Wicked in a Kilt (Hot Scots Book 2)

by Anna Durand

  I knew firsthand what he looked like in the buff.

  "Are you there?" Tara asked. "Did the hottie Scottie show up or something? I don't think you heard me at all."

  "No, sorry, I zoned out for a minute." I craned my neck backward, straining to see down the hallway. No Aidan yet. I couldn't quite glimpse the bathroom door. Giving up on my spying, I told Tara, "Afraid you'll have to repeat whatever you said."

  "I said I know you were hot for him at first sight. Maybe it's not love yet, but you must like him. Otherwise, you'd never let him stay in your house."

  "Like him? Yeah, I do. It's kind of terrifying."

  "When was the last time you had a date?"

  I'd tried a few times over the years. But how could I date anyone when I had a husband? Marriage of convenience, sure, but still a marriage. If things got serious with a guy, I'd have to explain my situation. My criminal situation. Unwilling to involve anyone else in my crime, I'd given up on dating.

  Until Aidan.

  "Well," I said, "I've had quite a few dates this week."

  "You and Aidan? Woo-hoo! I'm so happy for you."

  "Please don't start planning our wedding." I winced, because only I knew I couldn't marry him or anyone right now. "This may not go anywhere. But yes, I like him and we're — well, I guess we're dating."

  The bathroom door opened with a click.

  "I have to go," I told Tara. "Have a wonderful rest of your honeymoon and give Blake a hug for me."

  "Will do." In a hushed voice, she added, "Give Aidan a kiss for me."

  She hung up before I could respond. Give Aidan a kiss? She didn't have to tell me to do that. I lusted for his mouth every second of every day. That and other parts of his anatomy.

  Aidan sauntered into the living room, around the sofa, and lowered his gorgeous bod onto the sofa beside me. His hair was wet but loose, the waves curling around his face. Beads of moisture drizzled down his temples.

  Why did he have to look so good wet? Or dry. In clothes, out of clothes, in the daytime, at night, anytime and anywhere.

  He stretched an arm across the sofa's back. His fingertips grazed my shoulder. "Thought I heard voices."

  "Talking to my cousin on the phone."

  "How is the wee Tara?"

  "Living it up on her Hawaiian honeymoon." For once, I paused to think about what I might say next, instead of blurting out silly things. I decided what the hell. "Tara asked me to give you a kiss for her."

  His mouth tightened and curved upward in half-repressed smile, his eyes sparkled in the low light. "Did she now."

  "Mm-hm." I slanted toward him, our mouths almost touching. "Can't let my cousin down, can I?"

  He shook his head, those beautiful eyes trained on mine.

  I touched my lips to his in a chaste kiss. "That was for Tara. The next one's from me."

  Gazing into his slitted eyes, I moistened my lips with two long, slow passes of my tongue. His lips parted, his breathing grew labored. Excitement sizzled over my skin and settled between my thighs, warm and wet and wanting. I laid a hand on his chest and urged him back into the sofa, then I climbed astride him and planted a hand on the sofa's back at either side of his head. He let his head fall back onto the cushions.

  Leaning in, I hovered my mouth so close to his our breaths mingled. "I really want to kiss you, but I'm afraid things might get out of hand."

  "Then maybe you shouldn't have climbed on top of me."

  "Fair point. But I'm already here."

  He settled his hands on my hips. "I promise not to take any liberties. Unless you beg me to."

  "Beg?" I flicked my tongue out to tease his lower lip. "Not going to happen."

  "What if I beg?"

  Aidan begging? If he did that, I'd lose all my inhibitions for sure.

  Like I hadn't already.

  "Please," he said, his voice low and rumbly, "kiss me, ahm begging ye."

  Excitement whirled through me in a weightless sensation of floating outside my body and I burned to kiss him, but a cool thread of trepidation wound through me as well, caught up in the head-spinning need. I'd lost my mind with this man too many times. Right here, right now, I'd take back control.

