“No, but being her birth father does.”
“Does it?” I snapped angrily. “Because where was he before this? I am truly devastated for the man that he lost his wife and child. It’s horrifying … but Eilidh isn’t anybody’s replacement. If he wanted her, then he should have tried to claim her long before this. She’s claimed now. She’s a goddamn Adair, and she isn’t going anywhere.”
Thane suddenly broke his hold, but only to haul me against him so he could crush my mouth beneath his in a devastating, hungry kiss. I was breathless when he finally released me. Thane pressed his forehead to mine and said, his voice thick with emotion, “Thank you, mo leannan.”
His kiss, his words of gratitude, made me feel a thousand feet tall.
All I could think about over the next week was that damn DNA test. Thane had ordered the test online. It arrived the next day, and we’d surreptitiously collected the sample from Eilidh’s hair brush and sent it off, along with Thane’s. My worries about Austin were shoved to the back of my mind, and my plans to tell Thane pushed aside too. He already had too much on his plate. I didn’t want to bother him with this.
We had lots to distract us. Well, at least, lots to try to distract us. Thane was bemused by my Christmas décor shopping spree, but when I dressed the house (leaving the tree for the children to decorate), he was more than happy with the results—especially with how excited and content it made Eilidh and Lewis.
“It’s so beautiful!” Eilidh kept shouting as she wandered from room to room.
“I need to pay you back for all this. It must have cost a fortune,” Thane had said, grinning as Eilidh tried to make Lewis as delighted over every little ornament as she was.
“It’s my Christmas present to you all.” I shrugged, staring around at my handiwork.
“You should do it professionally. Lachlan’s decorator at Ardnoch couldn’t have done a better job.”
I smiled at the compliment, and even more so when he broke his own rule and pulled me into his side to kiss my temple in thanks.
That Wednesday was Robyn’s birthday, and we had everyone over for dinner, which the kids always loved. Eilidh adored making people laugh, and she did it without even trying, so nights like that pushed the memory of Sean’s attack further and further away. Robyn, much like her fiancé, was not a birthday kind of gal, so she confided she was glad Ardnoch’s annual Christmas ceilidh fell on the weekend of her birthday week, foiling anyone’s plans to do anything more than a dinner.
The ceilidh was at the Gloaming that Saturday night. Robyn had insisted I needed to experience it. As worried as Thane was about the results of the paternity test, I knew he wasn’t in the mood for celebrating, so I told him to stay home with the children. However, he wanted to escort me to my first ceilidh and Eredine volunteered to babysit, along with two of Lachlan’s security guys. They sat outside in their car so as not to freak out the kids.
Thane didn’t want to drop security now that Sean had made his intentions clear. Lachlan, enraged as I’d ever seen when Thane told him about the paternity test, had kept security on the children. He’d also vowed to “crush any fucker who tries to mess with this family.” Not gonna lie, it was hot. A completely inappropriate thought considering the subject matter, and that he’s my sister’s fiancé and my lover’s brother, but I couldn’t deny it.
As for the Christmas ceilidh, I didn’t know how to feel about it. Robyn had waxed lyrical about her first one (I later found out that was where she and Lachlan had sex, so no wonder she had fond memories). I think if I’d been drunker and knew the dance steps, I might have enjoyed it more. The beginning was enjoyable when everyone was sober and willing to teach me the folk dances. But the drunker everyone got, the wilder it got, and the more of a crush it became. It was sweaty and crowded; the accordion started to grate on my nerves after a while, and I took an elbow to the temple about five times.
On the plus side, Thane was in a kilt. As were Lachlan and Mac and all the men. But only Thane made my belly flip at the sight of him in his traditional clothing.
I decided after seeing all the village men in kilts that a kilt was like a suit. Some guys wore it, and other guys were worn by it. And Thane could wear a kilt.
All three of the men wore a matching kilts of dark green plaid with red, black, and white accents that Thane explained was the Sutherland tartan. While Clan Adair was actually from the Lowlands of Scotland, their particular offshoot of the Adairs had migrated to the north and broken away from the clan. They became more involved in the politics of Clan Sutherland, and their ancestors had opted to adopt the Sutherland tartan in lieu of the tartan worn by Clan Adair. Which was Maxwell tartan. Confusingly.
Thane tried to explain about the clans and allies and dependents but I lost track.
His long story shortened was that his family wore Sutherland tartan in their traditional attire. And while Mac wore a black suit jacket, matching waistcoat, and white shirt, Thane and Lachlan’s kilt jackets and waistcoats were a dark gray. They wore matching sporrans over their kilts, long knee socks that shouldn’t have been hot but really showed off Thane’s muscled calves, and dress shoes with laces that wrapped around said calves.
So Thane was sexy as hell and definitely fun to look at, especially when he took off the jacket later on.
Also, he got to hold me in public for the dances. He made me laugh, and I made him laugh as I cursed the Gloaming’s owner who clapped in my face and shouted the steps like a drill sergeant.
We’d commandeered a round table at the back of the large hall. Mac, Arro, Lachlan, Robyn, Thane, and me. And when I wasn’t being hauled around the dance floor, I sat at a table laughing and joking with Robyn’s other family, feeling like maybe—just maybe—they were my family too.
Later when we got home, Thane insisted that Eredine sleep in the annex rather than drive all the way back to her cabin, but she refused. I worried about her. Robyn did too. She said that since Lucy, Eredine seemed like she was slipping further away. I’d been so consumed with my own mess, with Thane’s, with my feelings for him, that I hadn’t given her enough of my time. I vowed when things calmed down a bit to do that, to make an effort, to bulldoze where Robyn refused to bulldoze because it wasn’t in her nature to push people. Other than me.
It was definitely in my nature. And sometimes, people needed it.
Lachlan’s security guys promised to escort Eredine home, and with the kids asleep long ago, Thane dragged me into his room. He shoved me toward the bed. A little rough, a lot exciting. “I’ve wanted to kiss and lick and suck every inch of you from the moment you walked downstairs in this bloody dress,” he growled.
To be fair, I had bought it to drive him crazy.
It was a departure from my usual preppy style. I’d chosen a calf-length, silk jersey blood-red dress that had a demure neckline but sculpted (like, painted on!) to my body. It left very little to the imagination, despite very little skin showing. However, it was probably one reason I didn’t enjoy the ceilidh dancing so much because I couldn’t stretch my damn legs in it.
“And I’ve wanted to put my hand up your kilt since I came downstairs.”
Thane grinned wolfishly as he coasted his hands over my ass. “Nothing stopping you now.”