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Several adults, men and women alike, raise their glasses and shout "slainte" too. Then even more people chime in, and soon, they're laughing and tipping their glasses toward Rebecca. She grins and raises her glass to them.
Once the excitement is over, we finish off our meal and give Bonnie a sizable tip. The lass earned it. We ordered enough food for a small army and asked our waitress to package up what we didn't finish off. We now have two large paper sacks full of leftovers. I commanded Rebecca to take all of it home with her.
"You're commanding me?" she says with a slyly sensual smile as we're walking out of the café. She hooks her arm round mine, bringing her body even closer to me. "I like it when you get bossy in the bedroom. Ordering me to take all this food is kind of hot too, in a strange way." She rubs her cheek on my upper arm---or rather, on the wool coat that covers it. "Thank you for giving me the full Scottish food experience all in one sitting at a cute little Scottish café."
"I'll show you the whole of the Highlands, and the rest of Scotland too. In fact, I would show you the entire world if you asked."
She lifts her head to set her chin on my arm, so she can gaze up at me. "Are you rich? You're so mysterious and secretive that I can't help wondering."
"Wondering what? I'm not a billionaire like Evan MacTaggart or Diana Sangster. She's British, though."
"You know two billionaires? Are they the ones funding your distillery?"
Dinnae mind the lass interrogating me---she warned me she would do that eventually---but I begin to feel an odd sensation prickling my nerves. I recognize this feeling, but I do not want to alert Rebecca to it. I might be paranoid after my encounter with Holden De Boer. I never told the lass about that. Maybe I should do now.
She bumps her shoulder into me. "Well, are they your investors?"
"Who?"
"Those billionaire friends of yours."
"Aye, they have both provided funding, and they're members of the company's board of directors."
Rebecca slips her hand into mine. "You must be the CEO or whatever they call it here in the UK."
"I am. But I prefer to focus on crafting whisky, not attending meetings. Besides, the board members dinnae want to control the distillery. They simply want to help in whatever way I suggest. They also own stock in the company."
"They must really believe in you."
"I reckon..." My words trail off as that prickling at my nape grows stronger. Then I spot a shadow scurrying round the corner up ahead of us. I halt. "Stay here, please. I need to check on something."
"What's wrong?"
"Just wait here."
She frowns.
And I jog round the corner, straight into Holden De Boer.
Chapter Twenty
Rebecca
Thane couldn't have actually expected me to stand here on the sidewalk twiddling my thumbs. Whatever he spotted up ahead of us had spurred him to jog to the corner, then sprint down the side street. Am I going to obey his command? I might like his bossiness in bed, but this is a different situation. Besides, he only asked me not to follow him. He never commanded it.
I race around the corner and freeze.
Thane stands a couple of yards away, having a hushed but clearly heated conversation with a man I've never seen before. Maybe he's one of Thane's MacTaggart buddies or some other Scot he knows.
I walk swiftly to catch up to them, coming up beside Thane.
He scowls at me. "What are ye doing here? I said to stay put."
"No, you requested that I stay put. The word please made it an optional request."
I can tell Thane wants to argue with me, but he gives up on that to focus on the other man. "Are ye stalking me, Holden?"
The stranger puckers his lips and clenches his fists. "Stalking you? Oh, that's rich. You hunted me for weeks and sent me to prison. Fourteen years of living at His Majesty's pleasure isn't a holiday."
