Although knowing him, he’d probably blame Cearnach. He handed the phone to Ian. “Calla called off the wedding.”
Duncan gave a dark laugh. “No wonder they were angry with you, Cearnach. So she finally listened to you.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t think she would have done so if I hadn’t been there and they hadn’t reacted the way they had. They proved to Calla what I’d been talking about all along.” Cearnach turned to Elaine. “Ready to eat?”
“I’m not all that hungry,” she demurely said.
She looked tired and ready to go to bed, which immediately made him think of sharing his mattress with her and wishing she was thinking along the same lines. “Keep me company then after I speak with my mother? I’m starving.” He took her arm and led her into the hall, away from his family. He hoped he could whip up something that would appeal to her.
His mother came out into the hall looking determined. He said to Elaine, “I’ll be down in a moment.” In truth, he didn’t want to leave her for a second longer. Even while he’d stood next to her in Ian’s solar, he’d wanted to do so much more.
Elaine seemed to know what he was thinking. She took his hand in hers and squeezed, then reached up and kissed his lips briefly as if she was afraid to do much more in front of his mother or Shelley.
Hell. But when he saw the devilish smile in her eyes and on her lips, he knew her sweet, innocent kiss was intended to entice him. Vixen.
He pulled her hard against him, looked down into her dazzling dark brown eyes, and kissed her for all it was worth. All the pent-up worry about her and the men that had been shooting at them, and the anxiety about her being injured in the falls… all of that came rushing back to him.
He didn’t stop at a sweet, chaste kiss but gave her what he was feeling—relief, desire, and a craving for her so strong that he didn’t want to curb the emotions. When she melted in his arms and kissed him back, pressing her soft body against his arousal, he deepened the kiss.
Both their hearts were pounding as he leaned his forehead against hers, breathed in deeply, smelling her own arousal, and gave her a small wicked smile. She cast just as devilish of a smile back at him.
He kissed her again, then let her go, his body still hot and hard and wanting from holding her. “I’ll be down in a moment,” he said, his voice rough with need.
She nodded.
Shelley was grinning as she took Elaine’s hand and led her toward the stairs. Cearnach stood staring after them until they disappeared, not caring how his mother might react to his impulsivity. But then he noticed that his brothers, his aunt, and Julia had observed the whole thing, too. Fine. They could assume what they would.
Julia was wearing a small smile of approval. His aunt’s brows were raised, a hint of disbelief in her expression. Guthrie shook his head as if he finally got the point that he didn’t have a chance with the little gray wolf. Duncan’s brows were furrowed. He probably figured Cearnach was going to start a war between clans if he took the she-wolf as his mate. Ian closed his gaping mouth and glanced at their mother to see her take on it.
“Coming?” his mother asked, her voice brittle.
He followed her to the library, where three walls were covered in books all the way to the ceiling. A large floor-to-ceiling window was situated between two of the bookshelves, providing a view of the garden during daylight. One whole section of a bookcase had been dedicated to Julia’s werewolf romances as well as some of her favorite authors’ romance stories.
A book with a hot-bodied military man and a wolf on the cover lay on one of the tables, apparently someone’s recent read. He could just imagine Julia insisting that Ian wear a dog tag for her next book. He wouldn’t go for it, Cearnach was sure. No self-respecting wolf would wear something called a dog tag.
After his mother was settled in an overstuffed reading chair, he closed the door. He didn’t move any farther into the library, his whole posture stating that the audience with his mother would be as brief as possible. He crossed his arms in a defensive manner and studied her.
“In the old days you would have killed a wolf who