Page 28 of Savage Blooms
Nicola already knew her answer. But more importantly, she knew Adam, and more than anything, she knew that deep down, Adam wanted to be a hero.
“Say yes,” she said quietly.
Adam sighed and surrendered.
“I guess I don’t really need to be in the States to get my freelance jobs done. I brought my laptop with me, just in case, but Nicola, I know you’ve got to work and—”
“The shop will manage fine without me,” Nicola said. “And this is the perfect place to work on my book. Maybe I’ll actually get it finished while you help Eileen go through those family records.”
“So you’ll stay,” Eileen said, letting out a relieved breath.
Finley, who had been observing the conversation very quietly and very intently up until now, said: “If you stay, I’m sure Eileen will give you full run of the house and grounds. But you’ve got to promise to follow her rules, about the iron, about following our traditions, about keeping the good neighbors happy, all of it.”
Nicola felt an unexpected thrill at those words. She didn’t consider herself the kind of person who liked following rules as, well, a general rule. But something about doing exactly what Eileen said, beautiful brutal Eileen with herimpossibly dark eyes, made the prospect more appealing. Nicola would probably do anything Eileen asked when she looked at Nicola like she was now, like Nicola was a flower whose petals she wanted to pluck one by one.
“I promise,” Nicola said, a little breathlessly.
“I promise,” Adam said, like a pact.
“Thank Christ,” Eileen said, slapping the table. A bit of color was returning to her cheeks. “Finley, could you get the rest of their things from the car? They’ll be staying with us a while.”
“I’ll help,” Adam said.
Finley gave a curt nod, his gaze fixed on the table. Why couldn’t he look Adam in the eye?
“Ready when you are,” Finley said.
Adam and Finley pulled on their coats, talking in a low murmur about weather or cars or whatever else men who didn’t know each other well talked about, and then left Eileen and Nicola alone in the kitchen.
Eileen leaned across the table, smiling conspiratorially.
“It will be so nice to have another girl in the house again,” she said. “Especially one as clever as you.”
Nicola smiled back, feeling a bit like a songbird who had wandered into a snare. To her surprise, Nicola found that a dark and needy part of her liked that feeling, especially if Eileen was the one holding the other end of the rope.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Adam
Adam’s head swam with possibilities as he followed Finley out to the car. Yesterday he had been a college dropout on a quest to find a dead man’s bedtime story, and now he was the guest of an aristocrat who treated him like the knight who might be able to free her from her tower. And then there was the matter of Finley, the man who looked at Adam like a trespasser and at Nicola like a revelation. Adam distrusted him instinctively, for reasons that made his stomach knot up when he tried to make sense of them.
The ground squelched under Adam’s feet, rocky gravel knocked loose by the coagulating mud beneath.
Finley was silent for most of the short walk, keeping his shoulders hunched forward as though he were trying to physically ward off conversation. Adam took the opportunityto steal a glance him, sizing the other man up. Adam was considerably taller with a runner’s physique, but Finley was a bit brawnier, with the build that came from a lifetime of outdoor labor.
When Finley finally spoke, in a soft baritone that almost got snatched away by the wind, it took Adam by surprise.
“Did you know?”
“Know what?” Adam said, slowing his about-his-business stride just a touch.
“About the Kirkfoyles’ curse.”
“No.”
Finley made ahmphsound in his throat and stopped at the rental car, which still sat parked at the edge of the drive with its tires sunk into the mud.
“Eileen wasn’t joking about that rain,” Adam muttered, retrieving the key fob from his pocket.
