***

Duncan wished he could hear what Shelley’s girlfriend had to say about him. He hoped she wouldn’t drive a wedge between them. With the way things were rapidly getting out of hand between him and Shelley, they needed something that would keep them from giving in to raw lust before it was too late. He couldn’t help how frustrated he was that Shelley didn’t stay with him in the big bed tonight, although he understood her reasoning. He still didn’t like the arrangements.

When Shelley quit speaking and the shower in the upstairs bathroom came on, Duncan locked the place and took another drive out to Silverman’s estate. He didn’t like the fact that the bastard had walked into Shelley’s villa and searched for clues to what was going on between them. He wanted to do the same to the bastard’s estate. But he also wanted to run as a wolf and attempt to catch Silverman wolf to wolf to give him a show of how much the bastard had irritated him. Stealing his clan’s money was one thing. But when Silverman invaded Duncan’s territory, showing he wasn’t backing down on wanting Shelley, the crook pushed Duncan into a different realm of rage. His emotions went a whole lot deeper than he’d thought, Duncan realized.

Money was money, nothing personal, although the missing funds were the clan’s and needed to help them keep their ancestral home. But what he shared with Shelley was something personal and intimate, something unique to them, something he treasured. In an instant, Silverman had trampled all over the fragile bond Duncan was building with Shelley. Duncan wanted to retaliate—to show the bastard he wasn’t winning this battle.

He parked the car some distance from Silverman’s estate and then jogged down the beach like before, hoping to see Silverman outside his protective estate so he could take him to task. This time, Duncan saw a woman sitting beside the pool with the soft lights around and inside the pool shimmering in the dark. Was she the girlfriend who’d been with Silverman when he met Shelley in the reserve? Or was this someone else?

He doubted anyone Silverman picked up would learn where his money was hidden or how to get to it. Duncan would have tried talking to her, if he thought she knew anything.

Barring that, he was afraid Guthrie was right. Getting the money out of bank accounts wasn’t going to happen unless he could convince Silverman to give it up in wire transfers. Despite Shelley’s offer of help, Duncan didn’t believe that she could coax the money out of Silverman any more than he could—beyond the threat of death—and Duncan even had his doubts that the bastard would give it up then, knowing Duncan couldn’t let him live.

Hating that the bastard had stolen so much and ruined so many lives, Duncan felt useless, unable to reclaim their money, unable to do anything. He was used to confronting an enemy wolf to wolf, or human to human, but this business wouldn’t allow it, and he wasn’t equipped to deal with it.

With a heavy heart, he returned to the villa.

The lights in Shelley’s bedroom were off when he arrived, and he pulled out his phone and called his brother. “Ian, sorry if I woke you, but I’ve got some trouble.”

Just as Duncan knew Ian would, he patiently listened and didn’t jump to rash conclusions, due to being the eldest of the brothers, the laird and pack leader, but also because of the way he was. At times like these, Duncan was glad for it.

On the other hand, Duncan paced across the living room, ready to kick butt. “The woman I’m rooming with…”

“Shelley Campbell of Canyon, Texas, aye.”

So his brother had done a little research of his own. Or knowing Ian, he’d had either Guthrie or Cearnach check into her. For what reason? Hell, she was Duncan’s business and no one else’s.

“Silverman wants her,” Duncan said gruffly, wanting to tear the man apart from limb to limb, not only because of the stolen money, but also because of his insistence on seeing Shelley. Even worse, the man had dared to sneak into the villa to snoop around, invading their privacy and letting them know he’d been there.

Shelley had tried to hide how she was felt about the intrusion, but Duncan knew it had unnerved her.

“And?”

“Well, hell, Ian, he can’t have her,” Duncan growled.

“What does she want?”

Duncan ground his teeth. “To help me bring the bastard down. She doesn’t want him, damn it.”

“Well, is it a viable option?” The voice of reason.

“No damn way.” Duncan’s blood was boiling hot with the idea. He was already thinking of sending her to Scotland and his brothers’ care to ensure that Silverman didn’t get to her.

“All right,” Ian said in a placating way. “So what’s the plan?”

“I’ve been taking her on dates, thwarting Silverman, and it’s angering him. The more I wine and dine her, the more pissed off he’s becoming. But I don’t want him thinking he can spend any time with her. I want him to think that she’s taken.”

“Is she?”

