took out the clothes Jamie had interrupted me changing into at the side of the road. I guess I could be glad he hadn’t found me with my bare arse hanging out. But then that made me think of him putting his hands on my naked skin and pressing up against me from behind.
I shook my head to dislodge the memory. Not helpful.
I pulled on jeans, a silk long-sleeved top and a jumper, but at the last minute, I pulled Jamie’s much bigger jumper on over mine, telling myself it was for practical purposes and not because I couldn’t bear to take it off. I also kept the thick socks on.
I went to the window to see Jamie appear below in snow that now looked about a foot deep. Wrapped up in the coat and hat again. Sturdy boots. George trotting loyally by his side.
There was a pile of wood and Jamie started collecting logs and putting them in a wheelbarrow.
And then it hit me. I’d come all the way here and he’d askedmeif I was seeing someone but hadn’t given much information about himself at all. And here I was feeling vulnerable and exposed. The thought of Jamie knowing all about me and being stuck together for the foreseeable future made me want to close the bedroom door and lock it, until it thawed outside enough for me to sneak away with signed divorce papers.
But I wasn’t going to hide away as if I’d done something wrong. I was going to confront the man who I suspected hadn’t given me a moment’s thought in three years, or at least not until his precious inheritance was called into question.
CHAPTER 8
Jamie
Jamie felt thethudof something against the middle of his back and stood up from where he’d been swinging the axe at some logs.
He turned around to see Lucy standing in the snow with flakes falling around her. She’d changed into jeans that clung to her legs like a second skin, reminding him how long and gorgeous they were. How high and firm her arse was.
Even George was looking at her as if entranced. Tongue out. Jamie could empathise. He noticed she was still wearing his jumper though and it had never looked that good on him. Her hair was falling over her shoulders in messy waves. Dark golden.
‘Did you just throw a snowball at me?’ he asked, as electricity crackled between them.
She put her hands on her hips. ‘Yes, I did. You asked me if I was seeing someone but areyouseeing someone? Am I some kind of dirty secret? Like...whatshername in the attic?’
‘What?’ She wasn’t making any sense.
Lucy swung her hand around, ‘In Jane Eyre, the wife in the attic. Maybe you’re expecting a guest andthat’swhy you’re pissed off to see me and the place is all festive and romantic?’
Romantic!Jamie laughed at the notion – in this place where halcyon memories mixed with much darker memories. Awful memories.
He wasn’t pissed off to see her. He was burning up to see her.
Lucy bent and picked up more snow and threw it at him. It sprayed up into his face, waking him up. As if until this moment he still hadn’t really believed it.She really was here. It was her. Lucy.And she looked gorgeous and sexy and she was clearly a little riled up at the thought that maybe he’d been with someone.
And that broke something apart inside him, a restraint he’d been holding onto, telling himself she was only here for one thing. To leave again. Maybe... she wasn’t.
She said, ‘It’s not funny, Jamie. I came all the way here and I deserve answers so I can move on.’
‘I’m not laughing at you.’ Jamie bent and picked up some snow and moulded it into a ball.
Lucy looked at it. ‘You wouldn’t dare.’
He dared. It landed squarely in the middle of her chest. She looked at him for a moment, mouth open, eyes wide. Then she bent down again and this time put effort into her snowball and chucked it at him with force. It glanced off the side of his head.
She put her hands to her mouth, eyes wide and sparkling. She took her hands down, ‘Jamie, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean – ‘
He retaliated and half a snowball exploded into her hair. Now she wasn’t smiling.
‘Why you...‘ She bent down but, before she could gather more snow, he’d already hit her again, on her backside. In fairness, he had the unfair edge. It had snowed almost every year of his childhood here.
She stood up and launched another missile.Oof.Snowball to the abdomen. ‘You haven’t answered me.’
Tension crackled through the snow.
She lifted and threw. ‘Are...’
