BRODIE WOKE PAYTON just after eleven that evening. She’d fallen asleep against his chest almost an hour earlier, and now the movie was over. “Time for bed, love.”
“It can’t be.” Payton groaned.
“I’m afraid it is. Let’s get you back to your room.”
“No. I prefer you as my pillow.”
Brodie grinned and helped her from the sofa. “Not long and you can sleep on me forever.”
She smiled sleepily up at him and he kissed her before walking her down the hall to her bedroom. She hugged him and raised her chin for a kiss. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he said and kissed her again. She stepped inside and closed the door.
Brodie headed to the guest room and undressed for bed. Turning off the light, he didn’t guess that he’d be woken by a blood-curdling scream at two in the morning.
Rushing to Payton’s room, he found her sitting up in bed, her hand on her chest and her hair falling across her shoulders. “Pay?”
“Sorry,” she rasped. “It was just a dream.”
He sat on the edge of the mattress and cupped her cheeks. “What was it about?”
She frowned. “Honestly, I don’t remember.”
“Can I get you anything?”
“No. I’m fine, Brodie. I just need to rest.”
“Do you want me to stay until you fall asleep?”
She smiled. “I’m fine, love. Go back to bed.”
Brodie kissed her and headed back to the bedroom. He was in bed for all of ten minutes when his bedroom door squeaked open. He leaned up on his arm. “Hi.”
“Hi.” She wore a tight singlet that left little to the imagination and a pair of short shorts.
Brodie squeezed his eyes shut briefly. “You okay?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I can’t sleep.”
“And that’s my problem, because…?”
“Because you’re my mate and you are obligated to make me feel safe and happy.”
Chuckling, he held his hand out to her. “Come here my wee strumpet.”
She jumped onto the bed and climbed under the covers. “My heart keeps racing every time I close my eyes.”
He pulled her back against his chest. “Better?”
She nodded. “Much.”
Kissing her shoulder, he smiled. “You’ll use any excuse to get into my bed, won’t you, love?”
“You’ve figured me out.” Payton yawned. “Don’t tell anyone.”
“Fara að sofa,” he whispered. “Go to sleep.”
“I’m already asleep.”
“Ég elska þig.”
Payton sighed. “I love you too.”
He continued to whisper to her in Icelandic until he knew she was asleep and then he allowed himself to succumb to slumber as well.
* * *
The next morning, Payton woke to an empty bed. She climbed off the mattress and peeked into the hall. “Brodie?” she called.
“In the kitchen, love.”
She headed down the hall and found Brodie standing in front of the stove. “Are you making breakfast?”
He chuckled. “I’m trying to.” He kissed her quickly. “I was hoping to have this done so I could serve you in bed.”
Payton grinned. “That’s sweet, but honestly, I hate breakfast in bed.”
“You do? Me too.”
She grinned. “Way too messy.”
“Yes. Crumbs in the sheets doesn’t work for me.”
“Me neither.” She peered behind him. “Can I help?”
He shook his head. “No. You should get dressed while I’ll finish up here.”
“Do I really need to change right this moment?” She cocked her head. “I think you may need my expertise.”
He swore when the eggs started to smoke. He turned off the stove and dumped the burnt food into the sink. “Sweetheart, you and your poor excuse for pajamas are making it quite difficult for me to function.”
She smiled. “Oh, right. Okay. I’ll shower and get dressed.”
He kissed her again. “Thank you.”
After the surprisingly satisfying breakfast he’d manage to salvage, Brodie led Payton downstairs and into the garage. Payton slid into the car and waited for him to do the same. Brodie drove out of the garage and headed toward the inner city of Edinburgh.
“Are you sure you feel well?” Brodie asked.
Payton rolled her eyes. “I feel fine, love. The worst of the effects is over. Now I feel energized.”
“Good.” He linked his fingers with hers and smiled. “Less than two-hundred, sixty hours and we’ll be bound.”
“Oh, I’m aware.” Payton giggled. “You’ve given me a minute-by-minute countdown so far.”
Brodie chuckled. Payton glanced behind her, noticing a large SUV behind them.
“Yes, love, we have security,” he said, squeezing her hand. “Ronald’s at the wheel.”
“For how long?” she retorted.
He released her hand and shifted gears. “Let’s find out.”
“No, it’s fine. We don’t need to borrow trouble.”
“We could rent it for a bit.”
“Brodie!” she squealed as he peeled away from their tail.
He laughed and sped toward the city center. Payton gripped the handle, squeezing her eyes shut until he finally slowed to a safer speed.
“Almost there, love,” he said.
Payton’s heart fell when Brodie pulled the car into one of the worst parts of Edinburgh. The immediate area was rife with run-down tenements and drug dealers. “She lives all the way out here?”
“Aye.” He smiled gently.
“And you haven’t tried to ‘save’ her from her life?” she challenged.
