Fire Maidens Scotland (Billionaires & Bodyguards #6) - Anna Lowe Page 0,45
me, her dragon implored one more time.
Then she turned and walked down the path alone, tears trickling down her cheeks.
Chapter Twelve
Holly hugged her pillow, staring vacantly at the morning sunlight filtering through the windows. Had she really turned down Lachlan last night?
The cold corners of the big, empty bed mocked her. You sure did. Second thoughts, maybe?
She punched her pillow. “No regrets.”
There’s more than one way to interpret that, you know, her dragon grumbled. Sex first, no regrets afterward.
She stuck the pillow over her head. As easy as that sounded, no. She deserved more than one night.
Well, congratulations, her dragon snipped. You got neither. No sex, no lack of regrets.
She threw the pillow across the room. She had her pride, dammit.
Mungo popped his head up from beside the bed and licked her hand.
She managed a smile. If no one else, she had Mungo.
We have Lachlan, her dragon whispered.
Did she? She refused to get her hopes up. In fact, she’d woken feeling downright skeptical. What if Lachlan didn’t mean what he’d said? What if he had simply been acting under the influence of lusty dragon instincts?
One thing was for sure. She had to be more on guard against temptation than ever.
Mungo pushed his head against her hand as if to say, You have me, remember?
She smiled, then sighed. She had Mungo, an urn full of ashes, and a hot Highlander to resist for another forty-eight hours.
She could practically hear Lachlan correcting her already. Forty-seven hours, twenty-nine minutes, and sixteen seconds — barring traffic.
Another reason why the man was no good for her, despite his promise to prove himself. They were like oil and water.
More like yin and yang. Salt and pepper, her dragon murmured. Potatoes and gravy…
“Enough already!” She jerked up out of bed. Lying around moping wouldn’t accomplish anything.
Breakfast was every bit as awkward as she feared it would be, but what else did she expect from a not-quite morning after?
“More tea?” Lachlan offered, looking deep into her eyes.
“No thank you,” she said as coolly as possible. One of them had to be the tough guy after all.
She hacked at her toast with a butter knife for the next, dead-silent minute. Tony’s eyes bounced between her and Lachlan, but he didn’t utter a word.
“More jam?” Lachlan tried.
Blackberry — her favorite. Still, she shook her head. “No thank you.”
“Juice?” The liquid sloshed in the pitcher. Was his hand shaking?
She dismissed the idea immediately. As if.
“Scone?”
Her mouth watered, but she stuck with her butchered toast. “No thank you.”
Lachlan kept up a steady stream of peace offerings throughout breakfast. Dammit, why did he have to be so nice when she had to keep her guard up? And why was his expression so…so…soulful? So wounded. So…so…
Regretful? her dragon filled in. Determined?
Show me, she’d demanded. But she hadn’t just meant over breakfast. She meant the real thing. Did he get that?
“Stormy night last night,” Tony noted.
“It had its high points,” Lachlan murmured.
Her dragon hummed. Sure did.
Part of her burned to make a stinging comment like I hardly noticed, but another part of her burned with shame. Boy, was she grumpy.
You have only yourself to blame, her dragon snipped. We could have been floating on cloud nine this morning.
Or aching with regret, she pointed out.
“When are we leaving?” she asked.
“Whenever you’re ready.”
She gripped her teacup harder. “Anytime you are.”
Lachlan wiped his lips and headed for the door with startlingly quick, Your wish is my command steps.
Wait! Don’t go, she wanted to call after him. Maybe they should talk things out. They could lay all their thoughts and feelings on the table in the light of day rather than in the heat of the moment.
Then she caught herself. Right. Thoughts and feelings. Would Lachlan ever admit to his?
“When hell freezes over,” Tony muttered.
She stared, but he just motioned out the window.
“Scotland is what hell looks like when it freezes over.”
She eyed him suspiciously, then looked out the window. “It’s not that cold. You should see it here in winter.”
Tony warmed his hands on his coffee cup. “Where I come from, this is cold.”
“Right. France.”
He nodded. “France.”
A quiet minute passed as they finished their breakfasts.
“Allora. I’m not really from France,” Tony admitted out of the blue.
She cocked her head. He was giving in already? “Where are you from, then?”
He studied her for a while, then looked in the direction Lachlan had gone. “I’ll tell you on two conditions. First, you tell no one.” He leaned closer, and his eyes sparked dangerously. “And I mean, no one.”