Highlander's Beloved 02 - A Highlander's Passion (12 page)

That slow, sexy smile she had no defense against spread, and he removed his ball cap. Taped inside was an assortment of foil packets. “I came prepared.” He swatted her bottom once. “Now, let’s get out of here so our bonnie singer can sleep undisturbed. Ye need to rest too, and I’m thinking you’ll relax better if I’m with ye fer protection. No doubt yer fairly freaked out with all this talk of yer family and evil.”

“I’m in no mood fer sex, Bry.”

“I ken that and didna expect ye would be. But with me lying next to ye, ye can talk, and I’ll listen. Perhaps I’ll have some ideas to offer. A man needs to take care of his woman. Allow me to do that, luv.”

He wrapped his arm around Kenzie’s waist and escorted her from Effie’s quarters, down the long hallway, and into another corridor. Any other time her mind’s and body’s reactions would have been in tune with those of the man beside her, but tonight she couldna focus on anything for longer than a few seconds.

She had an evil father and a twin brother she couldna remember. What had driven her da to the dark side? What had Rune looked like? Were they identical twins? Did he like to paint like she did? Was he afraid of snakes or allergic to shellfish too? Her steps faltered. Was her real name even Kenzie? Twins were often given close-sounding names, like ‘Jamison’ and ‘Jennifer,’ or names starting with the same letter, like ‘Angus and Amie.’ Wasna ‘Rune and Kenzie’ an odd combination fer twins?

Bryce’s arm tightened around her. “Are ye all right, luv? Do ye want me to carry ye to yer rooms? All this horrific news has to have played ye out. Let me take care of ye.”

“No, I’m fine. I just canna stop all this thinking.” Would Fauste really come looking fer her? If so, how would she recognize him? What kind of man would use his young son’s body to stay alive, and what plans did he have for her? Surely he wouldna hurt anyone she cared fer just so he could capture her, would he?

Maybe her leaving Mathe Bay as quickly as she could would be best. Where would she go? She had no passport, so she’d need to stay in Scotland. One of the many islands, perhaps. Nay. That wouldna be far enough away from Bryce and his family. She had to protect them. Thank goodness he’d fixed her car so it ran smoother. She’d have to do some research online to decide what part of the country would serve her purpose.

Bryce pulled her closer and kissed her hair. “I can hear yer brain buzzing from one thought to another like a hungry bee from flower to flower. But
ʼ
tisn’t hunger that drives ye,
ʼ
tis fear.” He stopped and backed her against the wall, cupping her face with his broad hands. “Look into me eyes, sweetheart. Out of all the things I’ve done wrong, have I ever lied to ye?”

“Ye’ve kept things from me.”

He exhaled an audible sigh. “Aye. Ye and I both have. In me case, I was keeping a promise I made to me da—the last one I ever made to him. Plus, I thought I was protecting ye. But have I ever out-and-out lied to ye?”

She shook her head. What he spoke was true. She’d known him since he was five. Bryce was no liar. “Nay.”

“Dinna be afraid, me luv. Ye have me assurance that I will protect ye with me verra life.
ʼ
Tis important ye believe me words.” His lips covered hers, almost in reverence.

Tender, yet tenacious.

Sweet, yet strong.

Generous, yet greedy.

His eyes were obsidian with bright golden flecks when he pulled away. “I will honor ye in every way, protect ye in every way, love ye in every way. Of this ye can be damn sure.”

Aye. And I will protect ye, yer family, and Effie.

Once inside Kenzie’s suite of rooms, Bryce glanced around, tossing his ball cap on the back of her light green love seat. “Ye’ve got this place looking as though ye’ve lived here for years. In some ways, the rooms are smaller than what ye had at the apartment, yet it feels roomier.” A snigger rose from his throat. “Creighton told us how he begged Paisley not to have him hang wallpaper in here. Claimed Effie had horrendous taste in paper. He was quite pleased when Paisley chose this sage green paint.”