“Oh, I’ve tried, love.” He sighed. “She won’t let me.”
“Wow.”
“Wow, indeed,” he grumbled.
Payton raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure she’s okay with meeting me?”
“Definitely. She’s recently met her mate and realized how wrong it was to ask me to keep this secret from mine. She’s expecting us.” He gave her a heart-stopping grin. “I love you. You know that, right?”
“I do know that.”
“Good,” he said and then climbed out of the car and opened her door.
She took his hand and let him pull her out of her seat and into his arms again, although, this time, the kiss was brief.
“What is that on your lips, love. It’s delicious.”
Payton chuckled. “Pineapple lip gloss. You like it, eh?”
He nodded as they made their way into the building. “I’d like you to wear that for our bonding.”
“Oh, really?”
“Aye.” He leaned closer to her. “It’s one of the many things I plan to lick off you.”
Payton cleared her throat as she felt the heat creep up her neck. He made her want to do wicked things, and she didn’t feel at all guilty about it.
Brodie led her into the run-down building. They had to walk up six flights of stairs because of the broken lift. “You okay?” he asked, knowing her aversion to walking.
She wrinkled her nose. “Peachy.”
He grinned and kissed her quickly. Arriving at a paint-chipped door, he knocked. It didn’t take long for Heather to answer. She was a stunning blonde, who looked almost identical to Brodie.
“Hi!” Heather hugged Brodie and then turned to Payton. “You must be Payton. He doesn’t ever stop talking about you. Come in, come in.”
Brodie was right, she was lovely. Brodie closed the door and laid his hand on Payton’s back.
“Mum’s just making tea. Would you like some?” Heather offered.
Payton and Brodie both nodded and then followed Heather to the kitchen. A woman who looked to be in her fifties was pulling teacups from a cupboard, but paused in her chore and smiled at the couple. “Hello, Brodie!” she said. “I’m so glad you could both make it.”
“Payton, this is Abela Smith.”
As soft hands gripped Payton’s, she shuddered and lost her breath for more than a few seconds. Images she couldn’t fully grasp flashed before her eyes and she had the strange sensation of a strong arm wrapping around her waist.
“Payton?” Brodie rasped.
Payton’s eyes flew open. “She’s your mother?”
“What?” Brodie snapped.
“No!” Heather’s face was suddenly stricken with terror and she jumped in front of her mother. “I think you should go.”
“One of you needs to start talking,” Brodie warned. “Now!”
“You didn’t know?” Payton asked Brodie.
He shook his head. “What the hell is going on?”
“I knew this was a bad idea,” Abela said.
“I wanted to know my brother, Mum,” Heather argued.
“Let’s sit down and talk,” Abela said, and led them back to the small, but clean, living room.
Brodie and Payton sat on the sofa across from the chairs that Heather and Abela settled in.
“It’s true. You are my son.” Abela’s hands shook and she clasped them in front of her. “Your father was my mate, Brodie. I conceived you the night he bound me.”
Brodie shot off the couch and started to pace. “I don’t understand.”
“I know.” Abela sighed. “In 1414, my family traveled to Reykjavík to sell our wares. We bred the sheep with the softest wool in the county,” she said proudly. “What none of us realized at the time, was that I was true mate to the king and that his current wife was as underhanded as she was evil. I was sheltered and naïve and didn’t realize that your father could be just as unkind. He seemed wonderful to me. When I gave birth to you, your father took you from me. He wanted you to be raised within the royal household. He told his wife you were an orphan.”
Payton felt the prick of tears.
Brodie scowled. “But my mother guessed that wasn’t true.”
“I believe so, yes. Your father said Alice was enraged, and then her affair was discovered and the order was given to sail to Scotland. Your father made sure I came. Not that I had much of a choice, I would have never been able to resist him. But when we came here and I found myself pregnant again, I knew I had to be stronger for Heather than I was for you.” She shook her head. “I’m so sorry, Brodie. I should have been stronger for you, too.”
Brodie closed his eyes and Payton reached her hand out to him, linking her fingers with his and pulling him down next to her.
“How did you manage to leave the king?” Payton asked. “Did he look for you?”
Abela nodded, a faraway look in her eyes. “He did. He died trying to find me. When Alice found out about me, she had him killed.”
This is why Abela had aged so quickly, Payton thought. She glanced at Brodie, sending up a silent prayer that he would be safe always.
“I wonder if that’s what he was going to tell us the day before he died,” Brodie mused. “He said he had some things to confess.”
Payton gave him what she hoped was a bolstering smile.
“I think so. Brodie, it’s imperative you keep this secret,” Abela warned. “Your mother’s reach is far and if she knows where I am, Heather and I aren’t safe, and it’s possible you aren’t either.”
“Her fate’s been sealed. She’ll be placed on a plane to Pohnpei in just a few weeks.”
