Chapter 33
Sunny leaned back against the side of Cameron’s car and watched as his plane taxied toward her.
She’d almost grown accustomed to the sight of it over the past three weeks and had even flown with him a couple of times to London.
She couldn’t say she would ever be a happy passenger, but she supposed there would come a point where, as Cameron claimed, familiarity bred contempt.
He could fall asleep before the plane left the runway and sleep all the way south until the plane touched down.
She knew that because she’d watched him do it—but only once.
The other time, he’d spent the trip simply watching her with a look of wonder on his face, as if he couldn’t believe she had agreed to marry him.
But how could she have said no? He’d gone down on bended knee and offered her a very lovely, very discreet wedding band that mirrored her wait-for-me ring. It was only after she’d said yes that he’d handed her the enormous engagement ring that went with it.
He’d laughed at her sigh, then jumped up, hauled her into his arms and spun her around. He solemnly promised that from then on, he wouldn’t buy her anything else and he would most certainly expect her to tend his garden daily.
What wasn’t to love about a man like that?
She watched the plane come to a stop, then felt butterflies start up in her stomach when the door was opened and the steps let down. Cameron came loping down them immediately and the butterflies took flight. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked toward her, a smile on his face.
She pushed away from the car and ran to him, because she couldn’t help herself. She threw her arms around his neck and held on tightly.
“I missed you,” she whispered fiercely.
He laughed, but didn’t release her. “I left yesterday morning, lass.”
“So?”
He set her back on her feet, smiled, then bent his head and kissed her—very briefly.
“Hey,” she said in surprise. “What’s that?”
“Me, trying to keep my hands off you,” he said honestly. “I think we’re getting married in a day or so. I’m trying to avoid ravishing you until after that happens, actually.”
“We’re getting married tomorrow,” she reminded him.
“Well,” he said with a lazy smile, “if that’s the case, then I suppose we might be a bit more friendly.” He set his backpack down, then looked at her purposefully. “Come you here, wench, and let me greet you properly.”
“Wench,” she said with a snort, then found that she didn’t have much opportunity to complain about anything else.
Cameron’s mouth was just as much a marvel as it had been centuries ago.
She shivered as he slid his hand under her hair and his other arm around her waist. Her only recourse was to hold on and hope she could walk straight after he finished with her.
“Get a room!” Ewan bellowed from across the tarmac.
Cameron lifted his head and looked down at her with a frown. “Has he been talking to Alex Smith?”
“I don’t think he needed to.”
Cameron threw Ewan a glare. “He will not be coming along on our honeymoon.” He pulled Sunny close again and bent his head to hers. “Ignore him. Derrick will take care of him if he becomes too mouthy.”
Sunny closed her eyes and smiled as she was greeted properly yet again. By the time Cameron lifted his head and was looking down at her with rather stormy blue eyes, she wasn’t at all sure she was going to make it back to his car without having her knees buckle.
“I think you’d better stop that,” she advised.
“Want to elope right now?”
She laughed uneasily. “We don’t dare. The entire village is geared up for this monumental event, you know. You’d have angry Highlanders marching on Cameron Hall with pitchforks if you didn’t show up in church bright and early tomorrow morning. ”
“I’ll be your chaperon!” came a voice from across the way.
Cameron gritted his teeth. “I’m going to go kill him. It won’t take long.”
Sunny watched him walk over and exchange a few pointed words with his cousin. Ewan only clapped Cameron on the shoulder, blew Sunny a kiss, then retreated back into the plane to do whatever it was he did to put it to bed for the night. Cameron came back over to her, shaking his head.
“They all have too much time on their hands,” he said, picking up his gear and putting his arm around her shoulders.
“I’m going to have to find something useful for them to do to keep myself from killing the lot of them.
Derrick spent the last twenty-four hours lounging in my office reading my magazines and watching my telly, Peter loitered uselessly outside my office door flirting with Emily and my sixty-year-old secretary both, and Oliver sat on a chair in the hallway and apparently contemplated the wreck that is his life now that he has no call for trailing after evildoers. ”
She smiled. “Don’t they want to go on your treasure hunts anymore?”
