KiltedForPleasure (21 page)

She nipped his bottom lip and then pulled away. “Pancakes and hash browns for tomorrow’s breakfast. Look them up on Google if you don’t have a clue what I just said.”

He didn’t loosen his hold. “Aye.”

She placed a soft kiss on the corner of his mouth and untangled their limbs. As he watched her fading silhouette, Callan couldn’t help but think it had been a goodbye kiss.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Leaning against the castle’s bathroom door was a reprieve. Something Victoria hadn’t experienced since Callan had begun his epic apology. Every morning she hoped he wouldn’t wait out on the moors for her and despaired he’d see the pointlessness and give up. Every single morning she’d wondered who was this man who wore his heart on his sleeve.

Her Callan would have growled
forgive me
or tried to seduce her until the need to punch him in the throat evaporated, but just that morning he’d laid out a plaid blanket to eat pancakes and hash browns with her.

What was she supposed to do with that? How could she get a moment’s rest when that domestic scene kept looping in her mind? The stress of it all and the past three weeks had finally hit her and made her stomach weak and queasy.

She dropped her hand from her mouth and met a too-observant, blue-eyed gaze. The wood cooled her heated skin and acted as a prop since her knees had gone unsteady. Tristan lounged on the wall, his arms crossed and all his intensity focused on her.

Ian intimidated her. No matter what he said or whatever question he asked, even an affable exchange, her tongue seemed to trip over itself. But Tristan scared the crap out of her. She often had the impression he could read her like a book. That usually left her a little uncomfortable on the best of days. Today, it made her stomach lock up, and she almost turned to go back into the bathroom to throw up again.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

She waved her hand in a so-so manner. “Something I ate didn’t agree with me.”

His brow raised. “You can work from home if you need it.”

Her stomach did a nice little roll and she had to swallow slowly. “Just might. How are things with the Baird?”

His laugh at the name reminded her of Callan’s reaction. God. She couldn’t escape him.

“He’s doing fine.” His gaze narrowed slightly. “I was wondering how you two met. Everything was crazy for a while. I was just happy to see someone was there with him until we could make it. But…I’ve become curious.”

Shit
. And this was why no matter how gentle or open Callan had been, she couldn’t bring herself to forgive him. Three words were all he had to say. “You should leave” or even “I need you.” He could have given her the choice to bomb her own career or not, but her needs and what was important to her had always come second to his desires. Naturally it was of no consequence if she fell for him. What exactly did she have to lose?

But God forbid if he had two seconds of experiencing an emotion for her. The world would end, and that just wouldn’t do. How could she trust that wouldn’t happen again? And once again she’d have to crawl her way out of the ashes.

The whole thing at the hospital was the universe’s way of reminding her to keep her head down and continue on her path. She needed to be smarter, more cagey with her heart until her life was settled. And for goodness sakes, never, ever date someone in her field again. Callan would be her secret heartbreak and she’d eventually move on. The important part was no one ever knowing.

Victoria sighed and decided she’d dance around the question. “I had errands to run in Glasgow. Callan offered to take me since he had to see Douglass anyway. And then I adored your father after meeting him.” She laughed. “He’s a cad though.”

“Huh,” was all he said for a very, very long moment.

Tristan had worked with her for the last three days and often she’d catch him watching her with a curious expression as though he was putting together puzzle pieces. Somehow he knew she was lying. Dammit. She glanced down the corridor and couldn’t see a means of escaping without making the lie that more obvious. She fixed a smile on her face. “I should go back to work.”

Tristan shook his head. “Ian can’t see what’s right there in his face. He never quite caught onto subtleties.” Those words hung heavy in the room before he added, “Do you understand what I’m saying to you?”

Her heart skipped a beat, but she refused to rat herself out. “Well, I was never a fan about beating around the bush. Give it to me straight.”

“First you need to know I was there when my cousin told Ian to shove this job up his arse. It was quite funny and frustrating. We knew he needed the money and he’s damn good. He was local. We take care of family as best we can, but we knew he wouldn’t care.” Tristan shrugged. “Then I met you and made a suggestion to Ian.”

