Howl for a Highlander

by Terry Spear

  As to Silverman’s little foray into the villa, she was glad she and Duncan had been staying in separate beds so Sal didn’t think she’d just sleep with any wolf.

  “Oh, wow, two male wolves on one island. Are you sure the other guy is a crook?” Wendy asked, and Shelley was certain her friend really wished she’d come. She was probably envisioning a whole island filled with hunky wolves.

  “Yeah. I’ll tell you more when I get home. But I’m certain.”

  “Hmm, so tell me what’s going on with you and Duncan.”

  Way too much, and Shelley wasn’t telling Wendy about that, either. She thought it best that no one ever learned what had gone on with Duncan while she was enjoying her island stay. “Did I tell you his brother’s a laird and they own a castle? They have gardens, too, and he said I could come by and visit.” She thought that information would sidetrack Wendy enough so that she wouldn’t probe into how intimately Shelley was getting to know the Highland warrior.

  The silence stretched out between them. Uncomfortably so.

  “Wendy?”

  “Your mother and all her people are still mad about being kicked off the land in the Highlands years ago.”

  Shelley sighed. Her family held long grudges.

  “She doesn’t mind that you have your Scottish pride and go to Celtic fests in Texas, because you’re sharing your Celtic heritage with other Americans,” Wendy continued. Since Wendy had never had a family history like that, she couldn’t understand the way Shelley’s family was. But she’d heard several of the family discussions about the old ways and knew how adamant they were about holding onto resentments about the past.

  Shelley closed her bedroom door, as if ensuring that Duncan didn’t hear Wendy’s side of the conversation. She knew he couldn’t, not if he wasn’t in the same room. But the thought made her anxious just the same.

  “I’m sure your mother wouldn’t mind if you went to Scotland. But she wouldn’t like it if you hooked up with one of the noblemen whose families threw crofters off their land like your family was. Believe me.”

  Shelley sighed again. She’d figured the same. “I’ve talked to him about it already.”

  More silence. “And?”

  Shelley walked into the bathroom and stared at her wet hair dangling in loose tangles about her shoulders. She needed a shower to wash off the saltwater and sand. “His ancestors were noblemen who did the same to their own people,” she admitted, not about to cover up the truth.

  “If he were just a poor Scot who managed to stay in Scotland, that would mean all the difference in the world to your mother.” Then Wendy quickly asked, “You aren’t sleeping with him, are you?”

  “No, I’m not.”

  Wendy let out her breath. “Okay, that’s good. If you’ve spent two nights with him, and you’re still sleeping apart, there’s hope for you yet. So what did you do all day and night?”

  They’d had the most incredible time. She’d experienced heated sexual passion that she’d never felt before and that she wanted to experience again and again. But that she also kept to herself.

  ***

  Duncan wished he could hear what Shelley’s girlfriend had to say about him. He hoped she wouldn’t drive a wedge between them. With the way things were rapidly getting out of hand between him and Shelley, they needed something that would keep them from giving in to raw lust before it was too late. He couldn’t help how frustrated he was that Shelley didn’t stay with him in the big bed tonight, although he understood her reasoning. He still didn’t like the arrangements.

  When Shelley quit speaking and the shower in the upstairs bathroom came on, Duncan locked the place and took another drive out to Silverman’s estate. He didn’t like the fact that the bastard had walked into Shelley’s villa and searched for clues to what was going on between them. He wanted to do the same to the bastard’s estate. But he also wanted to run as a wolf and attempt to catch Silverman wolf to wolf to give him a show of how much the bastard had irritated him. Stealing his clan’s money was one thing. But when Silverman invaded Duncan’s territory, showing he wasn’t backing down on wanting Shelley, the crook pushed Duncan into a different realm of rage. His emotions went a whole lot deeper than he’d thought, Duncan realized.

  Money was money, nothing personal, although the missing funds were the clan’s and needed to help them keep their ancestral home. But what he shared with Shelley was something personal and intimate, something unique to them, something he treasured. In an instant, Silverman had trampled all over the fragile bond Duncan was building with Shelley. Duncan wanted to retaliate—to show the bastard he wasn’t winning this battle.