“But she’s not there yet,” Abela said. “She has resources that you can’t even begin to fathom.”
Payton’s phone rang and she glanced at the screen. “It’s Alasdair.”
Brodie shook his head. “Don’t answer it.”
“It could be important,” she said as she took the call. “Hi, Ali.”
“Put Brodie on, please,” Alasdair demanded. “He’s not answering his phone.”
Payton held the phone out to Brodie.
“Good evening, Alasdair. No. Did I? Sorry about that. Yes, of course. Okay. ’Bye.” Brodie hung up the call and stood again. “Right. I want you both to pack your bags. You’re coming home with me.”
“Now?” Heather asked.
“Now.”
“I have work, love,” Abela said.
“So do I and my boss is a tyrant,” Heather chimed in.
Brodie’s mouth went up in a slight grin.
“Besides,” Heather added, “aren’t you bonding soon?”
Brodie shrugged. “I have a large home in Inverness. And as far as work goes, neither of you ever have to work again if you so desire. Just pack whatever you have of value or sentiment and I’ll have Alasdair pick up anything we can’t fit into your car tomorrow.”
“We can’t just leave our life,” Abela argued.
“Damn it, woman! You’re in danger! Have some sense of self-preservation.”
“Brodie.” Payton stood and laid her hand on his chest. “Remember the conversation we had about you scaring people?”
“Sorry.” He took a deep breath and settled his hand over hers. Focusing back on his mother and sister, he smiled. “I’d like to take you somewhere safe. Will you please let me?”
Heather glanced at her mother and then nodded. “Aye. Come on, Mum.”
“We’ll wait here,” Brodie said.
The ladies left the room and Brodie gathered Payton in his arms. She looped her hands around his neck and smiled up at him. “What did Ali want?”
“Nothing important.”
“This is a lot to process, Brodie. Are you sure you’re okay?”
He nodded. “I will be.”
“It explains quite a bit, doesn’t it? You and Fiona aren’t blood related, so that’s how it’s possible we’re mates.”
“And why I could never feel her emotions,” Brodie said. “It also explains why my mother hated me. Alice, I mean.”
“Brodie.” Payton stroked his cheek. “Even if she’d given birth to you, she couldn’t be considered a mother. How could someone be so cruel to someone like you?”
“Someone like me?”
“You have the softest heart of anyone I know. When we have babies, they’ll probably get away with murder, particularly if they look and love like you.”
“You see something other people don’t see,” he said.
“That’s not true. You’re more transparent than you think, you know.”
“Am I now?” He grinned and leaned down to kiss her, lifting her onto the back of the sofa. It took her a few seconds to react, kissing him back with enthusiasm. She broke the kiss with a groan and pushed him away as she jumped off the sofa and put distance between them.
“You are impossible, Brodie. We’re not alone, and you’ve just found out something shocking, but you still manage to kiss me senseless.”
Brodie gave her a cheeky grin. “It’s a gift. Plus, it calms me.”
“Oh, that’s what we’re calling it?”
“Aye. And when we are alone, I want a promise that we’ll do more of that.”
She waggled her finger at him. “Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Don’t look at me like that.”
He approached. “Oh-ho, am I suddenly irresistible to you?”
“Suddenly isn’t really the right word.” She raised her hands in surrender and stepped back again. “Don’t you dare come any closer.”
He paused and then appeared as though he was going to make a run for her, but the arrival of Heather and Abela into the room stopped him.
Payton gave him a triumphant smile and turned to help the ladies with their bags.
Brodie shook his head and took over the task of dealing with the luggage, leading the women downstairs. “Follow us to the flat and we’ll sort everything out there,” he said.
Arriving at the parking lot, Brodie swore as two black SUVs squealed to a stop in front of his car.
“Brodie,” Payton admonished. “I thought you were kidding when you said you were going to “lose” the tail.”
A red-faced Alasdair Ryan slid from one of the cars and slammed the door, letting out a rather colorful curse.
Brodie dropped his mother’s suitcase. “Sorry, Ali. I forgot to let Ronald know where I was going.”
“Forgot, my arse. I knew you were lying when I called. You may be my prince, but you’re taking me away from my queen, and she trumps you.”
Alasdair rarely dealt with Brodie’s protection, unless one of the other men “lost” him. Which was happening more often lately.
“Who’s with Sam?” Payton asked.
“Cole,” Alasdair answered, still glaring at Brodie. “Damn it, Brodie. Kade’s going to lose his shit.”
“Sorry, Ali,” Payton said. “He won’t do it again. Will you, Brodie?”
Brodie raised an eyebrow at his mate, but didn’t answer.
“Get in the car, Your Highness,” Alasdair said as he opened the back door.
Brodie nodded to his mother and sister. “I need to drive—”
“We’ll take your friends wherever they need to go,” he interrupted.
