you lost your hearing from listening to bagpipes for too many years? I told you, I'm here to help. Your intelligence officer has come to bring you back into the fold, darling, as my covert human intelligence source."
"That phrase is too much of a mouthful. I was your agent, that's the common term for it. You turned me into a spy just so you could move up the career ladder at the MOD."
Rebecca comes up beside me. Chin lifted, she gazes steadily and coolly at Ava. "So, you're Thane's handler. I suppose we should introduce ourselves. I'm Rebecca Taylor."
The lass offers her hand to Ava, who glances at it haughtily. "And what do you do for a living, pet? Cleaning Thane's house can't be a full-time job."
