Embrace the Highland Warrior (2 page)

“If Matilda croaks, it’ll be from one of the tour guides pushing her off a pyramid.” Cody popped the top on his Pepsi. “Nina’s threatening to call off the trip to Egypt in the spring and stick Matilda in a retirement home, if she doesn’t stop being such a pest.”

It irritated Shay that he knew more about the woman who had raised her than she did, but it had been her choice to stay away. “Aunt Nina said Marcas and Lachlan would be back in a couple of days.”

“Aye. Tomorrow, I expect.”

The sound of his voice made her ache inside. She’d forgotten the hint of accent she’d found so enchanting. “You’ve spent nearly all your life in America, and still you have a touch of brogue.”

He shrugged. “Guess you can take the boy out of Scotland, but you can’t take Scotland out of the boy.” Ewan and Laura MacBain had moved here when Cody and his brothers were little more than babies, but they were Scots through and through.

“Remember when we were kids, you and Marcas tried to teach me some words in Gaelic to use as our secret code?” Shay smiled.

Cody’s gaze dropped to her left hand again. “I’m surprised you’re not married by now, with a couple of kids of your own.” His voice was soft; his eyes weren’t. “You always loved kids. Are you waiting for a real knight in shining armor to show up?”

Shay gripped the counter until the edge bit into her hands. “Knights aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. Armor tends to get rusty after a while. What about you? Are you married?” Nina hadn’t mentioned it, but she also hadn’t said he’d moved back here.

He shook his head, focusing on his soda for so long the silence grew awkward. “Why did you do it, Shay?” He looked up at her, his eyes burning with emotion. “Why’d you leave without telling me, without even saying good-bye? Now you show up, nine years later, after refusing to speak to me.” He plunked down the can and pushed away from the table. “I need to get some sleep. I’ll get an exterminator out here.”

With one brief glance over his shoulder, he walked out the door, leaving Shay feeling as if she’d been hit by a tornado.

Refusing to speak to him? What about the blasted letters he hadn’t bothered to answer?

***

Cody walked until he reached the gate. He turned, looked at Nina’s house, and blew out a hard breath. Shay was safe. She was here. He didn’t know whether to run like hell or get on his knees and thank God for another chance. He pulled his phone from his pocket to call off the bodyguard. No answer. He left a message, shoved the phone in his pocket, reminded himself to charge the battery, and then detoured into the woods. He needed to cool off. He’d call Scotland tomorrow and see what this burglar business was about. She might not have been home in years, but he knew her well enough to know she was hiding something. He jogged along the old trail, blaming the prickly feeling in his spine on the fact that his world had just exploded at his feet.

***

Shay tried eating, but her encounter with Cody left her with no appetite. If he hadn’t gotten her letters, then she’d spent nine years blaming him for something he hadn’t done. Hoping a walk would clear her head, Shay ambled along the old trail behind the house, leaves crunching beneath her feet, the earlier rain having already soaked into the thirsty earth. The moon was bright, eliminating the need for a flashlight, but the trees were taller and thicker now, making the woods feel more isolated. She shivered and glanced over her shoulder, then chided herself for foolishness. All she had to worry about here were wild animals and painful memories.

The small lake came into sight. She’d spent hundreds of hours there with Cody and his brothers, fishing, swimming, racing to the pier… skinny-dipping. She passed the old boathouse she and Cody had used as a castle, spy headquarters, and army base. How ironic that her real father had actually been a spy, or something top secret, and Cody’s job was about as secretive. So was Jamie’s, for that matter. Maybe that was part of the reason she couldn’t commit to him. Secrets had nearly ruined her life.

Shay sank down on the white sand Ewan had brought in, making the shore kinder to tender feet. The sun and wind had dried the sand while she slept, but her jeans still chaffed with dampness.

The scenery made up for the discomfort. The moon hung like an amber globe over the glistening lake as the water gently lapped the shore. She took off her shoes, wriggled her toes in the cool, gritty texture, and leaned back, cushioning her head on her arms as she studied the stars. They were all still there, winking and twinkling, as if welcoming an old friend, or the prodigal daughter returning home. She felt the familiar prick of guilt for abandoning the place, abandoning the people she loved. Nina, Matilda, and Cody’s brothers had occasionally visited Shay in New York or Scotland, but she had never come home, not once. She closed her eyes, letting the smells and sounds of the place settle in, cedar and sand, water and dying leaves, bringing voices from another time.

“Get out, or I’m going home,” Shay said, wishing she had a rock to throw at Lachlan’s butt.

“Come on, Lachlan,” Marcas said impatiently. “Stop being a jackass.”

“What’s the big deal?” Lachlan grumbled, trudging back out of the water he’d just entered without a stitch of clothing. “She’s seen it before.” He joined his brothers, who were facing the woods with their backs turned.

“You said she could get in first,” Cody said.

“Okay, Miss Hoity-toity-now-that-you’ve-turned-fourteen,” Lachlan fussed. “Go ahead.”

Shay
was
too
old
for
skinny-dipping, but mice had made a nest out of the swimsuit she had left in the boathouse, and she wasn’t going to turn down a challenge. If she lost, or forfeited the race, she had to clean all three boys’ rooms that night. She could almost smell the dirty socks already. If she won, they would have to do it themselves, which meant they wouldn’t be at the dance, hovering like bodyguards. The cute new guy in her science class hadn’t heard about the MacBains yet. He might ask her to dance.

When
she
was
sure
she
was
safe, she stripped to her panties and bra and darted into the water, not stopping until it lapped at her neck. “You can turn around,” she called. Within seconds, a splash covered her head, and Cody emerged, laughing beside her. She swatted him away and got ready for the race.

