He smiled, and tucked her closely against him as pleasure warred with fatigue. It was a pleasant, comfortable languor. He rolled them a little, so they could nestle better amongst the pillows. A little sleep would be wonderful. When they awoke they’d shower, find something to eat—if he had anything edible—before he went into town to talk to Roan and Shay. He suddenly remembered something else. “Hey,” he said, kissing her temple as he let his body fully relax and the urge to sleep take over.
“Hmm,” she said, already drowsily drifting off.
“Why did you ask? About the number of days.”
“Mmm, that,” she said, and he could feel her smiling against his chest. She slipped her arm around his waist, and tucked her leg between his, curling her foot around his calf. “Because that’s how many days I have to get you to agree to marry me.”
Chapter 18
“Wait a minute,” Roan said as he paced. “You bring the most delightful, beautiful creature ever to grace our shores home with you…and she just happens to be—because you are the luckiest son of a bitch alive—the one woman in all of Christendom who will fulfill the Marriage Pact…and you dinnae want to marry her?” He spun on his heel and reached out toward Shay. “Does that make any sense to you?”
“I’ve no’ had the chance to make her lovely acquaintance, but, on the surface, no.” Shay looked squarely at Graham. “No, I’m afraid it doesn’t.”
“And!” Roan went on, fully revved, “He wants the citizenry to vote down our most traditional of all laws. It’s akin to asking them to vote down one of the Ten Commandments. You dinnae have to do it, because she’s right here on our island!”
“I want it repealed because it’s wrong—even if I were to marry Katie—or anyone else,” he added, trying not to fan those flames. He was already feeling pretty roasted himself. Reeling right over the spit, in fact, from what Katie had said to him right before she dropped into the sleep of the dead. In fact, she was still lights out to the world when he’d left to come down to see Roan and Shay.
He had left a note.
“I want the opportunity, and should be afforded one, to marry whomever I choose.”
“But, it could be Katie.” Spoken, surprisingly, by Shay.
He looked to his other, calmer friend. “That’s not the point. It could be anyone.”
“It’s entirely the point. Because I will tell you, you haven’t a hope in hell of getting this thing voted down. If you think no one is going to know who she is or what her role here could be, you’re even more daft than you’re being right now.”
“What I dinnae understand, is why ye still want to change things,” Roan said. “Pursue the easy solution.”
Graham swung his head in Roan’s direction. “I beg your pardon.”
Roan immediately lifted his hands up, but shot a saucy wink in Shay’s direction. “See? He’s protective as all bloody hell. Jealous, too. Hardly said two words on the drive out. Clearly concerned that I might win her over with my charming wit and easy laugh.”
“Clearly concerned that if you’re no’ careful, you’ll have a few less teeth to keep gleaming white,” Graham responded.
Shay quickly resumed his no nonsense counsel. “Loathe as I am to agree with him when he’s being a horse’s arse, he does have a point.”
“Aye, right on top of his little, narrow head.”
“Ye’re protective of her, Graham,” Shay said, like it explained everything.
“She’s here as my guest, of course I’m going to protect her.” He scowled at Roan. “Clearly she’ll be in need of it.”
“Now, now,” Roan said, totally unfazed by Graham’s mood.
“If she’s someone you have any feelings for,” Shay said, “then that’s far more than others in your position have been fortunate enough to have in the beginning. If there is room for growth there, then hallelujah. But, regardless of that, she’s here. Let’s make her our offer—”
“I’ve seen how she looks at him, Shay,” Roan said. “You willnae be needing to draw up any documents. I’ve a feeling she won’t be demanding much more than singular access to our idiot friend here. Though the why of it has me completely baffled.”
“Do ye no’ see that this is about more than the restrictions being placed on me? It would remove the issue from ever being a problem, again.”
“That’s just it,” Shay said, quite seriously. “You’re the only one who thinks it’s a problem.”
