Lethal in a Kilt

by Anna Durand

  The one who'd asked me to rise clasped my hands. "Please forgive us, Serena. We're so happy to meet you, we couldn't hold it inside. Logan's very skilled at that, but we're more...outgoing."

  "Don't worry about it," I said. "I've met lots of MacTaggarts, but not you three. It's about time we got acquainted."

  "I'm Isla," she said. "And aye, it is time we met. My sisters and I always seem to miss you at family gatherings."

  Since I hadn't attended a lot of MacTaggart events, that was hardly surprising. Still, I wondered why Logan hadn't mentioned his sisters. As I took in the full picture of them, I began to get an inkling.

  Isla wore a black blouse with long lace sleeves, paired with black slacks that flared out around her ankles and a black beaded choker that featured one large jet stone as the centerpiece. Her earrings consisted of slender metal dragons that pierced her lobe and curved up the shell with their heads hanging down from the top.

  "This is Elspeth," Isla told me, gesturing at another sister. "She's the baby of the family, and she's partially deaf in her left ear. So if she doesn't answer when you speak, make sure you're talking to her right side. Kirsty is number three in the family. I'm the oldest, by the way, and Logie is number two."

  I glanced at Logan and caught him wincing. He must not like being called Logie. Big surprise. He did not seem like the easygoing type, or the type who tolerated silly nicknames.

  Elspeth had dressed in a scarlet tunic with long, puffy sleeves and a Mandarin collar, with ornate metal clasps instead of buttons. Her wide-leg pants flared out even more than Isla's and had a gauzy black layer over the solid black fabric. Her boots were scarlet too, with flower-festooned pentacles painted on them that matched her pentacle earrings. While Isla told me the third sister was Kirsty, I admired her slightly less Gothic clothing. Her dark green, crushed-velvet dress draped halfway down her thighs while the sleeves covered her arms down to the wrists. She wore simple black boots and a cute necklace featuring a black cat and a crescent moon.

  I noticed Isla and Elspeth had hazel eyes like Logan, but Kirsty's were pale blue. Elspeth's eyes were a shade darker than Logan's, but Isla's mirrored his in color and in the way the green highlights in them glittered in even the subdued lighting in the dining room.

  "What a cute necklace," I said to Kirsty. "Very Halloweenish."

  "Thank you," Kirsty said with a smile. "We do love Halloween, though we prefer to call it Samhain, since we're practitioners of Wicca."

  "Wicca?" Sure, I'd heard the word and thought I knew what it meant, but I didn't want to insult these lovely women by getting it wrong.

  "They think they're witches," Logan said from behind me on the opposite side of the table. "They're barmy, in case you hadn't figured that out. At least they don't have a cauldron, but watch out if they offer you a pentacle. They might be cursing you."

  "Oh tosh," Isla said with a dismissive hand gesture. "Donnae listen to Logan. He doesn't believe in anything he can't shoot with a gun or beat with his fists. The pentacle represents the five elements."

  "Five?" I said. "I thought there were four."

  "Traditionally, yes, but in Wicca—"

  "Enough," Logan announced in a stern tone that probably cowed many people, male and female, though it seemed to pass right by his sisters. "May we eat brunch with no talk of magic or pentacles?"

  "Of course, Logie," Isla said. "Whatever my wee baby brother wants."

  Logan was not wee in any sense of the word. He was big in every way, from his massive shoulders to his powerful thighs, and especially in reference to his manly equipment. A sensuous warmth shimmered through me. We'd had sex twice, but I still hadn't seen his naked body, only that impressive dick. Maybe we should try it again, strictly so I could satisfy my curiosity about what the rest of him looked like.

  "No magic," Isla said, drawing a cross over her heart with one finger. "We promise."

  Kirsty and Elspeth crossed their hearts too.

  We all took our seats with Isla at the end opposite Evan, Kirsty beside me, and Elspeth beside her brother. If Logan was harried by his sisters' arrival, he didn't show it. At least, not much.

  He flashed me a tight smile.

  I angled toward Kirsty. "So, how long will you girls be in America?"

  "As long as it takes." She threw her eldest sister a sidelong glance, but Isla was focused on Logan, who grimaced at something she'd said. Kirsty returned her attention to me. "That's what Isla said. We should come here and stay as long as it takes to get Logan in order."