  He parked the car some distance from Silverman’s estate and then jogged down the beach like before, hoping to see Silverman outside his protective estate so he could take him to task. This time, Duncan saw a woman sitting beside the pool with the soft lights around and inside the pool shimmering in the dark. Was she the girlfriend who’d been with Silverman when he met Shelley in the reserve? Or was this someone else?

  He doubted anyone Silverman picked up would learn where his money was hidden or how to get to it. Duncan would have tried talking to her, if he thought she knew anything.

  Barring that, he was afraid Guthrie was right. Getting the money out of bank accounts wasn’t going to happen unless he could convince Silverman to give it up in wire transfers. Despite Shelley’s offer of help, Duncan didn’t believe that she could coax the money out of Silverman any more than he could—beyond the threat of death—and Duncan even had his doubts that the bastard would give it up then, knowing Duncan couldn’t let him live.

  Hating that the bastard had stolen so much and ruined so many lives, Duncan felt useless, unable to reclaim their money, unable to do anything. He was used to confronting an enemy wolf to wolf, or human to human, but this business wouldn’t allow it, and he wasn’t equipped to deal with it.

  With a heavy heart, he returned to the villa.

  The lights in Shelley’s bedroom were off when he arrived, and he pulled out his phone and called his brother. “Ian, sorry if I woke you, but I’ve got some trouble.”

  Just as Duncan knew Ian would, he patiently listened and didn’t jump to rash conclusions, due to being the eldest of the brothers, the laird and pack leader, but also because of the way he was. At times like these, Duncan was glad for it.

  On the other hand, Duncan paced across the living room, ready to kick butt. “The woman I’m rooming with…”

  “Shelley Campbell of Canyon, Texas, aye.”

  So his brother had done a little research of his own. Or knowing Ian, he’d had either Guthrie or Cearnach check into her. For what reason? Hell, she was Duncan’s business and no one else’s.

  “Silverman wants her,” Duncan said gruffly, wanting to tear the man apart from limb to limb, not only because of the stolen money, but also because of his insistence on seeing Shelley. Even worse, the man had dared to sneak into the villa to snoop around, invading their privacy and letting them know he’d been there.

  Shelley had tried to hide how she was felt about the intrusion, but Duncan knew it had unnerved her.

  “And?”

  “Well, hell, Ian, he can’t have her,” Duncan growled.

  “What does she want?”

  Duncan ground his teeth. “To help me bring the bastard down. She doesn’t want him, damn it.”

  “Well, is it a viable option?” The voice of reason.

  “No damn way.” Duncan’s blood was boiling hot with the idea. He was already thinking of sending her to Scotland and his brothers’ care to ensure that Silverman didn’t get to her.

  “All right,” Ian said in a placating way. “So what’s the plan?”

  “I’ve been taking her on dates, thwarting Silverman, and it’s angering him. The more I wine and dine her, the more pissed off he’s becoming. But I don’t want him thinking he can spend any time with her. I want him to think that she’s taken.”

  “Is she?”
<
br />   “Is she what, Ian?” He was the laird, and Duncan knew he should show him more respect, but damn it, Shelley was none of the clan’s business.

  Chapter 9

  “Have you taken her?” Ian asked flat out over the phone, surprising the hell out of Duncan as he paced the living room of the villa while Shelley slept in the guest bedroom upstairs.

  Duncan hoped he was keeping his voice low enough, but he figured as mad as he was, he wasn’t. He walked into the master bedroom and shut the door. “No, I haven’t taken her for my mate. Damn it, I would have told you if this was headed in that direction.” He wanted to add it was his and Shelley’s business and not the pack’s, but he bit his tongue and waited for Ian’s response.

  Ian didn’t say anything.

  “I would have said so, if I had taken her as my mate,” Duncan said to Ian over the phone, more forcefully than necessary as he continued to pace across the master bedroom.

