She met his gaze directly. “What are you going to do with this knowledge, Mr. Mackenzie—”
“Struan,” he corrected, his deep brogue practically purring the sound. Strewan. “I believe we can use each other’s Christian names at this point.”
“Struan,” she amended. “Will you inform my family?”
He angled his head thoughtfully. “I dinna think I need to do anything so hasty, lass. I can be discreet.” He dragged his fingers from her neck over her shoulder and down her arm. “Especially when it concerns a friend.”
She echoed numbly. “A friend?”
He inclined his head and the motion caused the chandelier light to gild the gold-brown strands. “We’re friends, are we not? Although I confess I’m interested in something more than friendship from ye . . .”
“Take your hand off her.”
Chapter 14
Aurelia whirled around, her mouth parting to find Max standing there. He was hardly attired fittingly. His hair was wild and untamed around his head. He wore no vest beneath his jacket and his shirt was rumpled and open at the throat, minus a cravat. And his face. Good heavens. He looked like a pirate. Clearly he had not seen a razor in a week. All that said, he should not have been so achingly handsome.
It wasn’t fair . . .
It wasn’t fair that she had a big, strapping Scotsman flirting with her and she felt nothing. And yet the moment her eyes clapped on a wickedly disheveled Max, all her feminine parts stood up in salute. In a flash, everything she had felt squeezed between Max’s body and that ivy-covered wall came back to her in a rush of heat.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded, and then felt like a prime idiot. Did she think because they’d shared one kiss he would stop coming to Sodom? He was likely here to do what he always did—take his pleasure with any random woman to catch his eye.
“That is a question I think best directed at you.” His gaze raked her, making her acutely conscious of the indecent amount of flesh on display. Her hand drifted to her chest. Perhaps an ill-planned move. His gaze followed the action. The flesh near his eye ticked and his gaze darkened a shade.
She dropped her hand and squared her shoulders. An action that only brought her chest into greater focus. His bloodshot eyes fixed unerringly on that expanse of flesh. His mouth hardened into a thin line as a dull flush of color crept up his cheeks. She thought she had seen him at his angriest in the park, but no. This was the angriest she had ever seen him.
“I don’t see why my presence here is any concern of yours.”
“Indeed? Don’t you?”
“I think I should point out that we are drawing more attention than perhaps desired,” Struan interjected drolly.
A quick glance around the room confirmed that several interested gazes had settled on them.
With a stinging curse, Max took hold of her arm and pulled her from the room.
“Let go of me,” she said between clenched teeth as they stepped out into the empty foyer.
“I’m taking you home,” he snapped.
“Perhaps it is I who should escort the lady home,” Struan Mackenzie announced from behind them, following them at a casual stroll.
Max stiffened and turned slowly, dragging Aurelia behind him. “Over my dead body.”
Mackenzie looked him up and down assessingly, as though that were a fine prospect to him. The two men stared at each other in charged silence, a silent exchange passing between them.