Lion of Caledonia: International Billionaires VII: The Scots (25 page)

“Yes.” Her crisp accent cut the word and his hopes to slices.

“That’s what Tre told me you’d said.” He managed a casual shrug, while his heart continued to fall apart. “I told him I couldn’t believe it from ye.”

She glanced away, not meeting his keen gaze.

His heart flipped over and began to beat once more. “I don’t believe it still,” he murmured. “I won’t.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” She brushed a clump of dirt from her cotton shirt like she were brushing him out of her life. “I don’t expect anything from you. You live for fun and the next adventure, I know that.”

He kicked the turf again. His old doubts rose inside. Maybe Jenny was right. Maybe he would have done something with Amanda given another chance.

No, ye wouldn’t have.

His heart shot back the answer with a solid thud into his soul.

No, he only wanted this fair lady and no other.

The realization beat and beat and beat into a building chorus. His heart shook, knowing that unlike all the other adventures and all the other women, this time, it mattered. This time he had to win the lady’s hand or he’d die inch by inch inside.

“I wasn’t having a wee bit of fun with ye, Jenny.” He felt as if he yanked his heart out and laid it in front of her. The shiver of fear and wonder shot up his spine. “It was more than that for me.”

She kept her attention on her garden, not giving his heart a chance. Not giving him a chance.

“Ye asked me to believe ye about the ring and your grandfather.” He glared at her, heartsick with love and broken inside about what this woman had done to him before he’d had a chance to understand the danger he was in. “So ye have to believe me about this.”

“Do I?” A blonde brow arched at his rough demand and her snotty Sassenach words tore into his aching heart. “And why is that?”

“Because…Because…” He paced away from her, sick with himself that he couldn’t figure out how to make her his. Every other time, when he’d bounded away from a woman, having had his fun and sure she’d had hers, he’d never once thought he’d be in this predicament. Even with Martine, he’d never felt so wretchedly inadequate.

He stopped beside an old chestnut tree and stared into the pale-blue sky.

His shoulders slumped.

He couldn’t do it. For once in his life, he could find no words to express what was inside. At the most important moment of his life, he found none of his storytelling skills, none of his charm, none of his charisma. And hell, even if he had, what did he really have to offer this woman that she needed?

All his life he’d disappointed the ones he’d loved. This time, he disappointed himself. But at least he could walk away from his Jenny before he disappointed her. That would destroy him forever.

“Cam?” Her soft voice came from his side.

He turned from her, blinking back tears. “Never mind. I shouldn’t have come.”

Pacing off, he ate the ground beneath him. The blood ring burned in his pocket. What had he been thinking, bringing the damn thing with him? Had he thought he’d be capable of pleading prettily for the fair lady’s hand and she’d gladly take his paw and his proposal and live happily ever after with him?

With him.

With Cameron Steward?

A harsh laugh escaped him. Combined with the tears, it clogged in his throat.

“Wait.” A strong, female hand pulled him to a stop.

“Let me leave,” he said to the grass on the lawn.

“Not until you tell me,” she paused as if gathering her strength. “Why does it matter that I believe you?”

* * *

T
he muscles
of Cam’s arm went taut against her palm. Before she gave into the urge to smooth over them, taking in the hard heat of his power, she dropped her hand from the temptation.

He lifted his arm and wiped the edge of his cambric sleeve across his face. Could he be sweating that much? The sun wasn’t hot today, not at all.

Swinging around, he glanced at her.

Not sweating. Tears. The man was crying.

Crying? Cameron Steward?

Jen took a step away in disbelief.

“Ye see.” He laughed again, a weary sound. “Ye see what you’ve done to me.”

“Done to you?” Her mind scrambled in infinite directions, giving her only confusion. “Taking the ring did this to you?”

“Taking the ring, she says.” He threw his head back, the tawny strands of his hair glinting in the light. Closing his eyes, he chuckled. “Taking my heart, more like.”

“What?” Everything inside her stilled. Her scrambling mind, her breaking heart, her aching soul. “What did you say?”

“Och, Jenny. Ye want it all, then you’ll have it.” He glanced at her, his eyes filling with tears once more. “It seems fair to me. Karma, if ye like.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” But she did understand the pain in his eyes. It matched her own. Her love for this man, a love she’d thought unwanted, chugged to life and flew around inside her, making her dizzy. “Tell me what you mean.”

“I love ye.” He shrugged his broad shoulders as if he hadn’t just turned her world inside out. “Pretty simple. And that’s why I wanted ye to believe about Amanda. I wanted ye to believe in me.”