She pushed off the door, feeling steady again. “You?”

“I’ve seen you handle some of our most reluctant clients. You play sweet, cunning, whatever you have to, to get a job done.”

“Sending me wasn’t even Ian’s idea.” She wasn’t sure if that made the situation better or worse. She’d worked from the belief that her boss trusted her, had picked her because he thought her the best person for the job.

“He wouldn’t have sent you if he didn’t agree. You came through within twenty-four hours. You did the impossible. You could do no wrong, but he’s a fussy perfectionist and shite with words.”

Her mind reeled as she tried to follow where this led and had no clue. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Because there’s one thing Ian will fight for and it’s family. Over the last few days I’ve noticed you just might be family.”

He knew.
“What?” the word whooshed out.

“You’re a bonny lass. You’ve been near a Baird for close to three months.” His brows rose as though the answer was obvious. “You’re sick every morning. It’s not that hard to put two and two together.”

Her panic died out because he was shooting in the dark. She started to chuckle when he said, “How far along are you?”

She blinked at the blunt question and answered on instinct. “I’m on the pill.”

“Gotcha,” he muttered.

She froze. The correct answer to avoid any confirmation of an affair was she never had sex with Callan. No sex. No pregnancy.
That
was a firm denial, which left no ambiguity. He’d by-passed her ready-to-go lie. She got played right into the truth.

“You sneaky bastard,” she said with both respect and fear clouding her voice.

He let out a big belly laugh. “You’re a tough nut to crack. No other way to get you to confess to an affair. I caught you in a lie and still you were ready to bluster.”

Her brows crinkled as she frowned. “A lie?”

“Callan told us you wanted to play tourist so he took you to the pub and that’s how you met Da. He even said you saved Da’s life.”

Her heart sped up and her hands started to tremble. Callan had lied to his cousins. “When did he say that?”

“At the hospital,” Tristan spoke slowly.

“Before or after I left?”

This time Tristan looked confused. “Before.”

“Oh,” her voice came out shaky.

I’d break your heart before I’d ask to give your everything to me
.

She’d never asked him exactly what he’d said to his cousins. It hadn’t mattered. He’d let her wake up to a clusterfuck. He had needed her to be with him while he sat at his uncle’s side and had still refused to admit it. Yet, Callan hadn’t thrown her to the wolves to fend on her own.

She’d woken up shocked, but the scene hadn’t played out as she imagined. The why and how hadn’t mattered in that moment when the betrayal had done more than sting her pride and heart, but Callan hadn’t told them about the blackmail, the sex. He’d given them an innocent reason, one that never needed to be questioned. One that ensured Ian wouldn’t fire her.

Yes, he’d done it to push her away, but he’d also done it to protect her. A fine line when she looked at all his actions, but they’d been doing a balancing act on that line since their first meeting.

All her anger at him had been spent. Now she could see if the choice had been left up to her, she’d have cut off all ties between Callan and Douglass. Her choice would have hurt all parties involved. It would have sent the same message just in reverse—her wants and needs mattered more than anyone or anything else. Except her lie wouldn’t help Callan or Douglass. She would have acted like they had never been a part of her life in a meaningful way. All to keep her job. How was that any less selfish?

He hadn’t been an angel by any means, but she couldn’t make him out to be the devil. “Dammit,” she said.

Some of her fight and most of her self-righteous fury drained out of her as the rest of the puzzle fell into place. This time when her stomach piped up it was a flutter.

She pressed a hand to it. “Tristan, I know—”

He put up his hand. “Don’t worry about it.”

Relief bloomed in her chest. “Pregnant, though?” She laughed. “How often do you get confessions with that one?”

“Never,” he admitted. “It’s a little thing of mixing lies with the truth.” He gestured to the bathroom. “You have been sick.”

“Yes, I have” she said slowly as her mind caught onto that absent observation.

Every morning for the past week she’d been hit with a vicious nausea and the last two she’d been sick. She was on the pill and that made her menstrual cycle pretty predictable, but between work, Douglass and Callan she hadn’t paid it much mind. It came and went without fanfare.

