Can't Tie Me Down! (Sinclair Sisters 1)

To stop him getting any ideas, Mairi decided to put some distance between them. She got to her feet.

“What are you doing?” he said.

“Looking for some personal space. Don’t worry. I won’t step off.” She took a step to the left and sat back down.

Right on top of a thicket of thistles.

Chapter 10

Mairi screamed and shot to her feet. Keir grabbed for her, thinking she was falling again. He clutched her hand and yanked her to him, wrapping his arms around her waist to keep her in place.

“What is it?”

“I sat on thistles!” she wailed. “There are thistles sticking out of my bum! You need to get them out.” She dug her fingers into his shoulders until he knew there would be bruising.

“Calm down,” Keir snapped as he tightened his arms around her waist. “Are you sure they didn’t just jab you?”

He didn’t need to see her to know she was glaring at him. “Get the needles out of my backside, Keir.”

“It’s dark, Mairi. I can barely see you, let alone the prickles. Can’t you get them out yourself?”

“I swear, I will kill us both if you don’t get the prickles out of my bum.”

“I’ll have to go by touch.”

“I don’t care if you pull them out with your teeth, just get it done.” Her fingers dug into the soft tissue of his shoulder, making him wince.

“Do you want to ease your hold some?”

“Do you want to drown? Because if you don’t get on with it, I’m launching backward and taking you with me.”

“Tell me again why I proposed to you.” He had to have been insane when it happened.

“I don’t know. I don’t care.” She grabbed his earlobe and yanked it. “Fix this.”

“Bloody hell, woman. Calm down.”

He ran his hand down the curve of her backside, over the soft jeans that molded to her curves, looking for thistles. It didn’t take long to find them. There were several spikes sticking out of her soft, plump flesh. No, don’t think about the flesh. Think about the pain.

Like that was going to help. He pinched one of the prickles and yanked it out. Mairi squealed and held him tighter.

Keir felt his way, pulling out each sharp prickle when he found it. He smoothed his hands over the curve of her behind. “I think that’s all of them. Are there more? Can you feel any more?”

She wiggled her rear against his palms and screeched. “I think some of them snapped off. I’m taking my jeans down. You need to get them out of my bum.”

As much as Keir wanted to get Mairi out of her jeans, this wasn’t the time or the place. “They can’t have snapped off under your jeans. You’re imagining it.”

“No, I’m imagining throwing you over the edge and listening to the satisfying splash you’ll make when you hit the wat

er.” She fumbled for her zipper. “Move back. I need space to get these down.”

“Mairi, think about this. You’re probably just sore from the spikes that were in you. There can’t be anything left in there for me to pull out. Or if there is, it will be too small to get without tweezers.”

Logic was wasted on her. She struggled against his hold and shoved her jeans and underwear down to her knees.

When she straightened back up, Keir’s lips were almost level with paradise. All of the blood that he needed in his brain rushed south, leaving him dizzy, frustrated and very, very horny.

“Get the prickles,” Mairi ordered him.