by Sara Logan
Christina poured the coffee with a shaking hand and took a large swallow of hers, hoping it would revive her for whatever Alex had in mind. She couldn't imagine what business he could have with her and said so, stammering nervously.
Alex put down his coffee cup and his dark eyes met and held hers. "I think we have a good bit to straighten out, Chris. You can't think I intend to go home without making some attempt to retrieve my position with you. Oh, yes, I'm talking about those angry words you hurled at me at the inn on Mount Mitchell. I was much too angry then to discuss it with you, but I've realized since that you were understandably upset and had thoroughly misunderstood what you apparently overheard."
Christina put her cup down with a clatter. "Please, Alex, I don't feel like going into all that again. There's nothing to discuss! I thought I had made myself clear."
"You made yourself very clear," he admitted wryly.
"Then, please, let's drop the subject. I'm very tired. If you'll excuse me… ?"
Christina rose from the couch and moved away from Alex, back toward the house. He reached out for her and captured her neatly, forcing her back down on the couch while he stood above her.
"Not yet. Sit down and listen to what I have to say. It won't take long. There is something to discuss. You listened to Rory's gossip about Lorna and me, which, I admit, was well meant on his part but didn't exactly give you an accurate picture of the true situation. Then you overheard part of a conversation that led you to jump to some unpleasant and unfair conclusions. Your reaction at the inn made that much quite clear. You were too angry and upset to listen to me then—and, I'll admit, I was much too hurt and angry to try to reason with you—and since we've been back we've had this whole thing with your grandfather to attend to. But now, I will not leave Charlotte without clearing up this misunderstanding."
"Isn't it true that you were engaged to Lorna?" Christina demanded shakily.
"Yes, I was engaged to her. And if you heard that much of our conversation, you'll know that she threw me over for Rory, to satisfy her craving for title, money, and social standing. Of course I was hurt at the time. I was very bitter about it, and angry. I also was upset when she married Rory, since he was one of my closest friends, as well as a cousin, and if she was mercenary and heartless enough to do what she did, she wasn't the wife for Rory, either! I'm very fond of him and didn't want to see him hurt by Lorna."
"But you were willing to have an affair with his wife," Christina accused.
"You accused me of that before, and I'd like to know on what grounds you base it, Christina!" She didn't answer, just stared numbly at her hands. "Well?" he demanded.
Christina looked up at him, her eyes swimming with tears. "I heard you both, Alex! She proposed that you… that you have an affair with her, and that Rory wouldn't have to know…"
"And you heard me agree to that?"
Christina flinched at the thread of steel in his voice. "Not exactly, but…" she began.
"But you assumed that I would! What a nice opinion you must have of my character, Chris! No, I did not agree," he said forcefully, joining her on the couch. He caught her chin in a firm hand and made her meet his gaze. "I didn't invite her to my room; I wasn't even expecting such a visit. Yes, I'd noticed the attention she was paying me all weekend, attention that was quite unwelcome, I promise you. I could have wrung her neck," he admitted. "She was being so obvious about it that anyone, even Rory, would notice. I did all I could to avoid her and play down the situation, but she was determined to have that showdown. Well, we had it, and I told her in no uncertain terms what I thought of her, of her treatment of Rory, of her contemptible morals. You must have heard that, if you were listening!"
"I—I left before it was over," Christina whispered, acutely aware of his hand gripping her chin. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I went out on the balcony to wait for you… and… and…"
"Heard what you thought was a torrid scene between Lorna and me," he finished neatly. "Why didn't you say something? Didn't it matter to you at all?"
She swallowed painfully. "Yes, it mattered, Alex, but how could I mention it? It was none of my affair, after all!"
"Wasn't it?" he asked softly, letting go of her chin and catching her hand in his. His lips brushed her palm and his dark eyes glittered down at her. "Wasn't it your business, Chris?"
"I had no right to ask you about it," she insisted, trying to ignore the waves of warmth running up her arm as his mouth caressed her palm. "You were just using me as a shield for Rory's benefit. I knew that."
"And you thought that's all it was?"
"How could I think it was anything else?" she cried, pulling her hand away. "We'd agreed to that charade, Alex, and I thought only that you were playing your part very well. That's why you suggested it in the first place, though, isn't it? You knew by then that Lorna would be there with Rory! Oh, it took me a while, but I finally figured it out. You intended to use me as a shield from the beginning and sold me on the idea by pretending you wanted to help me with James. Can you deny that?"
"No," he said calmly. "I can't. I didn't know you then, Chris. You were upset about James, and I was frankly worried about Lorna. The idea occurred to me and it seemed that it would give us both some protection for the weekend. I didn't tell you about Lorna because I wasn't sure, you see. I hadn't seen her since she married Rory, but she had called just before she left Scotland to say she'd be at the games and she couldn't wait to see me. Something in her tone… I don't know," he admitted, running a hand roughly through his hair. "I just got the impression that she might cause trouble. I had nearly decided not to go myself when your grandfather suggested we go together. But I knew I couldn't avoid Lorna forever, and with your help, I thought I might be able to stop any tricks she had in mind for good right then! I started to tell you, warn you of what I was afraid she might do, but I didn't know what to expect. She might have been the model of wifely devotion, and then you'd have thought I'd just made it all up. So I decided to play it by ear and avoid her as much as possible. I didn't expect her to go so far as to suggest we have an affair," he admitted wryly. "I just thought she'd flirt with me and try to show Rory that she could still have any man she wanted. It was her way, you know. She couldn't bear to have any man around that she couldn't conquer."
