Bound by Secrets (Cauld Ane Series)

by Tracey Jane Jackson

  Brodie set their plates on the table and then held her chair for her. She sat down and laid her serviette on her lap. “Okay, so what happened with Heather? How did you find out about her?”

  “Why don’t I take a bite first and then I’ll fill you in.”

  Payton sighed and waved her hand. “Go ahead, then.”

  Brodie chuckled and took a bite, humming in appreciation. “This is amazing, sweetheart.”

  “Thank you.” Payton also took a bite and shrugged. “It’s okay, I guess.”

  Brodie took a few more bites and then laid his fork down. He leaned down and then sat up again. “Your leg is bouncing.”

  “Sorry.” Payton stilled her leg and picked up her fork.

  Brodie grinned. “So, the story.”

  “Yes.” Payton sat straighter. “The story.”

  “My father had an affair with a woman and Heather is the product of that affair. I found out quite by accident.”

  “Seriously?” Payton rolled her eyes. “What is it with your parents? No one seems to be able to keep it in their pants.”

  Brodie shook his head. “I think this is proof that it’s important to ‘marry’ your actual mate.”

  “Ya think?”

  Brodie smiled. “Anyway, Heather managed to get a job at Slàinte—”

  Slàinte was Brodie’s most exclusive club…and most expensive.

  “Without you knowing about it?” Payton asked suspiciously.

  “Jack hired her. Apparently, I’ve been a little distracted the past few years.”

  Jack Fletcher was a close friend of Brodie’s and ran two of his clubs along with Slàinte.

  “By me, obviously.” Payton bit her lip. “Sorry.”

  “Not your fault, sweetheart. You’ve always been my favorite distraction.” Brodie smiled.

  “Have I met her, then?” Payton asked, confused. “I don’t remember a Heather.”

  “No. You were never there at the same time.”

  She narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “You’re a sneaky wee buggar, aren’t you?”

  He shrugged. “I couldn’t risk it.”

  “No, I suppose you couldn’t. How did you know she was your sister?”

  Brodie appeared to contemplate the question for a few seconds. “I started to suspect something was up when I could feel her emotions, which happen to be much different than yours.”

  “How so?”

  “Your emotions are logical. Hers are chaotic.”

  Payton shook her head. “That’s impossible. I’m a woman. All women are chaotic.”

  Brodie frowned. “I hear Aidan in that statement.”

  Payton giggled. “You know him too well, apparently.”

  “He’ll figure it out eventually.”

  “My word, I hope so, or his mate’s going to hate life.”

  Brodie chuckled. “Anyway, there are so many similarities between Heather and me. Looks for one, telekinesis for another, and then that nagging voice in your head that tells you not everything is as it seems.”

  “You’re hearing voices, Brodie? You may want to ask Kade about that.”

  Brodie grinned as he continued, “Heather and her mother made me promise to keep our relationship to myself. I promised to keep their secret for as long as I could.”

  Payton felt guilt settle over her like an iron blanket.

  “Hey,” Brodie said. “This is my fault, love. I botched it terribly.”

  “Maybe.”

  He reached over and took her hand. “I should have told you. I should have ignored my promise to her and come to you sooner. I’ve been an arse.”

  “You can’t take all the blame. I did jump to conclusions and you were keeping someone else’s secret.”

  “Och, Payton.” He sat back. “Are you truly this perfect?”

  She snorted. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Just that you’ve always been beyond gracious with me. I don’t really deserve it.”

  “No one deserves grace. That’s kind of the point, right?” She smiled. “I love you, Brodie. Even if I wake up the morning of my birthday and discover you’re not my mate, I doubt that will change.”

  His face paled. “You don’t really think that will happen, do you?”

  “No. I don’t. I bloody well hope not, anyway.” She stared down at her ring. “I’d rather not give this back.”

  “So you’re in it for the big-ass diamond?” he retorted in a bad American accent.

  “Um, duh,” she retorted.

