Scottish Swag

by Cristina Grenier

  “Of course!”

  What the hell? Her mouth had apparently taken over her brain cells, because that had not been the answer she was planning to give him. Now she would look like a fool if she said no, so she turned reluctantly and unbuckled her seatbelt. He opened the door for her and held out his hand. Willa Mae took it…what else was she to do when he was being such a gentleman? He helped her alight, and as she had suspected, did not relinquish her hand once he had closed the door.

  “I can manage now,” she said, pulling on her hand as they began to walk beside the pond.

  “This place begs for hand holding, don’t you think, Willa Mae? And where’s the harm, after all?” His voice was low and persuasive.

  “This isn’t the kind of relationship we should be establishing,” she pointed out sharply. “You’re my client. Our relationship is strictly business.”

  “And yet,” he said, stopping her when she would have continued walking, “here we are, battling an attraction that has been growing since I picked you up at the airport.”

  Willa Mae gasped. The last thing she had expected was for him to acknowledge aloud that there was something arcing between them. She couldn’t let this go any further. She wasn’t looking for a hookup, and especially not with someone whose family thought she was the devil incarnate, or close to it. They didn’t even live in the same country. It was impossible. She wouldn’t encourage his attentions, no matter how hard her body screamed at her to do so.

  “It happens sometimes,” she conceded, as though this was not the first time it had ever happened to her. “But that doesn’t mean we have to give in to it. We’re adults, not children.”

  He let go of her hand suddenly, and the sharp longing that pierced her to feel his touch again startled her. She had just told him to let her go, and now that he had, she wanted him back. Maybe she’d have to accept her ex’s invitation to go out for drinks. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but he was back in town and looking to reconnect. Maybe she should give him a chance. Maybe the attraction would return once they were out together. Anything to counter this unwanted feeling. No doubt she would have further contact with Niall, but with a plan to counteract his effect on her firmly in place, she would be better able to withstand it.

  He remained silent, walking beside her until they got to the bench he had told her about. It was an ornate wrought iron affair, bracketed on either side and behind it by beds of flowers. It was clearly meant for lovers, and Willa Mae’s skin prickled as she stood awkwardly beside it looking out over the water. She had to say something to break the silence. She knew Niall had withdrawn because of her words, and it bothered her, despite her need to keep a distance between them. Which was pissing her off. She didn’t like being this unbalanced and unpredictable. She wasn’t a silly girl with a crush. She was a grown woman.

  “Does it have a name?” Anything to break the oppressive silence.

  “Locals just call it The Pond,” he replied coolly.

  Willa Mae noticed that it was actually larger than she had thought, because a part of it was shadowed by tall trees. And that part also carried lily pads on the surface. She wondered if there were fish in the pond, but didn’t ask. She wasn’t keen to start any further conversation. If he wanted to pout, she’d let him. She didn’t care that his feelings might be hurt. As long as she did her job, that was all that mattered. So why did she feel so bothered that he remained silent standing next to her, his hands in his pockets as though he didn’t want to be caught off guard touching her again?

  “We’d better go now,” he said after a few more minutes of strained silence. “We’ll need to be up early, and I have to work to finish.”

  His tone was dismissive, and it cut her sharply, which didn’t sit well with her. Why should she care that he was treating her like the stranger she was? It shouldn’t matter? But it did, so much she wanted to stop him, reach for the hand she had spurned before, and apologize for upsetting him. She kept her eyes in front and her mouth closed, though. Nothing good could come of her out-of-whack emotions. She needed to sleep. It was jet lag making her feel so out of sorts. She’d be fine in the morning.

  The drive back to the castle took only about ten minutes, and once they were inside, he turned to her and said,

  “I hope you have a good night. Breakfast at eight.”

  He walked away, leaving her with Andrews, who had appeared with a tray as if summoned. He gave her a quizzical glance, and she looked away, not wishing to acknowledge that she understood his unspoken question. Instead, she followed him up the stairs to a suite that took her breath away. It was so vastly different from the tiny room she had been placed in before that she was speechless.

  “I hope that you will enjoy the rest of your stay, Ms. Jamison. Shall I have someone give you a wake up call?”

  Andrews was solicitous but distant, something he had not seemed to be before. Willa Mae knew then that she would have no allies in this house if she alienated its master. Feeling frustrated and annoyed, she shook her head.

  “No, thank you. I just need to know where the dining room is.”

  He placed the tray on the side table. “I’ll be available to escort you to breakfast by eight o’clock, then. Good night.”

  He turned and walked out, gently closing the door behind him, leaving her fuming. He didn’t even know what had gone down between her and his boss and he was taking sides. She was not a fan of being given the cold shoulder, especially not by people she had assumed would have her back in a hostile environment. Now, she wasn’t so sure. Would Niall throw her to the wolves in the morning and leave her to manage as she could? Or would he step up, as he had done today? She wouldn’t know until breakfast time…and now she dreaded it.