"And you still loved her, knowing that?" Christina demanded, her eyes incredulous.
"No, I hadn't cared for her for a long time, Chris. The reaction against her vanity and ego had already started to set in before she broke our engagement. My eyes were being slowly opened, you see, and the break, and the reason for it, completed the cure. I was furious that she would go off and marry Rory, of course. He's no match for her. But I don't think she'll risk losing him. She enjoys being a countess a great deal too much to give it up easily. I wish I had told you. You wouldn't have been fooled by that overheard conversation and wouldn't have made both of us angry and miserable that night on Mount Mitchell. If I'd been frank with you about it, I think you would have trusted me, wouldn't you?"
Christina nodded. "I—it was so unexpected, Alex. I just couldn't believe that you would do such a thing! Yet I heard it, you see…"
"Or thought you did," he corrected. "You heard her proposition but didn't hear my very curt refusal! Your reaction would have delighted her; she sensed my genuine interest in you from the first and did her best to sow those doubts you had. But now, Chris? Do you still think I could do something like that to you and to Rory?"
Christina twisted her hands nervously in her lap. "N-no, I don't think so, but after James… well, I was beginning to wonder if any man could be trusted! Oh, don't laugh, Alex! It isn't funny!"
He chuckled and slid an arm around her rigid shoulders. "I know it's not. Yet it does have its comical points. Here were you and your ex-fiancé and his mistress, along with me, my ex-fiancée, and her husband! It was only reasonable to expect some trouble. But I hope now that all your doubts are settled and gone?"
When she nodded, he ca
ught her in his arms and kissed her, his lips moving tenderly on hers, and she shivered with emotion.
"Do you think," he murmured against her cheek, "that you could come to love me, Chris, if I gave you a little time? I know it's too soon to talk about it after what you've just been through, but…"
Christina slid her arms around his neck. All thoughts of his past or future intentions had vanished from her mind. All she could think of was his nearness, the touch of his lips and hands.
"I don't need time, Alex," she whispered. "Oh, I love you so much!"
She gasped as he crushed her against him and his mouth again found hers. Waves of ecstasy flowed over her as she melted against him, responding to his growing passion with a need as fierce as his. His lips caressed her face, her throat, and slid tantalizingly down the open V of her dress, to press a kiss in the shadowed hollow between her breasts.
"Oh, Alex," she murmured, her hands stroking the springy dark hair at the nape of his neck. "I do love you," she said unsteadily.
He raised his head and looked down at her glowing face with sparkling eyes. "You're not going to go looking for a new job, darling. You know that, don't you?"
She pressed her face against his throat. "I'm not?"
"No. The only job you're going to have, for the rest of your life, is to lavish love on me."
She sighed with content. "Are you proposing or propositioning, Alex?"
He chuckled. "Both. You didn't think I'd go home without you, did you? I've been determined to marry you since that night we went to see the lights on Brown Mountain. I knew then that I couldn't leave until you agreed to be my wife. I didn't know how long it would take you to get over James MacDonald, but I was prepared to wait."
Christina smiled. "It took about one day," she said gently. "I knew you were dangerous to my peace of mind that very first night, but when you kissed me at Jonas Ridge you stirred up emotions I didn't even know I had. But I thought that you weren't serious and that once you left to go home I'd never see you again!"
His arms tightened around her. "No chance of that, love. I did some checking today and found we can apply for a marriage license tomorrow. Perhaps by the first of the week the legalities will be straightened out. However it's done, we'll be married the first moment we legally can be, my darling. I'm not about to let you out of my sight again! Do you think you can bear living in Scotland with me?"
She pressed a kiss on his tanned throat and felt his arms tighten about her. "I would live with you in a cave on the mountainside!"
"That won't be necessary," he said, gazing tenderly down at her. "But I'm glad you feel that way. You will have to learn to live in an old castle, which we've modernized as much as is possible, but it's not quite the traditional idea of love in a rose-covered cottage! It's big and drafty, and not up to American standards of efficiency, but…"
"I'll love it," she insisted. "I've always wanted to have a dashing lord descend and carry me off to his castle! I never really expected it to happen, though," she admitted, laughing up at him.
"I never expected you to happen to me," Alex said seriously, his gaze going intently to her upturned face. "I'd given up all hope of finding you, darling, even though I knew you had to be in the world somewhere!"
She kissed him gently. "And to think I decided that you were arrogant, high-handed, obnoxious—devastatingly attractive, of course—and I didn't like you! I was furious with dear Gramps for foisting you off on me for the weekend!"
"Do you know, I have the feeling that this was exactly what he had in mind when he insisted that I go with you. How glad I am now that he did!" said Alex.
"Ummmm," she agreed, curling her arms around him and snuggling against him. All the misery and anxiety melted away, leaving a warm glow of love that brightened her eyes and made her heart sing. As she lifted her face for his kiss, Christina knew that in the unexpected game of love they had played last weekend, she had won the most important prize of all: Alex's heart. Nearly bursting with love and joy, she surrendered her heart into his keeping and gave herself up to the enchantment of love.