  The more he was with her, the more he wanted to make the relationship permanent. The more he didn’t want other wolves thinking they had a chance with her. The more he wanted her for himself, laughing and teasing and playing with him. Even the way she scowled at him was appealing.

  “All right, Duncan. How will your wining and dining her help the clan?”

  Duncan was more than exasperated that he’d have to explain himself. Normally that wouldn’t have bothered him, but it damn well did when it had to do with the way Shelley was making him feel. “I don’t want to use her as bait to bring the bastard out of his well-fortified estate, but that’s what’s happening,” Duncan said.

  “Do you want me to send Cearnach?”

  Duncan stopped pacing long enough to stare out the window at the dark beach. “No. I’ll handle it. I just don’t want Shelley getting hurt.”

  “You could always bring her here if things get out of control.”

  That’s what he’d wanted to hear all along. Ian was adamant about not bringing strangers into the castle. Duncan wasn’t sure how Ian would react if he heard Shelley berating the noblemen who’d kicked her family off the land. But if the situation got out of hand, Duncan did want to bring her home. “You wouldn’t mind?”

  “Hell, Duncan, of course I don’t mind. She’s welcome here. Keep me updated.”

  “Aye, I will.” For the first time since he’d learned Sal had an interest in Shelley and wasn’t letting go, Duncan felt there was an option—a safe place for her to go if things went downhill fast. He feared that’s exactly where this was headed.

  ***

  The next morning, Shelley came downstairs looking exhausted, circles under her eyes and her gait sluggish. Duncan figured she hadn’t slept well. Just like he hadn’t. Every sound had awakened him, making him think Sal or his goons were trying to break in to steal Shelley away. Half a dozen times, he’d taken to the stairs and checked on her, found her tossing restlessly, and wanted to carry her back to his bed so he could watch over her. But she was setting the limits, and for now, he’d abide by them.

  “You look tired,” she said, eating the omelets he’d prepared for her.

  Just like she did, but he didn’t want to remark on how exhausted she looked, figuring it wouldn’t be appreciated. “I checked on you a couple of times during the night to make sure everything was okay.”

  “Six times,” she said, running her fingers through her hair, which looked incredibly sexy. “If you’d come upstairs one more time, I was going to join you in your bedroom. You make too much noise climbing up the stairs and back down again.”

  He frowned at her. “Why didn’t you tell me my seventh visit would have done the trick?”

  She chuckled. “I think the wind and the waves crashing kept waking me. Besides you.”

  “I thought I heard someone breaking into the place several times.”

  “Hmm,” she said, licking her fork.

  He groaned under his breath and sat down to eat his eggs. After last night and the way neither of them had slept, he’d made a decision that he was sticking to, no matter what Shelley said. “We’re staying together tonight.”

  She carried her dish to the kitchen and began putting the food away. “You’ve decided this?”

  She didn’t sound displeased that he was dictating to her. Maybe that’s what she’d needed all along. Someone who would make a firm decision in the matter. “Aye,” he said, looking her squarely in the eye. “If we don’t, neither of us will get any sleep.”

  She chuckled under her breath and put the eggs back in the fridge. “All right. But we’ll have to make some sleeping rules.”

  “Aye. No snoring, no kicking, no stealing the covers.”

  She laughed out loud that time. “Works for me.”

  He wasn’t about to say what they could do.

  After grocery shopping and dropping off their foodstuffs, they went back out to visit clothing stores so Duncan could buy a bathing suit. He suggested the shop that he knew carried men’s swim trunks—the same shop he’d visited the first night. The one where he’d asked the woman about available hotels and she had seemed to consider allowing him to stay at her place—until she came to her senses.

  When they walked into the shop filled with sunglasses, swimsuits, beach towels, and floral jewelry, the clerk’s eyes grew huge to see Shelley with Duncan. The clerk was wearing another floral shirt, and Duncan assumed she either bought the merchandise in the store herself or modeled it to help sell the rest. Like before, she virtually blended in with the merchandise.

  “I see you must have found a place to stay since you’re still here,” the woman said, her voice catty as she gave Shelley a brittle look.

