phone booking a flight to Glasgow, he wasn’t thinking about his father, or the taunt from beyond the grave. He was thinking of Ballantrae. And Maura Sinclair. And wondering if her voice was anywhere near close to the one he’d come to imagine in his mind, while reading her vividly descriptive letters. It wouldn’t be long before he found out.
Chapter 4
“ R uddy bastard!” Maura dropped the damp bath towel she’d found laying by the front door, and let fly with the first hard thing she could grab. Her mobile phone flew like a silver bullet toward the down-filled double bed —her down-filled doubl e bed—and the two people presentl y occupying it.
“Now, Mo, wait just a—Ouch!” Jory MacTavish flinched as Maura followed up with her key ring, which bounced off his fine, muscled bum.
The very same fine muscled bum she’d just caught clenching in all its well-defined glory as he gave that other fine part of himself to a slender brunette. Maura had no idea who she was, but then she hadn’t gotten a look at the woman’s face. Mostl y because she’d been on all fours at the time. Oddly enough, what pissed her off most was that, after six months with the guy, how come she didn’t know he liked to do it doggy style?
“ Jesus, Mo, careful with yer aim.”
“Aye,” she agreed readily. “I was off by about, oh seven inches with that last shot. I won’t be with my next one.”
“Now, now, hold off. See, Mo, I can explain,” Jory began, scrambling off the woman, who quickly tried to slither from the bed on her stomach.
Appropriate, Mo thought, considering she was a snake in the grass. Or ass, as the case may be. She’d deal with her in a minute. She faced Jory, who remained unconcernedly naked. “I’ve seen quite enough, thanks. And the only thing you’re going to see is a swirl of stars twinkling about your head if you don’t get your lying, two- timing ass off my bed and out of my home. My home, Jory! Jesus and Mary.”
“Home? Don’t ye mean the elephant on yer back? The very same one you’ve been a slave to for as long as I’ve known you,” he shot back.
Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t think you’re going to be wanting to mince words with me at the moment. Say what you will about the rest of the place, aye it’s a burden and one ye should thank yer lucky stars your laze arse isn’t in charge of maintaining. But this?” She gestured at the room, the whole of it. “ This tower is mine. And yes, it’s my home as much as your rent-free little apartment over yer father’s pub is yours.”
“And we could hardly go there, could we now?” he said, completely missing her point. “The whole town would know.”
Incredulous, she grabbed the small crystal vase that sat on the small table beneath the mirror, and unceremoniously dumped both water and flowers from it onto the wooden floor. She’d be sure to regret it later when she had to buff out the water marks, but at the moment, it was far down on her list of things she’d wished she’d thought twice about before doing. She swung the heavy crystal up, the neck tight in her fist. “So, you brought her here for some privacy?”
“I didn’t bring her anywhere, I was already here. You should know that, you just left here an hour ago.”
Her eyes thre atened to bulge from her head. “ Yes,” she all but shrieked. “I did. What, since you were already in a nice warm bed, you figured you’d just ring her up and see if she could join you?”
“It wasn’t like that, it—”
“I mean, Christ Jory, if you can’t keep your goddamn dick in your pants for more than an hour at a time, there’s eleven other bedrooms in the main house of this ‘white elephant’ you could have used. You di dn’t have to screw her in mine! ”
“But it’s the only one with electric heat and—”
“Jesus and Mary, Jory, shut your trap,” the other woman grumbled beneath her breath.
Maura turned her s teely glare on the