She smiled up at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Don’t you think I should dance with others a little? What if there is a she-wolf here that could prove intriguing to you?”

She was serious. Even though she didn’t want to give this up, she didn’t want to spoil Guthrie’s chance to have fun if he saw a woman he’d like to dance with. Even someone like Ivy with her short skirt and swinging wolf’s tail. What if Calla was only filling some craving for him too?

From what Calla had gathered, Guthrie was always helping with one thing or another, and he didn’t seem to take a lot of time to just enjoy life’s little pleasures.

“You asked me here. If nothing else, I’m protecting you,” Guthrie said.

“Ah.” The bit about protecting her again. Not that he was just hot for her body like she was for his. Darn it. “The kiss was just…?”

He smiled.

“For show?” she offered, since he wouldn’t say.

“What do you think?”

“I think I’m getting in way over my head.”

He chuckled. “Probably.”

She was. She’d known it the moment he kissed her under the Christmas tree. She could fret about this, worry that he wasn’t the right one for all eternity, and still not get him out of her system, she thought.

“Did you want to cool down a bit and get a drink?”

“Why? Are you hot?” She meant because they had been dancing so close and the crush of people around them was making the room hotter. Not to mention that her gown was warm and his wool sweater had to be too.

He grinned at the question. “Am I?”

Smiling, she shook her head in amusement. “Yeah, but I’m not talking about that right now. Let’s get a drink and then we can dance some more afterward.”

They hadn’t even made it to the refreshment table when they heard the clanging of swords in the front foyer and a woman’s scream.

Chapter 14

Immediately, Guthrie’s blood surged with adrenaline, making him ready for battle. He recognized that Oran was engaging someone from the way his sword struck the aggressor’s weapon, and the speed and force with which he struck. Guthrie desperately wanted to see who was fighting Oran, but he kept Calla by his side and out of harm’s way in case it was a ploy to draw him away from her. He wasn’t about to leave her behind, and he wasn’t going to take her into the fray.

He glanced around to see if anyone else was carrying a sword. One man dressed as a World War I soldier in a khaki kilt, service dress jacket, and low boots. The man dressed as a Musketeer had one too, but he was gone.

Guthrie heard a sword hit a wall and drop to the wooden floor in the foyer. People who were watching the sword fight clapped. Cearnach came into the great hall and motioned to Guthrie that all was clear.

“I wonder what that was all about,” Calla said as the music started again.

“Not Baird or his men or he would have been…” Then Guthrie saw him, clear as day, dancing with a woman in a gold gown and mask.

“What?” Calla asked, turning to see what he was staring at.

“Baird’s here, dancing over there. Whoever was fighting with Oran must have been a diversion for Baird to get in.”

Calla’s breath hitched. The man wouldn’t leave her alone. But Guthrie knew they couldn’t fight him here. Baird had to know that too. Most likely, he was showing her that she couldn’t stop him from getting close and bothering her—not even with the MacNeills guarding her.

“And his two brothers and two of his cousins are here, dancing with other women,” she noticed.

“Aye.” Guthrie was about to tell her that they had to leave, as he’d first intended if Baird and his men showed up, but he really was trying to do this courtship business right. “Do you want to go?”

She frowned up at him. “Are you trying to get out of dancing with me all night? Besides, Ivy said he wasn’t welcome. She might ask him to leave herself.”

Guthrie smiled at her, got her a glass of mulled wine, and once he had his whisky, they stood watching the dancers for a moment. He conferred with his brothers and cousin about leaving, but aside from the initial sword fight, the McKinleys didn’t seem to be causing any more trouble or making any moves in Calla’s direction. Besides, to an extent, he agreed with her. He wouldn’t normally allow another wolf to run him off, not when they had every right to be here.

When they finished their drinks, he returned to the dance floor with her.

Baird and his kinsmen were dressed like pirates, with full-sleeved shirts, black masks, black trousers, and boots. Since the whole family had been a bunch of pirates, Guthrie didn’t think they were masquerading at all.

He soon closed his arms around Calla and held her soft, velvet-covered body against him, wishing they were at Argent, somewhere a lot more private.

“Calla,” he whispered against her ear as he moved slowly with her, all his senses taking her in—her delightful she-wolf aroma, the scent of strawberries and sweet wine; the feel of her, warm and soft and such a perfect fit against his aroused body; the beat of her heart; and the whisper of her warm breath on his neck as she glanced up at him.

“Hmm…”

“I’m really having a difficult time with…this relationship stuff.”

She rested her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around his back. “Hmm.”

“What I mean is that I know you put on the brakes with Baird and dated him for a year before you agreed to mate him, but…”

Calla nodded.

“The thing of it is, I can’t wait that long.”

She looked up at him, her expression mildly amused. Vixen.

Didn’t she know how hard this was for him to talk about? “Every time you look at me—like that—every time we touch, every time we kiss…I want so much more. Don’t you?”

She grinned up at him. “Oh, aye, but it’s just a lustful need. If we see each other longer, we won’t feel the pull so strongly. Don’t you agree?”

“Nay.”

She smiled wickedly at him. “Okay, tell me you didn’t feel the same way about the girlfriends you seriously considered mating. In the beginning, you were dying to fulfill some sexual need. It’s only natural.”

He didn’t say anything, just tightened his hold on her as she swayed to the music with him. This—with Calla—felt different. He couldn’t explain why he felt so…tied to her, but he did. Didn’t she feel the same way about him? Or was he projecting how he felt about Calla onto her?