  I brushed my lips over his, my skin tightening from the softest taste of him. I nipped and licked at his lips, teasing and tempting us both, hungry for more but unwilling to give in to my desires completely, no matter how much my body craved him. His palms coasted up my back to splay over my shoulder blades. The feel of his hands, gentle and yet strong, weakened my will. But his murmured "please" undid me.

  Sinking deeper into his lap, my sex rubbing against his cock through our clothes, I sealed my mouth over his, our parted lips fused as our tongues thrust deep, tangling and questing, hot and silken. The sheer ecstasy of the kiss, of his velvety tongue and the earthy flavor of him, spiked an electric need straight down from my mouth to my clitoris. He explored my mouth with an ardor that stole my breath, yet his tongue moved with surprising languor, as if he took intense pleasure in sampling every inch of me. His hands urged me snugger against him, the hardness of his erection trapped between us. My rigid nipples scraped across his chest as I writhed on his lap, desperate for more, teetering on the edge of succumbing to the need.

  His phone rang and vibrated inside his jeans pocket.

  We both froze, our lips still pressed to each other. I peeled my eyelids open first, watching as his lids fluttered apart and his gaze met mine. I must've looked as dazed as he did. I felt it, for sure, my mind floating on a warm, feathery cloud.

  The phone rang and vibrated again.

  Aidan fumbled to get the phone out of his pocket without dumping me off his lap. He kept one hand on my hip while he answered the call with gruff hello.

  "Jamie?" he said, brows dipping low over the bridge of his nose. The tinny sound of an indistinct voice emanated from his phone and his brows rose as his eyes widened the tiniest bit. "She what? Called you?"

  Squatting on his lap, I had no choice but to overhear his end of the conversation. I glanced around, shifting my hands here and there, unsure what to do with them. At last, I settled on resting them on my thighs. I hated keeping secrets from him and knowing he kept at least one from me, though I couldn't explain why. He was a stranger I'd known for a six days.

  Yet he felt like more than that.

  "Ignore her," Aidan told Jamie. "I'll speak to Seona myself."

  His gaze fell on me and he pulled in a long breath. Those blue eyes darkened and narrowed, focused on my lips.

  "Don't worry," he said into the phone. "I will handle it, but I have to go now."

  The other voice sounded again and Aidan bid the caller goodbye.

  He dropped the phone on the cushion beside him, reaching for me.

  Just as his hands gripped my lower back and his mouth surged toward mine, I held up a hand between our lips. "Was that your sister?"

  "Aye."

  "Is everything okay? You seemed upset."

  His hands raced up my back to pull me closer, my hand the only barrier preventing him from claiming my mouth. "I'll be fine as soon as I'm kissing you again."

  I hurled my body to the side, tumbling off his lap and righting myself to sit beside him, my body turned toward him. "I think we need to share a little bit of our secrets. Not knowing and not sharing is probably giving me an ulcer."

  He drew his head back, eying me with a strange expression. "You want to tell me your secret?"

  "Part of it. The only part I can."

  "If you're doing this because you want to know mine, there's no need. I'll tell you anyway."

  My head braced with one arm atop the sofa, I assured him, "That's not why I'm suggesting this. I want to explain what I can to you, but don't ask me why. I have no answer for that one."

  "All right." He turned partway toward me, wriggling a little to get settled. "I'll start. Ask me whatever you like."

  "Who is Seona? Is she the one who keeps calling you?"

  "Yes." He look
ed down at his lap. "Seona Ross is a former girlfriend, if you can call it that. We dated for a few months but it was never serious, nothing more than a pleasant distraction. You might call it a casual sort of arrangement. We got on well." He flattened his lips. "Until the accident."

  The tension evidenced on his face tugged at my heart in ways I didn't dare examine. I sneaked a hand out to touch his knee. He aimed a grateful smile at me before turning his gaze down again.

  "Six months ago, Seona was seriously injured and spent a long time in the hospital and in rehabilitation. I haven't seen her in about six months. No contact at all. She was angry with me because she bl — " He scrubbed a hand over his face and lifted his gaze to me. "She told me to stay away from her and I did. Had no wish to fash her when she was unwell."

  "Makes sense."

