His to Claim (11 page)

CHAPTER 13

E
laine visibly jerked back from his unchecked acrimony.

Trevor, though, was determined on having it all out.

The two days since he learnt from Damian of her having contacted Henry merely hours after they made love, it had been hell every minute he stayed back, even if it were only to bide his time.

“That day, too, when ye saw me with Violet, ye were quick tae judge I was banging her behind Damian’s back. When the truth was, Damian had dumped her arse a week ‘fore and tae her, seducing his younger brother probably seemed like the best spiteful plan at revenge. I regret I let things gae as far as they went with her, knowing she was manipulating me.” His next remark added held no inflection. “But I donna feel any guilt at what happened.”

Elaine felt that admission like a slap across her face, it didn’t matter that she had had no claim on him to feel that way.

Unaware of her plight, he carried on, “Ye hated the sight of me. There was also the matter of yer age. Ye were only
sixteen
, and I, a junior at college. It was killing me, watching ye grow more beautiful each day, and yet at nae point did yer animosity toward me lessened.”

Trevor groaned in misery. “When ye thought I was scaring ye off with my eyes, I was fucking preventing my hands from stealing ye tae some quiet corner and…”

He struggled with something untenable inside him. “I was such a sucker fo’ ye, that when ye smiled at a stray dog, I took that mangy scruff with me, and kept it till my people hadna found him the best home. He died on his back with four legs in air, belly full with food, and cock limp in satisfaction. A king would ‘ave envied the mongrel his last days.”

He said that with such a sulk, Elaine couldn’t stop a smile from stealing on her lips. It was true, she did have a soft spot for stray dogs. And as amazing as it was that he said he did these things for her, what was even more astonishing was that she didn’t doubt him in the least.

It seemed her radiant smile gave him something to be amazed at too. They looked into each other’s eyes with intense yearning. “Gawd, I thought ye were bonny a minute ago. Now, yer damn near stopping my heart.”

He came for her, his hands slinging her hair behind her ears. “Ye ‘ave an easy smile fo’ everyone. But did it never occur tae ye that the one most starved fo’ it was me?” He laid his forehead against hers. “What I dinna dae fo’ just a glimpse of it. Even if it werena meant fo’ me.”

Something in his last statement struck Elaine. “What else did you..?
Carnivals
.”

She gasped at the understanding. “
It was you.
You arranged tickets to these fairs for me. I remember the first time I asked your mother for them at the family dinner, she categorically refused. I did wonder what changed her mind later, but I was so happy with having my wish granted that I didn’t dig into it. Whenever there was a fair in city, the tickets would just appear in my room.”

All the fights, the harsh words she had ever dealt him, came back to haunt her. Tears brimmed her eyes. “You gave me the best, most pure, cherished moments of my life. And in return, asked for nothing. Just watched me from far, and I know, I know you watched, because I had felt you with me. Why did you never tell me it was y-”

“What would ye ‘ave done?” He demanded sardonically.

“Don’t you see?” Elaine said with all vehemence. “So much of the misunderstandings, heartaches could have been avoided.

“I thought you hated me.” He reiterated emphatically. His hands fisting her hair. “I feared if you knew these gifts were coming from me you would throw them right in my face.”

Elaine was smart enough to understand that fear. She also suspected he got her more than just tickets and trinkets. “My first car, wa..was it-”

“Aye, It was me. I taught Mum’s secretary, Jamison, what tae tell ye. He was my accomplice in almost every ruse. Of course, he was paid well tae keep everything from everyone, even mother.” One strong shoulder lifted in a shrug. “There were too many wheels at home, what was one more. ‘Sides, Mum was hardly home tae notice, and Damian had too many other things tae occupy his mind tae bother with such triviality.”

Trevor’s lips lightly, adoringly brushed hers. “Our first night together was the most memorable night of my life.”