“Is she what, Ian?” He was the laird, and Duncan knew he should show him more respect, but damn it, Shelley was none of the clan’s business.

Chapter 9

“Have you taken her?” Ian asked flat out over the phone, surprising the hell out of Duncan as he paced the living room of the villa while Shelley slept in the guest bedroom upstairs.

Duncan hoped he was keeping his voice low enough, but he figured as mad as he was, he wasn’t. He walked into the master bedroom and shut the door. “No, I haven’t taken her for my mate. Damn it, I would have told you if this was headed in that direction.” He wanted to add it was his and Shelley’s business and not the pack’s, but he bit his tongue and waited for Ian’s response.

Ian didn’t say anything.

“I would have said so, if I had taken her as my mate,” Duncan said to Ian over the phone, more forcefully than necessary as he continued to pace across the master bedroom.

The more he was with her, the more he wanted to make the relationship permanent. The more he didn’t want other wolves thinking they had a chance with her. The more he wanted her for himself, laughing and teasing and playing with him. Even the way she scowled at him was appealing.

“All right, Duncan. How will your wining and dining her help the clan?”

Duncan was more than exasperated that he’d have to explain himself. Normally that wouldn’t have bothered him, but it damn well did when it had to do with the way Shelley was making him feel. “I don’t want to use her as bait to bring the bastard out of his well-fortified estate, but that’s what’s happening,” Duncan said.

“Do you want me to send Cearnach?”

Duncan stopped pacing long enough to stare out the window at the dark beach. “No. I’ll handle it. I just don’t want Shelley getting hurt.”

“You could always bring her here if things get out of control.”

That’s what he’d wanted to hear all along. Ian was adamant about not bringing strangers into the castle. Duncan wasn’t sure how Ian would react if he heard Shelley berating the noblemen who’d kicked her family off the land. But if the situation got out of hand, Duncan did want to bring her home. “You wouldn’t mind?”

“Hell, Duncan, of course I don’t mind. She’s welcome here. Keep me updated.”

“Aye, I will.” For the first time since he’d learned Sal had an interest in Shelley and wasn’t letting go, Duncan felt there was an option—a safe place for her to go if things went downhill fast. He feared that’s exactly where this was headed.

***

The next morning, Shelley came downstairs looking exhausted, circles under her eyes and her gait sluggish. Duncan figured she hadn’t slept well. Just like he hadn’t. Every sound had awakened him, making him think Sal or his goons were trying to break in to steal Shelley away. Half a dozen times, he’d taken to the stairs and checked on her, found her tossing restlessly, and wanted to carry her back to his bed so he could watch over her. But she was setting the limits, and for now, he’d abide by them.

“You look tired,” she said, eating the omelets he’d prepared for her.

Just like she did, but he didn’t want to remark on how exhausted she looked, figuring it wouldn’t be appreciated. “I checked on you a couple of times during the night to make sure everything was okay.”

“Six times,” she said, running her fingers through her hair, which looked incredibly sexy. “If you’d come upstairs one more time, I was going to join you in your bedroom. You make too much noise climbing up the stairs and back down again.”

He frowned at her. “Why didn’t you tell me my seventh visit would have done the trick?”

She chuckled. “I think the wind and the waves crashing kept waking me. Besides you.”

“I thought I heard someone breaking into the place several times.”

“Hmm,” she said, licking her fork.

He groaned under his breath and sat down to eat his eggs. After last night and the way neither of them had slept, he’d made a decision that he was sticking to, no matter what Shelley said. “We’re staying together tonight.”

She carried her dish to the kitchen and began putting the food away. “You’ve decided this?”

She didn’t sound displeased that he was dictating to her. Maybe that’s what she’d needed all along. Someone who would make a firm decision in the matter. “Aye,” he said, looking her squarely in the eye. “If we don’t, neither of us will get any sleep.”

She chuckled under her breath and put the eggs back in the fridge. “All right. But we’ll have to make some sleeping rules.”

“Aye. No snoring, no kicking, no stealing the covers.”

She laughed out loud that time. “Works for me.”

He wasn’t about to say what they could do.

After grocery shopping and dropping off their foodstuffs, they went back out to visit clothing stores so Duncan could buy a bathing suit. He suggested the shop that he knew carried men’s swim trunks—the same shop he’d visited the first night. The one where he’d asked the woman about available hotels and she had seemed to consider allowing him to stay at her place—until she came to her senses.