A barely detectable flicker of guilt rippled through his gaze. Not quite enough guilt to please her.
“I took the curse to another translator,” she informed him, “and he had no idea what Kathleen O’Brian meant by ‘outdated phraseology.’ What’s more, Kathleen has been avoiding me … as if she feels guilty.”
Cole pursed his mouth and regarded her in secretive silence.
“You made up that story about the teenagers,” Tess charged, “and you coerced Kathleen into cooperating with you.”
“Coerced? I wouldn’t say ‘coerced.’ I may have paid her fairly well for the time and effort she expended on my behalf,” he allowed, “but—”
“You bribed her to lie to me.”
Even a Westcott knew when he was caught dead to rights. He admitted it only with a shrug, though … and an unrepentant sparkle in his green, green eyes.
The scoundrel. “Why did you do it?” she asked in bewilderment. “Because you wanted to stop me from worrying about the curse?”
“Because … Ms. Tess ‘Only-What’s-Necessary’ McCrary-Westcott … that curse was complicating things. I didn’t want you to feel pressured into staying with me because of it. I wanted you to stay because you fell deeply, madly in love with me.”
She held his hands, locking her fingers with his, and gazed at him with all the love brimming in her heart. “Fiendishly clever. Your plan worked.” He drew her closer, clearly zeroing in for a kiss. She couldn’t let him off that easily, though. “You realize, don’t you, that this means the curse is real.”
He maneuvered her closer, nodding in grave agreement. “The more I think about it, the more I believe we’ll have to carry out its terms for the rest of our lives. The planting of the seed. The forsaking of all others. The satisfying of manly needs…”
She tilted her head in reflection. “You think?”
“Oh, I’m sure of it.”
“Well, then. That settles it.” She sank deep into his embrace, supremely resigned. “Till death do us part.”
Duty was, after all, duty.
*
HOT-BLOODED HERO Page 22