  He laughed. “I’m so glad I’ve won you over.”

  “Aye. Ages ago.” She sighed. “I suppose I have a confession as well. If some other woman so much as looks sideways at you, I feel like I want to scratch her eyes out.”

  “Oh, ho.” Brodie grinned. “So, you do understand. At least, to a certain degree.”

  “Not that that gave you any kind of excuse to scare all of my male friends away, Brodie Gunnach.” She wagged a finger at him. “But yes, I understand, probably more than a ‘certain’ degree.”

  “I never understood your need for male friends anyway. I’ve never had female ones.”

  Payton’s jaw dropped. “That’s because you don’t take the time to form friendships. You’d just shag ’em and move on.”

  “For your information, I haven’t been intimate with anyone since long before meeting you, and I’d rather stop this line of conversation.”

  Payton giggled. “Afraid to find out which of my male friends I’ve slept with?”

  “Payton,” he growled as he stood and took his plate to the kitchen.

  “I bet you wish one of us was an empath, eh?” She followed. “You wish you could read my mind right about now, don’t you?”

  Brodie faced her. “This isn’t funny, Payton.”

  “Oh, yes it is.” She cocked her head. “Why’s your face so red?”

  “Payton.”

  “Yes, Brodie?” she responded innocently. However, she could see his jealousy getting the better of him. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. No one other than you has even so much as held my hand.”

  He took several deep breaths, and she smiled when his face returned to normal.

  “Wow,” she said. “We need to work on your sense of humor.”

  “No, you need to work on not poking the bear.”

  Payton laughed. “I’ll get right on that.”

  He kissed her. “I love you. You know that, right? Even outside of the fact that you’re my mate. I choose to love you as well.”

  “Aye. I’m sorry I thought the worst.”

  “I have to admit, I was a little surprised you thought I’d purposely hurt you. Especially after my very romantic proposal and then the bath thing.”

  She grinned. “You’re going to get a lot of mileage out of that, aren’t you?”

  “Absolutely.”

  She dropped her head on his chest. “I was going on past actions.”

  He raised her chin. “What are you talking about?”

  She shook her head. “Nothing. Just forget it. It’s in the past.”

  “No. Tell me. We’re sharing all our secrets, don’t stop now.” She tried to look at her feet, but he wouldn’t let her. “Look at me, sweetheart, and tell me why you think I’d try to hurt you.”

  “Because you already did,” she whispered.

  “I did? When?”

  “Never mind.” She tried to put distance between them, but in doing so, nearly lost her footing over the sofa.

  Brodie kept her from falling. “Pay? When did I hurt you, love?”

  She crossed her arms and muttered, “When you left.”

  “What do you mean when I left? You know I had to help Kade with the Iceland issues. I feel horrible that you were hurt, but I thought we were past that.”

  “Not then,” she ground out.

  “Well then, when?”

  She sighed. “When you went into the Air Force.”

  Brodie’s eyes widened. “That was ten years ago.”
r />   “I know!”

  “I had to go, love.”

  “Why?” she challenged.

  A slow smile spread over his face and Payton suddenly grew just a little more nervous than she had been earlier.

  “Is this why you were so prickly when I got back?” he asked.

  “No, I was prickly then because you were demanding…and I thought you were lying to me!”

  He laughed, the boom of his voice filling the room.

  “What’s so bloody funny?” she demanded.

  “You are, love.”

  He wrapped his arms around her waist and lifted her onto the back of the sofa. She let out a squeak of surprise and settled her hands on his shoulders. “What are you doing?”

  He slid his hips between her knees and grinned. “Had I known that all I had to do was explain to you why I left ten years ago to alleviate all of your insecurities, I would have done it then.”

  “I didn’t have any insecurities,” she countered.

  “I stand corrected.” He grinned. “I left, sweetheart, because I had to.”

  “Why?”

  “Because you were fourteen!”

  “Way closer to fifteen, Brodie. You just had to wait a few days,” she countered.