  "In order?"

  "Donnae ask me. This was all Isla's idea. Well, hers and Evan's."

  "Yeah, I think Keely had a hand in it too."

  She absolutely had. Evan and Keely made big decisions as a couple, and conspiring to push me and Logan together was their biggest idea yet.

  Kirsty's expression turned pinched, and she whispered to me, "I think Isla wants to maneuver you and Logan into...um..."

  "Wedded bliss?"

  She nodded. "I'm sorry."

  "It's okay. My best friend is in on the conspiracy too." I hesitated, then said, "I'm afraid Logan and I aren't compatible."

  Kirsty tipped her head to the side, her eyes alight with curiosity. "Aren't you? I see the way Logan looks at you, and the way you look at him."

  "No offense, but you three arrived two minutes ago. You don't know how we look at each other."

  "Logan is talking to Isla and Elspeth, but he's looking at you."

  I glanced across the table toward his chair.

  Logan was watching me even as he muttered something to Elspeth.

  When ours gazes collided, a sensuous warmth rippled through me.

  "See?" Kirsty whispered. "The sparks are practically setting the room on fire."

  Maybe we did have sparks. That did not equate with compatibility. So what if I couldn't tear my gaze away from his, and so what if I'd experienced a tingly anticipation all week wondering when he might kiss me again.

  "You still don't believe it," Kirsty said. "Trust me, it's true. Isla did your horoscopes, and they showed you and Logan are compatible. I can do a tarot reading for you later, but I think deep down you already know what you and Logan have is more than sex."

  I whipped my head toward Kirsty. "What makes you think we're having sex?"

  Her cheeks dimpled as her lips tightened into a knowing smile, but she said nothing.

  Oh God. Was it that obvious? I looked at Chase, who was having an animated discussion with Evan. Had my son noticed what Kirsty seemed to think was obvious? What if he figured out I'd done the deed with Logan? Chase would be thrilled, I had no doubt about that. He worshiped Logan the ex-spy. I hadn't been exaggerating when I told Logan my son thought he was James Bond and Superman wrapped up in a kilt.

  I slumped in my chair. Chase would be devastated when he realized Logan and I were not a couple and never would be. I had to stop this thing, whatever it was, between me and Logan. No more kissing bandit. No more screwing Logan. No more, period.

  What kind of example was I setting for my son? Ever since Rob had been taken from us, I'd engaged in the occasional fling, but nothing more. Now I was having sex with a man I didn't even like and letting Chase get attached to him. Logan would move on eventually. He hadn't really wanted the job Evan gave him, and he didn't seem like the settling-down type.

  Not that I wanted to settle down with him. Hell no.

  "You're a worrier, aren't you?" Kirsty said.

  "Huh?" I blinked a few times, trying to clear my mind of thoughts of Logan. "No, I'm not really a worrier."

  "Don't fight it, Serena. Logan is a good man."

  I opened my mouth, prepared to spout something about how I'd never witnessed any good behavior from him, but I stopped myself. His sisters didn't need to hear that. They seemed like sweet, if odd, women. I liked Kirsty after spending a few minutes with her. How could Logan's sisters be so different from him?

  Maybe I had
witnessed his good behavior. That day in the copy room, when the copier lid had slammed down on my hand, he had been genuinely concerned. My gaze wandered to him.

  Logan was smiling at his sister Elspeth. He had an arm draped across the back of her chair. The affection on his face infected his voice too as he told Elspeth about his new job and how he didn't have "a bloody clue" what he was doing.

  Seeing him this way, relaxed and chatting with his family, something inside me warmed and softened in a way that had nothing to do with lust.

  Kirsty wore that knowing smile again.

  When I glanced at Keely, she gave me a similar smile.

  Across the table, Chase grinned at me.

  Oh shit. Everyone thought I was infatuated with Logan MacTaggart. They were wrong, dead wrong, but no one would believe me if I denied it.

  To hell with what everyone thought. I knew the truth.

  No way would I ever develop feelings for Logan.

