Embrace the Highland Warrior

by Anita Clenney

  He shook his head, focusing on his soda for so long the silence grew awkward. “Why did you do it, Shay?” He looked up at her, his eyes burning with emotion. “Why’d you leave without telling me, without even saying good-bye? Now you show up, nine years later, after refusing to speak to me.” He plunked down the can and pushed away from the table. “I need to get some sleep. I’ll get an exterminator out here.”

  With one brief glance over his shoulder, he walked out the door, leaving Shay feeling as if she’d been hit by a tornado.

  Refusing to speak to him? What about the blasted letters he hadn’t bothered to answer?

  ***

  Cody walked until he reached the gate. He turned, looked at Nina’s house, and blew out a hard breath. Shay was safe. She was here. He didn’t know whether to run like hell or get on his knees and thank God for another chance. He pulled his phone from his pocket to call off the bodyguard. No answer. He left a message, shoved the phone in his pocket, reminded himself to charge the battery, and then detoured into the woods. He needed to cool off. He’d call Scotland tomorrow and see what this burglar business was about. She might not have been home in years, but he knew her well enough to know she was hiding something. He jogged along the old trail, blaming the prickly feeling in his spine on the fact that his world had just exploded at his feet.

  ***

  Shay tried eating, but her encounter with Cody left her with no appetite. If he hadn’t gotten her letters, then she’d spent nine years blaming him for something he hadn’t done. Hoping a walk would clear her head, Shay ambled along the old trail behind the house, leaves crunching beneath her feet, the earlier rain having already soaked into the thirsty earth. The moon was bright, eliminating the need for a flashlight, but the trees were taller and thicker now, making the woods feel more isolated. She shivered and glanced over her shoulder, then chided herself for foolishness. All she had to worry about here were wild animals and painful memories.

  The small lake came into sight. She’d spent hundreds of hours there with Cody and his brothers, fishing, swimming, racing to the pier… skinny-dipping. She passed the old boathouse she and Cody had used as a castle, spy headquarters, and army base. How ironic that her real father had actually been a spy, or something top secret, and Cody’s job was about as secretive. So was Jamie’s, for that matter. Maybe that was part of the reason she couldn’t commit to him. Secrets had nearly ruined her life.

  Shay sank down on the white sand Ewan had brought in, making the shore kinder to tender feet. The sun and wind had dried the sand while she slept, but her jeans still chaffed with dampness.

  The scenery made up for the discomfort. The moon hung like an amber globe over the glistening lake as the water gently lapped the shore. She took off her shoes, wriggled her toes in the cool, gritty texture, and leaned back, cushioning her head on her arms as she studied the stars. They were all still there, winking and twinkling, as if welcoming an old friend, or the prodigal daughter returning home. She felt the familiar prick of guilt for abandoning the place, abandoning the people she loved. Nina, Matilda, and Cody’s brothers had occasionally visited Shay in New York or Scotland, but she had never come home, not once. She closed her eyes, letting the smells and sounds of the place settle in, cedar and sand, water and dying leaves, bringing voices from another time.

  “Get out, or I’m going home,” Shay said, wishing she had a rock to throw at Lachlan’s butt.

  “Come on, Lachlan,” Marcas said impatiently. “Stop being a jackass.”

  “What’s the big deal?” Lachlan grumbled, trudging back out of the water he’d just entered without a stitch of clothing. “She’s seen it before.” He joined his brothers, who were facing the woods with their backs turned.

  “You said she could get in first,” Cody said.

  “Okay, Miss Hoity-toity-now-that-you’ve-turned-fourteen,” Lachlan fussed. “Go ahead.”

  Shay was too old for skinny-dipping, but mice had made a nest out of the swimsuit she had left in the boathouse, and she wasn’t going to turn down a challenge. If she lost, or forfeited the race, she had to clean all three boys’ rooms that night. She could almost smell the dirty socks already. If she won, they would have to do it themselves, which meant they wouldn’t be at the dance, hovering like bodyguards. The cute new guy in her science class hadn’t heard about the MacBains yet. He might ask her to dance.

