To Catch a Highlander: A Highland Erotic Romance by Krystal LaCroix Page B

maze of hallways we had taken, back to Gordan’s bedroom. On the way, Ewan said, “I don’t mind in the least who knows of my past if it means defeating that bastard, but what the devil…”
    “You’ll see!” I told him. “You too, James.” When we arrived back at Gordon’s chamber, I flung open the door and stepped aside as the men walked in.
    “Good heavens!” James said, and he leapt back out into the hallway and into Sarah’s arms, and they laughed together in relief. “I don’t know how you did that, but it’s priceless! The bastard is beaten!”
    “James has suffered along with me for a long time,” Sarah told us, as if we couldn’t tell.
    Ewan said nothing, but stood there staring at Gordan, who glared back at him from his spot on the floor, still helpless and writhing about uselessly, attempting to spit out my girdle and yell at us, but succeeding only in a perverse, inarticulate series of grunts.  Slowly Ewan’s expression turned from disbelief to fear, and finally to happiness. He strode, gingerly at first and then more confidently, near to our prisoner, and at last addressed him. “So, Gordan, my friend. You and Lord Douglas conspired to have me deliver his daughter to you, and I see I have succeeded in every way I could have imagined. You, of course, had no idea just what sort of woman she had grown to be; but I see you know full well now. Careful what you wish for, my friend, you may well get it!” Turning now to me, he said, “I trust you’re going to explain this all to me later, Brianna. I would not miss the story behind this for all the gold in the world!”.
    “Of course I am,” I said. “After we get away.”
    “And start over somewhere on our own. With my money from home.”
    “Which you’ll find a way to collect before he’ll have any chance of getting wo rd back to Father.”
    “Who wouldn’t be able to object anyway, as it would destroy his reputation if everyone learned the truth of that night in the barn.” At this, Gordan kicked and whined more intensely than ever, but once again to no avail.
    “And we live h appily ever after. With Sarah and James as our well-paid help.”
    “Indeed. Perhaps a nice house in Inverness, or even London if the fancy should strike us.”
    “But first,” I said, turning to Sarah and James , “can the two of you stand watch outside for a quarter of an hour or so?”
    “I should think so,” Sarah said, a knowing glint in her eye. Dutifully they stepped out into the hall, and I shut the door. Turning to Ewan, I said, “I am truly sorry for how he took Mother away from you when you were the man she lo ved. But do tell me, and I shall remind you that you know me well enough to have no fear of offending my ladylike sensibilities, exactly what did he mean by ‘what my mother was like’? Your account of the whole sordid tale suggested that he never succeeded in anything with her.”
    “I’m sure I have no idea what he meant, if indeed he meant anything,” Ewan declared, taking me in a fond embrace that once again roused Gordan, who remained helpless to do anything but writhe about on the floor. “He has had all these years to imagine life with her, after all, when in reality he could only succeed in keeping her from me, only to lose her to his dearest friend. If I had to guess, I could only assume he has imagined taking your mother to his bed so many times now that it seems real to him. But on my word of honour, I know of only the one occasion of which I have already told you that he was ever alone with her. And between my well-timed arrival and her own resolve to fight him off, he succeeded only in destroying first her dress and then her life. And mine, I thought at the time, but now I see he was only able to delay my finding true joy in life!” At that point he leaned in as if to kiss me, but I was already of a mind to do so and, standing on my toes, I met him rather more than halfway.
    We were silent in that moment of