Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 112762 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112762 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
I lowered to my haunches, and Callie turned to me. “Want up?” I patted my shoulders. Perhaps ten was too old to be put on my shoulders, but Callie didn’t seem to think so. She nodded eagerly, and I realized she’d probably never received the fatherly offer before.
Another reason to hate Andros. I helped her climb up. Holding her light weight securely, I raised to my feet, and I heard her giggle with excitement. “I can see everything up here!”
People in front of us turned to smile at her, and I glanced at Sloane.
A hard lump formed in my throat at the utter adoration in her eyes.
Fuck, I’d give anything to make her look at me like that for the rest of our lives.
I was in trouble.
Brodan had ripped the piss out of me days before because he, too, knew I was in trouble. He knew because he’d been where I was only months ago.
A week.
It had just been a week since Sloane and I made it official. Dating seemed like too tame a word. Like something teenagers did. It wasn’t an easy transition. It chafed a wee bit. Not enough to make me turn back on my word to give it a shot.
And the fear was worth it to have her look at me like that.
Callie rested her hands on my head, and my lips twitched as her wee fingers unconsciously curled into my hair as the pipes swelled. Another glance at Sloane, and I noted the pipe’s song had captivated her too. People either loved or hated the bagpipes. I was in the former camp. It was hard to explain, but rarely anything made me feel more patriotic than those damn mournful wails.
Seeing and feeling Sloane’s and Callie’s emotion as they listened filled me with pride.
Seeing them enjoy anything was worth everything.
Including journeying south with them to Edinburgh for the weekend. Sloane had taken some persuading since the trip was my treat, but I felt they needed a change of scenery. Unable to let go of the feeling that the threat toward them wasn’t over, I hadn’t eased up on their protection. Andros wasn’t talking. He’d refused, which meant I had no other insight into his motives other than what he’d told Sloane. But it felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle, and even with Andros behind bars, I wasn’t ready to let my guard down.
This was my compromise. Showing them a bit of Scotland they hadn’t seen before. And for Callie’s sake, Sloane had agreed to the trip.
When the piper finished, Sloane waited her turn to drop some coins on our behalf at his feet. I patted Callie’s leg. “You want to stay up there?”
“Can I?” She grinned down at me.
Laughter rumbled in my chest. “Aye, why not.”
“Everything is so different up here, Mom. Walker is really tall.”
Sloane chuckled as she returned to our side and then her eyes widened ever so slightly at my hair.
“What?” I asked, suddenly worried.
She pressed her lips together like she was struggling not to laugh as she reached up to run her fingers through it. Fixing it, I realized. Her perfume tickled my senses as her breasts brushed against my arm and I forced myself not to think about last night.
We had adjoining rooms at the Scotsman Hotel, Callie and Sloane in one, me in the other. But last night, once Callie was asleep, Sloane crept into my room. I’d woken up to her hands and mouth on me, and we’d spent a couple of hours demonstrating how difficult it was to come hard without making a sound.
“Baby girl,” Sloane addressed Callie as she brushed her fingers down my cheek. “You can stay up there so long as you don’t hold on to Walker’s hair like a horse’s bridle.”
“Oops, sorry, Walker.” She didn’t sound sorry in the least.
I shared an amused glance with her mum and walked toward the gardens. We’d arrived yesterday morning and visited Edinburgh Castle first because it was high on the to-do list. I’d then taken them on a walk up Calton Hill. By that point, they were hungry and tired, so we found a wee burger place that came recommended and took Callie back to the hotel.
Today, the girls wanted to visit the newly opened Christmas market in the gardens. It was always a bit of a crush, but we walked around the stalls for an hour or so. Sloane and Callie picked up some trinkets for friends back home and I bought them a new Christmas bauble they loved for their tree. The smell of churros was too much for Callie and we’d grabbed a few of those, Callie eating hers with hot chocolate while Sloane and I tried the mulled wine.
Once we’d seen the market, we spent some time walking around Old Town, stopping into every boutique on Cockburn and Victoria Street. Sloane commented on my patience, but I didn’t mind. My job for the last decade had been guarding wealthy people, and wealthy people liked to shop.