A strange expression came over Bryce’s face, and he strode to
Endless Heather
Mist
, the large painting that once covered the spot where Duncan had shoved her head through the wall. He pointed at it with his thumb. “I’m surprised ye kept this. I mean
ʼ
tis beautiful, since yer such a damned good artist, but it must have bad memories for ye after what happened…” He inclined forward as his words trailed off. His head tilted and he squinted. “In the rays of the sunlight drifting through the Highland mist, it almost looks as if there’s…”

“
ʼ
Tis Blaine.” She leaned against Bryce. “Thank goodness, Duncan never looked at it close enough to see the bairn. He’d have destroyed the painting.”

In so many ways, it was all she had left of her first bairn. To her, the artwork was priceless. When her grief was so sharp it had sliced bits off her heart every day, she’d gone to her special spot behind Aunt Una’s to paint the early-morning mist. Each day, before her desolate mind could comprehend what she was doing, the bairn appeared between the first morning rays of the sun. She’d painted him in the blind, for her eyes were flooded with tears. And yet, when she’d finished, the tiny bairn was beautiful and whole, with an ethereal quality that had him or her glowing as brightly as the sun’s rays.

Bryce’s trembling fingertips lightly touched the infant, almost as if he were caressing the bairn. “When did ye paint it? In the short time since ye’ve told me about our bairn, I’ve thought about the wee sweet child often, especially in me quiet moments. Blaine looks just as I’ve thought of him or her. Tiny, fragile, so sweet and perfect.” He palmed his eyes and pivoted away, gulping deep breaths and wiping tears.

She wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her cheek against the middle of his back, relishing the warmth of his skin and, though it covered hardened muscles, its softness. He was grieving. Surely she could offer comfort. If not fer Aunt Una’s arms and cooing noises, the loss of Blaine would have done Kenzie in. His calloused hands covered hers, whether in gratitude or a sharing of grief, she didna ken. Nor did she care.

Finally, he cleared his throat as if to signal he was more composed. “Creighton is considered the more dominant of our brothers, the alpha. As laird of our clan and head of our bear sleuth, he has to be. Ronan can be friendly enough, charming in his own way. Even so, he prefers the solitude of his cabin, hidden deep in the Highlands, over the constant flow of strangers in and out of the clan’s castle we now run as Matheson Lodge. The family considers me the most tender of the three, the most emotional.” He stalked to the window, glancing out into the night. “Aye, they do. I resent it at times. It makes me feel”—he sliced the air with the edge of his palm—“less of a man. Like I’m still a mumma’s boy, the way I was when I was a young lad. I hide how much it pisses me off. To complain would only make me seem a whining bastard, so I pretend to ignore it. I tease them a lot to keep their minds on something else and off of me.”

“I dinna ken.” She stepped behind him and ran her hands over the tense muscles of his shoulders. “Yer as much of a man as yer brothers.”

He shrugged as if he wasna sure he believed her words. “Disna help being the shortest of the three. I’m merely six-one. Even so, I ken me strengths. I’m no weakling—physically or emotionally. Being Colleen’s da has brought out me affectionate side. Fer that reason alone, I tolerate the unofficial title of the tenderhearted brother. I love me little girl with a fierceness. Aye, she kens how to melt her da’s heart.” Both pride and humor wrapped around his words.

Fer a man who always projected arrogance, Kenzie was surprised by his honest admissions. She had to boost his morale a little. “Ye are probably the strongest man I’ve ever met.” She slid her hand around to stroke his thigh through the pink towel. “Ye’ve got the biggest, most powerful thighs I’ve ever seen on a man.” His towel tented.

“Dinna toy with me, Kenzie. The blood is still flowing hot through me veins from all Effie told us. I am so damn angry that someone wants to hurt ye, woman, ye have no idea how I want to destroy the feckin’ bastard. That powerful kiss we shared in the hallway moments earlier didna help either.” He glanced at her over his shoulder. “I want ye so badly right now, to show ye how much I will protect ye, I dinna need a bed or a sofa or a wall. Hell, not even the feckin’ floor. I will hold ye against me and wrap those luscious thighs around me hips while I take ye standing. Then I will bend ye over the arm of that chair by the fireplace. I’m warning ye. I’m so fukin’ horny fer me intended right now I can barely think straight.”

“Ye sound as if we have an understanding, which we dinna. Honestly, Bry, ye keep calling me yer woman, yer luv, yer intended. I’m a little tired of it. Words need said. Feelings need shared. An important question needs asked.” After all she’d been through with this man, she deserved a proper proposal. But that would mean staying in Mathe Bay, and she’d already decided she was leaving. Hadna she?