“Airport and then home,” Brodie said reluctantly.
“Shall I collect your things from the flat?” Alasdair asked Payton.
“Are we able to stop back there first?” she asked hopefully.
Alasdair glanced at Brodie, who nodded. “Aye.”
“I will take you and Payton.” Alasdair nodded to the other two men, standing by the Escalade. “Joe will take your friends and Karl will drive your car back.”
“Heather,” Heather said. “I’m Heather and this is me Mum, Abela.”
Alasdair raised an eyebrow. The family’s inner circle, which included Alasdair, had all heard Heather’s name, but obviously in the wrong context.
“It’s not what you think,” Payton rushed to say.
Alasdair shook his head. “None of my business.”
“Where’s Ronald?” Payton asked.
“I sacked him,” Alasdair grumbled.
Payton gasped. “What? Why?”
“Because I was able to lose him,” Brodie said. “Twice.”
Payton turned to Alasdair. “Oh, Ali, don’t fire the poor man. Brodie will do better.” She squeezed Brodie’s arm. “Won’t you?”
“No, probably not,” he quipped.
“Brodie.”
Brodie narrowed his eyes. “We’ll discuss it later.”
Payton frowned, but didn’t argue. There would be no point. He would simply shut down unless they were alone. She climbed into the car and secured her seatbelt as Brodie did the same.
Once back at the flat, Alasdair waited with the rest of the group in the cars while Brodie and Payton headed upstairs.
“Say yer piece, love,” Brodie said as he closed the apartment door.
“It’s not like I haven’t said it before, Brodie. It’s not fair that someone loses their job when you… or I, for that matter… do something reckless.”
Brodie followed her back to the bedroom. “He had one job, Payton. To keep you safe. He failed.”
“Because you purposely ditched him!”
He smiled without mirth. “I shouldn’t have been able to ditch him, love. That’s my point.”
“Did you make sure Alasdair gave him a decent severance?”
“Of course I did.”
She shook her head and folded a few items of clothing back into her suitcase. “I highly doubt we’re ever going to find someone who will never be able to lose you. Can’t you just be happy with who Ali hires? And maybe not try to get them all fired?”
“I need someone who’s better than me, Pay. I don’t know what to say to make you understand that.”
“No one will ever be better than you,” Payton retorted as she zipped up her bag. “I don’t know what to say to make you understand that. No one will love me enough to protect me the way you do, but I know they’ll do their best. Maybe you could just work with the people Ali puts his confidence in.”
“I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about Alasdair’s confidence, Payton. I want to know you’ll be safe if I’m not around.” Brodie lifted her bag and carried it back into the living room. Payton followed him.
“Fine.” She rubbed her temples. “I’m not going to keep arguing with you.”
“Headache?”
She nodded and Brodie dropped the suitcase, wrapping his large hands around her crown. Payton sighed as the headache disappeared, and smiled. “Thank you.”
He lifted her chin and kissed her quickly. “You are my priority. You understand that, right?”
She nodded.
“Okay, then. No more discussions about who our security is. I will decide.”
Payton chuckled sarcastically. “Aye, my liege.”
He slid his arms around her waist and lifted her off the ground. “You find that funny?”
She grinned and nodded. “Hilarious.”
Leaning in, he nuzzled her neck. “Hmm? What about this?”
Payton’s heart raced and she licked her lips as his mouth slid across her neck and hovered over her collar bone. “Brodie. We have to get downstairs.”
“I know,” he said and made his way back to her neck. “I’m just taking a little detour.”
She groaned and dropped her head back so he could get better access. “If you keep doing this, we’ll never make it out of the flat.”
“I’m well aware of that fact.” He hummed in appreciation. “I love your stink, baby.”
“Lovely.” She giggled. “You’re the best charmer in the world.”
He grinned and lowered her back to the floor. “I fully intend to keep you stocked with that perfume.”
“And pineapple lip gloss?”
“Absolutely.” He stroked her cheek. “I want you safe. You do understand that, right?” he repeated.
“Yes, Brodie. I understand.” She smiled. “I just wish you’d be a little less hard on people. No one can live up to your expectations.”
“Payton,” he admonished. “You don’t really believe that do you?”
“Sometimes.”
“I hope you’re not talking about you.” He frowned. “Because you can. And you do. Always.”
“No.” She sighed. “Not me. I know how you feel about me, but I worry that you’ll isolate yourself and I’ll be the only one left you trust.”
“Pay. I will always trust my brothers, and believe it or not, Niall.” He kissed her palm. “Even while I was away, they didn’t leave me alone, so I doubt they’d let me become a hermit. Neither will you, apparently.”
She nodded. “Just checking.”
“Come on, love, let’s get downstairs. I want you to have time to settle in before the binding.”
“Romantic as always,” she retorted with a chuckle, and followed him down to the car.