  Shelley looped her arm through Duncan’s. “Oh yes, I had a spare bedroom and was only too happy to share it with him.”

  He was afraid Shelley would spoil it by saying she’d made him pay for the room, but she only gave the clerk a simpering smile. Duncan felt as though he was about to be in the middle of a wolf and cat fight.

  “I need a swimsuit,” he said, then quickly started looking through the first of the racks of swim trunks to get on with the business of purchasing a suit and escorting Shelley out of there as fast as he could.

  But he smiled a little as he jerked the swimsuits aside, looking them over and thinking about how Shelley had actually sounded jealous over another woman’s interest in him. He’d never experienced such a thing before. He couldn’t help enjoying the attention.

  “Hmm.” Shelley pulled out a pair of Speedos and held them in front of him. With the way she spread the skimpy bathing suit against him and looked lovingly at his crotch beneath the fabric, he was already swelling with interest.

  The woman’s eyes were glued to his crotch, too, and he wondered if she had wished she had offered to let him stay with her that first night. Shelley wasn’t helping him keep his focus on finding the right suit, either. He was ready to try on the suit and Shelley, too, for size.

  Before Duncan could find something more suitable to wear on the pirate ship where there were bound to be families, Shelley ran her hand over the Speedo, which meant she brushed against his thickening erection. He jerked back, gave her a look letting her know that he’d pay her back later, and plunged his hand into the rack of swimsuits to pull out something else.

  “I don’t know,” Shelley said, holding up the Speedo. “It might be too small.”

  “They stretch,” the clerk said. When both Duncan and Shelley looked at her, her face blossomed with color.

  Shelley made a fist inside the Speedo and stretched it, studying it as if she was comparing her fist with the size of his erection. “Yes, I see. I guess it would work. We’ll get this one.”

  “We’ll get this one,” Duncan said, contradicting her by pulling out a pair of long swim trunks, more like his Bermuda shorts but these would dry faster.

  Shelley smiled agreeably. “We’ll get both. This one,” she said, moving her finger around inside the Speedo, “for when you swim alone with me and that one for when you
swim out in public.” She looked over at the clerk whose face was still crimson. “What do you think?”

  ***

  With the bag of bathing suits in one hand and his other arm draped over Shelley’s shoulder, Duncan hurried her out of the shop. “I didn’t know you could be so wickedly bad.”

  “Well, the woman was eyeing you like her next meal, and I wanted her to know that she couldn’t have you.”

  “That you have me instead,” he said, his voice thick with lust. Hell, how could the little wolf have done that to him so easily? In public?

  “Yep.” Shelley tipped her chin up defiantly.

  “So… does that mean we truly will sleep together tonight?” He still wasn’t sure if she’d change her mind. Even though he had it in mind that they were staying together, no matter what. They needed to get some sleep, and he couldn’t if he was worrying about Sal or his goons breaking in and stealing her away.

  Hell, she’d made him so hard that Duncan could barely walk. He’d planned to swim with her tonight sans clothes again, but he supposed since she’d bought the Speedo for him, he’d have to wear it to appease her. He wouldn’t mind her stuffing her hand in the swimsuit while he was wearing it.

  “Swimming and sleeping are two different things. But yes, I agreed that because of your constant running up the stairs to check on me, we’d stay together and sleep.”

  “You have to know, Shelley, that after your little demonstration with the Speedo in the shop, you’ll have to pay.”

  She grinned up at him, and he thought he was going to have as much fun making her pay as she’d have in getting her punishment—of the most pleasurable kind. Then, he had the sneaking suspicion she had every intention of making him pay instead.

  Before they went on their pirate cruise, they stopped to have lunch in George Town at a restaurant that specialized in hamburgers with every kind of topping imaginable. That’s when another woman caught Duncan’s eye. She was wearing jeans and a T-shirt, not the sexy red dress, but he recognized her as the smoker from the bar who was dating Silverman’s lackey named Kenneth. Her eyes widened to see Duncan.