Page 14 of Wild Scottish Beauty

“Do you?—”

“Don’t move.” Ramsay’s arms tightened around me, and honestly, I wouldn’t have been able to move if I had wanted to. And, frankly, I really didn’t want to. Do you know how incredible it was to be hugged tightly and cradled against a delicious man who wanted nothing more than to protect you from harm? I mean, I wasn’t one for the whole damsel in distress thing, but I was beginning to see the perks. And,Goddid he smell good.

Following his gaze, I froze.

In the once-empty hallway one of those cows with the big horns now stood, tilting its head at us, whispering its “moo” at us.

Yes, whispering.

Not to mention, he was semi-transparent.

Oh my God. He was a ghost. A ghost cow. A freaking ghost cow.

Torn between excitement and fear, I blinked as the cow executed what seemed to be a little dance, a jig maybe? His hooves tippy-tapped on the floor, and his eyes were wide with excitement. He ended on a flourish and nodded his head at us.

“Moo?”

“You must be Clyde,” Ramsay said.

“Moo!” The ghost cow bellowed so loud, racing up and down the hall like a dog with the zoomies, that we both jumped and held on to each other tighter.

“He has a name?” I gasped.

“Clyde is the Highland ghost coo that haunts MacAlpine Castle. I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting him.”

Clyde dove through a wall at the end of the hallway, and then popped through the door to my apartment, executing another round of zoomies as though he couldn’t contain his excitement.

“A coo?”

“We call our cows ‘coos’ here, lass.” Scotland drifted through Ramsay’s words, the soft roll of theRs making me shiver, and I wanted to keep him talking just to listen to his beautiful accent.

“Right. A ghost coo. And this is normal?” I was tornbetween what I wanted to look at more—Ramsay’s handsome profile or the ghost executing a series of acrobatics behind me—but the ghost won. I mean, who was to say when I’d ever see this ghost again? It didn’t sound like it made an appearance much if Ramsay hadn’t yet seen him.

“Great job, Clyde!” Ramsay called and I glanced up at him in question. I didn’t know Ramsay well, but the enthusiasm in his voice struck me as out of place for him.

“Great job doing what? Scaring the shit out of people?”

“I’m told you’re supposed to compliment him, or you’ll hurt his feelings.”

“Hurt his … the cow, I mean, coo, has feelings?” Sure enough, Clyde pattered closer at Ramsay’s words, bobbing his head as though he was happy, and I smiled.

“He’s right, Clyde. You did the best job ghosting of any ghost I’ve seen.”

Clyde perked up, doing his little jig again, and then disappeared. I blinked at the empty hallway, my heart still hammering even though I’d managed to bring myself down from sheer panic to simple anxiety, and blew out a breath.

“Are you okay?”

The hallway shifted, and I realized that we were moving. Ramsay was carrying, yescarryingme, downstairs. I wanted to stop him, but the experience was so unexpected and novel, that I decided to relish this moment.

My ex-boyfriend had stood on a chair while I’d cornered a rat in our studio.

I suspected Ramsay would set me on the counter, tell me to put my feet up, and catch the rat one-handed all while cooking me breakfast. He just had that vibe, you know? It was a quiet confidence that made me thinkthat not much rattled this man. Which also immediately made me think about how fun it would be to see him come undone.

Bad Willow.

Ramsay carried me all the way downstairs and into a living room area where a fire roared in the fireplace. Sophie and Lachlan were cuddled on a love seat, and an older couple sat in matching tartan chairs by the fire. The dogs jumped up at our arrival, the chihuahua racing over to growl at Ramsay’s feet, and Sophie popped up as well when she saw Ramsay carrying me.

“What’s wrong?”

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