  "Somehow, she heard I'd come to America and she started calling me to ask for money. Ask. No, she's demanding it."

  I lighted a hand on his thigh. "Why would she demand money from you?"

  "She's very bitter. And maybe she has a point about me owing her, but I donnae have money to give her."

  "Why would you owe her?" When he switched his attention to the backyard view, I slumped into the sofa and said, "You don't have to tell me. I'm not going to tell you my whole story either."

  He plowed both hands into his hair. "Seona keeps calling me and now she's called my sister Jamie to enlist her help. Jamie told her no."

  "What will you do?"

  He sighed, his shoulders flagging. "Donnae know."

  "I'm sorry, Aidan." I scooted closer, caressing his cheek. "You don't have to talk about it anymore. I think it's my turn, anyway."

  Despite the questions bouncing around in my brain — questions about how Seona was injured, why she would tell Aidan to stay away from her, why he seemed to feel guilty where she was concerned — I kept my curiosity in check. He had no obligation to tell me everything, particularly when I couldn't tell him everything about me.

  "You wanted to know why I married a man I never loved."

  Aidan nodded. "If you want to tell me. Don't feel you have to because I told you about Seona."

  "It's okay. I want to tell you." I gave him a quick kiss. "Though it's very sweet of you to give me an out."

  He took both my hands in one of his, holding them to his chest. "Whatever you feel like sharing, I'm listening. You can tell me anything and I will keep your secrets, you have my word."

  My heart did a silly flippy-floppy thing. I swallowed against a constriction in my throat. "I met Rade in college. He's from Croatia and came here on a student visa. Though he was two years ahead of me, we became friends and spent a lot of time together — but just as friends. His parents had died when he was eight and he inherited a real fortune. I don't know exactly how much, but it would definitely qualify as stinking rich."

  The warmth of Aidan's hand around both of mine anchored me to the present as my thoughts traveled back in time. My stomach hurt at the awareness of what I intended to say next. I'd avoided thinking about it for so long, but somehow, this man made me want to confide.

  "Five years ago," I began, "my parents died in a car accident. My brother Gavin didn't handle it well. He'd left the Marines eight months earlier, after a tour in Afghanistan, and he wasn't completely readjusted to civilian life yet. He's the toughest guy I know, but he basically fell apart after our parents died and I had to handle everything. There were bills and debts neither of us had known about, because our parents had kept their financial problems a secret. No life insurance, they'd stopped making payments on it. No savings. Almost nothing in their checking account. It was a horrible time, discovering how much they'd kept from us and we couldn't even ask them for an explanation."

  Aidan clasped my hands in both of his now, lifting one of mine to place a soft kiss on the back of my hand.

  The start of tears burned in my eyes and my throat ached. I forced the words out. "Rade was very kind during those first weeks after the accident. Two months later, he asked me — " How could I explain without mentioning the fraudulent aspect of our marriage? I did the best I could. "He asked me to marry him, for reasons I can't explain. I agreed, not because I wanted to be married to him but because I owed him a lot more than I can tell you."

  "You don't have to say any more, if you don't want to."

  "Thank you." The tears welled up more, about to spill over onto my cheeks. I sniffled and tried to wrest my hand free of his to swipe at my eyes.

  He released my hands to wipe away the tears with his thumbs.

  "Rade saved me, in a way," I said. "My life was in a shambles and he stepped in to pay bills I couldn't, helped me stay in school to finish my degree and go on to grad school. He gave me a place to stay too, when I couldn't afford my apartment anymore. When he asked me for a favor, I couldn't say no."

  "A favor?" Aidan squinted, studying me. "Marriage isn't a favor."

  "Please, Aidan, I can't tell you anything more."

  Lips compressed, he watched me for a few seconds. Then he exhaled a long breath and ran the backs of his fingers down my cheek. "I'm sorry. This is not my business, but I don't like the sound of your arrangement with this Rade person."

  Arrangement. He couldn't know how accurate that description was.

  "Thank you." I kissed his cheek. "You're a very good man, Aidan MacTaggart."