The reminding of
that
night incinerated their momentary intimacy for Elaine. Inflamed, she lashed out. “I don’t doubt that for one minute! I really don’t. You bet on me with your friends.” Torn from anguish of the past, she tried pushing away from him. “Oh God, how could I have forgotten that humiliating moment even for a second?”

“What are ye talking aboot?” Trevor looked stumped by her outrage but he didn’t loosen his hold on her.

She grappled harder to free herself, and when this time he let her go, relief flowed through her tense muscles. “Don’t act as if you comprehend nothing, Trey. I heard you talking that morning with John. The.. crude things he said, about m..my squealing like..like a.. I can’t even repeat it!”

At first he was too stunned by her disclosure to reckon facts, when he did, “Jesus, Elaine, that wasna aboot ye!” fury engulfed him. “Are ye fuckin’ telling me that five years of misery, watching ye stomp around me, my nailing lasses in the dark imagining they were ye, all of it was o’er nothin’?”

“You imagined girls you were having sex with were me?”

“Focus, lass.” So much was going on in Trevor’s mind that for an instant he didn’t get how to explain events of that evening to her.

“We.. We were being the boys we were, and drunk at that. There was this girl at the party whom John liked and others goaded she was out of his league. Sae he bet with them, no’ only would he get her in his bed, but make her scream fo’ all tae.. well ye ken, and he being a friend then, I obviously backed him.”

“Obviously? Really? That’s horrible.”

“All young boys are fucked up like that, Elaine.”

Elaine was wane from everything that he had told her. She recalled how small, insulted she had felt then, believing they were ridiculing her, and how explosively she had retaliated. But now that the old bones were being cleaned, it was time she owned to her lie.

“I have something to tell you too, Trevor.” Wringing her clammy hands, she uttered, “I wasn’t drunk that night. I..I let you think I was. I knew well who you were.”

“Ye knew? Ye let me think ye were-” He couldn’t help but look bemused over her words.

She nodded, unable to say it again. And the moment things became clear to him, aggravation made him grit and growl.

Too many nights he had had spent gnawing after the bastard whom she had once wanted over him. Obsessively imagined what he would do if he ever got his hands on him. But now that he knew there never was anyone but him.., the reprieve that came was so monumentally charged, he felt its quake run through his body.

Turbulent emotions too high, he closed his eyes, head leaning down.

Their every action in the past, the motives behind them were now crystal clear to both of them.

Watching him like that, Elaine, guilt ridden, empathising with his pain, wreathed his waist with her trembling arms. “I’m sorry, Trey. So.. sorry.” She kissed his stubbled chin and held his angular face in her hands. “I hurt you because I was hurting. There’s no one but you for me. Do you hear?”

Her admission should have elated Trevor, but instead, it made him feel small with contrition. He wrapped her to him. His arms tightening bands of iron. “Nay, ‘its me, who should apologise. I’m the jerk. I should have stayed and talked things out with ye that morning. But..”

He dipped his head in the side of her neck. “I was sae furious. Just imagining ye with someone else was driving me wild. I was afraid if I stayed I might lose my control. Hurting ye was never into question, but anyone who would have been unlucky enough tae have come between us..”

They stayed like that for long, locked in each other’s embrace, then she pushed back a little from the warmth of his body to ask, “What about this time that we..?” A florid blush spread on her cheeks. “Why did you leave without saying a word to me?”

“Company matters, I couldna delay.” With a mischievous grin he continued, “And I also dinna want tae disturb yer perfect sleep. Ye looked an angel sleeping. But I sent ye earrings. Dinna ye like it? There was a note along with it, too.” He said, playfully scattering sweet kisses on her face and throat.

“Note?” It was proving a day when her temper changed faster than the rise and fall of a mercury.

The anger that had hit Elaine when she first saw that piece of offending note, was nothing compared to what erupted in her now with twice the intensity.

Ripping away from him, heaving from indignation, she searched right, then left of the capacious capsule shaped car.

“What are ye looking fo’?” Trevor demanded, confounded by her behaviour.

