The Devil in Falkirk (Burns! Mystery 4)

By Erin O'Quinn

For a hard-nosed undercover cop, love is a rare treasure to bring out when he can, to polish off, and to tuck away for a time when he’s not tracking the bad guys. But the enigmatic, sultry Burns is not a man to wait until Thomas has a day off.

It’s all about kilts and commitment for detective sergeant Thomas Fitzgerald and his lover, university professor Burns. Meeting in a place of monster horses, the men track down a lawbreaker while taking their love affair to a new level.

Can these men’s love survive the physical distance ... and the more subtle, more challenging differences ... between the two of them? It’s a matter of clashes and kilts, as a cop and a scholar collide in a storm of passion.

You may also want to follow the clues to the first three Burns-Fitzgerald romance-mystery novellas: Burns Too Deep ... The Dundee Law ... Red, Red Rose ... all part of the Nevada Highlander universe of stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erin O'Quinn
• Release date: Nov 30, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311177162

Erin O'Quinn

Erin O’Quinn sprang from the high desert hills of Nevada, from a tiny town which no longer exists. A truant officer dragged her kicking and screaming to grade school, too late to attend kindergarten; and since that time her best education has come from the ground she’s walked and the people she's met.Erin has her own publishing venue, New Dawn Press. Her works cover the genres of M/M and M/F romance and also historical fantasy for all ages.

Book preview

The Devil in Falkirk

Burns! Mystery 4

Erin O’Quinn

Copyright © 2015 Erin O ’ Quinn

New Dawn Press

ISBN:  9781311177162

First electronic edition published by New Dawn Press

 Published in the United States of America with international distribution.

 Cover Design by Erin O’Quinn

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author ’ s imagination or are used fictitiously; and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

WARNING: This writing contains explicit sexual descriptions and is intended for a mature audience over the age of 18.

Please note: This novella first appeared as A Kilted Christmas. Since the holiday theme is secondary at best, the author has given it a new cover and a new title to better reflect the content.

Story Overview

As the holidays approach, kilts and commitment vie for the attention of detective sergeant Thomas Fitzgerald and his lover, university professor Burns. Meeting in a place of monster horses, the men track down a lawbreaker while taking their love affair to a new level.

Will these men’s love survive the physical distance…and the more subtle, more challenging differences…between the two of them? Can Burns ever emerge from the façade of secretive stranger? And how long will Thomas be able to hold his own secret — the one he fears may tear them apart?

It’s a matter of clashes and kilts, as a cop and a scholar collide in a storm of misunderstanding and raw passion.

Dedication

James M, this one’s for you. With thanks and affection.

1: The Call

I hate phones. Why can’t we seem to travel a hundred bloody klicks to see each other? One damned hour out of our lives?

Thomas Fitzgerald held the cell to his ear with his shoulder while maneuvering the police-issued Ford through an ice-laden roundabout. The pileup of traffic wasn’t bad. Even though he was early for work, he didn’t feel like getting out in the wind and sleet to help two uniformed constables unsnarl it. He was in a crappy mood.

Normally, the mere sound of the man’s voice would be enough to make him three-thumbed and thick-tongued. But right now, with nothing ahead of him except work and non-driving assholes, he was in no frame of mind to whisper sweet nothings.

Och, Thomas, ’tis good to hear your Irish lilt too.

Burns’ rich, humor-laced voice was enough to excite his tamped-down need, and he resented having to hold it in check. Like a lad expecting his first bicycle under an imaginary tree, he was eager to grasp the handlebars. But the holidays had clamped a heavy hand on his workload, and he knew there was no sense aching for what he could not have.

Sorry. You called at a—let’s just say, I wish I could talk in pers—in private.

Burns chuckled. I thought I was calling early enough to catch you still at your flat. You’re with a man, perhaps?

Yes, a damned pesky one who says he’s busy and can’t come to Dundee.

I never say ‘cannot,’ lad. I told you the University regent has me by the bollocks for another little while.

"So if he’s holding your bloody balls, you’re the one with a man even as we speak."

Only in unwilling spirit. He pays me to teach the glorious past to young idiots who think history is something that happened last week.

Thomas grinned in spite of his sour mood. He himself had held that same opinion most of his life. His outlook…not to mention his very existence…had begun to change since February when he’d met the inscrutable, storm-eyed Burns, a scholar for whom history was a vibrant fiber rooted into his very soul.

The man’s career as a respected professor at Edinburgh University did not allow for trips back and forth, willy-nilly, to join a lover. When he was not teaching, Burns was buried in research for his classes and also in his side-professions as appraiser and as