A Time & Place for Every Laird by Angeline Fortin (ebook reader TXT) 📕

Claire pictured Agent Jameson’s stern faceand furrowed brow again. Yes, there was a man who would bother.

Back in her car, Claireplugged the phone in to power it up and activated it. She wanted tocall her parents, friends … anyone to talk about what had happenedand perhaps get some advice, but Claire knew she couldn’t do sojust yet. A move like that would be just as incriminating asupdating her Twitter status with something like“Rescued a time-traveling Scotsman todayand it turns out that it might end up being a federal offense …#CraziestThingIveEverDone.”

Who would believe it besides Jameson?

With a wry grin, Claire instead dialedanother number by heart and waited while it rang.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Uncle Robert!” she said with forcedcheer. “It’s Claire.”

“Well, hey there, sweetheart!” RobertMitchell responded happily. “I didn’t recognize the number.”

Claire winced and improvised, “I’m on atemporary phone. Mine sort of died. Um, I was wondering if youwould mind if I stayed on Bainbridge this week. I have somevacation time and I thought …”

“We’re still down in Florida, you know,” hetold her. “We’d love to see you but we weren’t planning to be backfor a couple more weeks.”

“I know,” Claire said, then paused. “I justthought I might go there alone … by myself … for a little quiettime.”

Silence followed the request. “Don’t youthink you get enough quiet time, sweetheart? You know your parentsworry about you. I don’t think they’d like it if I encouraged suchsolitude.”

Claire mentally groaned. Yes, she knew howeveryone worried for her. They never hesitated to say so, or to tryto set her up on blind dates or have one of her brothers bring overa single friend when she visited. God, she loved them all butsometimes their overprotectiveness was hard to bear.

Robert took her silence to mean somethingentirely different, however. “Unless you weren’t planning on goingalone?”

Flexing her jaw indecisively, Claire decidedit wouldn’t hurt anyone to let that assumption play in her favor.“Do you mind?”

“No, no! Not at all! Notat all! I’m just glad to see you … well, you know,” he saideffusively. “Would you like me to have the maid come in for you orwould you rather be … well, alonealone?”

Heat crept up Claire’s cheeks at hisinnuendo. “I’ll be fine alone, Uncle Robert. Thank you so much. Uh,would you please, please not say anything to Dad, though? Iwouldn’t want him calling or just dropping by at an inopportunemoment.”

“My lips are sealed,” Robert promised,though Claire had few doubts that he would be telling Aunt Sue themoment they hung up. She could only hope that her hideaway would bea secret one for more than a few days.

After offering her thanks and promising tocall again soon, Claire hung up and headed back to her townhouse,stopping for a Diet Coke Big Gulp at the 7-Eleven, and sipped on itwhile she filled up her gas tank. Cast in the glow of a streetlamp, a policeman sat in his car across the street, a radar gun inhis hand as he targeted the oncoming traffic. Thoughtfully shewatched him as the pump was running, thinking about how easy itwould be to cross over and tell him her tale. Agent Jameson couldpick up Hugh at her house without her being there to watch. Justlike that, all her troubles would be gone.

No lying to her family, no risk ofimprisonment.

No half-naked Scotsman in her house.

And maybe that was at the root of her suddenunease. It wasn’t that Hugh was in her house. It was that he hadtaken off his shirt and bared that massive chest to her. It wasn’tthat she was afraid of what he might make her do. It was …

Driving the unwelcome thought away, Clairedrove home and parked in the garage once again before gathering upher grocery bags and taking them inside. Half hoping for and halfdreading an empty house, she found Hugh on the sofa, thumbingthrough a fitness magazine. Thankfully, he was fully dressed oncemore, his long dark hair curling damply around his ears. His eyesfollowed her from amid his hairy face as she put away the food.Clearly he was expecting some words from her, but Claire wassuddenly tired, drained by the emotional toll of the day’s rollercoaster of emotion.

Yes, there was much to say, much to do, butit would have to wait until she had a good night’s sleep behindher. Without a word, she gathered bedding and waved Hugh off thesofa to make him a bed there since her extra bedroom was filledwith office equipment. That done, she went to her room, closing thedoor behind her. Her hand hesitated on the lock only briefly beforeshe twisted it.

It was a pointless gesture. That little lockwouldn’t stop Hugh if he wanted to come in, and Claire was certainhe wouldn’t even try.

So why bother? Claire wondered at herself.To keep her in? Changing into her pajamas and washing her face, sheclimbed into bed, grateful to put the day behind her, but sleepwould not come. Roller coaster of emotion? More like amerry-go-round! The heartbreaking pity of the morning. The fear ofHugh grabbing her in the parking lot. The arguments and back topity and then sympathy before he challenged her once again. Up anddown, round and round, again and again.

But oddly thrilling nonetheless. Hugh hadloomed above her, scowling angrily – practically yelling at her –and yet she hadn’t been afraid. Instead she had felt … alive inthose moments. Her heart had pumped wildly while adrenaline hadsurged through her veins. If she hadn’t known better, Claire mighthave thought she had enjoyed the confrontation.

Even knowing that caution was the betterpart of valor, she had hardly felt any trepidation at all overhaving a warrior Scot in her living room.

Until Hugh had pulled off that damnedshirt.

Of course, now she realized that he had doneit only carelessly. An abrupt escape from her prying questions.Well, it had certainly shut her up, hadn’t it? She hadn’t knownwhat to say or where to look. As it was, the image of that vast,muscled chest was burned into her mind. Hugh wasn’t just a projectanymore or a benevolent mission. He was a