  Chapter Nine

  Logan

  After brunch, my sisters insisted on washing the dishes despite Evan and Keely's proclamation that guests did not have to clean up. Evan hadn't spent much time around my sisters, so he still suffered from the delusion he might talk them out of something they'd set their minds on doing. Isla was too bloody-minded for that. Elspeth and Kirsty went along with her. That was how my sisters wound up in the kitchen washing dishes and silverware while Keely and Serena retreated into the living room, with assurances my sisters would join them soon. Chase's friends had picked him up for a trip to the shopping mall.

  I cornered Evan in the study.

  He seemed to think he might get away from me by hiding in there with the door closed. What a dafty. Only a fool could think I wouldn't barge into the study to confront my meddling cousin.

  Evan, reclining in a puffy leather chair, paused in sipping a glass of whisky to look up at me. "What's fashing you, Logan? You look ready to pummel someone."

  I bent over his chair, my hands on its arms. "You conspired with my sisters. Why in heaven's name did you drag them here?"

  He took another sip of whisky, his expression bland. "Isla called me yesterday and announced she and the rest of your sisters were coming here to see after you. Isla seems to think you're in denial about your feelings for Serena."

  "Donnae be ridiculous. I do not have feelings for that bitch."

  I developed an odd queasiness when I called her a bitch. I'd said it before, many times, but today I didn't feel right about referring to her that way. Because my sisters were here, that's why. It had nothing to do with what Serena and I had done in the living room earlier. That had been a release of pent-up sexual tension, nothing more.

  Why, then, did I keep wondering what she might look like naked? Why did I remember with vivid detail the look on her face when I'd been inside her and the sensual sounds she'd made?

  "You're thinking about Serena, aren't you?"

  I tugged at my collar, trying to scratch an itch, but it wasn't on my skin. It was inside me. "Of course I was thinking of her. You just mentioned the woman."

  "Ah, but you're having misty-eyed thoughts about her, not evil-bitch thoughts."

  "You're daft."

  My cousin hooked his ankle over the other knee and studied me while tapping one finger on his whisky glass. "Why are you determined to dislike Serena? The real reason, Logan, not the tired line about what a rotten harpy she is."

  I glowered at him, but Evan only chuckled.

  Feminine laughter echoed in the hall outside. My sisters had finished their cleanup, which meant I had a chance to corner Isla and demand she explain herself.

  Or I could stay here and interrogate Evan, who seemed disinclined to admit wrongdoing. Nothing short of torture seemed likely to make him confess, but torturing my own cousin would make the entire family think I'd gone off my head.

  "Bod an Donais," I hissed as I stalked out of the study.

  I shut the door as Kirsty and Elspeth walked into the living room on the opposite side of the entryway. Isla was following them, so I snared her arm and towed her down the hall into the kitchen.

  Releasing her, I slapped my palm down on the granite island. "What the bloody hell do you think you're doing, Isla?"

  "Looking after you, Logie."

  "I don't need my sister looking after me."

  She gave me a pitying look. "You need a lot of help. That bonnie, sweet woman likes you, and from what Evan told me, you treat her like your enemy." Isla tsked. "That's not the Logie I know. What's wrong with you?"

  "Would you stop calling me Logie? I'm not a bairn."

  The boy she'd known had died years ago. Taking lives changed a man. Watching others die at the hands of terrorists, saboteurs, and traitors had made me less than trusting of anyone. I couldn't fault Isla for wondering how I'd become such a bastard.

  I scrubbed a hand over my face. "Isla, I can't change what I am. Being a bod ceann is my nature these days."

  "You are not a dickhead." She patted my cheeks with both hands. "You're a good man, Logan. Whatever you went through in the army and the SIS hasn't changed who you are deep inside. Stop thinking you don't deserve happiness, because you do."

  How did she know I felt that way? I hadn't realized it until she suggested it. Isla had always been the most perceptive of my sisters, the one who could guess my feelings even when I tried to hide them. But to know how I felt before I did... Maybe she had supernatural powers after all.

  Bullshit.

  "Come," she said, grabbing my hand. "Kirsty, Elspeth, and I have a surprise for you."

  "Another one? Your arrival is all the surprise I need today."

  She rejected that statement with a sharp hiss and a wave of her hand.

  And she towed me out of the kitchen, down the hall toward the study. The door hung open, and Evan was in the hallway talking to my other sisters. When he saw me, Evan nodded to Isla.