Elaine spotted it. It lay forgotten at the floor beside the glass-shards and the dented bucket.

An instant later, he was fighting off raining blows of her purse. “What the-?!”

She was a hellcat bent on dealing Trevor hurt. And there might not be a lasting damage, but damn it, it did hurt!

When finally he succeeded in subduing her, securing both her wrists in one hand behind her, he pulled her close. Soft breasts mauled against firm muscles. “What’s wrong with ye?”

Recalling the scribbled words from his note, she fumed, “What else do you expect in return for a message like yours? Two words, just a
thank you
..”

“Considering how you’re reacting,” he chuckled, her waspishness apparently thoroughly entertaining him. “Expecting a kiss would be too much?”

“A kiss?” She gasped at his pompous demeanour. “The only kiss you’ll get from me is going to be from my foot to your groin!”

“Rawrr..” He roared into her ear, sending tingles down the pit of her stomach, making that place between her legs clench in treacherous wanting. “Ye want tae know a secret, Elaine? I grow instantly,
painfully hard
when ye talk dirty tae me.”

She could feel that hardness jutting into her flat belly. “That’s no secret you arrogant.. wait, I wasn’t talking dirty to you!”

“Really? I could ‘ave sworn..” He kissed her pouting mouth and deliberately rubbed his shaft tauntingly close to her centre.

But argh.., Elaine thought frustrated, still so far from actually giving her any satisfaction.

“My bonny lass. Dae ye no’ ken, I’m nae use when it comes tae telling ye how I feel.” He forced her to meet his eye. “There are sae many things I want tae say, but no’ enough words tae express them all tae ye. When ye give yerself tae me, ‘tis the most powerful, yet the most humbling moment fo’ me.”

Brushing his face softly against her cheek, he confessed, “Sae, I chose tae write down the first and last thing that came tae my mind. Thank ye.
Thank ye, Elaine.
” The intensity of his admission melted her faster than butter.

Elaine realised just how profound his simple message had been. What a fool she was. This man might not have learnt to say he loved her in words, but in every other way, he had said it over and over, and over again. Only it took her this long to see it.

“If it’s any consolation,” voice muffled, his lips moved tickling her neck, “choosing the right earrings fo’ ye took a lot oout of me. When I thought ye may like one, they would put others ‘fore me. I had yet tae gae through those, when another bunch would appear. ‘Twas a nightmare.”

Elaine laughed picturing him bitten raw to the quick with the sea of women’s baubles to hunt from.

“Yes, no man should be encumbered with so great a challenge.”

“Sae true.” He concurred vehemently, his head dipping long below her throat.

Her fingers grabbed tufts of his hair and pulled his face up from the supple rise of her breasts to say, “But you deserved every minute of it.”

“Ye can be verra spiteful when ye want tae be, ye know?”

“And that’s why, you deserve me too.”

“Nae, I donna.” His gaze worshipping, his expression solemn. “But I’m selfish enough tae take ye whether deserved, or no’.”

Elaine’s eyes threatened to fill with tears again, and this time, she didn’t try to hide it from him. They were proof of the joy she was holding in her heart.

Trevor took her mouth and she gladly offered it up. They kissed long and hard, panting when parted.

“I love ye sae much, lass.”

“What?” She couldn’t believe her ears.

“After all that we said tae each other, ye still doubt me?” His grin showed his perplexity.

“No, no it’s not that-”

“What is it then?” His face hardened at the knock of a stray thought. “Dae ye, dae ye no’ love me?”

“That’s definitely not it, you silly man.” She kissed his face, leaving no place unstamped. “I love you. I love you. I love you. I’ll say it as many times as you want.”

“Every morning, noon, and… hot, steamy nights?” A demanding brow arched.

Reaching up to soothingly kiss the tip of his straight, arrogant nose, she smiled and said, “You bet. But how long are you planning to keep me trapped in this tower?”