Insatiable in a Kilt (Hot Scots Book 6)

by Anna Durand

  I picked up a fork and speared the sausage in question, broke off a bite, and raised it to her lips. "Open up."

  She closed her lips around the fork, drawing the sausage bite into her mouth. Her brows drew together, and her lips puckered a wee bit as she chewed. Once she'd swallowed, her expression smoothed out. "It does have a lively flavor."

  "Erica called it the most disgusting thing she'd ever put in her mouth."

  "I've tasted much worse things." She flapped her fingers to gesture at her mouth. "Give me another bite."

  "You don't have to eat it."

  "Need at least two bites to decide how I feel about it."

  I speared another bite and slid it between her lips.

  She chewed, her eyes half closed. After swallowing, she took a few seconds to consider her opinion. "It's okay, but I won't be begging you to cook it for me."

  "Fair enough." I picked up a tattie scone and tore off a piece. "You'll like this. It's made with potatoes, not blood."

  She opened her mouth, and I placed the scone bite in her mouth. She closed her lips around my fingers, licking them before letting go. After she'd swallowed her bite of scone, she hummed her approval. "Very good. Did you make all this food from scratch?"

  "Yes."

  "Impressive, Mr. MacTaggart. Feed me more."

  After I'd finished feeding her, and she'd fed me, we dressed and left the privacy of our room to find Iain and Rae. They were in the kitchen---kissing, as it turned out. Iain had his wife backed up to the island, his hands on her hips. When Keely and I walked into the room, they stopped kissing but didn't move.

  "Good morning," Iain said. "Thought you two would sleep later."

  "We're well rested, thank you," I told him.

  Keely raised onto her toes to whisper in my ear. "Ask him."

  I knew what she meant, of course. She wanted me to ask Iain for help with the situation I'd gotten us both involved in, the blackmail and the threats to our safety. After sleeping on the problem, I'd realized she was right. I did need help. Understanding the need and speaking the words proved to be very different things. It had taken a year for me to see I couldn't let this go on any longer. I'd needed Keely to show me that. Asking my cousin for help...

  A cold sweat broke out on my brow just thinking about it.

  "You can do this," Keely whispered.

  And if I didn't do it, she would. She'd told me that last night. I understood why she felt that way. I'd let the problem fester for much too long, all because I was too damn stubborn to let anyone see my weaknesses and my mistakes. I'd never been good at swallowing my pride. It always got stuck in my throat.

  Iain leaned against the island next to his wife. "Evan, you look like you've got something on your mind."

  "Yes, I do." I tugged on my collar, but my throat still felt tight. "Could we go into the sitting room? The kitchen is rather...open."

  "Rae," Iain said, "why don't you show Keely the rest of the house?"

  "The women should come too," I said. "Keely already knows what I need to tell you. Rae should hear it too."

  Iain nodded again and led the way out of the kitchen, down the hall to the sitting room. Keely and I sat on the sofa while Iain and Rae took the chairs by the fireplace. Outside the windows, clouds began to overtake the sun, painting the world in shades of gray.

  Everyone was waiting for me to speak. How was I meant to explain this? I'd been a bloody-minded moron driven by pride and my inability to trust anyone completely.

  Keely touched my knee and offered me an encouraging smile.

  Trusting her had been the most intelligent decision I'd ever made. She believed Iain would understand. Maybe he would, maybe he wouldn't. I had to try.

  Iain crossed one ankle over the opposite knee and laid his hands on the chair's arm. "Whatever it is, you'll feel better if you say it."

  Though I had my doubts about that, I cleared my throat and started. "I'm being blackmailed by people I've never met or seen or spoken to. They've made threats against my mother and Keely, though the threats are vague. I need to find these people and stop them." I hauled in a deep breath and blew it out. "I need help."

  "You shouldn't have been afraid to tell me. I understand your situation better than most people would."

  Rae gave her husband a knowing look. "You can say that again. I seem to recall a certain MacTaggart man who was afraid to tell me he was being blackmailed by a Welsh asshole."

