Page 56 of The Scot is Hers
As though they had been summoned, the resonances of voices grew closer—noticeably Jaime and Lorne, who seemed to be speaking louder than everyone else. A friendly warning of their approach. Giselle stepped out of his grasp, straightening her skirts, and he ran a hand through his hair, trying to settle what she had displaced, glad that the sound of the others had instantly quelled the desire pulsing beneath his kilt.
“Is all well?” Jaime called out in a singsong voice.
“Aye,” Giselle said as Jaime came as slowly as possible through the opening, her eyes squeezed shut until Giselle added, “We were just talking.”
“Oh, thank God,” Jaime muttered with a wink. “At least ye look as though that’s the truth.”
Lorne came through the doorway then, and Euan and Malcolm too.
“I see the party has joined us,” Alec said.
“Giselle, the ladies are worried ye were absconded with. Come, let’s settle their minds.” Jaime held out her hand, wiggling her fingers.
Giselle gave him one last look before going with her friend. He watched her disappear, wishing he could pull her back to him. Keep her there with him forever.
As soon as she was gone, his three friends raised their brows in his direction.
“I’m no’ an idiot,” Lorne said. “Ye were no’justtalking.”
Alec gritted his teeth, recalling a similar conversation he’d had with Lorne when he found him in such a predicament with Jaime a year ago.
“I know what ye’re going to say,” Alec said, running his hands through his hair.
“Do ye?”
“Aye. ’Tis what I said to ye.”
Lorne nodded with a chuckle. “She’s no’ the type of woman ye simply desire and make your move on,” repeating what Alec had said to him all those months before.
“I am engaged to be married to the lass,” Alec said seriously. “’Tis no’ the same.”
“And yet, ye would throw your life away before ye exchange vows.”
Exasperated, he threw out his hands. “I’m no’ going to lose. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Why does everyone think I’m going to lose?”
“Come on, man,” Euan groaned. “That bastard does no’ deserve another second of your time. Ye’ve already suffered enough at his hands, why continue?”
“That’s the point. I’m putting an end to it.”
“I understand an eye for an eye,” Malcolm hedged. “But what about the lass? She thinks ye aim to abandon her.”
“How do ye know what she thinks?” Alec snapped.
Malcolm shrugged the same way he did whenever anyone asked him how he knew the things he knew. He justknew. Blast it.
“While Jaime might have been fatherless, Giselle’s da is outside this pile of rocks,” Lorne said. “What do ye think he would have done if he’d seen ye in here with his daughter?”
Alec imagined Lord Bothwell marching inside the abbey ruins, catching his daughter’s leg wrapped around Alec’s hip, and then challenging him to the second duel he’d have to fight.
“It was foolish of me,” he admitted.
“Which part?” Lorne said with a snort.
“The kissing part.”
“So ye admit it?” Euan asked with wiggling brows.
Alec rolled his eyes and punched Euan’s shoulder softly. “Get your mind out of the gutter, my friend.”
