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“Put me down, right now.” Claire thumped Grunt’s back. She was getting nowhere. “I’m getting sick of this Hong Kong attitude. Megan’s right; you can’t pick me up and cart me around like this. Put me back in the pub.”
“No.” His shoulders shook, making her even dizzier. “And you mean King Kong. You’re blitzed, babe.”
Hong Kong, King Kong—who the hell cared? He was missing the point. That he was abducting someone. Again. That crap was not on. She puffed her hair out of her eyes. Being upside down was beginning to make her feel nauseated.
“Put me down or I’m going to vomit all over your back. I’m serious. I feel sick.”
He swung her up and put her on her feet in front of him. Claire felt the world spin. She sank down to sit on the pavement, legs folding under her. Her hands held her head on tight. The cold concrete seeped right through her jeans and into her bones, but at least the nausea passed.
Grunt crouched down beside her. He tucked her hair behind her ear.
“Go away. We’re not dating. I don’t want to be around you.”
“Sure you do. You’re mine,” he said.
Claire groaned. Too much wine. She never drank wine. She wasn’t much of a drinker at all. Sure, she’d tried pretty much everything as soon as she’d become legal at eighteen, but she didn’t like any of it. Now and then she’d have a cold beer, but that was about it. Her head ached; her stomach swirled. She definitely shouldn’t have touched the wine. It was Grunt’s fault. All his fault.
“I’m not yours,” she said.
“Baby, we’re gonna talk this through when you’ve sobered up. If you hear me out and still want me to go, I’ll go. Until then, you’re still mine.”
“No I’m not.” She looked up at him, fury coursing through her. “You kidnapped Jena. Snatched her from outside her work. Scared her. Terrified Matt. What kind of man are you? What happened to the honour of a marine? This wasn’t honourable, Grunt, it was despicable. I was right when I said we don’t know each other. You might tell me who you are but your actions speak louder than anything you have to say. An honourable person doesn’t snatch people off the street. A good man wouldn’t have kidnapped my brother’s girlfriend. You said you’d never hurt a woman and then you did. What does that make you? How can I trust you? Take yourself back to America. This thing between us is over.”
Grunt ran his hand over his face. “I had to take Jena, otherwise Frank would have done something without me and Joe there to watch him. The only thing standing between Jena and Frank going nuts was us.”
“What about telling my brother? You know, the cop? Maybe he would have come up with a smarter plan.”
“What could he have done? Nothing. Frank would just have hidden and taken Jena anyway. Trust me, you don’t want Frank around Jena without someone watching her back.”
“Trust you?” Claire glared at him. “Did you just say trust you? Are you insane? Megan warned me about this. She warned me about you. She said you had stalker tendencies, that you would hurt me, that you couldn’t be trusted. She was right. You work for the mob.”
“I don’t work for the mob. I told you this already. I took one job with Frank Di Marco. He isn’t even full mob.”
“No, he’s just a criminal who wants to hurt Jena.” Claire struggled to her feet. “I’m finished with this talk. I’m going home. Alone.”
She turned to stalk away from him, but the ground was moving and she wobbled on her heels. Grunt’s arm wound around her waist.
“You’re gonna get hurt. Let me take you home.”
“No.”
“Don’t be stubborn. I’m only taking you home. We’ll talk more tomorrow.”
“No. We really won’t.”
Grunt grunted and picked Claire up, as though she weighed no more than the preschoolers she taught.
“Put me down.”
“No.”
Fine, she fumed. Let him go all He-Man. She didn’t care. She sat stiffly in his arms as he carried her the short distance up the high street to her house. Exhaustion overcame Claire and she found she was rapidly past caring about his manhandling of her. Slowly, her muscles eased as his warmth overwhelmed her senses. It was his damn scent that undermined her anger. It made her want to curl into him and sleep.
She rested her cheek on his shoulder, tucking her face into his neck, and did what she needed to do. She went to sleep.
The doc arrived at the pub, took one look at the room and burst out laughing. Soon after he left in an ambulance with Kirsty’s mom. As they wheeled her away, Margaret was still reassuring everyone present that the break wouldn’t interfere with her knitting. Kirsty had been called and went to the hospital with her mom. Lake stuck around to ferry the other women home. Abby went to the castle to spend the night. She wanted to be near Katy and was in no state to take her daughter home. That left Jena, a room full of damaged furniture, a disgruntled business owner and the town’s only cop.
Dougal’s frown looked wrong on his face. It was like seeing Santa grumpy. It didn’t work. “Come in tomorrow; we’ll have a wee chat,” he told Jena.
