Page 35 of Gift-Wrapped in a Kilt

Rory jerked his head back. "Jamie? No, I meant apologize to you."

I tapped his nose, more amused than annoyed by his display of manly embarrassment. "Apologizing to me won't help. You screwed up, so you get to beg your sister's forgiveness."

He grumbled and slumped as much as he could with me on top of him. "Fine, I'll talk to Jamie."

I opened my mouth, but he cut me off with a roll of his eyes.

"And I will also apologize," he said, "to Jamie."

I patted the top of his head. "Good boy."

He rolled his eyes again.

Snuggling into him, I said, "From here on, baby, leave the meddling to me. You suck at it."

Those whisky eyes of his rotated to study me sideways. "What have you done now?"

"Nothing much." I grinned. "Just told Gavin he needs to bromance you MacTaggart brothers."

"What?" Rory virtually screeched, sounding not terribly masculine. "Ahmno being… Donnae want him doing that with me."

"Calm down, sweetie. All I meant was he needs to make friends with you three." I tipped my head to the side. "Did you know Iain calls you the Three Macs, and he told Gavin you're a three-man Scottish mafia? No wonder he's afraid to speak to you."

A smug smile curved his lips. "Serves Gavin right."

I gave him a weak punch in the shoulder. "Behave, Rory. We want Jamie to be happy, and Gavin makes her happy."

He grumbled again, slipping both arms around my waist. "Am I meant to be friendly with him? The man who broke my sister's heart?"

"You broke my heart over and over and over and —"

"I get the idea. That was different."

"Right. Different." I feathered my lips over his. "Pretty sure Gavin never told Jamie to sleep in another room, or told her not to say his name during sex, or commanded her to keep her eyes open during sex, or —"

"Again, I understand your point." He made a petulant face. "I don't do that anymore."

"Nope, you got over it. You're almost freewheeling these days." I licked at the seam of his lips. "If you try to be nicer to Gavin, I'll reward you in many and varied ways."

"You can't keep placating me with sex, Em."

"Sure I can." I took his bottom lip into my mouth and sucked, then released it slowly. "Works like a charm."

"Maybe it does. And maybe I could make more of an effort with Gavin." He slid a hand up my side to cup my breast. "Now show me one of these rewards,mo gaoloch."

Chapter Fourteen

Jamie spent the better part of the next two days wandering through the castle, avoiding Emery and Rory as much as possible while she brooded about the situation with Gavin. Their rammy had left her with a rock in her gut and a spike of ice in her heart. He blamed her brothers.They want me gone, he'd said. It was not true. Lachlan, Rory, and Aidan would never interfere in her life in that way. They protected her, but they would never go so far.

Gavin's words echoed in her mind.Your brothers are the most amazing guys ever to walk the earth. They've got no faults, no prejudices, just layers and layers of awesomeness.He believed she saw them that way, but she recognized they had faults.

Did she overlook their flaws? Did she, as Gavin claimed, think of them as her perfect heroes?

No, she didn't. She couldn't. She was an adult, not a helpless girl, and mature women took charge of their own fates.

It was time she did that.

Her plan came to her while she reflected on the view beyond the tall windows in the first-floor hallway. The grass had begun to wither. Thanksgiving would arrive in three weeks, bringing with it the festivities her American sisters had arranged. Gavin would be there. Calli would invite him, for sure, but Emery would want him there too. The woman had become fixated on repairing Jamie's love life.

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