Page 16 of The Castle of Carnal Desires

I walked to the swing, hiking up my skirt a little, so when I sat down, putting my feet in the straps, they got a good flash of my black lace panties. Harris growled, and Derek strode from the door, his feet eating up the distance between us.

Then there was a god-awful screeching noise. I sprung out of the swing. “What the hell is that?” I yelled to be heard over what I recognized as a siren.

“It's the security alarm. It was installed yesterday,” Harris yelled back as he pulled out his phone and opened an app. “Someone opened the back, ground floor window.”

We raced down the hallway to the ground floor. Derek turned. “Stay here, Aili. We will go check.”

I scoffed and went to the closet, grabbing out the nine-iron golf club. Derek raised an eyebrow at me. I shrugged. “It’s a sample. People might want to play golf.” In truth, I bought it after the fox incident. It gave me a little reassurance.

We raced toward the back of the house, just reaching the door when there was a small explosion, fire and glass raining down on the backyard. Derek shoved me behind him as we ran out into the yard.

My heart slammed in my throat at the smell of burning gasoline. I looked around in the darkness trying to make sense of what I was seeing. A sniveling man lay on the ground, muttering something I couldn't understand, his hands burned. Derek strode over to him, looking at his hands while Harris looked like he might have wanted to lay a boot to his temple. Another Molotov cocktail. The culprit from the previous attacks.

“Hello, lass,” a voice said from behind me.

I whipped around to see Durell. I wanted to run into his arms, but he was incorporeal, and I’d just run straight through him. Instead I just stood there and cried. From built up adrenaline, and from relief.

“Thank god you're okay. I thought I’d killed you, or damned you, or something,” I sniffed and Harris handed me his handkerchief. I wiped at my eyes.

“Aye, I’m fine. It drains me to be corporeal for so long and expend so much, er, energy.” His eyes flicked to Derek and Harris.

“Don’t worry. They know.” Everyone looked uncomfortable for a moment.

Durell nodded. “I had to spend a bit of time in the ether, recollecting my strength to walk the visible plain. I could hear you calling me, but I could nae reach yea.” He sounded tormented.

I stood in front of him and smiled. “It doesn't matter now. All that matters is that you're back.”

He smiled back and then shifted his eyes to the burned man on the lawn. “I caught him trying to throw that bottle into the morning room,” he said, his voice turning cold and he looked a little scary, actually. Not the kind of man I would want to face in battle, anyway.

The whir of sirens in the background heralded the police coming down the drive. The security company must have called them when we didn't call in. I wanted to wrap my arms around Durell and hold him to me, never letting him go, but it wasn't possibility. “You better hide yourself before they arrive,” I told him, although I hated losing sight of him again. He turned invisible and I felt the essence of him wrap around me, like a slightly cool hug.

I turned to greet the police officers as they walked around the building, standing side by side with Harris.

After spending an hour down at the police station giving my statement, I learned the man who had tried to burn down Dun Durell was none other than Eugenie Sinclair's eldest son, Alan. A handsome and personable man, he hid his sociopathic tendencies behind a congenial mask. The inspector told me his lawyer would probably put in an insanity plea. Apparently, he kept going on and on about ghosts. I found it hard to muster any sympathy for the man. When the inspector had asked me about it, I raised an eyebrow and looked incredulous.

I was desperate to get home to Durell, to reassure myself he was back. He was standing in the doorway when we got back, silhouetted by the chandelier in the foyer. Actually, I couldn't see through him at all. He was here. Really, truly here. I barreled out of the car before Harris had brought it to a complete stop and raced up the stairs.

He wrapped me in warm, strong arms, the weave of his rough shirt itching my cheek. “You’re still here.”

“Aye Lass, I haunt the place, where else would I be?” He teased.

I drew back and scowled at him. “You scared me. I thought I’d lost you.”

“I heard what ye said to young McTavish. About havin’ feelings for me.” I shrugged softly. It was what it was. “I have developed a fondness for yea too, which is both a blessin’ and a curse. I’ve been given a second chance at the love of a good woman, and that’s something I will gladly take. But things are…”

“Complicated?” Derek supplied, walking up behind me.

“Ay, complicated. I can never take ye out to dinner. I can never leave this castle. When ye go back to the Americas, I cannae come with ye. It is best that you pursue what ye have with young McTavish. Whichever ye may choose.”

Tears began to stream down my face again. I’d just gotten him back and I was losing him again. I shook my head furiously.

“No. There has to be another way.” I didn't want to choose, not between him, and not between Derek and Harris.

Derek wrapped his arm around my shoulders. “Tis okay, Aili. Perhaps there is another way.” He looked at Durell. “I cannae go back to the U.S with her either. My practice is here, and I’ve been offered the opportunity to lecture at Inverness college. But perhaps, between the three of us, Aili might find a reason to stay? Maybe manage the hotel herself? I know it’s a lot to ask, Aili, especially considering the rough time ye’ve had in the last week. But ye’ve built something with the townspeople here, and Scotland is in your blood. I want to pursue my feelings for ye, and if I have to share ye with the ghost and my twin to do that, well, that’s okay with me.”

“Aye, me too,” Harris echoed, and I felt like I was having a really vivid dream, because three guys didn't agree to just share one woman in reality. In reality, there was jealousy and posturing and hurt feelings.

I stood before them and gaped. Could I do that? Move my entire life to Scotland? There was no worry on the work front, Ellengrew would happily allow me to be manager on his pet project. I had a feeling he would try to persuade me to stay on anyway, after the work was done. But what about my Gran, and my parents? My friends? I looked between the three men, so different in personality, but each so perfect for me, in their own way. I could never tell anyone about Durell of course, they’d lock me up, but if Derek and Harris were okay with it, I could have my cake and eat it too. What would the townsfolk say? Eugenie Sinclair would have a fit if she knew I'd shacked up here permanently with both McTavish twins. The idea made me smile.

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