  “Even if I had waited, it wouldn’t have changed the fact that although we were mates, you were too young to understand what all of that meant. And I was having a difficult time wanting to bind a child. I felt dirty.”

  “You did?”

  He nodded. “I thought if I could leave for a few years, then we could have a proper courtship when I returned. I wanted to court you the right way until it was time to be bound. But you had other plans.”

  “Oh, no, mister, you don’t get to do that.”

  “Do what?” he asked.

  “Play the innocent,” she said. “Granted, I didn’t let you explain about Heather, but even after I told you to leave me alone, you still managed to ruin every male friendship I had up until that point and then worked on ruining any new ones that came my way…except Niall perhaps.”

  Brodie sneered. “Stupid little boys pawing at you any chance they got is not friendship.”

  “No one ever pawed at me, thank you very much. Like I said before, you’re the only one who’s ever done more than hold my hand.”

  “Is a hand not a paw in other species?”

  For some reason, that struck Payton as funny and although she tried to stifle a giggle, she failed miserably.

  Brodie laid his hands on her hips. “You find that funny, eh?”

  She couldn’t answer coherently because she still couldn’t stop laughing, so she nodded.

  Brodie grinned. “Bloody hell, love, you’re adorable.”

  He covered her mouth with his, effectively stifling her laughter, and kissed her deeply as he held her close. Payton wasn’t entirely sure what to do. She was overwhelmed with emotion. She loved him beyond sanity.

  Brodie broke the kiss and laid her forehead against hers. “Your birthday doesn’t come fast enough.”

  Payton nodded and laid her hands on his cheeks. “Has anyone ever tried to bind their mate early?”

  “I have no idea.” He chuckled. “But I won’t be the first.”

  “Damn.”

  “Don’t start with me.” He groaned. “It’s hard enough as it is.”

  “Fine.” She smiled. “I do have a question about before. When you were in the Air Force.”

  “What’s that?”

  She couldn’t look at him. “Why did you stop writing?”

  “When you were in school, you mean?” he lifted her chin.

  “Yes.”

  Brodie frowned. “That’s complicated.”

  “Okay. But it’s not like you wrote prose or anything to begin with. You sent me pictures of baby polar bears.”

  “One,” he said, and held up his index finger. “It was one polar bear.”

  She giggled. “Okay, one polar bear.”

  “And my car.”

  Payton grinned. “Oh, I know. I still have that one in my wallet.”

  “You do?”

  “Aye. I would stare at it a lot. You’re extremely photogenic, you know.”

  “Thank you.” Brodie sighed. “I stopped because Niall said—”

  Payton scowled.

  “Before ye skelp me, love. Niall did not betray your trust,” Brodie rushed to say. “He just asked me a couple of innocent questions and I realized that writing to you may not be a good idea, probably because I couldn’t have written prose if I’d tried, and I didn’t want to disappoint you. I felt I’d rather have you not know anything about me than to think I was a nitwit.”

  “Nitwit.” She tapped her lip with a finger. “How appropriate…for both of you.”

  “I don’t disagree.”

  “The truth is, Brodie, I wanted to know you…privately. Have things between us that no one else knew.” She smiled. “I didn’t care if you wrote prose, I still don’t. I love you just the way you are, and quite frankly, I don’t think you should have listened to Niall’s jabbering.”

  “Perhaps not.” He cocked his head. “You understand that Niall adores you, right? I only asked him to make sure you were safe while I was gone. I did not ask him to “befriend” you. He did that all on his own.”

  “I know. He’s worked hard to prove that to me.”

  “How hard?”

  She frowned. “Brodie.”

  “I just want to be sure how much competition I have.”

  Payton groaned, pushing him away and heading into the kitchen. “You don’t have any competition. And especially not from Niall. You haven’t since the day I met you. And you know it.”

  He followed. “Just making sure.”

  “You’re an idiot, Brodie.”

  He chuckled. “I’m painfully aware of that fact, love.”

