Ian (2 page)

“I’ll place a bet on Ian winnin’,” called out a man, lifting a coin in the air.

“Me too, as I’ve seen him arm-wrestle and ken he can do this as well.”

Kyla just smiled and sent Coira over to collect the bets for her.

“Me wee sister, what are ye doin’ takin’ bets against me?” Aidan’s eyes opened wide in surprise as he rested his arm on the drink board and his pet squirrel, Reid, ran up and settled atop his shoulder.

“I’m no’ wee, brathair, so stop callin’ me thet,” answered Kyla.
Ian could her the irritation in her voice.

“Dinna worry, husband,” said
Effie, coming to Aidan’s side. “I ken thet ye’ll win.” She leaned over and placed a kiss on Aidan’s cheek. He reached out and kissed her back, running a hand over her long, red hair that she still didn’t wear tied up even though she was married.

“Ye’re me guid luck
charm, me dream angel,” Aidan spoke softly into her ear, turning from his usual rugged self to that of a helpless kitten whenever he was near her. Just watching it turned Ian’s stomach.

“And Onyx has his good luck charm as well,” said
the Englishwoman, Lady Lovelle, coming to meet her husband. Their one-year-old son, Creighton was in her arms.

“Thet’s right,” said On
yx, taking his son and tossing him up into the air before catching him and placing a kiss on his nose. That earned him a gasp and a glare from his wife.

“Don’t do that
, Onyx,” she scolded him.

“He’s me son, he’ll be fine,” Onyx reassured her.
“After all, he’ll someday be a Madman MacKeefe as well.”

“Give me Creighton,” she said, taking the boy
from him. “If I leave him with you, you’ll be dunking him in the barrel of water next, just for fun.”

“I collected all the bets,” said Charles,
walking up and scattering the coins across the drink board. “Do you really think Aidan will win?”

“O’
course he will, becooz he has such a big mouth thet he could fit two apples in at once,” said Onyx with a chuckle.

“Thet’s right,” mum
bled Ian, “and a waggin’ tongue long enough te match it.”

“Thet’s no’ funny,” growled Aidan. “Ye ken I havena spilled a secret in months now.
” He took his wife in his arms and pulled her closer. “I save me big mouth and waggin’ tongue fer much better things now if ye ken what I mean.” He smiled at his wife and licked his lips, causing her to laugh. Then she hit him playfully on the arm.

“Enough o’
this,” said Kyla, putting her arm on Ian’s shoulder. “Now come on, and let’s see who wins the bobbin’ fer apples.”

“Kyla, leave me alon
e,” said Ian with a swish of his hand.

“Nay, I’ll have none o’
yer dourness on such a happy day,” she told him.

“What’s so happy ab
oot the day o’ the deid?” grumbled Ian, raising his tankard and taking another swig.

“I have me bet on ye, me ha
ndsome warrior.” He felt a hand on his arm and looked up to see Grizela bending forward, exposing her cleavage and pushing her face close to his.

His eyes fastened on that cleavage and suddenly he felt a stirring beneath his plaid. The lassi
e’s body called out to his unfulfilled manly needs, and he thought that mayhap he should take his friends’ advice and bed the girl after all. It could take his mind off his worries.

“Well, then,” he said, looking up to her and flashing one of his smiles that always had the lassies clinging to hi
m like a fly to dung. “Mayhap I’ll give this whole apple bobbin’ thing a try after all. Shall we?”

H
e got up and escorted Grizela across the room with his arm around her shoulder, and she eagerly clung to him all the while. Mayhap he’d get lucky tonight after all. But when he heard a sigh, and noticed Kyla standing there looking at him with her hands on her hips, he got that awful feeling in his gut again. And he already knew that somehow she was going to interfere with his attempt at coupling once more. But this time he had a plan. If she tried anything, he knew exactly what he was going to do to get her to stop bothering him and to send her running the opposite direction with her tail between her legs.