Graham opened his mouth to argue, then shut it again. He wasn’t sure how to argue that one. He finally sank into one of the chairs in front of Roan’s desk. “Bring me up to date on our friend, Iain,” he said, opting to change the subject until he could better determine how to get them to understand his desire. “I can tell ye, I spoke with Malvy, and he has nothing good to say about him.”
“He doesnae belong here,” Shay said. “I’m the one who believes in inclusion, so—”
“Malvy said almost the exact same thing.” Graham wasn’t anxious to bring Katie back into the discussion, but his need to get some feedback outweighed his common sense. It was a running theme with him where she was concerned, but apparently this time wasn’t going to be any different. “Roan, you’ve met Katie. Your own personal feelings aside, do you think she’ll meet the same kind of resistance that Iain is meeting? Or is that no’ the case with him?” He looked to Shay. “Are your feelings typical of the masses?”
Roan responded first. “Initially, and please keep your fist out of my pretty face when I say this, I’d imagine members of the opposite sex in either case will be fairly predisposed to think favorably of their candidate.”
Graham looked to Shay again. “Is Iain finding favor with the women here?”
Shay lifted a shoulder in an unenthusiastic shrug. “I’d like to say otherwise, but he is turning a head or two.”
“It’s more than one or two,” Roan put in. “But ye’d have an equal shot in that race.”
“I dinnae want a race,” Graham barked, then immediately waved his hand. “I’m sorry. Why doesn’t anyone see this for the insanity it is? I am next in line, I’ve devoted my whole life to this, willingly and with great love. Why must I compromise the rest of my life? And why is anyone willing to even consider allowing Iain to gain a toehold?” He stood. “I understand about your feelings on the abolishment, but I’m calling a council. Shay, post the banns. Day after tomorrow. I might not have any luck in getting anyone to change their mind, but I’m going to speak my own. So when they move forward with this silly contest, and I refuse to play, they’ll know well in advance what their choice will be bringing them.” He walked to the door. “And it’s no’ going to be me.”
“Then what do you plan to do?” Shay asked.
Graham turned back. “I haven’t a clue. But I’m no’ devoting my life to a group of people who have such little respect for mine. Who knows, maybe I’ll head back to Annapolis with Katie.”
“You wouldn’t,” Roan said, truly stunned.
“Have ye no’ heard anything I’ve said? I’m not toying with this. I’ve never been more sincere.”
“I dinnae think the people see it as such a live-or-die issue,” Shay said. “To them it’s exciting, something to gossip about. It appeals to their romantic side.”
“Romantic? What in the hell is romantic about this?”
“When they find out you’re back with an eligible McAuley staying under your roof, it will only gain more momentum,” Roan said.
“It’s human drama, Graham,” Shay said. “And it ends with a wedding. I dinnae think they see the greater picture as you do. The fact that there might be a real romance is secondary to the historic romance of the situation.”
“Oh, there’s romance.”
Graham looked at Roan. “Iain?”
“No, you idiot. You.”
“I told ye—”
Roan laughed. “You can keep telling me, mate, until you cease to draw breath. But I’ve seen the two of you.” He looked at Shay and mo
uthed, “Romance,” then made a sign with his hands showing it was a big one.
Shay turned to Graham and said, “Why did you want to know if we’d accept Katie?”
Graham didn’t answer that directly. Instead, he looked between his two friends. “I wanted your support in this,” he said.
“I know,” Shay said, “and we’d be behind you. We are behind you. But we dinnae want ye wasting time. You’re bucking four hundred years of tradition, with the answer to the Marriage Pact sleeping under your roof.” He held up his hand to stop Graham’s reply. “With the contract, if needed. I’m no’ saying just because she’s here, she’s willing.”
“She’s willing,” Roan muttered.
When Graham shot him a quelling look, he didn’t back down. “You know, I understand about the sacrifice, about wanting to lead your own life. Aye, ye do enough for the people here, and they revere you for it. But not a single person on this island, most especially those of us who would be happy to find any port in a very lonely storm, are going to feel sorry for you. You have her. I don’t care how it happened, or why you found her. But you did. Why don’t you stop focusing on how wrong this stupid law is, and start focusing on what’s standing right in front of ye.”