  She removed her makeup, washed her face and brushed her teeth, and decided she would shower in the morning. Which meant she’d need to give herself enough time to wake up properly. She wasn’t a morning person by any means, and tomorrow morning most of all she had to be as sharp as a tack. Which meant she needed to stop dithering and get to bed. The covers had already been turned down for her, and she sat on the side of the bed, letting her fingers sink into the luxurious softness of the sheets, savoring their smoothness and enjoying the firmness of the mattress. The pillows smelled faintly of some pleasant indistinct scent, and she smiled as she wrapped her arms around them and closed her eyes. What it would be like to have a lover in this bed. She could well imagine it…

  She turned abruptly. This was no time to start thinking about her sexy host again. They had not parted on the best of terms, and she had no business to be daydreaming about him in her bed now. Pushing thoughts of him firmly aside, she retrieved her notes, reviewing the things she wanted to say to his family, adding the ideas she had had at dinner. As she worked, she nibbled on the cheese and fruit slices on the tray. When next she looked at the digital clock on the side table, an hour had passed, and she was beginning to see double. Time for bed. She fell asleep almost as soon as she slid between the sheets.

  Next morning, after an invigorating shower, she dressed carefully. She wanted to go for casual chic, to meet the needs of her breakfast meeting, which was how she dubbed what she had to face in less than an hour, and the day Niall had planned for them. She settled on the jeans from the night before, but paired them with a matching button-front denim top, over which she layered a bright yellow cardigan. She draped an ornate necklace with a gold medallion suspended from it around her throat, set gold knobs in her ears and slid her feet into soft leather ankle boots. Spritzing herself once more with her favorite perfume, she rechecked her braids, which she had pulled high on her head in a loose pony tail, and decided that it would have to do.

  Draping her sunglasses on her shirt, and picking up the black bag she had her tablet, inhaler, camera, and cell phone in. A knock at the door announced Andrews’ arrival, and she promptly opened the door…to the sight of Niall looking like he was getting ready for a GQ shoot. The dark slacks he wore emphasized his ve
ry long, muscular legs, and the plain gray t-shirt under a dark jacket spread snugly across his broad shoulders. His expression was cool, until she looked him in the eye and saw the smoldering heat. So, nothing had changed with him overnight, then, despite the way they had left things. If the way her pulse was jumping around was any indication, nothing had changed on her end, either. She took a deep breath and said,

  “Good morning. I wasn’t expecting you.”

  He eyed her for a moment without responding, and then said, “Andrews has other duties. I am your host.”

  Willa Mae recoiled as though she had been slapped. So she was now just a duty. It shouldn’t matter to her, so she ignored the hurt that spiked in her chest, and smiled brightly at him.

  “Well, then, thank you, your lordship.”

  “You have no cause to be annoyed with me, Willa Mae,” he said, surprising her yet again. “You are the one who wishes to retain a distance between us. You are the one who refuses to do more than acknowledge that there is a spark. I am merely doing as you suggested and not acting on it.”

  He stepped away from the door so she could walk out of the room and close it behind her. Then he walked beside her, not touching her, down the long hallway to the stairs. She felt like a tongue-tied teenager on her first date. This would not do.

  “Look, I’m sorry if my plain speaking upsets you, but I came here to do a job…”

  “And you cannot therefore also relax and enjoy yourself?”

  His question stopped the flow of her words, and it seemed her ability to think rationally.

  “There’s relaxing and then there’s stepping over the line, your lordship…”

  He stopped her again, turning to her and gripping her arms at the elbows. “If you call me by anything other than my name for the rest of your stay here, be prepared for the consequences.”

  His voice was a growl of sound, a warning she suddenly didn’t wish to heed. What would he do if she ignored it?

  “Consequences, your lordship? What could you possibly…”

  His lips crashed down on hers in a hard, punishing kiss. He didn’t pull her body in to his, for which she was grateful, but the lips that stroked hers, the tongue that licked their way across her mouth warned her that if she chose to continue her defiance, she would not like the outcome any better. Or maybe she would like it too much. She opened her mouth to kiss him back…and he withdrew. She felt the splash of a second rejection like ice water washing over her.

  “I don’t think you really want to test me, Willa Mae,” he whispered before straightening and releasing her arms. Then he reached over and swiped a fingertip beneath her bottom lip. “Just cleaning you up. Breakfast will be difficult enough without questions about your just-kissed lips coming from my eagle-eyed mother.”

  Willa Mae’s eyes widened, and she licked said lips, unaware for once of the way his eyes followed her tongue. “Maybe I should go and…”

  “There’s no time to retouch them. They’re fine as they are. Still enticing, still begging to be kissed.”

  This time when he turned, he offered her his elbow, and she took it, because she felt so unsteady on her legs that she needed his support to make it down the stairs. At the foot of them, he turned her towards the living room but stopped at the door across from it, and released her once again.

  “After you,” he told her, and she walked ahead of him into the dining room, feeling like those poor souls in France must have felt as they walked to the guillotine.