  Keely's gaze flickered between me and my cousin. "Iain was blackmailed?"

  "Aye," Iain said. "Long, long ago during a regretful time in my life, I let Rhys Kendrick push me into authenticating a forged artifact. I'm an archaeologist, in case Evan didn't mention that. Kendrick threatened to send my father to prison. Da used to, shall we say, appropriate possessions that didn't belong to him in order to make ends meet. He only took from wealthy people and never more than he needed."

  Rae shook her head and sighed. "Poor Angus, that sweet, deluded man."

  Keely stared blankly at Iain for a few seconds. "Your father is a burglar?"

  "A well-meaning and misguided one, yes," Iain said. "He only stole as much as he needed to keep our family from starving, and he was in and out of prison for most of my childhood. My father is retired these days."

  "The point," Rae said, "is that Iain knows very well how a good but stubborn man can get tangled up in unsavory things. He's the right one to help you, Evan."

  Iain leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. "Evan needs more help than I can give. Let me call in reinforcements before we get into the details. Everyone should be here."

  "Everyone?" Keely said.

  I settled my hand on her knee. "He means Rory and Lachlan, and possibly a few other MacTaggarts. I imagine their wives will want to be here too."

  "Only if you consent to it," Iain said. "This is your show, not mine. But we do have a large pool of talent in the family, including the American Wives Club."

  "We should bring Emery in on this. I'm an expert on security and surveillance systems, and I'm involved in creating the software for my devices, but I am no hacker. Emery knows more about computer systems than I do. Maybe she could trace the text messages I've been receiving."

  "If she can't, I'm certain she knows someone who can." Iain trained his gaze on Keely. "Did Evan tell you how he helped solve my problem with Rhys Kendrick?"

  I snorted. "That was all your wife's doing."

  "Not all," Rae said. "Your devices helped us get the proof we needed to have Kendrick locked up for a good long time."

  Keely smiled---at me. "That doesn't surprise me at all. Evan is a genius."

  I contemplated my feet, scratching the back of my neck.

  "He's a little shy about accepting credit."

  "We've noticed," Rae said.

  Once they'd finished making me uncomfortable with their praise, Iain called Rory. When my other cousin picked up the call, Iain said, "Rory, my man. We've got a code-red situation here. Evan needs our help with something that's not unlike my problem last year. Yes, bring Emery. All right, you call Lachlan and Aidan. We need all hands on deck for this one."

  After saying goodbye to Rory, Iain dialed another number.

  "Who are you calling?" I asked.

  He gave me his casual smile, the one Rae called his Buddha smile. No one could understand what Iain meant when he smiled that way, no one except his wife most likely.

  "Logan," Iain said into the phone. "We need your special expertise with a situation Evan's gotten into. Aye, right away. You're a good man."

  Once he disconnected the call, I squinted at Iain. "Logan? What's his special expertise? The man works as a bricklayer. Are we planning to build a fortress?"

  "You haven't gotten to know Logan yet, have you? He used to be MI6."

  Keely looked confused, so I explained. "It's the Secret Intelligence Service or SIS, commonly known as MI6."

  Her eyes widened. "Your cousin Logan w
as a spy?"

  "This is the first I've heard of it."

  "Most of the family knows," Iain said, "but Evan's been a bit standoffish with his cousins. Rae and I had to all but kidnap him to get Evan to come to our house for dinner the first time."

  Keely's lips cinched together, a clear sign she was trying not to laugh. "I'm familiar with his extreme need for privacy."

  Rae smiled. "At least he finally found a good woman."

  "What every man needs," Iain concurred. "Being a billionaire doesn't hurt either."

  His wife squeezed his knee. "Poor Iain has to settle for being a multimillionaire."

  "At least I have more money than Lachlan and Rory."

  I dropped my forehead into my palm, suddenly exhausted from listening to the people I loved making jokes and plotting how to get me out of the mess I'd made for myself. They shouldn't need to do this. I shouldn't have let things spiral out of control. I managed an entire company, a billion-dollar corporation, but I couldn't manage my own life.