Graham ducked his head, wishing like hell Roan’s argument didn’t move him. But it did. He looked to Shay. “How long?” he asked.
“Thirty-six days.”
“I meant until we could legally part ways—if we married.”
Roan swore under his breath and sat down behind his desk. He swung his chair around so it faced the window, folded his arms, and propped his feet up on the printer stand.
Graham kept his attention on Shay.
“It doesnae say. I suppose you could do it at any time. But you’ll lose the faith of your people if ye don’t at least give it a try.”
“I won’t stop working for what’s best for all of us. Whether I’m married or not isn’t going to make any difference in that.”
“It’s not all about healthy crops, Graham,” Roan stated flatly.
“It’s about hope,” Shay added.
“That’s what healthy crops give us,” Graham said.
“What I’m trying to get through your thick skull is that without love, we don’t care if we have prosperity. What’s the point?” Roan said.
“Which is why this is so ludicrous. No one cares about love, just about the wedding. It’s a hollow victory.”
“Not one couple has ever split up. That’s the history of the Marriage Pact. They believe in it. They think if love isn’t there in the beginning, it grows. Four hundred years, Graham. Not one split. That’s hope.”
“That’s romance,” Roan added.
“If they think Iain can give them that, then the rest, everything else I’ve worked for, is meaningless?”
“No, of course not,” Roan said. “They’ll root for ye. They’ll want it to be ye. But if it’s no’, then they’ll take it as a sign that it’s time for a change.”
“And just like that, they’ll blindly follow some bloke who’s never set foot on the island until three days ago.”
“They’ll take the leap of faith. It’s—”
“Tradition, I hear you. I guess I just dinnae understand—”
“That’s because ye work in a lab with mathematical equations all day,” Roan said. “Not all things are linear, with a calculable solution at the end. We’ve managed to survive over four centuries doing it this way, and taking those leaps when they come along. Maybe ye’re the one who has to have faith in them. In their beliefs.”
“And if doing that means the end to Kinloch?”
“Then it was a good run,” Roan said.
Graham shook his head. “Fine.” He looked to Shay. “Put the notice out. Joint clan council. Two days from now. In the village square.”
He walked out and closed the door behind him.
Chapter 19
Katie stretched like the proverbial cat in the windowsill. When her legs stretched beyond the length of the down-filled duvet covering her, she snatched them right back in again. It was a damn chilly windowsill.
She snuggled under the covers and enjoyed the luxury of waking up slowly, without any wheels moving under her. She had no idea how long she’d been asleep, but she knew exactly where she was. She turned her head and opened her eyes, but Graham’s side of the bed was empty. She pouted, then laughed when she saw the note propped on his pillow with her name on it in big letters.
She pulled it over and opened it. Before she even read the first word, she took a moment to look at his handwriting. There was something intimate about a handwritten note. His was legible, but that was the most she could say for it. She smiled, charmed by the slanted scrawl. She read: Darling Katie, this is so you know I’ve not left you and run off to the nearest ferry. “Very funny.” But it was funny. And she rather liked the Darling Katie part. She could hear his accent as she read and made the appropriate adjustments in her mind. I’ve gone into Aoibhneas to meet with Roan and Shay. “So, that’s how you’d spell that,” she murmured. Not a big help. She was going to stick with Port Joy. I will bring sustenance with me upon my return. You may want to wait on the shower. She wiggled her eyebrows at that and smiled to herself, thinking he wanted a little shower recreation. She was okay with that plan. Then she read on: It’s a bit tricky and I don’t want you scalding yourself. “Right.” She sighed. “Sometimes, you’re such a scientist.”
She was smiling as she rolled out of bed, then danced a little on the cold stone floor until she jumped to a rug. “Clothes would be a very good thing right now.” She thought about all her luggage down in the entry vestibule, and cringed at the idea of getting it all up there. She thought maybe she’d just bring it up an armful of clothes at a time, until she had what she needed. “But will I be able to light the lantern thingies and not burn the place to the ground, that’s the question.”