Chapter 2

Kyla just watched Ian walking away with yet another woman on his arm. And each time he did, it hurt her just a little more. She’d been trying for months now to stop him from looking at other women and to notice her instead.

But he didn’t.

And she knew he would never think of her as anything other than his good friend’s little sister. Aidan and Ian were six years older than her, and although Onyx was closer to her age, he acted no different than his friends. That is, he teased her and ordered her around just as much as the other two. And since she grew up with the boys and didn’t have many female friends, she opted to let them do it. She’d liked the attention at first, but now came a time in her life when she wanted a different kind of attention.

“Come on, Kyla, let’s go see who wins the apple bobbin’,” said Coira, coming to her side with her hand
s full of coins from all the people placing bets. Coira was a shy girl and usually not in the best of health. She’d almost died when she was first rescued from being held prisoner in a cage, and brought to the MacKeefes to live along with her sister, Effie.

But since she’d been friends with Kyla
, she had changed a lot. Kyla knew Coira and Effie had been raised as gypsies. This was exciting to her, and for the past few months she’d been learning everything she could about using herbs and making healing potions. She’d already learned much from the old gypsy, Zara, who lived with the MacKeefes and was once the handmaiden of Wren - Storm MacKeefe’s wife.

And though Effie didn’t like her sister talking about it, Kyla had even heard
from Coira the stories of gypsy magic.

“I dinna ken if I want
te go o’er there after all.” Kyla noticed the way Ian smiled at the lusty girl who was now whispering into his ear and pressing her body up against his. Ian’s smile could light up a room, and also any woman’s heart. It had lit up her heart more than once, and he’d never even known it.

He’d always been like a big brother to her, a
s she’d gone almost everywhere with the three madmen through the years. Her parents had both died when she was very young, and her brother Aidan had taken her under his wing so to speak, and let her tag along as he watched after her. Aidan was her only sibling, so they were very close. She grew up hunting and fishing and even practicing with weapons with them. And she’d never been afraid to try some of their crazier antics like diving from the top of cliffs into the water at night, or even walking barefoot in the snow just to see whose feet were the toughest. Yes, she was sure that Ian saw her as naught but one of the boys, but lately she’d been wanting something more.

She wanted to be married and have children
like most women her age. She felt an emptiness in her life, and a calling to womanhood as well. She knew it was time to take matters into her own hands, and do something about it.

“Come on, Kyla,” said Effie,
joining them and taking her by the elbow and pulling her across the room. “Ian is ne’er goin’ te notice ye if ye are hidden away in the shadows.”

Kyla was happy that she’d bee
n able to share her secret feelings for Ian with Effie and Coira. She’d never been close to any of the women of the clan before they’d arrived, and it felt good to have someone to confide in. She allowed Effie to drag her along, yet kept her head down and her eyes focused on the floor. She knew Ian was turning on his charms to any woman who looked his way, and she really didn’t want to see it.

“All right, e’eryone, pay attention.” Onyx raised his han
d in the air. “First we have Aidan, the man with a mouth as big as his muscles, bobbin’ fer an apple. Aidan, if ye’d please.” He stepped aside and motioned with his hand for Aidan to take a turn at the game. “And I’ll be keepin’ count at how long it takes ye.”

“Outta me way,” said Aidan, pushing Onyx, obviously no
t liking how he’d been introduced.

“I feel a fight in the air,” said Effie, shaking her head as she watched her husband
position himself in front of the apple barrel.

“They always talk like thet te each other, dinna worry,” Kyla assured her.

Aidan held back his long hair, and as he tried to secure an apple, Onyx counted aloud. It got away from him twice, but then his squirrel reached out from his shoulder and snagged the apple with its teeth, keeping it from moving. Quickly, Aidan turned his head and bit the apple, ripping it away from the squirrel, and standing upright with the apple in his mouth and his hands in the air. A shout of triumph mixed with disappointment echoed through the room.

The crowd talked noisily amongst themselves,
and Onyx shouted out the time as the squirrel scolded him from Aidan’s shoulder.