He faced her with his hands on the edge of his towel. “Aye, we do have an understanding, or we will as soon as ye give me a chance to propose.”

She tried her best to ignore her rapid heartbeat. He was offering her something she’d wanted for years. “Ye dinna mean what yer saying. Ye cast me aside twice. Right now, yer full of robust male protectiveness. The testosterone is literally rolling off ye. Once that dissolves, ye’ll forget all about this just as ye’ve forgotten about me before.” An old sadness crept in and curled up in her heart like a cat near a roaring fireplace on a cold day.

“Aye, it pains me, so it does, to admit how badly I’ve treated ye in the past. Havena I told ye that? I mean to make up fer me crass behavior toward ye until me dying breath. We’ve been friends since before we started school. I think me mum always hoped our friendship would mature into something more permanent.”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “Aye. So did I. Ye were the first boy to kiss me. Remember how awful it was?” She shuddered. “Our teeth scraped together.
ʼ
Tis a wonder we didna make sparks big enough to start a fire that burned the hair off our heads.” They both laughed for a few embarrassing seconds. “The second kiss was more like two fishes coming together.”

He snorted. “Hey, we all hafta learn how to kiss one way or the other.”

“True. I was so besotted with ye, I didna mind being yer practice partner. I was just foolish enough to believe we’d go on forever, teaching and learning from each other. Then Miranda and her family moved here from Aberdeen into the old McGrath place and ye forgot about me.”

As soon as he’d set eyes on the auburn-haired beauty, his and Kenzie’s long-term friendship had gone from predating to casual greetings or quick waves. Miranda became his whole world. She was pregnant by high school graduation and dead moments after giving birth to Colleen.

“I willna apologize for Miranda. We loved each other.” He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. “She was a good and decent person. An angel in her own right. Without her, I wouldna have Colleen.” His chin jutted in that stubborn way he had.

“I didna expect an apology.” Her Scottish stubbornness reared its head, too—only she wasn’t Scottish, was she? Nay, she was of nationalities she knew little about. “I’m only trying to explain how I felt when ye dropped me as yer best friend. How deserted I was. I went through the rest of high school like a zombie while watching ye make a fuss over someone else as if she were the only person in the world.”

Kenzie swiped at a tear, remembering how jealous she’d been. She and Bryce had gone through every year of school as best mates. He’d always stuck up fer her when the kids made fun of her for having two different-colored eyes. Witch, they’d called her, and Bryce was ready with clenched fists to defend her.

Over the years, those students had formed their own cliques. Once Bryce moved on with Miranda, Kenzie was completely on the outside—alone, depressed, and with no one to talk to.

“Things change when a guy falls in love, especially for the first time. I’m sorry I ignored ye, but Miranda was jealous of our friendship and didna understand our close bond, so I gave in to her wishes to make her happy.”

He couldna have said much more to crush her heart than that. How did one battle a dead woman, especially one still adored by her husband? More tears flowed and she walked away so he couldna see. Telling him she was changing into her pajamas was impossible without her voice breaking and giving her away. She opened the door to the small refrigerator on the other side of the room, pulled out a bottle of water, and gulped a few sips. More in control, she turned toward the bedroom. “I think I’ll get ready fer bed now.”

Her fingers were around the doorknob when Bryce’s hand covered them. Damn, but he could move silently on his bare feet. “Are ye afraid to tell me the rest? Do ye think I dinna ken when yer hiding something from me?” He used his other hand to pull back her hair so he could lean in and press a kiss beneath her ear. She shuddered in response. “What is it, sweetheart?”

“It doesna matter now. I was only thinking of trying to make ye see how brokenhearted I was again when ye ended things between us over a year ago. Me heart has a weakness for ye, so it does.
ʼ
Tis why I canna open it to ye again.” She glanced over her shoulder at the painting of little Blaine. “What’s past is past and lost forever.”

He whirled her around, his features hardened. His jaw muscles bunched and heavily lashed eyes narrowed. He grabbed her biceps and yanked her to him. “I ken how I grieved for Miranda a long time. Too long.”

Yes, nearly four years was a long time to wallow in his wife’s death, but, even after that period, he still wasna ready to move forward.