“That would require them to actually put on suits and look professional,” he said with a snort. He opened the door for her. “I’ll find something for them to do, since I was kind enough to see to a pleasant way to fill my own days.”
She reached up and put her hands on his face. “Who are you kidding? You’re a workaholic, Cam. You’ll always have ways to fill your days.”
He shook his head slowly. “Not anymore, Sunny. I’ve spent almost eight years keeping myself busy, but I’m ready for a change. I’ll leave things as they are for a bit, but I’m going to find ways for us to be home more often.”
“I have a garden to tend, after all,” she agreed with a smile.
“I’d rather have you tending my heart, and that you can do anywhere,” he said with an answering smile, “but I’ll make sure you’re here often enough to dig in the dirt as well.” He kissed her softly. “Let’s go home and get started on that.”
Ten minutes later, Cameron was driving away from the hangar. Sunny reached out and put her hand on his leg because she simply couldn’t stop touching him. It felt as if she’d waited for him for centuries, and now that the waiting was over, she couldn’t quite let go.
He covered her hand with his, smiled, then turned back to getting them onto the road home.
Sunny leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes.
She considered again all the plans she’d put in place.
It had been quite an undertaking to put together the wedding of the century in such a short time, but she’d tried to keep things simple and Emily had made things even simpler by being such a master organizer.
Sunny had found a seamstress in the village to make her wedding gown but left Emily to take care of everything else, including making a trip to Paris to buy Sunny a trousseau. Emily’s taste in clothes was exquisite and Sunny had trusted she wouldn’t buy her too many things that required nylons.
The rest of the wedding had been farmed out to village shops exclusively.
It wasn’t every day that the laird of the hall up the way found himself getting married.
If there had been anything she could do to win the hearts and minds of the lads down at the pub and their wives, she’d been willing to do it.
“Any trouble on the way down?” Cameron asked, interrupting her thoughts.
“Hamish pulled me over for doing exactly one mile an hour over the speed limit—because he thought I was you,” she said.
“When he realized it was me instead, he almost made me late because he wouldn’t shut up about what a right proper Highland lad you were, giving credit where it was due about the business with Nathan’s men and your having been so kind as to keep his brother out of jail. ”
“Aye, that was good of me, wasn’t it?” he asked sourly.
She laughed. “Tavish is an idiot, but not dangerous. He was trying to look important and got caught by people much smarter than he is.”
“Well, he’s damned lucky he’s not in jail for being the conduit for funds between Nathan and Gilly. The only thing that saved him was that he believed that Gilly was his cousin.”
“Which she was, in a certain sense,” Sunny offered. “I imagine it also helped that he only stocks soap and not poison. I think we can safely assume that Gilly provided those things herself.”
He shivered. “Aye, I daresay she did. She was nothing if not resourceful. If she hadn’t been, Tavish likely would have found himself drawn into her madness as he was into Nathan’s.”
“Poor Tavish,” she said with half a smile.
“I think he’s not cut out for either high finance or backroom dealings.
What I do know is that he’ll be singing your praises for quite some time to come.
I just wish Hamish wasn’t so thrilled about all this.
I honestly think I’d rather have the points on my license that isn’t quite a Scottish license yet but will be than listen to him for half an hour every time I leave the village. ”
He was silent for a moment or two, then he looked at her. “You don’t have to do that, Sunshine,” he said quietly. “Give up your U.S. passport.”
She squeezed his fingers. “Cam, from the moment I set foot in the Highlands, I wanted a reason to stay. If I go back to the States, it will be for a visit only. If I’m going to take your name, I’m going to carry a British passport as well.
Unless you’re planning on putting me on a plane back to America at some point. ”
He shot her a startled look and almost broadsided a brick wall as a result.
She laughed. “I’ve waited my entire life for that sort of look on a man’s face when he thinks about letting me go. Thank you. I’ll even give Bess the odd curtsey for that.”
He brought her hand to his mouth. “I love you.”
“I love you, too. And I’ll happily become a Cameron and all it entails. It will mean something to our children, don’t you think?”
“I daresay, woman, that I need to find a place to pull off,” he said hoarsely, “and show you just what I think.”