Page 54 of In Search of a Husband
He nodded, uncertain what to say. He hadn’t simply liked it. He was suspecting he didn’t like anything about Kate. It was something far stronger, far more dangerous and tempting.
“And you ran away.” She gripped his shoulder and leaned closer toward his ear. “And I know your secret now. I know you ran whisky once.”
“I’ve been occupied with the inn.” He leaned down and turned back the quilt on her bed with one hand, balancing her against his body with the other.
He didn’t wish to remember his days running whisky with his brother and Finn. He had left and made something of himself. He was worthy of being the laird just as much as Tavish and his father had been.
“Are you all done with me now? Now that you kissed me. Or are you going to be greedy?”
He settled her back onto her pillows and covered her up. “I…”
“I am drunk,” she proclaimed, “but that doesn’t mean you can lie to me, Gabriel MacInnes.”
“Right.”
“I won’t lie with you if that’s what you are after.”
“I’m no’ after anything.”
“No, I suppose not. But my reputation…”
He sat down on the edge of her mattress, reaching for the pitcher of water on the bedside table and pouring it into an empty glass.
“I dinna care about yer reputation. I kissed ye because I wanted to. I like ye, Kate.”
She smiled before the color drained from her face. “I feel as if…”
Kate leaned around him and cast up her accounts on his boots.
“You won’t now,” she said, her breath hitching before she softly sniffed back tears. “I deserve to be tossed away.”
He lifted her to sit up straight and looked her in the eyes. Eyes like a Scottish sky with a storm brewing. Dangerous and stirring all the same.
And his heart broke a little at her words. And he had done that.
“I didna hire ye because of rumors, lass. I dinna give a damn about reputations. Ye’re here because I wish ye to be. And I’m sorry ye thought…”
She paled once more and held her hand to her mouth. “No need to go romantic on me, Gabe. I’ve thrown up on you. I expect you’ll dismiss me now.”
Her words slurred, and he hated that, too.
Very well. There was only one thing to do. He set her down on the bed and grabbed the washbasin off the table.
“Hold this.”
She was about to fight him, when as he expected, she threw up once more.
He slipped off his boots and wiped them down with the tucked handkerchief in his pocket. He glanced at her and the bucket and waited a moment before he carried her down to his room.
“I don’t wish to drink whisky ever again,” she moaned.
Gabriel nodded, holding her closer as he pushed through the door of his bedroom. Her room would need cleaning, and he’d see to it. But for now, until he knew she wouldn’t be sick any longer, she could remain here, in his bed, in his room.
A greedy need curled up in his chest.
He would protect her.
CHAPTER 14