  When she was sure she was safe, she stripped to her panties and bra and darted into the water, not stopping until it lapped at her neck. “You can turn around,” she called. Within seconds, a splash covered her head, and Cody emerged, laughing beside her. She swatted him away and got ready for the race.

  Shay opened her eyes and smiled. She won the race, but she suspected Cody had followed her to the dance anyway. That was the last time she went skinny-dipping. She wished she had a swimsuit now. After that encounter with Cody, her skin felt scorched. A brisk swim might cool her off. Compared to Scotland, this weather was balmy.

  Why not? It was dark. No one could see her. Not many people would venture out for a swim in the middle of an October night, Indian summer or not. Cody was the only person around, and while she’d rather kiss a rattlesnake than see him there, she doubted he even came here anymore. Besides, he’d looked exhausted.

  She started shedding her clothes before she could change her mind. She stepped into the lake, letting the water seep between her toes. It was chillier than she expected, reminding her of the ice swimming they’d braved every January. When the water reached her thighs, Shay dove in, gasping at the cold. With her head underwater, she swam until her muscles ached, feeling her fear and stress grow fainter with each stroke. Lungs burning, she swam toward the shore so she could rest before starting back. She stood up and saw Cody ten feet away, staring at her.

  Shay squealed and dove back into the water, emerging when it was chest high. “What are you doing here?” she asked, struggling for a steady breath. Was he following her?

  The water barely covered his hips. He stepped back so he was decent. “Same thing as you, I’d say. We always did think alike.” They stared at each other in silence, his expression shadowed.

  “That was a long time ago.” And he didn’t have all those rippling muscles back then.

  “Yeah,” he said, looking at the waves nudging the top of her breasts.

  In the dark, his tattoos were a blur across his chest. He got them a year or so before she left, but didn’t like talking about them. He still wore the same necklace, a rectangular piece of metal suspended on a leather cord. Jamie wore a similar one. His chest was tattooed as well. It seemed as if every man she knew had tattoos, but the others hadn’t filled her with this strange longing.

  “What you said back at the house, about no word from me. How can you say that? I sent letters.”

  “What letters?” Cody asked.

  “I wrote you two letters after I left. I sent them to the address your mom gave me.”

  “I never got them.” His eyes narrowed. “Doesn’t make sense. I got mail from everyone else.”

  “I don’t understand.” If he hadn’t gotten them, where were they? Her stomach twisted into sick knots. She needed to go somewhere quiet and think. “I should go. I didn’t expect anyone to be here.”

  “You don’t have to leave.” He moved a few steps closer and touched her shoulder.

  She jerked away, and her foot slipped off a rock, plunging her underwater. She flipped, trying to regain her balance. Strong hands grabbed her, setting her on her feet. She spat out a mouthful of water as Cody’s hands gripped her waist. His hand moved lower to her hip, gently steadying her. The front of his body brushed her back. His skin was warm and hard. Something touched her shoulder. Hair? Lips?

  When she was eighteen, she had fantasies of this: him and her in the lake with no clothes. She wasn’t eighteen anymore, and she couldn’t risk another heartbreak. She pulled away, putting some distance between them, but her ankle gave out when she turned.

  H
e steadied her. “You okay?” His voice sounded strained.

  “I twisted my ankle. It’s no big deal.”

  “I’d better carry you out.”

  “No. It’ll be okay in a minute.” Up close, he was even more intimidating. Broad shoulders, well-used muscles, and tattoos that made her want to run her fingers over them, caress them with her lips.

  His gaze moved from the water skimming her breasts to her mouth. His eyes darkened as a low rumble rolled from his throat. She was trying to decide if her head was spinning or his was lowering, when a stunned voice came from the shore.

  “Hell’s bells… Shay? I thought you were in Scotland.”

  Cody turned, shielding Shay behind him. “What are they doing here?”

  Marcas and Lachlan stared, mouths open. Marcas found his voice first. “Uh… should we leave?”

  “Leave?” Lachlan pulled off his shirt, and his necklace caught the moonlight. “We just got here,” he said, unsnapping his jeans.

  “No,” Cody barked. “We’re getting out. I was helping Shay.”

