A Howl for a Highlander (16 page)

But she knew what she had to do: stay in separate beds or this was going to go further than what they could risk. And beyond that, she didn’t want Sal to get the wrong impression about her. “All right. I’ll see you in the morning for a shorter trip to the forest so we don’t miss our pirate sailing excursion.”

Duncan ground his teeth and looked vastly disappointed that she wasn’t going to share a bed with him. She couldn’t. Not if she was going to keep from getting herself in too deep with him. She was serious when she said she wasn’t safe staying with him. Not because he was such a bad boy, but because she couldn’t keep her hands off him, either. As tense as he was, she thought he was fighting with himself over doing the honorable thing or trying to convince her to stay with him.

Her phone rang, literally saving the day. She raced upstairs to get it. His heavy footfalls up the stairs made her turn to see him following her, to her surprise. When she crossed the floor to her bag and whipped out her phone, she saw it was just her girlfriend Wendy. She realized Duncan had assumed it was Sal. From his fierce scowl, she assumed if it had been Sal, Duncan would have ripped the phone from her grip and had some words with the creep.

She shook her head at Duncan. “It’s just Wendy. I promised to call her and I forgot.”

Duncan grumbled a good-night and headed back down the stairs for the master bedroom. She noted he did not offer to switch rooms with her for the night.

“Wendy, sorry I didn’t call you earlier.”

“Having too much fun? I was feeling bad that you wouldn’t enjoy your trip there, just working yourself to death like usual. I knew you’d spend all day every day with your nose in the flora and fauna, but I worried about your nightlife. I guess you’re having a good time after all. So tell me all about him.”

“First, he’s a wolf.”

Shelley expected her friend to say something, anything. When she didn’t, Shelley thought maybe their phone connection had been cut off. “Wendy?”

“A wolf and a Highlander? All in one? Hell, Shelley, that sounds like a dangerous combination.”

Shelley cleared her throat, still a little rough from swallowing some of the ocean water. “Yes.”

“Okay, spill, and tell me every detail. If you leave anything out, I will know. You know I will.”

Shelley laughed. “Yeah, I know you will, too.”

But she wasn’t sure what to say about Sal Silverman. She supposed it was best to only mention that another wolf who was a crook was staying on the island. That he had laundered money in bank accounts and was trying to see her. And that Duncan was putting a stop to any ploys the other man might have.

She didn’t mention that the bastard had stolen money from Duncan’s clan and the college. That he had sneaked into the villa to find out where she and Duncan had slept. Wendy would tell Shelley’s mother, and her mother would tell her uncles, and the next thing Shelley knew, they’d be insisting she return home at once.

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?”

“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.