“You love me.” Each word came slowly, her brain bewildered and shocked.

He shrugged again without looking her way. “It’s a noxious annoyance for ye, I’m sure.”

“An annoyance.”

“Ye don’t have time for a lad like me.” He waved his big hand at her garden and mansion. “You’ve got far better things to do now than worry about a Scottish bloke’s heart.”

A bubbling cascade of happiness streamed into her blood, turning it into champagne. “Far better things to do than worry about your heart.”

“Right.” He swung around to meet her gaze, his eyes dead behind the tears. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a familiar red box. “Here.”

Jen looked down. “You’re giving me the ring?”

“Aye.” His accent roughened the one word into a burr. “Take it.”

When she didn’t move, still stunned with euphoria, he grabbed her hand and slapped the box into her palm.

“I’ll be off now.” He paced away, his gait stiff, not like the usual prowl she’d come to love.

“Wait,” she called once more.

He didn’t stop this time. He picked up his gait instead.

Cameron Steward loved her. He hadn’t been onto the next woman with Amanda. He hadn’t come here to yell at her about the ring. Not really.

He’d come to get her back.

She raced after him, her love and heart bouncing inside in a mad jig. He must have sensed her behind him, because he began to run.

“I won’t accept this ring.”

Her thrown words made his shoulders tense, but his long legs kept churning under him.

“Not unless you come with it.”

Coming to a hard stop, he whipped around and stared at her. “What did ye say?”

“You heard me.” She stopped a few feet from him, unable to believe how happy she was and how wonderful her life was going to be. “I want you with the ring.”

“Me.” Disbelief tinged the word.

“You. And Robbie.” She braved a smile and something broke free inside. A fear she’d held since she’d been five. A fear that she’d never find her way home again. “My home.”

“Jenny?” He took one tentative step toward her, then stopped. “Are ye sure, lass? I’m not such a great prize, ye know.”

“What I know is I love you, Cameron Steward.” She put out her hand. “Only you. And only for forever.”

His eyes lit, the gold splashing sunshine onto the dark center. With one stride, he came to her and swept her into his arms. “Jenny.”

“Cam.” She let herself touch him now, brushing across the stubble of his jaw. “I think you need to put this ring on my finger.”

“Do ye now?” Grabbing the box, he plucked the ruby ring out. “Well, then, give me your hand, my love.”

The ring looked exactly right on her finger. The warmth of the stone seemed to seep into her skin, lighting the love inside her into a glow of peace. She’d found her place, found her man. Leaning into his arms, she sighed in contentment.

“My Jenny.” He kissed her, a warm taking, a silent pledge to give her a forever home.

H
is little sister
was a pain in the arse.

Not that his da would let him say that. Or her mother for that matter.

“No, ye can’t, Charlotte.” Rob popped his head up to glare over the side of his sailboat. “You’ll get in the way.”

“I won’t.” The seven-year-old glared right back. “I’ll be your second mate.”

“Not if I have anything to say about it.” Grabbing a wrench, he focused on fixing his engine. He needed to get this done fast so he could meet the girl he’d had his heart set on for more than a year. Megan Mackenzie would be waiting for him on the docks of the angling club, where her own da worked as a guide.

He’d had to ask her gruff old man if he could take his wee daughter on this jaunt. Having survived that trauma, he wasn’t about to let his little sister spoil this long-awaited date.

“Ye have to let me come.” Charlotte began her usual wheedling. She knew her brother was a sucker when she got all pleading and such. “I’ll make sure to make ye a fine sandwich when we get to the middle of the loch.”

Rob glanced at her. Aye, she had on her wheedling face. “No means no.”

“But I make a fine sandwich. Ye know I do.” She gave him a jaunty grin, still sure of her eventual success. “I brought your favorite crisps, too.”

Ignoring the familiar bag she held up for his inspection, he wrenched the last piece into place. The engine roared to satisfying life.

“Please?” his sister begged from the dock. The wheedling had now turned to pitiful tears. “Please, Rob?”

He sighed. He hated tears and every one of his sisters knew it. “I have a date.”

Charlotte’s eyes widened in immediate interest, the tears drying up. “What?”

“Don’t tell Jen or Da.”

“Don’t tell us what?”

At the sound of his da’s deep voice, Rob threw the wrench down in disgust. “Dammit.”

“I won’t tell.” His sister’s words were lost in the engine’s roar, yet he read her lips.

