“He wants it all now, Calla. He’s desperate to get you back.”
“Because he knows he’s running out of time.”
Her father didn’t say anything.
“I’m…courting Guthrie MacNeill. That’s one reason Baird is running out of time for me to agree to mate him. If he was truly afraid his wolf pack had learned he’d spent their money without their permission, there is that too.” She assumed her parents would be upset with her and tell her to wait until she was more over this situation with Baird. In the background, she heard her father tell her mother that she was dating Guthrie.
Silence.
“Dad, are you still there?”
“Calla, this is great news. When can you get married?”
“Dad?” Her father had to be crazy! She could just imagine going downstairs, joining Guthrie, throwing her arms around him and saying, “Hey, let’s get mated because I need to borrow a half-million dollars from you and that’s what mates are for, eh?”
“If you marry Guthrie, his pack would take us in as family and—”
“Dad, nay!”
Silence.
Then she heard her parents conversing in the background and waited.
“We’re trying to come up with some money through our relatives here,” her father explained.
“In Ireland?” Calla asked.
“It was the last thing we could come up with.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She was certain her distant relatives would want a partial interest in her parents’ properties in exchange for a loan.
“We didn’t want you feeling it was all your fault or that you were obligated to return to him.”
“I have some money, Dad. I could help some.” She rubbed her temple, the headache pooling there again. Returning to Baird was not an option. “Okay, so how much were you able to come up with?”
“Thirty thousand. That’s it.”
“And would our relations have an invested interest in the properties?” she asked.
“No, just payment of the loan and interest as soon as we’re able.”
She let out her breath. “All right. I’ll see what I can do. You should have told me.”
“Are you sure that you don’t want to mate with Guthrie sooner and—”
“Nay! I’ll do something. I’ll call you back when I’ve got some idea of how much money I can get together on short notice. Love you and Mum.”
They quickly said their good-byes, and she was getting ready to call her bank and broker when a knock sounded on the door and she nearly jumped out of her skin. She waited for a second, hoping whoever it was hadn’t been standing there for some time and heard her talking about the money over the phone. Or anything else, like how she wasn’t going back to Baird.
She didn’t want to get the MacNeills involved. She didn’t want them paying her parents’ debts to Baird. They might not even agree to such a thing, as much animosity as they had for Baird’s pack. And they might not have the funds to loan her parents the money, either. Or if they did have the money, it was probably all invested—as carefully as Guthrie took care of their finances—just like most of hers was.
She opened the door and found Guthrie standing there, frowning. She felt her whole body warm uncomfortably, worried that he knew what this was all about.
“Baird?” Guthrie asked.
She didn’t want Guthrie and his family to know the financial bind her family was in. Some things were just private. If she’d already been mated to Guthrie, that would have been different.
“I…was just talking to my parents. Checking on them to see how they were doing on their trip.”
“What’s wrong, Calla?” He placed his hand on her cheek. “You’re ice cold.”
“I took the call outside until I realized how cold it was out there without a coat.”
He took in a deep breath of her, smelling her anxiousness as a wolf would. He took her hand and led her to the two chairs and table in a corner of the room. Instead of guiding her to one of the chairs, he sat down and pulled her onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around her, warming her.
She didn’t need this right now. Wanted it, aye, but she needed to learn if she could find out anything about the money. She felt stiff in his arms, unable to relax.
“Okay, tell me what’s going on.”
“They asked me to run to the bank and take care of some business for them.”
Guthrie looked like he didn’t believe that was all there was to it. Not the way she was reacting. She wanted to ask him how long he’d been standing at the door.
“Do you need money?” he asked, coming straight to the point.
“Personal finances aren’t something one discusses with just anyone,” she said, frowning at him. He had listened at the door! Or overheard some of the conversation when he approached. That was the problem with enhanced wolf hearing.
He began stroking her back, trying to get her to relax. “I overheard something about financial difficulty, though I hadn’t meant to. Let me help.”
“Nay, Guthrie. This isn’t any of your business.”
“All right. Then do you have enough money to cover the expense?”
“Guthrie, some things are…well, just not discussed.”
“But if you need money, I can get it for you—”
“Nay.” She got off his lap. “I really need to go into town and see what I can do about this.”
“It’s that urgent?” he asked, standing.
“Aye, it is.”
“It’s too late to do anything about it tonight. You’ll have to wait until morning.”
She was so flustered that she hadn’t even realized it was way too late for anything to be open.
He hesitated, then pulled her into his arms and held her tight. She didn’t embrace him back, wanting to get this over with as soon as possible and unable to think of anything else. But he didn’t seem to care, or maybe he understood she was feeling ultra-distressed. He rubbed her back again, and she looked up at him, fighting damnable tears. How could he be so caring and tender when she was trying her damnedest to keep her mind on business and maintain her family’s secret? Should it get out, her family’s business and their home would be lost.
