I plan on flirting shamelessly, so it's a good thing you'll be up here."
"Flirt?"
"Naturally, I have to distract him while he's playing, and what better way than with a casual flirtation?"
"Distract him some other way!"
"What other way?"
"I don't know.You could...you could drop something on him." Red squinted thoughtfully. "Yes! Scald him with tea."
"During a game? I want him to finish playing, not leap up and run from the room."
"Then think of something else.
Stop looking as if you'd like to toss me from the window. Give me a hug, and go on to your dinner guest.
Karen HawkinsFurthermore, I refuse to be affected by these cheap theatrics!" She gestured to the boiling sky.
"Gor!" Shelton covered his eyes with one hand.
Dougal instantly went from mad to furious, and the clouds rumbled to life. Yet in that instant, he realized that this tiny little bit of a woman had just reduced centuries of a dramatic and secretive curse to "cheap theatrics." He didn't know whether to rage or laugh, but somehow, looking up into her amazing blue eyes, laughter was beginning to win.
"Furthermore," she continued in high dudgeon, "I won't be cowed by a few damned drops of rain!"
Shelton groaned loudly. "Law,here it comes now."
But it didn't. Instead, a chuckle rippled through Dougal.
Sophia appeared outraged. "Are you laughing at me?"
"No,sweetheart. I'm laughing at us. We cannot even ride from the field to the house without racing. We're doomed to challenge each other forever,and if we don't have a care, my temper will try the two of us like sausages over a spit."
Her lips quivered in response. "I don't particularly care for that image."
"I haven't time for elegance, my love. It is getting ready to rain, so sausages are all you'll get.
I'm not blind,you know." His gaze flicked down to her breasts, interestingly encased in her tight riding habit. "I can see very well."
Her cheeks flushed, and she tried to pull away again.
Behind Dougal came a bang, like the sound of a large door slamming, and Sophia's eyes widened. "Angus, no!" she cried.
"Ye misbegotten bounder!" Angus roared.
Dougal turned just in time to see a huge fist hit him squarely in the eye.
Thanks to Sophia, who'd jumped up and clung tightly to Angus's huge arm, the punch was softened. Otherwise, not only would it have knocked Dougal down (which it did), and not only would it have sent the world dark (which it did), and not only would it have blackened his eye (which it did), but it also might have killed him. Instead, Angus's slowed fist merely smashed into Dougal's face, spun him around, and laid him out as neatly as a piece of firewood.
There's no more jam to be had."
"Or bread?" Dougal asked, knowing what the answer would be.
"Nor bread," Angus said with a smirk.
Dougal flicked his hand in the butler's direction. "Then you may go."
Angus's smile faded, and he glared at Dougal until Sophia said softly, "Angus, that will be all."
The buter scowled but obediently tromped from the room.
"He loves me," Dougal said simply.
Sophia's lips twitched. "I doubt that."
"No,no,I'm certain of it.He's constantly staring at me and cannot seem to stay away.But the most telling symptom is the way he gets upset when I pay attention to another woman.
Every time they lost their tempers, storms would gather."
"That could be a boon in dry weather.
Does the curse affect your entire family in the same way?"
"There are some slight variations. When my brother Gregor grows angry, it tends to hail and snow."
"He has a cold disposition?
Though he may dally with loose women, he's been raised a gentleman. He would never touch me unless I gave him permission." He might use incredibly powerful seduction tactics, but that was her problem, not Angus's.
"Aye," Mary said. "Don't ye remember how the miss took care o' the squire's son when he tried to kiss her in the garden?" She beamed at Sophia. "That was well done."
Sophia grinned. "He limped for a week"
Angus grunted. "The squire's son isn't half the man this one is. This is no boy ye're dealin' with here. He's a man's man;ye can see it in his eyes."
She placed a hand on his arm. "Angus, if it will make you feel better, I promise to call for help if MacLean so much as looks askance at me.
Bloody hell, what did he hit me with? An anvil?"
"His fist."
"You should put that fool in a bear-baiting pit. You'd make a fortune." Dougal struggled to rise.
Sophia helped him on one side, Mary slipping under his other arm.
The wind swirled a bit harder, sending dust into the air.
"Heavens!" Mary said, glancing over their heads at the sky. "That's the third thunderhead as has passed this way today."
Sophia turned. A huge bank of thunderclouds hung overhead, roiling as if alive.
"We should get inside," she said uneasily.
Dougal didn't even glance at the clouds as he held a hand over his bruised eye and cheek. "Bloody hell, I can barely see.
I'll stir up the fire in the stove in the tack room. If ye're committed to this folly, then ye'll be wanting somethin' to eat before ye return to the house."
Where the delectable Sophia was probably in the kitchen at this very moment, ruining his dinner. Despite his throbbing eye, Dougal reluctantly grinned. "You're right, I shall want my dinner first. And a bath."
"Which would be cold if ye got it in the houes, I suppose?"
"And filled with itcing powder, as well, if they think of it."
"I'm glad we'll be leavin' soon," Shelton said grumpily.
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