“When I started dating ye, Kenzie, I fell in love with ye hard and fast and deep.
ʼ
Twas no idle flirtation or a night out to slake me needs. Nay, I loved ye with a power so strong, I didna understand the scope of it. Damn, but it scared me.” He released her, stalked across the room, and, on a ragged exhale, continued. “Bloody hell, I felt as if I was being unfaithful to the memory of me beloved dead wife. Hell, I was so fukin’ confused. I wanted ye with me all the time and yet I could recall, not so many years earlier, when I had similar desires fer Miranda.”

He swiveled to face her, his forehead wrinkled and his jaw tensed. “Ta be honest, what scared me most was that my desires fer ye were even stronger, and, in me head, that had to be wrong. What kind of man begins to care more fer a woman than the one who gave her life birthing his bairn? I got this wild idea in me head that me love fer ye was a passion—an unhealthy passion.”

“So ye sent me away. Ye thought only of yourself and Miranda.” She wrapped her arms around her waist in a protective gesture. “Ye didna give a minute’s thought to how ye would destroy me.”

“Aye. I made the biggest mistake of me life. Fer I have loved ye every day since, even when ye were wedded to another.” He crossed the room, and the sensual electricity between them arced when he enveloped his arms around her. “When it comes to ye—the tenderness, the affection, the indulgent nature…aye, the deep love continues to grow. Call it passion, if ye want. I’m calling it forever. I was wrong to push ye away so that ye became vulnerable to Duncan. I willna let ye go again.”

“Do ye think ye have a choice, Bry?” The man acted as if she had nothing to say in the matter. She was free to date whomever she wanted. Free to look fer a man who would cherish her forever, not for however long it was convenient. Hell, she was free to live alone the rest of her days, if she desired. Alone, safe, and somewhere far away.

He reached for the ball cap he’d tossed on the back of the love seat and started picking clear tape off the top. “Do ye have scissors I can use for a minute? Colleen went a little overboard on the tape and knots and I canna break the twine with me fingers.”

His daughter helped him tape the condoms in his cap? What kind of numpty-headed da would allow such a thing?

Kenzie pulled a pair of shears from a drawer of the desk and, resisting the urge to rap him over the head with the blades, extended them to him. As far as she was concerned, the bampot ought to bear a knot or two on the side of his head fer even allowing his daughter to handle a foil packet, much less several. Some men had no sense when it came to sex.

The twine he cut away was wrapped several times around the button at the crown of his cap. “Ye canna imagine my daughter’s excitement in helping me prepare this. She was full of instructions she’d seen in her movies or I had read to her in books over the years.”

“Just what movies have ye been allowing yer daughter to watch? ‘Glenda Does Glasgow’?” As for what type of books he’d been reading to her, Kenzie shuddered to think. Whenever she spent time with Colleen, she found the child sweet and exuberant, with an almost magnetic innocence. Och, she bore her da’s stubbornness, so she did. Still, what did the little girl ken about condoms? She glowered at Mr. I-Got-Condoms-in-Me-Cap, her ire rising. “ ‘Instructions’?”

“Aye. Her instructions. She’ll demand a full report, so I must do this correctly for her, but most importantly for ye.” Bryce slipped a ring from the twine, placed a throw pillow on the floor, and dropped to one knee. A blush covered his cheeks. “The pillow is me daughter’s orders.”

Both of Kenzie’s hands flew to cover her gaping mouth as she stared at the diamond ring sparkling in the grasp of his fingers. Her heart rate kicked up.
My God, what is he doing?

“In the Matheson clan, we value history and tradition. Creighton gave Paisley the diamond worn by the last few generations of Matheson brides.” He held a ring for her to see, the stones sparkling in the lamplight. “Me mum had a rough time birthing me. I was breech, and the biggest of her bairns. Afterward, she hemorrhaged. Da thought he’d lose her. Rumor is, he refused to leave her bedside and nearly went out of his mind with worry. Once she recovered, he gifted her with this heart-shaped diamond flanked by channel-set rubies. I’m asking ye to marry me and to wear me da’s gift of his love and devotion to me mum, after me birth, as yer engagement ring.” He touched the diamond before casting his glistening eyes on hers. “Fer ye truly are me heart and I have loved ye for a long time.