  Chapter Four: Taking Care of Business

  Willa Mae swallowed and cleared her mind of every errant thought, most especially ones about the man who walked in behind her. She knew he was staring at her high bottom and wide hips…she could almost feel his intent gaze on them. She wanted to spin around and demand that he stop teasing her, stop trying to seduce her, stop being the distraction he was being. Instead, she forced herself to ignore him and walk in with head high.

  “Good morning, everyone,” she said, refusing to acknowledge them individually. Good manners only required her to greet them, and she wasn’t really ready just yet to tackle their hostility on top of the attraction from hell that she was fighting. “I hope I’m not late.”

  She smiled in a very general sort of way in the direction of the three people who were just about to take their seats at the table, plates full of food already in their place settings. They each made a general mumble by way of a response, none of them looking directly at her as they spoke. She looked around uncertainly and found her host at her side.

  “You’re right on time,” he said, a barely leashed anger threading through his voice. “My family must be exceptionally hungry today if they’ve already served their plates without waiting for us to arrive.” A hand at her elbow, barely there, led her to the side board. “Please help yourself to whatever you’d like.”

  Willa Mae glanced briefly at him, a tentative smile shifting her lips upward, and then she nodded and said, “Thank you.” Her voice was low, but she couldn’t manage to raise it any higher.

  “Not at all,” he said, handing her a plate.

  Willa Mae wasn’t sure she could eat much of anything, but she took some toast, a hard cooked egg and a sausage link, and added some fresh strawberries. As she stood wondering where to sit, Niall appeared again and led her to the table, to a seat directly across from his mother and next to him. Then he asked her what she’d like to drink.

  “Orange juice, if there’s any, and coffee, please.”

  She watched him pour and walk back with her drink choices, and watched his mother’s eyes widen in horror. Feeling more and more annoyed, Willa Mae smiled, choosing not to hide it behind the glass she raised to her lips. This time, she spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear.

  “Thank you, your lordship. It’s so kind of you to serve me.”

  The countess’s eyes snapped to her face, and Willa Mae kept her smile plastered on her face, while in her mind she was doing a little bitchy dance. Take that, your ladyship. She wasn't going to allow this woman or her other children to ruin her mood, or stop her from doing her job. The sooner the older woman realized who she was dealing with, the better it would be for everyone.

  “My pleasure, Willa Mae,” he said, and dared to wink at her.

  This time, she stifled the bubble of laughter that rose in her throat. There was bravado and then there was insanity. She wasn’t insane enough to believe she could get away with laughing at her fuming hostess. Even though she was still determined to resist Niall’s charm, and the kiss they had shared was still making her tingle, she was glad that his private coolness with her was not in evidence here. At least she could count on him to put his personal feelings aside to help her achieve their common professional goal.

  So far, no one else had spoken, and it seemed no one would. She waited until Niall began to eat before putting any food into her mouth. No one spoke for about five minutes, though it felt like an eternity of painful silence. Then,

  “Perhaps you’d like to share your ideas for the castle with us now, Ms. Jamison?” The countess’s voice was cold and haughty.

  Willa Mae swallowed the egg she had just put into her mouth and wiped her lips on her napkin. Taking a heartening gulp of the coffee which was now blessedly lukewarm, she began her spiel.

  “Bannock Castle is in an attractive location, and from what little I’ve seen, part of a charming community. Creative Legacies has done some research into the transformation of similar dwellings in Scotland, and have seen where there are certain things that can be done to make the castle a fully certified, fully functional, wholly competitive tourist destination.”

  No one interrupted her, so she continued. “The earl has been in continuous consultation with our firm over the past few months, and he has decided, with our guidance, to make the following updates.”

  She looked up at Niall as she spoke, and when he nodded faintly, she went into a detailed list of the things they had decided could be usefully done to make the estate a
viable business. She hit the highest points first: refurbishing all the guest quarters, but leaving the family’s private quarters intact, unless they chose to participate in the upgrade. It would mean closing the house for the next six months, but as they weren’t doing much business to begin with, that would be no significant loss.

  “While the renovations are ongoing, however, we would open the gardens to visitors, for a voluntary fee, the way they do at other venues.”

  “Where else does anyone have access to private gardens for a voluntary fee?” Angus demanded. “It sounds to me like a giveaway, if the visitors don’t want to contribute anything at all. We’d still have to let them in.”

  “That’s quite true,” she conceded, “but as you’re now not making any money from the gardens, anything you do make will be a bonus that you can continue to give yourself once the renovations are complete.” She paused before adding, “Even large organizations such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City allow visitors to pay what they can afford for entrance. And for those who can’t afford to give anything, the museum is free of cost. So everyone who wants to will have a chance to enjoy the beauty of the art work it houses. Also, I think it will do wonders for the family’s reputation if the gardens were opened to the public in that way where those who can contribute will be paying it forward and helping you to pay for the upkeep of the grounds.”