He gave her a smile, the one they’d shared since the moment he’d found Charlotte swinging from a tree limb at the age of three. Instead of a crying infant who caused him endless trouble, she’d suddenly become a fellow daredevil. A girl, sure, but one who was willing to do anything he proposed.

He’d still hoped for a brother then.

Now, he’d resigned himself to reality.

Three sisters. All impossible to ignore. All impossible to resist.

“Where are ye going, Rob?” His da came into view from the open doorway leading into the garden, holding his youngest. Emily was three and Rob hadn’t caught her climbing any trees yet, but he saw it in her eyes.

Another daredevil.

Poor Jen. She was surrounded by them.

“I’m going across the loch.” He assumed a casual slouch by the wheel. “Thought I might do some fishing.”

“Fishing. Hmm.” Emily got switched to another brawny arm as his da’s gaze narrowed. “Curious then, that ye don’t have any gear on the boat.”

He loved his father with a fierce, deep attachment. Yet sometimes, he hated how keen Cameron Steward’s eyes and attention were. Especially over the last year as he wrestled for more freedom. “I’m going, Da. I’ll be back in a few hours.”

“I’m finding it hard to believe this trip is about fishing, when I had a chat with the Mackenzie last night at the pub.”

Rob’s heart sank. It wasn’t that he was ashamed of the want he felt for Megan. But it was special, and he wanted to wander around it a bit before all his family drilled him into the ground in their usual way.

“Leave him alone, Cam.” Jen poked her head out from the top of the boathouse’s stairs. She’d filled the simple place with cozy furniture and lots of games and books. The family spent half their time in the boathouse during the summer months. “Rob is old enough to know what he’s doing.”

“Thanks, Jen.” He threw her a grateful grin.

A few months after his da had found her and brought her home for good, he’d asked if she wanted to be called mum. In her typical gentle fashion, she’d said he could call her anything he liked. After quite a bit of thought, he’d told her the name Jen meant something more to him than mum. She’d wept, much to his horror.

“He’s going on his first date,” his da announced in a booming voice.

Rob winced. Hell, everyone in the surrounding county would hear.

“Shut up, Cameron.” She marched down the stairs and over to her husband, an unusually militant look on her face. Mostly, his da and Jen went along together with a certain glow of contentment shining from both their faces. It was what he hoped to find with Megan, if he got very lucky.

“But Jenny.” His father’s tawny brows frowned. “He hasn’t told us what he’s doing. I don’t like finding out about what’s going on with my boy from a neighbor.”

“He has a right to some privacy.” Lifting her hands, Jen took Emily into her arms, the flash of her ruby ring shining in the sunlight. “He’s growing up. You can’t stop him.”

“Och.” Cameron Steward handed over his youngest with a teasing tug on the fluff of blonde hair tied into a red bow. “And I suppose at some point, I’m going to have to let my wee Emmy go without a quibble or a question.”

“Yes. At some point.” Jen nuzzled her nose into her child’s neck and the little girl giggled. “What were you doing with Emily?”

“I was telling her a tale about a kelpie and his fair maiden.” Her husband swept a hand down his youngest daughter’s leg and tickled a tiny foot, making the child giggle again. “I’d just gotten to the good part where they lived happily ever after when I heard Rob’s engine roar.”

His six-year-old sister, Annie, peeked around the boathouse door, her gaze filled with worry. “Are ye going on the loch without your life jacket, Rob? Ye need to be careful.”

Annie took after her mother, down to her grey eyes and wheat-colored hair and need to be safe. “I’ll be careful. I won’t get hurt, I promise ye.”

“Well, I guess I’ll let ye go, then.” His father strode to the side of Rob’s sailboat, the one he’d been given a month ago when he’d turned sixteen. Unwrapping the ropes that tied him to the dock, he gave him a look.

“Da.” His throat clutched when he saw the love and trust shining from the two-toned eyes he shared. “Thanks.”

“I love ye. More than I can say. And like my Jenny reminded me just now, I trust ye to make good decisions.” Cam patted the teak hatch with affection and then gave it a push. “Off ye go, lad.”

The engine puttered as it pushed his boat onto the loch. When he’d gotten out far enough to catch the wind, Rob glanced back before lifting the first sail.

His family stood on the dock, Charlotte jumping up and down by his da’s side, Annie clutching one big hand while she waved. Jen waved too, a bright smile on her face as she held her youngest in her arms. Emily sucked on her thumb, her gaze never leaving him. As he watched, his father slid an arm around his wife and looked at her with a love he hoped he’d find on the other shore of the loch.

The first sail rose to whip in the wind.

And Rob Steward was off on another adventure.