“You can always talk to me about anything,” he said, then kissed her lips gently, a no-pressure kind of kiss.
That made her swallow hard as she nodded and pulled away.
“I could sell my carriage house and move into my parents’ manor house…”
“It seems a shame to split up your parents’ estate. What if you leased it out? Or used it as a bed-and-breakfast?”
“My parents were looking into having one. Their estate is near the lake, and the mountains are close by for hiking and climbing. A river for boating. Aye, it could work. And the income from that could help to pay off their debt.” She hadn’t realized her mistake until she’d said it. She hadn’t meant to tell Guthrie this had all to do with her parents.
“It could. We need to settle this little bit of business between us first, though.”
“I don’t want you to feel pressured into making any decisions about us right now. You and your family have done so much for me already, and—”
“Calla, this is not about saving your parents from a bad debt. Your family has been friends with ours forever. We would help out as much as we can anyway—especially considering what must be at stake. Protecting you from Baird was something we would never have given another thought.” He took a deep breath and took her hand and kissed it, his gaze focused on hers. “I would have you for my mate, Calla Stewart, if you will have me. If you’re not ready for marriage, then we’ll wait. Though it could possibly kill me.”
“What about your family? How will they view this?”
“Lass, if we didn’t mate, my brothers, and possibly my mother, would kill me. I’m sure my Aunt Agnes would. And there are my brothers’ mates and my cousin Heather. I can’t tell you how long that list goes. Getting Ian to capitulate to have
the festivities at the castle was enough to make everyone love you. Me, most of all.”
She smiled a little.
“What about your parents?” he asked.
She felt her face flush with heat. Guthrie smiled. She didn’t want to tell him that her parents wished her to marry him—afraid he would believe it was all about wanting the MacNeill clan to help pay their debts. And her parents weren’t like that. Not normally. They’d want the best for her, and they knew the MacNeill pack was a good family-oriented pack to belong to. But Calla had to tell him the truth.
She toyed with the buttons on Guthrie’s shirt. Then let out her breath. “They already suggested I marry you.”
His eyes sparkled with delight. “Why didn’t you say so?”
“Because…because it sounded too much like they wanted me to marry you just so they would have your clan’s financial backing.”
“Lass, the only thing that is truly important is how we feel about each other.” He stroked her hair.
She loved it when he did that. “I think you know how I feel about us,” she said softly against Guthrie’s ear. “I just wanted to make sure neither of us was getting too involved too soon, but…I do love you.”
“And I you,” he said, but the way he was smiling at her made her believe he’d known how she felt all along.
“My parents won’t be home for a while longer so we can’t have a wedding—a very simple wedding—until then, but in the meantime…”
He smiled a little, waiting, expectant, eager.
“I…see no reason to wait—for a mating. If this is what you truly want.”
“Hell, yeah, Calla. Haven’t I been hinting at that for some time now?”
Chapter 17
Calla’s warm breath against Guthrie’s ear made his whole body heat with interest. And the way her silky hair felt threaded through his fingers, and the way she was so lovingly pressed against his body.
He smiled at her, suspecting his expression was wolfishly hungry looking, the way he felt. Weddings weren’t exactly necessary for lupus garous. Once they had consummated sex, they were mated for life, just like their wolf cousins. But because of titles or transfers of properties down family lines for wolves that didn’t have a pack, some were having human weddings. Once they mated, they were happily committed forever.
“Would it be clichéd to say that you’ve made me the happiest wolf in the world?” he asked.
“I love you,” she said with sincerity and a smile.
He suspected Baird would want to kill him if he knew how quickly Guthrie and Calla had found compatibility and the need and want to mate. No holding back for a yearlong wait. They were perfect for each other. Oh, aye, they would have issues as all couples did, but he knew they were right for one another.
She kissed Guthrie on the mouth and he was so ready for this. She was just too appealing. His hand slipped under her hair, and he leaned down and kissed her deeply, passionately, no holding back.
She broke free from the kiss, her heart beating a million miles a minute, her breath ragged. “We’ll wait to tell anyone we’re mated, aye?”
He doubted they could put on a charade for very long in front of his people without them suspecting as much. Hell, if he couldn’t hide how he’d felt when his last girlfriend left him, he certainly couldn’t hide how he felt about mating Calla.
“For how long, Calla?”
“Until we resolve the financial situation? I…I don’t want the pack to think this is all about money and our mating isn’t really about what we wanted,” she said, looking worried again.
“As close as we’ve been to each other? No one would think that.”
“Aye, but…”
“Calla…” As much as Guthrie wanted to tell everyone that they were finally mated, he didn’t want Calla to have any reservations about it. “It’s fine with me if we wait to let everyone know until we’ve cleared up the financial dilemma. Though I have to warn you that when I go skipping into the great hall for breakfast tomorrow, the clan will know something is up.”