  He stood and stretched, his lithe body arching. Offering me his hand, he said, "This has been a tiring evening. To bed with you, Calli."

  "You sound like a medieval lord," I said, accepting his aid in getting up off the sofa.

  "If I were, you'd have to obey me."

  "Lucky for you, I feel like doing what you commanded. Sleep sounds wonderful right about now."

  He walked me to my bedroom door, which hung halfway open. Inside, the puppies had already settled in for the night on my bed, Misty at the foot and Mandy half on my pillow.

  "Sleep well," Aidan said.

  "Good night."

  He pressed a kiss to my lips, lingering there for a long moment. When he turned and strode into his room — the guest room, I reminded myself, not his room — I retreated into my bedroom, acutely aware something had changed between us tonight. Something important. Something irrevocable. I'd opened up to him more than I had to anyone else in a very long time.

  As I shut the door, my gaze flitted to the guest room and its closed door. We still had secrets between us, but if I let him stay much longer we'd wind up revealing all to each other. I knew it, the way I knew the sun would rise in the morning. It was inevitable.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The next evening, I gazed across the table at Aidan where he lounged in the armchair kitty-corner to the sofa. I sat in the sofa's corner, legs tucked under me, trying very hard not to climb onto Aidan's lap. The remains of our dinner littered the coffee table — two plates scattered with crumbs, two empty water glasses, and two sets of forks and knives. Aidan had insisted on making our meal from scratch, and damn, the man really was a genius in the kitchen.

  He hooked one ankle over the opposite knee, his hands on the chair's arms. His feet were bare. Dressed in a gray T-shirt and jeans that hugged his delicious body, he looked at ease and mouthwateringly hot. Of course, he always looked that way. Hot. Nibble-worthy. Tempting beyond belief.

  Aidan's gaze swiveled to me and he rubbed his lips together. "What's for dessert?"

  The way he spoke those words, he might as well have said I'm eating you for dessert.

  "Nothing," I said. "Sorry, I didn't have time for baking, what with playing referee between the puppies and every object not nailed down in this house. They're always rambunctious, but they love you so much they're insanely happy."

  "The pups are adorable, but half as adorable as you."

  "You're pretty damn adorable yourself."

  A devilish smile parted his lips. "I'm wicked, remember? Maybe I need to remind you of it."

  How did he do that? Veer the conversation back around to sex
, no matter what mundane thing we'd been discussing.

  Rising, he stretched his arms into the air and arched his back, tightening muscles and pulling his shirt up just enough to reveal a glimpse of rock-hard abs. "Lachlan sent me another present."

  A box had arrived by FedEx overnight delivery, addressed to Aidan care of me. He hadn't shown me its contents, only gave me a secretive smile when I asked about it.

  "Thought you hated his presents," I said, failing in my attempt to not gawk at him. Even with his best features masked by jeans and a shirt, I could spy hints of sinuous limbs and all those acres of soft, hair-dusted skin I'd ogled when he stripped for me.

  "Ah, but this one is for you," he said, ambling toward the kitchen. "I stashed it in a cabinet, behind other things."

  I craned my neck to follow his movements. "Do I want to know what this gift is?"

  "Something I want to share with you." Giving me a mysterious smile, he bent down to retrieve the item in question, disappearing behind the bar. When he popped up again, he held something behind his back. "Close your eyes."

  "Why?"

  "So suspicious," he chided with humor in his tone and in his eyes. "Trust me."

  I settled back into the sofa cushions and shut my eyes.

  Aidan's footsteps padded on the carpet, and within a moment, his weight settled onto the cushion beside me. "Open your eyes."

  Blinking slowly, I turned my attention to the object in his hand. His fingers wrapped around a bottle of liquor filled with a golden liquid that almost glowed in the lamplight. He rotated the bottle so I could see the label. Reading it aloud, pronouncing the name carefully, I said, "Talisker single-malt Scotch whisky."

  He nodded, proud of himself for this offering.

  "Whisky?" I said. Scots apparently spelled it without the E before the Y. Interesting. "You know I don't drink."