Page 15 of Utterly Dauntless (Return to Culloden Moor #3)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I n the most cowardly act he remembered performing in either of his lives, Grey stuck his head back in the kitchen to let them all know the plane would be ready at ten in the morning, and that he'd be back with pastries at nine. Then he fled.
If Aries chased after him, not that she would, he didn't look back to see.
In the morning, Grey arrived at Campbell’s to collect the two men. Carson was dressed in his Sunday best, and since Wallace looked wearier than his charge, Grey thanked him and sent him home. He'd done enough. Wallace only agreed after he arranged for Duncan Houser to replace him.
Grey was almost surprised to find Aries hadn't fled in the night. Instinct had tried to convince him to sit on the house and watch for her escape so he could follow her. But his need for sleep had overridden that instinct for once.
She had a closet of clothes at Peg's house, so she was able to change and pack a bag. When Tristan found out they were headed to Glasgow, he called and promised to bring her other things to her. He just waited for an address.
Peg's home was as quiet as the morning after a bender. Aries sported a pair of sunglasses. She smelled freshly laundered when he dared pass her in the kitchen, and he fought hard not to reach out and touch her when the pull to do so felt as if there were powerful magnets inside them both. His only consolation was when he noticed her pause and lean ever so slightly his way.
Then the moment was gone.
Appetites on the whole were enough to polish off the better part of two boxes of pastries before they loaded into the cars. Aries climbed into McHenish's vehicle, and when Grey didn’t complain, he earned a few quizzical glances from his friends, though they held their tongues.
Five Highlanders, one traumatized woman, and her pardoned kidnapper arrived at a small hangar where a private jet and pilot were waiting. Due to the dim light inside their new transportation, Aries removed her glasses. Her eyes were red, but when Wyndham asked if she'd slept at all, she claimed she had.
Grey had slept fine as well...from about four in the morning onward, when his body just couldn't stand to listen to his tortured thoughts another minute. The mean devil on his shoulder hoped she'd been as tormented by memories and longing as he, but the angel on his other shoulder had nothing but pity for her—especially considering what he planned next.
By the time they reached altitude, Aries was slumped in her seat across the aisle, and he wished the flight would be longer than just twenty minutes for her sake. Shug looked over his shoulder, noted the empty seat beside him, then came back to settle into it. From the look of him, he had concerns, and he didn't mince words.
"I couldn't help but notice the bag ye loaded on the plane."
Most of them had been onboard when Grey had taken the large, soft-side duffel out of the boot and handed it off to the crew. But Shug Buchanan never missed much.
"Aye. What of it?"
"Weel," the man glanced at Aries' sleeping form and lowered his voice even further. "I couldnae help but notice the size of it."
Grey shook his head. "It's not but half full."
"It's not what's in it that worries me. It's what—or who—might fit in it at the end of the day..." He bobbed his brows a few times, then lowered them and studied Grey's eyes.
Grey barked out a laugh, then took pity on the man. "I swear, on the souls of everyone I ever held dear, that no one will be put in that bag."
The big Highlander gave a single nod, satisfied. Then he patted Grey's arm and said, "Good man," before returning to his original seat where he could spread out to his heart's desire.
Grey regretted the fact that he couldn't share his plan with his fellows. After all, they had answered his beck and call without question, ready to do whatever he asked. But it wasn't a plan he could fully articulate as yet, and even if he could, he couldn't risk Aries getting wind of it.
With her asleep, he unabashedly took in every detail. Maybe the redness around her eyes wasn't a rare thing. Perhaps she was as weary of running and hiding as he was of chasing her. Or maybe he was simply wishful thinking.
She'd be thirty-two this year. There were only a few wrinkles on her face—he wanted to kiss each one of them, wanted to be around for the next one, and the next… Maybe the color of her hair was lighter than it used to be, but that could have been accomplished at one of those beauty spas. She needed no help there. Indeed, she couldn't be more beautiful to him.
His eyes fell to the blue bag beside her feet. After Tristan brought her things to her, there would be no reason she couldn't carry out this meeting with the other Campbell brother and slip out of his life again.
No reason at all.
The plane began its descent and her eyes fluttered open. He should have looked away before she caught him staring, but he hesitated. He'd been aloof since he'd laid eyes on her. And if this was it, if he lost her again for good, he wanted her to know...to know he wasn't indifferent.
She sat up straighter and blinked a bit, then gave him a smile as if in apology for falling asleep. But then she realized what he was trying to say and her smile faded, replaced by a message of her own.
She, too, wasn't as indifferent as she pretended.
His chest felt lighter and heavier at the same time. Love was such a gift...and such a burden.
He exited the plane first and waited at the bottom of the steps. In those slowly drawn-out moments, his need to touch her was akin to his need for air. So, he offered his hand to her when she was still a few stairs from the tarmac. She clutched it like a lifeline then stumbled down the last steps and fell against him.
He might have given a wee tug…
"Tricky footin’, lass," Shug said as he followed behind her. "Tread verra lightly, aye?" He said the last while staring at Grey, then he turned to her and winked. The warning was for her. The threat was for him. Poor Shug Buchanan was assigning himself her protector.
Grey wondered if that might just come in handy...