  Lachlan raised an eyebrow. “Helping her do what?”

  “She twisted her ankle. What are you doing here?” Cody’s voice was curt.

  “That’s a dumb question. You’re the one who asked us for help,” Lachlan said. “We had to come home and pack—”

  “I mean at the lake?”

  Marcas hooked his thumbs in his pockets, quietly surveying the scene. “Lach thought he heard someone in the woods when we got out of the car. Figured it might be a bow hunter scouting out a place to hunt. Probably heard you two.”

  “Somebody run around to the other side of the lake and get Shay’s clothes,” Cody ordered.

  Marcas nodded and trotted off.

  Lachlan snapped his jeans and snatched up his discarded shirt. “What brings you all the way from Scotland, Shay?”

  Lachlan was the daredevil with the mischievous twinkle in his eyes—and his foot in his mouth, although his laid-back attitude was partly an act. Marcas was the sensitive one, serious. He usually knew what people were thinking before they did, one of the reasons Shay had avoided him nine years ago, and one of the reasons she hadn’t come back. Marcas was twenty-nine, one year older than Cody. God, she’d missed them all.

  “I was on my way to see Renee,” she said, shivering with cold. “I thought I’d stop by for a visit.”

  Lachlan asked about Renee and Scotland as they waited for Marcas to return. “About time you came home. Hope you’re planning to stay awhile.”

  “It d-d-depends.”

  Cody’s arms were covered in chill bumps as well. He took a step back and stopped. He’d put his arm around her hundreds of times over the years to keep her warm, but they weren’t grown up and naked then.

  “Why don’t you go help Marcas?” Cody said to Lachlan. “Never mind. Here he comes.”

  Marcas trotted up, not even winded. All the brothers were fast, although she could almost keep up. Marcas dropped Shay’s clothes next to Cody’s. “Better get out of there before you end up with pneumonia.”

  “How about some privacy?” Cody grumbled.

  “Want us to leave?” Marcas asked.

  “No,” Shay said, quickly. “You don’t have to leave.” The last thing she needed was to be alone and naked with Cody.

  Marcas and Lachlan turned around, but Shay could hear them whispering. Cody scooped her up. She squealed and grabbed his neck, to keep from falling. She saw Lachlan start to turn, until Marcas kicked him. “What are you doing?” she whispered furiously, trying to cover all her pertinent parts.

  “Getting us out of the lake before we freeze our asses off.” He trudged through the water, keeping his gaze straight ahead. “Stop squirming. You’re slippery as a bloody eel.”

  At the water’s edge, he set her gently on her feet. He helped her into her sweater, and she was so cold she let him. She didn’t bother with her bra.

  “Here,” he said, handing over her panties.

  She snatched them from his hand, afraid he would offer to help with them as well. She wiggled into them, trying not to look at his bare backside as he dragged his underwear over damp skin.

  “You decent yet?” Marcas asked.

  “No!” Cody said, after glancing back to see Shay tugging on her jeans. He was already snapping his.

  After Cody and Shay dressed, the brothers discussed the best way to get Shay back to the house. “We could haul her out on the four-wheeler,” Lachlan offered.

  Great, she thought. Like a deer carcass.

  “Battery’s dead,” Marcas said. “We can carry her back to our house. It’s closer.”

  “Thanks, but it’s really not that bad.” Shay pasted a blank look on her face as she slid her throbbing foot inside her shoe. “See?” She moved around a few steps, gritting her teeth so she wouldn’t wince. “You go on. I want to sit here awhile and enjoy the night.” She needed to be alone so she could think. Her homecoming was turning into a nightmare.

  “I’d rather you came back with us,” Cody said. “You don’t have a flashlight, and your ankle—”

  “I’ll be fine,” Shay insisted.

  He glanced at the sky. “Don’t be long; a storm’s blowing in.”

  “You want to tell us what that was about?” Lachlan’s voice carried on the rising breeze.

  Shay sat down on the pier and shook her head. What was she doing here, besides leaping from the frying pan into the fire? She couldn’t trust her emotions where Cody was concerned. Had she not learned this lesson before?

