The Rogue of Islay Isle by Heather Mccollum

Author:Heather Mccollum [Mccollum, Heather]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Highland
Published: 2017-05-14T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Cullen waited in the dark alcove by the twisting stairs, listening to the light cautions given by Rose as she and Mairi came down after changing for dinner. With the Macleans arriving, he hadn’t been able to speak with her. Or kiss her. And now she was sharing a room with Tor’s sister, so he couldn’t come knocking tonight. He exhaled in a gust of frustration.

A small gasp issued from the bottom step. “Who is there?” Rose asked, and he stepped out of the shadows.

“Do ye always hide about in dark corners, Cull?” Mairi asked. “Or were ye specifically trying to scare us into falling down your uneven steps?”

He laughed, still remembering Tor’s sister as a freckled young girl who used to tag along after Tor and him. Luckily, they had been able to rescue her from a disastrous predicament when her husband died a month ago. “If I’d wanted to do that, I’d have hidden at the top for a much greater tumble.”

Mairi gave a soft snort. “Ye probably would push me, too.”

Rose looked back and forth between them, and Mairi laughed. “Not really,” she said. “But growing up, Cull’s always been wicked.”

“Wicked?” Rose asked.

“Playing tricks, always leading a group of lasses around by the memory of his kisses, breaking hearts to leave them floundering on the ground like gulping fish.”

Och, he could kick the woman. Rose’s eyes widened. “That is quite the visual illustration,” she said.

“Why don’t ye find your mother?” Cullen suggested without hiding his terse tone.

Mairi’s head snapped between them both. “Hmmm… Interesting.” She stared and tucked an errant curl into the bun under a small hood. “Very well.” She turned to enter the hall. “But guard your heart, Rose. No need to let it flip-flap around in the rushes.” She fluttered her hand this way and that as she walked away, leaving them finally alone.

Cullen turned to Rose who was watching Mairi leave. “I like her,” Rose said, her gaze sliding to him. “She hides nothing.”

“Oh, she can hide things when she wants to,” Cullen said, but let it go. He didn’t want to talk about Tor’s sister in the short time they had alone. “And she exaggerates about the lasses.”

“It seems she has the same opinion about you as Broc.”

He stepped closer and inhaled her clean floral scent. It brought back a rush of memories from last night. “I regret my sordid youth, and I aim to prove that I’ve changed.” The heat between them surged a tightness up through his gut.

“So my heart won’t be flip-flapping in the rushes?” He watched her dainty hands turn upward and down like Mairi’s fish.

He caught one of them, softly kissing her knuckles. “I would never let ye flap in the dirty rushes.”

She canted her head to the side. “A clean floor before a fire?”

An image of Rose, naked and sprawled on a soft fur spread on the floor of his room before the hearth, filled his head. All thoughts of talking with her about their night of play crumbled to ash.

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