Yeah, that was going to be a blast. She nodded solemnly and let Matt pull her to her feet. He wrapped a hand around her upper arm and led her to the door. People gave her cheery waves and called out, telling her they’d enjoyed her dancing. She smiled and waved back.
“Get in, princess.” Matt opened the passenger door of his car.
Jena did as she was told, mainly because she wanted to go home and this was the easiest way.
“Abby said I can teach dance classes in her barn,” she told Matt with a grin when he climbed in beside her.
He mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like, “God help us all.”
“The women are coming round to help clear out the house this week.” She bounced around on the spot at the thought of all that help. “Margaret said she has some furniture she doesn’t need. Shona’s got a fridge-freezer she doesn’t use. And Magenta’s mum has a cooker I can have. They’re all in good condition and way more modern than the stuff I’ve got.” She poked him in the arm as she grinned widely at him. “And they don’t want any money for them. How cool is that?”
“Very cool.” Matt’s lipped twitched, as though he didn’t know whether to smile or not.
“It’s amazing, Matt. People are treating me like I belong here.”
His eyes softened as he smiled at her. “You do belong here, princess.”
She relaxed back in her seat with a huge sigh. “Everything might just turn out okay. If I can teach dance in Abby’s barn then I can make some money. I’m already working for the materials to fix the house, so that’s covered. With you and the Knit or Die crew helping with the renovation, I should have somewhere decent to live in no time at all. What’s that saying? Everything’s coming up roses?” She thought about it. “You plant roses in manure, right? Because if that’s what it means, it’s dead on.”
Matt chuckled. His fingers wound through hers and he rested their joined hands on his thigh. “No more dancing on tables, though, okay?”
“Naw, the tables can’t handle it.”
It was warm in the car, and Jena felt her eyes begin to droop. “What’s happening with Frank?”
Matt squeezed her hand. “He’s gone, princess. He’s being escorted to Glasgow Airport as we speak.”
“Freaking roses all round,” Jena said.
And she fell asleep listening to Matt’s chuckle.
Claire woke up to find Grunt sitting in the armchair in the corner of her bedroom watching her. Well, that wasn’t creepy at all. She sat up, pulling the pink blanket up to her neck as she did so. Grunt just watched her. His expression serious. His eyes dark. Claire’s stomach flipped, but she put it down to having a hangover.
“Aspirin and water.” He pointed to the white table beside her bed.
“Why are you here, Grunt?” She didn’t move to fetch the aspirin. Although she probably should have. She felt like someone had taken her brain out of her head and played basketball with it before returning it.
Grunt cocked an eyebrow at her using his nickname instead of calling him Samuel. He ran a hand over his short hair and sighed heavily.
“I screwed this up.”
Claire felt the air in the room thicken. He trapped her in place with his gaze.
“I shoulda asked you out like a normal guy. Took you for a meal. Told you how pretty you are. Let you get to know me slow like.” He leaned forward until he rested his forearms on his knees. “See, it’s like this, Claire. I’m nowhere near normal. When I saw you, it hit me like a freight train. All I could think was I had to have you and I had to be fast about it, before someone else beat me to it.”
Blood pounded through Claire’s veins, making her head hurt even more.
“You’re right,” Grunt said. “We don’t know each other. Your experience of me isn’t how I am, usually. I don’t grab women off the streets shouting ‘mine’ like an idiot. I don’t kidnap women for guys who are skirting the law. I haven’t done anything normal since I met you.” His beautiful eyes were so sad. It made Claire ache. “Here’s the thing. I don’t know how to fix this without doing more of the same. I want to pick you up, run away with you and keep you locked up until you admit you’re mine.” He scoffed. “And yeah, I know a psychiatrist would have a field day with that.”
He stood up, filling the room with his presence. Making her pink and white décor seem childish. Making her feel like she didn’t belong.
“I can’t give up on you.” He gave her a little smile. It broke her heart. “I can’t walk away. I know we’d be great together. I don’t know how I know this, but I do. I’m gonna work hard at not throwing myself at you, but I am sticking around. I want there to be an us. I want you. Only you.” He stepped towards the door. “Call if you need me. The ball’s in your court.”
Claire couldn’t take her eyes from him. The beautiful, overwhelming man. In another time, another age, he would have been a warrior. A man who did grab women from the street and hide them in his castle. A man who would take because he didn’t know how to ask. But they weren’t living in that time. And Claire didn’t know if she had the strength to deal with a man like that. A man who could swallow a person whole with the force of his will.
“I can change. For you, I can change.” His words were a whisper.
He opened the door, stepped out and closed it quietly behind him. Leaving Claire achingly alone in her childish room.