  Keely settled a hand on my back, moving it in circles, trying to soothe me.

  I shouldn't be soothed. Solving the problems I'd caused should've been my top priority, not pursuing a woman who hadn't wanted a relationship. What had I done to her?

  She stood up. "While we wait for reinforcements, Evan and I will take a walk."

  "Good idea," Iain said. "Fresh air will make the obstacles seem less insurmountable."

  I raised my head to frown at Iain. "Something is either insurmountable or not. There's nothing in between."

  Keely tapped one finger on the top of my head. "That's the attitude that got you into trouble in the first place. You need to develop a positive attitude, like you did when you decided to win me over."

  I grumbled.

  She seized my hand and tugged in an attempt to make me get up. When I didn't, she planted her hands on her hips and drummed her fingers. "Will you stand on your own or do I have to get Iain to pick you up?"

  Iain jumped out of his chair as if preparing to do just that.

  "Fine," I said and pushed up off the sofa. "Take me for a walk, Miss O'Shea."

  "Behave, Mr. MacTaggart."

  My cousin and his wife seemed mildly confused by our interchange, but I had no intention of explaining why Keely and I called each other by our last names. "Because I love fucking her while she's telling me to behave" wasn't the sort of thing I would ever share with anyone.

  I let Keely lead me out of the house.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Keely

  I rested my head on Evan's thick bicep while we ambled around the outside of the fenced pastures. The sheep grazed, occasionally baaing, and the llama grazed too while sticking close to her charges. Malina had told me all about Lily the llama, who guarded the sheep from predators, and her infatuation with Iain. He had, Malina said, gotten used to being the object of a llama's affection even when Lily nuzzled and licked his face. Two horses also hung out in the pasture.

  The green grass and rolling terrain dotted with wildflowers created a beautiful picture. I would have enjoyed it more if not for the danger looming over us and Evan's need to take sole responsibility for everything. If we found out where the blackmailers were, would he take off on his own to confront them?

  I asked him that very question.

  He halted us on top of a little rise. His gaze went distant, not like he was admiring the landscape but as if he were brooding about the past. "Maybe I will. Maybe I should."

  "Take off after the bad guys all alone? No, Evan, you should not."

  "It's my fault this is happening."

  "Promise you will not go lone wolf on me."

  "Do you want me to lie?"

  "No, I want you to see reason." I searched his face for some clue to his mood, but he wasn't showing me anything. His self-contained persona had taken over again. "Maybe you could get away with this before, but you are no longer alone and you no longer get to make decisions alone. You wanted a relationship." I spread my arms to indicate myself. "Well, here it is. We do this together, all the way or not at all."

  "Am I meant to include you in every decision I make? Should I consult you about the specifications for all my devices?"

  "You know that's not what I meant."

  He scowled at the lush, green fields around us. "I understand what you meant, but you don't understand what I've said."

  "Explain it to me. I'm listening."

  "It's not about me." He took his glasses off, like he intended to clean them, but frowned and put them back on. "Everything I'm doing, everything I might do, will be to protect you. I will do anything it takes to keep you safe."

  A note of desolation colored his resolute statements, and I resisted the urge to hug him. I didn't want to feel this way. I wanted to be angry and clobber some sense into him. How could I? He'd sworn he would do anything to keep me safe. If he ran off on a lone-wolf suicide mission, it would be to protect me. I couldn't change his mind. I'd known from the start he was the most stubborn man on earth.

  Since I had no chance of talking him out of his decision, I switched tactics. "At least promise me you won't take off on your own without talking to me about it first."

  He looked me straight in the eye. "I promise I will not do anything without telling you."

  At least he had agreed to one concession, but his phrasing left me uneasy. I knew he would never make a promise unless he intended to keep it, but I'd said he shouldn't do anything without talking to me first. He had said he wouldn't do anything without telling me. The slight difference in meaning made my skin itch.