“Were ye plannin’ on going up and down the stairs in your all together?”
She squealed and turned to find Graham standing just inside the door to the stairs. Only it hardly looked like him.
“I’m rather liking this kind of homecoming. Will be the first time I’ll be wantin’ to leave the fields early. Or just stay in.”
She would have grabbed the duvet, or searched for her clothes, wherever the hell they’d been flung to, but she was too busy standing there, goggling at Graham’s drastically changed appearance, to care much about her own nudity. “Wow,” she said. Not pithy, but it did sum things up.
He took a moment, then realized she was staring at him with the same avid fascination he was staring at her but for a totally different reason. At that, he looked down at himself, then back at her. “Is something the matter?”
“I—uh, no. Not at all.” She couldn’t take her eyes off him. “I’ve only seen you in your tartan.” Well, and stunningly naked.
“Oh,” he said, “aye. I hadn’t thought of that.” He made a fast gesture at himself, then crossed to the kitchen area and sat down a large cloth sack, sliding the long straps from his shoulder.
He was so cute, she thought, all self-conscious. Look at him. What was there to be self-conscious about? The man was wearing trousers, a heavy cream button-down work shirt with a thin burgundy plaid stripe running through it, and heavy work boots. He was possibly the hottest thing she’d ever seen. The loose fitting khaki pants accentuated his narrow waist and crazy muscular thighs. And that shirt? What it did for his broad shoulders. She was a fan. But what really had her wanting to drag him straight back to bed was the way he’d pulled his hair back in a queue at his neck and the wire-rim scientist glasses.
Seriously. Hottest thing she’d ever seen.
He slid the glasses off as he tipped the bag on its side.
“No,” she said. “Don’t do that.”
“Ye’re no’ hungry?”
She walked right into the kitchen, naked as a jaybird, quite thankful, for once, for no picture windows, and pushed h
is glasses back up onto his face.
“What—”
“I’m hungry.”
“I’m no’ surprised, but I need to get—”
She started undoing the buttons on his shirt.
“Oh,” he said, letting go of the bag.
“Aye,” she said, pushing the shirt back off his shoulders.
He reached to take the band from his hair.
“Really, just leave things alone.”
He lifted his hand away, held them both up, as if in surrender. But he was smiling. “Had I known ye liked the lonely scientist farmer look, I’d have left the tartan at home.”
She was licking his chest at the moment, but paused long enough to shake her head. “Oh, I’m having that kilt bronzed.”
He laughed, then scooped her up and over his shoulder.
She squealed and smacked his ass. “Wow. Remind me again why we thought we shouldn’t be doing this?”
He tossed her gently into the center of the bed, then leapt in after. “Because we weren’t in our right minds.”
“Right,” she said, pulling him over on top of her. “I’m so glad we have our wits about us now.”
“Aye. Wits.” He tugged her mouth down to his and the conversation dwindled.
The laughter, however, did not. This time it was playful and fun. If her heart hadn’t been in jeopardy before, when he looked up from where he’d been feasting quite lingeringly over her nipples, as his glasses fogged, and he slid them down his nose to wiggle his eyebrows at her, she knew she was lost.
“Come here,” she said, laughing even as her throat closed over with sudden emotion. She tugged him up until he was on top of her, then carefully, slowly, slid his glasses off and gently set them somewhere back over her head. “Not booking passage to Oban this morning might be the best decision I’ve ever made in my life.”
“You mean after the one that had me carrying you out of the chapel.”
“Well, that, too,” she said, and leaned up to kiss his chin.
Playful and fun, suddenly shifted to gentle and sweet, as he dipped his mouth and kissed her slowly, with a mild rather than ravenous hunger. She could feel how ready his body was for her, and yet he took his time, lingering at the corners of her mouth, dropping sweet kisses along the side of her jaw. Teasing her earlobe, making her gasp, softly, as he kissed the pulse on the side of her neck.
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