Page 59 of Return of the Scot
“What?” She stared at him, surprised by the invitation for something so…not him and because she was thoroughly disgusting at the moment.
“There’s a delectable place between here and your flat.”
“I am no’ at all suitable for such an outing in my present condition.” Jaime smiled to soften her rejection. “But I do thank ye for the invitation.”
“Tomorrow, then?”
“Perhaps.” Two rejections in a matter of minutes would have his friends talking.
“I’ll pick ye up at noon.”
“Have ye no’ got anything better to do than follow me about, Your Grace?” she teased.
Lorne’s companions chuckled at that, and one of them shook their head.
“Ye wound me,” Lorne said.
“Ye lie.”
His grin widened. “I’ll see ye tomorrow.” And with that, he disappeared with his friends down the dock toward a waiting carriage.
* * *
“Ye’ve got it bad,”Malcolm said with a horrified expression on his face. “I thought ye did when I watched the two of ye box, but this?” Malcolm shook his head.
“Box? Do tell.” Alec leaned forward in the already cramped carriage. “Did she kick your arse?”
Euan chuckled. “In every way, I’d say, from how his eyes never left her backside today.”
Lorne punched his friend in the shoulder. “I’ll no’ have ye talk about my future wife’s backside.”
“So she agreed to marry ye?” Alec asked, his brow winged in surprise. “I would have bet money she’d refuse again.”
“No’ yet. But she will.” Lorne ran his hands through his hair. “A little more convincing, and then I’ve no doubt she’ll say aye.”
“How much convincing does it take for a lass to forget the past?” Malcolm, always the sober one in the group, raised the pressing question.
“We’ve both been victims of our siblings. Give me one good reason we should no’ join forces.” Lorne crossed his arms over his chest, feeling irritated, mostly because he knew it was true. Jaime herself had said as much.
“Well, the fact that your siblings joined forces to sabotage both of ye?” Alec said with a face that screamed obviously.
“The question is why,” Euan offered. “What did they have to gain?”
Lorne disclosed what Malcolm and Jaime’s investigator had unearthed, as well as their own theories.
“That’s mad.” Euan shook his head in disbelief. “Hard to fathom that the two of them would seek to harm both of ye. To rob ye both.”
“Aye,” Lorne agreed.
“How has it been working out with the lass?” Alec asked.
“When I’m away from her, all I do is think about being near her again. I never felt that way about anyone—save my horse, maybe.”
The men chuckled and bumped elbows at that.
“Have ye told her yet?” Malcolm asked.
“I’ve asked her to marry me. More than once.”
