Page 77 of Wild Scottish Rose

“But you know about otherstuff, don’t you?”

I had a choice to make. I’d given myself to this man the night before, and yet I hadn’t, still holding a part, a very important, part of me back. Yet when I tried to speak, tried to tell him that I was magick, the words lodged in my throat.

“It’s the Kelpies, isn’t it? They’re real?” Owen asked and I seized on his answer. Meeting his eyes, I nodded. Excitement lit on his face. “I knew it!”

“I mean, they’re as real as people say they are, I guess. I haven’t seen them, Owen. Not really. I thought I did, once, but I can’t honestly say. It happened so fast.” Turning, I picked up my coffee and took a sip to settle my nerves.

“Are you ready to tell me what you know?” Owen asked and I tilted my head at him in surprise.

“You knew?”

“I knew you were holding something back. But that’s also fair. You told me the topic made you uncomfortable, so I’ve done my best to respect that and not badger you with questions. Which, by the way, I have a bad habit of doing. It’s easier for me not to start the conversation than it is to stop it once my brain starts rolling. I just have this insatiable thirst for knowledge.” Owen drew me over to the loveseat by the fire and plopped next to me. For a moment, his gaze caught on my purple silk bra and his eyes dilated slightly. Honestly? I could physically feel the punch of his lust as he ogled me, and I wet my lips.

“Here.” Owen grabbed a throw blanket from the back of the couch and hurriedly covered my body with it. “There, now I can concentrate.”

I smirked, understanding now what it was like toconfidently use feminine wiles for a man’s attention, and filed that feeling away for closer examination at another time.

“What do you want to know, Owen? More importantly, what will you do with the information?” I asked, holding my mug with both hands. He flipped pages in his notebook until he found a fresh page, and he looked so damn adorable and sexy with his rumpled hair and loose grey sweatpants, that I wanted him all over again. It was hard to resist the enthusiasm he had for his job, even if it meant exposing Loren Brae’s secrets.

Who was I kidding?

Loren Brae was exposing herself to Owen. She’d just sent a unicorn to our doorstep. There wasn’t much else to be said about trying to hide the Kelpies from Owen anymore.

What about your own magick?

The words slid through my brain, and I shifted, bringing my legs underneath me, worried about what he would think of me if he learned that I was a garden witch. I resigned myself to taking this one step at a time, and seeing how he handled the Kelpies, before I dropped anything else on him.

“Okay, I’m ready. Tell me about the Kelpies.” Owen looked so eager, his pen poised, that I smiled.

“What do you want to know?”

“Well, everything really. Don’t hold anything back. No detail is too small. You never know where it might lead me.”

“That’s kind of what I’m worried about,” I admitted, taking another sip of my coffee as I studied him over the rim. “What this will lead to.”

“The film, you mean?” Owen’s eyebrowswinged up his forehead.

“Precisely. What are your plans for it?”

“I…I don’t know yet. I never really know until a project like this is finished. If I already had investors and a pitch for a movie, that would be one thing, because I’d be indebted to them and anyone else attached to the project. But this is just me, investigating on behalf of a friend.”

“So, you’re just doing this for Ryan?”

“No.” Owen shook his head. “I’m also doing it because I’m fascinated.”

“And what about Loren Brae?”

“What about it?

I gestured with my coffee cup.

“What about us? If you produce and sell this movie, and it’s seen worldwide, don’t you think that could have catastrophic effects for our wee town?”

“I…” Owen trailed off, squinting as he thought about it. “Honestly, I hadn’t thought that far in advance. Couldn’t it be good for your town?”

“How? That murderous mythological water horses are hurting people? Tell me, Owen, how would that be good for us?”

“Oh.” Owen’s face fell. “I suppose when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound good. But I’m sure it would help with tourism, right? There’d be plenty of people who’d want to come see for themselves, right? Like Nessie?”

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