  We walked for a bit longer, without talking, and returned to the house to find the cavalry had arrived. The sitting room had gotten too cramped, so they'd moved into the larger dining room. I met Mrs. Darroch, the housekeeper who looked after the homes of two couples, Rory and Emery and also Gavin and Jamie. I also met Tavish Brody, who served as groundskeeper at the castle Rory and his wife had turned into a museum. Today, Tavish was helping Mrs. Darroch wrangle all the kids with assistance from Malina. The trio had taken the tots outside for some playtime. Seven toddlers and infants? I didn't envy their babysitting duty.

  Evan and I joined the rest of the gang, taking the seats they'd saved for us around the long wooden table. The others seemed to have been discussing Evan's dilemma for a while before he and I arrived. When we walked into the room, everyone stopped talking. Once we'd sat down, Rory rose to speak to us.

  "We've been tossing ideas around," Rory said. "I can help with any legal issues, and I have a connection at the Home Office who would be more than happy to lend a hand if there's anything he can do. Lachlan also has a connection at the Home Office, and he has a large group of former clients with varying levels of influence and connections that may be of help to us."

  Evan had told me Lachlan used to work as an independent financial consultant before he met Erica and retired to raise a family. He'd earned a small fortune from his job and even more when he sold his company.

  A blonde woman seated beside Rory got up. It took me a moment to remember this was Emery, Rory's wife. I'd met so many people since yesterday that I had trouble keeping the right names with the right faces. Evan had jokingly told me he could give me a cheat sheet with photos.

  He hadn't cracked a joke, or a smile, since we'd left the bedroom this morning.

  "I have connections too," Emery said, "but not in government or MI6."

  Aidan craned his neck to see the whole room. "Where is Logan, anyway? Didn't someone call him?"

  "Yes," Emery said. "Rory called him, and Logan will be here soon. He had a job to finish first."

  "Is that a bricklaying job?" Aidan asked. "Or a James Bond job?"

  Rory rolled his eyes. "Logan is an ordinary citizen these days."

  Emery waved her hands to regain everyone's attention. "As I was saying, I have connections. I'll take a look at the texts Evan has received, but I'll probably nee
d to bring in reinforcements on the tech front. I've already called my friend Sabri in America. He's a wiz at deconstructing stuff like that, so I'm sure he can help us track the messages. If not, he knows even more people, the type with mad skills when it comes to hacking. Strictly for legitimate reasons. Some of them work for the US government."

  "What about the angel investors?" I asked. "Evan thinks the money is related to the blackmail somehow."

  "It's not."

  Though Emery had opened her mouth, those words had not come from her.

  Aileen MacTaggart had stepped into the dining-room doorway. A determined expression had replaced her normally pleasant one, and she held her shoulders back, her chin lifted.

  Evan's entire body went rigid.

  I laid a hand on his arm, but my attention stayed glued to his mother. Everyone else's did too.

  "No one thought to invite me to this discussion," Aileen said, her tone revealing no anger about that fact. "Mrs. Darroch told me what was happening in here. It sounds like you have a plan."

  "We do," Rory said.

  "Then I need to talk to my son in private." Aileen met my gaze. "And Keely too."

  She had included me, planned to tell me whatever she needed to say to her son. I should've felt pleased by this development. It meant she accepted, or at least had come to terms with, my role in Evan's life. I couldn't muster any feelings beyond anxiety for the future.

  Evan and I rose and followed his mother to the sitting room. She shut the door. Evan and I sat on the sofa again while Aileen perched on the edge of a chair, hands clasped on her lap.

  "How do you know," Evan asked, "the angel investors are not connected to the blackmail?"

  The flat tone of his voice and his stony expression made my skin crawl. He'd pulled back into himself, retreating into his persona as the stoic CEO. Even when I'd watched him performing his CEO duties, he hadn't been like this. It was worse today. Much worse.

  I placed my hand on his, but he pulled away.

  Aileen studied her hands. "I don't know about the second one, but the first angel investor was your father."

  Evan went so stiff, his back ramrod straight, that I expected to see a steel rod jutting out of the top of his spine. "That is not possible."