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

“Why?” Mairi said.

Keir’s threatening look got about a million times darker, and Sean swallowed hard. “No reason. Just thought it would be fun.”

And Mairi snapped.

One second she was sitting there with chocolates on her lap, the next she was hanging off Sean’s back, with her arm around his throat, trying to choke the life out of him.

“I’m going to kill you,” Mairi shouted. “I’m going to chop you into pieces and put them on stakes outside in the street to warn off the next idiot who thinks it might be fun to mess with me.”

Sean staggered around the room, tripping over chocolates and flowers, popping balloons and getting tangled in ribbon—all while Mairi was attached to his back.

“Someone get her off me,” he whined.

He sounded strangled. That was good. Because strangled was exactly what she was aiming for. If his hair had been longer, and she could have gotten a decent grip, she would have pulled that out too, just for good measure.

“You ruined my life,” she shouted. “You deserve death.”

“Get her off!”

Mairi tightened her grip.

“I’m dying. I can’t breathe,” Sean shouted, proving he could breathe and was just being a wimp.

A strong arm wrapped around Mairi’s waist and another hand pried her arms from around Sean’s throat. She kicked against Keir. “Let me at him. He deserves this.”

“I agree.” Keir held Mairi under his left arm, while he punched his brother’s nose with his right fist.

“Is anyone going to listen to me if I tell you violence isn’t the answer?” Agnes said from

the table.

“No!” Keir and Mairi shouted.

“That’s it,” Sean said, while he held his nose with one hand and rubbed his neck with the other. “I don’t deserve this. I’m telling her—”

He didn’t get a chance to finish, because Keir dropped Mairi to the floor, grabbed his brother by the back of his shirt and threw him out the door, slamming it firmly behind him.

“Tell me what?” Mairi said.

“Nothing. He’s just being a moron.” He folded his arms, making his biceps bulge, and looked immovable.

Mairi wasn’t going to get any further explanation out of him.

“I hope you two are going to clean up the mess you made,” Agnes said.

Mairi looked down, and sure enough, the floor was littered with mashed chocolates, trampled flowers and burst balloons.

“It looks like Valentine’s Day has been massacred in our living room,” Mairi said.

“I’m sorry, Rusty,” Keir said. “If I’d known it was him, I’d have stopped everything.”

“I know.” She looked at his impossibly handsome face. “Will he tell everyone at the meeting tonight?”

“I’ll make sure he does.”

She toed some of the trampled flowers to avoid looking him in the eye. “I guess this means we don’t have to get married, then.”

“No. You don’t have to marry me. You’ve been saved from that.” His voice was completely flat, giving nothing away.