Shay opened her eyes and smiled. She won the race, but she suspected Cody had followed her to the dance anyway. That was the last time she went skinny-dipping. She wished she had a swimsuit now. After that encounter with Cody, her skin felt scorched. A brisk swim might cool her off. Compared to Scotland, this weather was balmy.

Why not? It was dark. No one could see her. Not many people would venture out for a swim in the middle of an October night, Indian summer or not. Cody was the only person around, and while she’d rather kiss a rattlesnake than see him there, she doubted he even came here anymore. Besides, he’d looked exhausted.

She started shedding her clothes before she could change her mind. She stepped into the lake, letting the water seep between her toes. It was chillier than she expected, reminding her of the ice swimming they’d braved every January. When the water reached her thighs, Shay dove in, gasping at the cold. With her head underwater, she swam until her muscles ached, feeling her fear and stress grow fainter with each stroke. Lungs burning, she swam toward the shore so she could rest before starting back. She stood up and saw Cody ten feet away, staring at her.

Shay squealed and dove back into the water, emerging when it was chest high. “What are you doing here?” she asked, struggling for a steady breath. Was he following her?

The water barely covered his hips. He stepped back so he was decent. “Same thing as you, I’d say. We always did think alike.” They stared at each other in silence, his expression shadowed.

“That was a long time ago.” And he didn’t have all those rippling muscles back then.

“Yeah,” he said, looking at the waves nudging the top of her breasts.

In the dark, his tattoos were a blur across his chest. He got them a year or so before she left, but didn’t like talking about them. He still wore the same necklace, a rectangular piece of metal suspended on a leather cord. Jamie wore a similar one. His chest was tattooed as well. It seemed as if every man she knew had tattoos, but the others hadn’t filled her with this strange longing.

“What you said back at the house, about no word from me. How can you say that? I sent letters.”

“What letters?” Cody asked.

“I wrote you two letters after I left. I sent them to the address your mom gave me.”

“I never got them.” His eyes narrowed. “Doesn’t make sense. I got mail from everyone else.”

“I don’t understand.” If he hadn’t gotten them, where were they? Her stomach twisted into sick knots. She needed to go somewhere quiet and think. “I should go. I didn’t expect anyone to be here.”

“You don’t have to leave.” He moved a few steps closer and touched her shoulder.

She jerked away, and her foot slipped off a rock, plunging her underwater. She flipped, trying to regain her balance. Strong hands grabbed her, setting her on her feet. She spat out a mouthful of water as Cody’s hands gripped her waist. His hand moved lower to her hip, gently steadying her. The front of his body brushed her back. His skin was warm and hard. Something touched her shoulder. Hair? Lips?

When she was eighteen, she had fantasies of this: him and her in the lake with no clothes. She wasn’t eighteen anymore, and she couldn’t risk another heartbreak. She pulled away, putting some distance between them, but her ankle gave out when she turned.

He steadied her. “You okay?” His voice sounded strained.

“I twisted my ankle. It’s no big deal.”

“I’d better carry you out.”

“No. It’ll be okay in a minute.” Up close, he was even more intimidating. Broad shoulders, well-used muscles, and tattoos that made her want to run her fingers over them, caress them with her lips.

His gaze moved from the water skimming her breasts to her mouth. His eyes darkened as a low rumble rolled from his throat. She was trying to decide if her head was spinning or his was lowering, when a stunned voice came from the shore.

“Hell’s bells… Shay? I thought you were in Scotland.”

Cody turned, shielding Shay behind him. “What are they doing here?”

Marcas and Lachlan stared, mouths open. Marcas found his voice first. “Uh… should we leave?”

“Leave?” Lachlan pulled off his shirt, and his necklace caught the moonlight. “We just got here,” he said, unsnapping his jeans.

“No,” Cody barked. “We’re getting out. I was helping Shay.”

Lachlan raised an eyebrow. “Helping her do what?”

“She twisted her ankle. What are you doing here?” Cody’s voice was curt.

“That’s a dumb question. You’re the one who asked us for help,” Lachlan said. “We had to come home and pack—”

“I mean at the lake?”

Marcas hooked his thumbs in his pockets, quietly surveying the scene. “Lach thought he heard someone in the woods when we got out of the car. Figured it might be a bow hunter scouting out a place to hunt. Probably heard you two.”

“Somebody run around to the other side of the lake and get Shay’s clothes,” Cody ordered.

Marcas nodded and trotted off.

Lachlan snapped his jeans and snatched up his discarded shirt. “What brings you all the way from Scotland, Shay?”

Lachlan was the daredevil with the mischievous twinkle in his eyes—and his foot in his mouth, although his laid-back attitude was partly an act. Marcas was the sensitive one, serious. He usually knew what people were thinking before they did, one of the reasons Shay had avoided him nine years ago, and one of the reasons she hadn’t come back. Marcas was twenty-nine, one year older than Cody. God, she’d missed them all.

“I was on my way to see Renee,” she said, shivering with cold. “I thought I’d stop by for a visit.”

Lachlan asked about Renee and Scotland as they waited for Marcas to return. “About time you came home. Hope you’re planning to stay awhile.”

“It d-d-depends.”

Cody’s arms were covered in chill bumps as well. He took a step back and stopped. He’d put his arm around her hundreds of times over the years to keep her warm, but they weren’t grown up and naked then.

“Why don’t you go help Marcas?” Cody said to Lachlan. “Never mind. Here he comes.”

Marcas trotted up, not even winded. All the brothers were fast, although she could almost keep up. Marcas dropped Shay’s clothes next to Cody’s. “Better get out of there before you end up with pneumonia.”

“How about some privacy?” Cody grumbled.