“All right, yer turn, Ian,” said Onyx. “See if ye can beat Aidan’s time o’
four seconds.”

“Aida
n had a little help,” Ian pointed out. “I think thet was cheatin’.”

Ian probably
would have protested more if Grizela hadn’t pushed her breasts up against him and reached up and kissed him on the cheek. He obviously liked it, because the smile was back on his face in an instant. Then the woman moved behind Ian as he attempted to grab the apple, and Kyla didn’t miss her hand on his ass.

“I canna stand this any longer,” said Kyla, spying Ian’s large wolfhound across the room. Sh
e moved just behind Ian and Grizela, and called for the hound.

“Come here, Kyle,” she said, calling the hound by the name that Ian had given it that sounded a lot like her
own name. He’d said he’d named it that because it was a stray that kept pestering him around camp, much like she did to him all day long. “Come here boy,” she said, taking her hands and patting her chest. That was her signal for the hound to jump up and put its paws on her shoulders.

The room was crowded and bodies were touching, and Aidan watched on from right next to her. She gave the hound the signal
again, and heard Effie’s voice from behind her.

“Kyla, what are ye doin’?”

The hound bolted through the crowd eagerly, having made quite a connection with Kyla in the short time he’d been Ian’s pet. She knew any minute it would jump up and put its paws on her shoulders and tower over her with its huge form. Its tongue was hanging out and its tail wagging as it jumped upward – and Kyla quickly stepped out of the way.

The dog came down atop Ian
instead, knocking into him with such force that he fell forward, his head dunking under the water. He came up shaking his wet hair like a bitch after a bath, spraying water everywhere. Grizela screamed from his side, obviously not liking the fact she was getting wet, nor that the hound reached over and was now licking her face.

“What the hell!” Ian
turned around madder than a hornet, and the hound fell back down to the ground. Kyla just stepped behind the big form of her brother, blocking her from Ian’s view.

“Ye son o’ a bitch, ye dinna want me te win so ye pushed me
hound inte me, dinna ye?”

Aidan looked around, then shrugged his shoulders. “
Are ye screamin’ at me?” he asked.

“Ye’re damned right,” said Ian, giving him a shove. Kyla quickly moved out of the way.

“Hey, dinna push me, ye dunderheid,” spat Aidan, his face turning into a scowl.

“Enough!”
Onyx stepped forward, but Ian pushed him out of the way and dove at Aidan. They hit the ground hard, the crowd parting like the Red Sea, and once again coins were bouncing off the tables as the crowd bet on who was going to win the fight.

Onyx dove atop the pile, only making it worse, trying to help Aidan get out of Ian’s headlock.
The wolfhound jumped atop the pile next, wanting to play.

“Like I said, I feel a f
ight comin’ on.” Effie walked over and took Kyla by the arm and dragged her toward the door.

“
Where are we goin’?” asked Kyla.

“I’m getting’ ye outta here afore me husband and Ian figure
out ye were the one te start thet fight.”

“I wasna
tryin’ te start a fight,” Kyla protested.

“Really? And what did ye think would happen whe
n ye roiled up the hound and then stepped outta the way?”

“I . . . just
guess I didna want thet hussy hangin’ on Ian like thet.”

“Ye canna choose which lassies Ian beds, Kyla.”

“I ken thet.” She just lowered her head. “I jest wish it were me on his arm instead. He treats me like a child, and I dinna like it.”

“Then start actin’ more like one
o’ the lassies thet catch his eye and less like a child and mayhap he’ll notice ye.”

“What
do ye mean? Do you really think I act childish, Effie?”

“Kyla
, I am yer friend, and thet’s why I’m tellin’ ye thet these MacKeefe men are no’ the best at noticin’ when a lassie likes them fer more than jest their bodies. No’ are they the best examples of how no’ te act childish, now thet I think aboot it. Now go on outta here afore auld Callum starts comin’ after ye with a switch. He saw what ye did with the hound, and he is no’ happy.”