  She sat for several minutes, trying to decide if she had the guts to stick with her plan and make peace with her past—especially given the fact that her past wasn’t what she had believed—or just cut and run. She stood up, turned to go back, and found herself face-to-face with a tall, white-haired man.

  ***

  “It was nothing,” Cody said.

  Lach snorted. “Didn’t look like nothing to me, both of you stark naked in the lake.”

  “She fell.” Cody gave them the nonchalant look he’d practiced while dressing, but his face felt like dried cement.

  “I guess the water dissolved her clothes,” Lach said.

  Cody thumped Lach on the shoulder. “I was taking a swim and didn’t know she was there. Mind your own business. I don’t ask about every girl I see you with. That’d take the rest of my life.”

  “They’re not Shay,” Lach said, crossing his arms over his chest. “You two looked pretty cozy.”

  “He’s got you there,” Marcas agreed. “This isn’t just any girl. Shay’s family.”

  Family. If only they knew, but they didn’t, and he wasn’t about to explain it now. “It was nothing,” he said again, though it felt like a whole lot more than nothing. “But just for the record, hands off, Romeo.” He gave Lach a hard glare.

  “Hey.” Lach threw his hands up. “I wasn’t the one plastered all over her at the lake.”

  ***

  A moment’s panic turned to recognition, though Shay hadn’t seen him in years. Old Elmer was tall, with the kind of face that looked ancient but never seemed to age. When Shay was a toddler, she thought Old Elmer was Santa Claus, and when she got older, she decided he was Merlin. He’d lived in these woods for as long as she could remember, though he was rarely seen. What was he doing here now?

  “Elmer, you startled me.”

  “Haven’t seen you around for years,” he said.

  “I live in Scotland now. I just came for a visit.”

  “Scotland.” His green eyes were steady, penetrating. “Your home’s here.”

  Shay glanced in the direction Cody, Marcas, and Lachlan had gone. She wasn’t feeling good about either place at the moment.

  “You ought not come in these woods alone. Bring one of them boys with you. There’s dangerous creatures out here.” He stared at the woods in front of her, as if he could see through the curtain of darkness. “There’s a storm coming. You best hurry home.”

  Sh
e followed his gaze, and when she turned back, he was gone. Shivering, she wished she’d gone with the boys. Her ankle was throbbing. She limped along the path, occasionally reaching out to caress a clump of pine needles or the bark of a favorite tree. She loved the rugged landscape of Scotland, but she’d spent most of her life in these Virginia woods. The memories here were part of her soul. She heard a whisper. Old Elmer? Cody? Had he come back for her?

  “Cody?” She stood still and listened, but there was only silence. It must have been a dead tree creaking. There it was again. “Cody, is that you?”

  A tree limb snapped close by, and she jumped. An animal out for a midnight snack, she thought, limping faster. She didn’t want to be that snack.

  Shay peeked behind her and saw a shadow dart across the path. It stood upright. Human. “Lach, if that’s you, knock it off.” Another whisper sent her scampering behind an oak. She flattened her back against the rough bark. Calm down, Shay. You’re in the woods. Animals live in the woods, and a lot of them are nocturnal.

  But animals didn’t whisper.

  She scurried from her hiding place at a fast hobble as leaves swirled angrily around her ankles and trees twisted in the wind. She heard another sound, like breathing. Or was it her? The moon had vanished, leaving the night black as she moved off the trail, taking a shortcut back to the house. She felt something closing in behind her, but was too frightened to turn. She ran faster, sweat beading her brow, drying in the wind that whipped at her like claws. A white owl swooped down, and a sharp pain shot through her arm as she dove to the ground. Screeching noises echoed around her in the darkness, like birds of prey fighting. Tearing at the dirt, she scrambled to her feet and ran. Branches clawed at her face and arms. A figure stepped onto the path in front of her, and she screamed as strong arms grabbed her.

  Chapter 2

  “Shay?”

  She gripped Cody’s waist, trying to catch her breath. “You scared the daylights out of me. What are you doing here?” And where were you ten minutes ago?

  “I came to make sure you got home before the storm hit. You okay?”