  “Knowing you have a problem’s the first step.”

  Brodie grinned. “Yes, you’re my biggest problem. Especially when you make me worry. How do you feel?”

  She rinsed some of the dinner dishes and set them in the dishwasher. “I feel fine. Better than ever, in fact.”

  “Really?”

  She nodded.

  He narrowed his eyes and then sighed. “If that changes, you’re to tell me.”

  “I will.”

  “Promise me.”

  “Aye, my liege.” She smiled and threw him a tea towel. “I promise. Now help me load.”

  Brodie helped her load the dishwasher and then pulled out his cell phone. “I should ring Heather.”

  “We can still go if you want to.”

  Brodie shook his head. “No. You need to rest. Besides, I’d rather just stay in and watch a movie, if you don’t mind. I want you all to myself for a little while.”

  Payton grinned. “I love that plan…especially if there’s making out involved.”

  “Well, duh,” he mimicked, and Payton laughed.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  BRODIE WOKE PAYTON just after eleven that evening. She’d fallen asleep against his chest almost an hour earlier, and now the movie was over. “Time for bed, love.”

  “It can’t be.” Payton groaned.

  “I’m afraid it is. Let’s get you back to your room.”

  “No. I prefer you as my pillow.”

  Brodie grinned and helped her from the sofa. “Not long and you can sleep on me forever.”

  She smiled sleepily up at him and he kissed her before walking her down the hall to her bedroom. She hugged him and raised her chin for a kiss. “I love you.”

  “I love you too,” he said and kissed her again. She stepped inside and closed the door.

  Brodie headed to the guest room and undressed for bed. Turning off the light, he didn’t guess that he’d be woken by a blood-curdling scream at two in the morning.

  Rushing to Payton’s room, he found her sitting up in bed, her hand on her chest and her hair falling across her shoulders. “Pay?”

  “Sorry,” she ras
ped. “It was just a dream.”

  He sat on the edge of the mattress and cupped her cheeks. “What was it about?”

  She frowned. “Honestly, I don’t remember.”

  “Can I get you anything?”

  “No. I’m fine, Brodie. I just need to rest.”

  “Do you want me to stay until you fall asleep?”

  She smiled. “I’m fine, love. Go back to bed.”

  Brodie kissed her and headed back to the bedroom. He was in bed for all of ten minutes when his bedroom door squeaked open. He leaned up on his arm. “Hi.”

  “Hi.” She wore a tight singlet that left little to the imagination and pair of short shorts.

  Brodie squeezed his eyes shut briefly. “You okay?” he asked.

  She shook her head. “I can’t sleep.”

  “And that’s my problem, because…?”

  “Because you’re my mate and you are obligated to make me feel safe and happy.”

  Chuckling, he held his hand out to her. “Come here my wee strumpet.”

  She jumped onto the bed and climbed under the covers. “My heart keeps racing every time I close my eyes.”

  He pulled her back against his chest. “Better?”

  She nodded. “Much.”

  Kissing her shoulder, he smiled. “You’ll use any excuse to get into my bed, won’t you, love?”

  “You’ve figured me out.” Payton yawned. “Don’t tell anyone.”

  “Fara að sofa,” he whispered. “Go to sleep.”

  “I’m already asleep.”

  “Ég elska þig.”

  Payton sighed. “I love you too.”

  He continued to whisper to her in Icelandic until he knew she was asleep and then he allowed himself to succumb to slumber as well.

  * * *

  The next morning, Payton woke to an empty bed. She climbed off the mattress and peeked into the hall. “Brodie?” she called.

  “In the kitchen, love.”

  She headed down the hall and found Brodie standing in front of the stove. “Are you making breakfast?”

  He chuckled. “I’m trying to.” He kissed her quickly. “I was hoping to have this done so I could serve you in bed.”

  Payton grinned. “That’s sweet, but honestly, I hate breakfast in bed.”

  “You do? Me too.”