She laughed and began kissing him all over again—with passion, craving, and lustful need. That fed into his just as quickly. He hadn’t realized how much this would change him. The concern over her financial position melted away, when normally he would have been chomping at the bit to get the problem resolved as quickly as possible.
But Calla—she made all the difference in the world to him. He knew then without a doubt that the she-wolf was the right one for him. Someone who could make him step away from his fascination with the world of numbers and enjoy something a million times more pleasurable. Someone he could love and cherish, protect and play with. Next time they got into a snowball fight? He was taking her down. Forget snowballs. He was tackling her in front of everyone.
He wanted the closeness, the way her belly was pressed against his groin, making him crave her all the more. Their touching heated his blood, sizzling, luring. Her heart raced with rabid expectation. And the beat of his heart kept pace with hers. His breathing was just as uncontrolled as he licked her soft mouth and sank his tongue between her parted lips, deepening the kiss.
Then he realized she was frantically trying to reach the buttons on his shirt and unfasten them. That had him pulling away and removing her boots and then his. He slipped her sweater over her head and tossed it aside. He grappled for the button and zipper on her pants, managed to unfasten them, and finally slid them down her legs, but only while he kissed down her thigh and up the other.
“Why did we wait this long?” she said, her voice hushed as she combed her fingers through his hair. He jerked off his shirt and they melded back together, his hands caressing her back until he reached the fastener on her bra and began to unhook it. “Why couldn’t we have done this a year ago?” she groaned, rubbing her sexy body against his.
He was having a terrible time unhooking her bra with the way her hot little body was stoking his fire.
“Because we needed to make the other mistakes to learn that what we have here is truly special.” The bra came undone. He pulled the straps from her shoulders and tossed it aside. He marveled at her breasts that he had so enjoyed already.
He kissed them each reverently and then, with purpose, devoured the rosy bud on one, caressing the other with his hand. She was so hot, and she was his. She dazzled him. Made him feel like a warrior who had found a maiden to cherish, to love. He growled with a wolf’s primal need, then cupped her buttocks and pulled her tighter, her nails raking down his back like a wolf in ecstasy.
He lifted her until her legs were around his hips and then carried her to the bed. She wouldn’t let go, and that was fine with him. They ended up on the bed, her legs still wrapped around his hips. His mouth on hers, he kissed, licked, and tasted the wine on her lips, the only thing she had managed to drink.
She hadn’t eaten enough at dinner, he remembered. He had every intention of taking her downstairs to raid the kitchen later after everyone had gone to bed.
“You still have your pants on,” she complained, tugging at him to take them off.
He was aroused to the nth degree, wanting to be inside her, to slake her need and his as well. He hurried to stand and remove his pants. He swore it had never taken him this long, even when he was in a rush to strip and shift in a moment of danger. She had so thoroughly turned him inside out. As soon as he removed his pants and briefs, he was ready.
She smiled at him.
“And you, lass,” he said, his voice unsteady as he ran his hands down her waist, snagged her panties, and pulled them off.
The red curls covering her sex were wet with arousal, telling him that she was just as ready for him as he was for her. He joined her on the bed and began to coax her into climax, his fingers stroking her nub, his tongue stroking hers. Hot satisfaction raced through his blood as she arched and moaned at his rousing touch. He was torn between wanting to bring her to fruition at her own pace and wanting to drive his cock deeply into her—because then
the mating would be complete and they would be together, a mated pair always.
Calla was going to die—and she had never thought it would happen like this. Never had any man made her feel this special and loved. As much as she’d been fighting this attraction between them, worried it was too soon, she knew now he was perfect for her. She was so close to the edge, her pulse and his racing as if they were wolves running across a glen. She was so wrapped up in the way he was making her blood sizzle, his strokes undoing her. She tried to continue to knead his muscles, feel the delectable way they moved beneath her touch, and smell the delightful muskiness—hot wolf, man—making her all the more turned on.
And then she felt as though she was racing to the top of the highest peak in the Highlands when she cried out. Guthrie belatedly covered her mouth with his, but it was way too late. She was certain everyone in the castle had heard them.
She was still on her sex-filled high when Guthrie eased into her and began to thrust.
This was it. The mating Guthrie kept thinking he’d have, but that had never come to pass. He was so glad it hadn’t and that he and Calla were finally together. Being with her like this felt better than right. Her body arched against his as his mouth sought hers, and he penetrated her with his tongue. She moaned and he continued to surge deeply into her, stroking her tongue with his to build the sweet, painful anticipation. He could feel her tensing, her inner muscles clenching, and nearly smiled when she cried out again, his own release following. A feral growl of contentment, satisfaction, and fulfillment slipped from his throat.
She smiled up at him, then nipped at his shoulder. “Everyone in the whole castle heard me.”
“Well, not everyone. Most likely,” Guthrie said.
She frowned up at him.
“Probably most,” he said smiling, “but not all. I’m sure somebody was fast asleep.”
She groaned. He snuggled against her, kissing her cheek and wanting to do this again and again.