  "The study is yours," he said, and left the vicinity.

  I couldn't blame him for wanting to escape my sisters. I loved them, but they'd gone barmy with this Wicca nonsense.

  Then again, Evan never seemed bothered by my sisters. No one other than me seemed to mind their strange behavior.

  Isla ushered me into the study and to the sofa. She gave me a little shove. "Sit, Logan."

  At least she'd stopped calling me Logie.

  "Why should I sit?" I asked.

  "Because I said so," Isla said, as if I'd asked a silly question.

  "You are my older sister, not my mother."

  "Didn't Ma always tell you to mind me?"

  "I definitely mind you ordering me to sit."

  Kirsty shut the door as she and Elspeth entered the room. The three of them swarmed me in a semicircle, giving me three choices—push past them, stand here and glower at them, or sit down.

  With a long sigh, I dropped onto the sofa. "If the lot of you are planning to lecture me about the way I treat Serena—"

  "No-no," Elspeth said, "we have a surprise for you. Didn't Isla mention it?"

  "Aye, but I informed her I don't want a surprise."

  "Tosh," Isla said. She sat down on the coffee table in front of me. "We're giving you a wonderful gift."

  Kirsty and Elspeth seated themselves at either side of me.

  "All right, sisters," Isla said. "It's time to cast a love spell on Logie."

  "Like hell you will," I said. "Ye cannae make me love Serena by waving your hands around and chanting meaningless phrases."

  "Of course not," Isla said. "Silly Logie, this isn't that kind of love spell. The one we have in mind will make you more open to the possibility of love, that's all." She bent forward to pinch my cheek. "You're so uptight these days. You need all the help you can get."

  Elspeth and Kirsty murmured their agreement.

  Whenever the three of them got together to conspire to interfere in my life, I was doomed.

  I let my head fall back aga
inst the sofa and made a go-on gesture with my hand. "Get it over with."

  While they began waving their arms slowly and chanting in hushed tones, I closed my eyes and fantasized about Serena's naked body.

  Chapter Ten

  Serena

  Monday morning, I arrived at work early so I could catch up on the tasks I'd neglected to finish last week, what with Logan the kissing bandit distracting me. That infernal man was driving me bonkers. Our interlude in the living room at Evan and Keely's house hadn't helped. Memories of it kept flashing through my mind, complete with sensations and sounds and scents. Logan had smelled of spicy cologne and that indefinable essence of man. I remembered the scent of my arousal too. God, I'd wanted him so much he must've noticed the aroma. And the look on his face, so full of lust and determination and...something else I didn't dare examine too closely.

  Something that had seemed dangerously close to tenderness.

  I did not want Logan developing tender feelings for me. We were so completely wrong for each other that we should've had signs on our chests announcing, "no romance here, dead-end ahead." Maybe that would've deterred our friends and family from trying to maneuver us together.

  No, it wouldn't have. They were all hell-bent on forcing a romance.

  Seated at my desk again, with my plastic cup of takeout coffee in front of me, I felt in my element. Work had always been my safe place. No matter what was going on in my life, getting back to work eased my anxieties. I logged on to my computer and browsed my emails, trying very hard not to think about Logan. Seeing him with his sisters had been an eye-opener. Isla, Kirsty and Elspeth were a bit odd, but in an endearing way, and their love for their brother showed in their smiles and their gestures when they spoke to him. Kirsty would touch his arm and say something to tease him. Isla pinched his cheek and called him Logie, which always made him grimace, though his affection for his sisters was clear. All the MacTaggarts were a little strange, but I'd come to appreciate their unique traits. I admired their loyalty to each other and the way they would always step up to help a member of the family.

  Logan had stepped up in a big way for Evan and Keely. I'd heard the story of how he belly-crawled through the woods to sneak up on the bad guy's car when it was coming up the long driveway. Keely had told me Logan threw a knife to puncture the car's tire while it was still moving. He'd then collared the cowardly villain and smacked him around until the guy fessed up to where his cohort was hiding. Later, the local cops had let their buddy Logan have a chat with the main bad guy, a chat that ended with the man confessing everything. They said Logan hadn't laid a finger on him. He'd simply stared at the man and said who-knew-what to him.