So when was the last time it had come and gone…Her frown deepened as she navigated a mental calendar and then was forced to remember life events. She counted back the weeks. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears as a roar filled her head when she passed four weeks, and five and six and seven and eight. No. Wait. She had one at four weeks. It was light…spotting for three days. Blood was blood, right? “
Oh
.”

Aunt Flo’s last
real
visit was eight weeks ago, just before Callan met her on her daily run to ravish her on a hilltop. Her knees threatened to give out. “Noooo.”

“What is it?” Tristan asked concern filling his voice.

Victoria heard him moving toward her and she shook her head. Sick. She just might be sick again. “It’s impossible.”

He stilled and pulled back a little, realization widening his eyes. “I was just saying that to get you to confess to an affair. Oldest trick in the book.”

But those words had dropped a seed in the back of her mind. A seed that exploded. “I’m feeling sick because I’ve had Scottish breakfasts.”

His shoulders pushed back as though on alert. “What have you been eating the whole time here?”

Scottish breakfast, lunch, dinner…whatever Callan made. She shook her head. “We’re down to the last few pieces that need to be shipped. I’m stressed.”

His expression said bullshit and then he smiled. “I’m going to have another little brother.”

She straightened, staring at him in horror. “Oh, God, no. It’s Callan’s.”

He grinned and she called him another bastard, because she’d just fallen for the oldest trick twice.

“You made this too easy.” He murmured a soothing noise, directed her to a chair and knelt down so they would be eye to eye. His gaze was still filled with laughter, but his words were serious. “So, what’s your worry? You don’t seem happy.”

Pregnant. That word bounced around her head. Victoria never imagined it. Her future had always involved career-goal accomplishments. A job in Europe, Africa, China and maybe even a stint on the
Antique Roadshow
.

Pregnant. She could be a mom in a few months. “Oh, my God,” she said partly in horror and awe.

She pressed a hand to her stomach and fought back the tears that burned at her eyes. Callan’s baby. Theirs. No. No. This couldn’t be true. She was leaving. She lived in America. Callan making sure Victoria didn’t lose her job didn’t mean he somehow loved her now. And it couldn’t be true because
she was on the freaking pill
.
There had been blood.

Victoria shook her head, adamant. “I’m jumping to conclusions. It’s stress.”

Tristan frowned. “Even so, why don’t you look happy at the possibility?”

Victoria couldn’t believe she was sharing this roller-coaster of a moment with her employer. She’d managed all this time to be personable but private. If this wasn’t proof her life had turned upside down she didn’t know what would.

“I just can’t be,” she said with steel in her words.

She may have never dreamed of babies and a husband, but even on the outskirts of her mind, in very fleeting thoughts it was a husband and babies. It was never she lived in America while her child’s father lived in Scotland. A father who imagined his kids with freckles and maybe his wife’s eyes.

“But if you are?” Tristan pushed.

“Why do you care?” she shot back. Anger and frustration tightened her limbs. This wasn’t supposed to happen. She was supposed to leave Scotland and him behind. Miss him like she was missing a goddamn limb and then buck the hell up.

Victoria put her hands over her face. “I’m going to lose my job.”

He ignored that like it didn’t matter and asked, “Do you love my cousin?”

She swallowed the truth and lied her butt off. “No.”

Tristan snorted. “I know a lie when I hear it.”

She held his gaze and could see he probably did. So she clamped her mouth shut and refused to dig herself into a deeper hole.

Tristan began to nod as though his mind was made up. “My cousin has been a miserable shite since we arrived. It wasn’t the usual misery from him. It’s kind of how I figured it out. Despite what he says and thinks, I care for the bastard. I know how it feels. I went through it with my Keri.” He pinned her with a look. “Did you make him happy? Did he make you happy?”

Victoria may doubt Callan loved her or ever could, but she knew in her heart she’d made him happy. He’d said as much the day before, but what he hadn’t said was that he loved her. How she felt about him was out there in the open. Callan knew, but Tristan didn’t.

“No,” she lied again.

He took her hands in his. “I’m going to help you, but you have to trust me.”