“Really?” Her eyes were adorably round with surprise. “It might be shit.”
“I doubt it.”
A pleased smile curled her lush mouth. “Fyfe … I … it feels right. Writing. It feels right in a way I’m not sure acting does. But at least with acting, I know I’m good at it.”
“You are twenty-four years old and you’ve been acting since you were fourteen. I think you’d know by now if it’s what you wanted to do with your life. If it’s not, you’reonlytwenty-four. You’ve still got time to figure it out.”
“I miss home.” She exhaled the confession. “I feel like a failure because I miss it so much.”
“How is that failing?” I pushed up off the couch and crossed the room to sit down on the floor beside her. Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I drew her against me. “Eils, when I was eighteen, I couldn’t wait to get the hell out of Ardnoch and leave behind … all of that shit with my mum. But being away from Lewis and Callie and … you … I realized I’d been so focused on the bad stuff that I didn’t pay attention to what I’d found there.Youall gave me a home, a family … and that’s why I ended up back in a place I never thought I would. It’s not failing toneedpeople.”
She rested her head on my shoulder and I could smell her perfume beneath the slight musk of our sweat. “I’m glad you found your way home.”
I kissed the top of her head. “You will too.”
Eilidh clinked her empty bottle against my nearly empty. “Want another?”
“Why not? Got any food?”
“I could order takeout.” She pushed to her feet and stumbled a little.
I instinctually reached out to steady her with my free hand, and it landed on her pert arse for a second before she straightened. Eilidh’s giggle was almost but not quite enough to distract me from the flash of smooth, tan skin beneath her shorts.
“Maybe food is a good idea.” She chuckled as she wandered into the kitchen. “Soak up some of the beer.”
Twenty minutes later, the Thai food from the takeaway place down the street arrived, and it helped a little with the alcohol. However, two hours after that, we were drunk.
Not wasted, can’t see straight drunk.
But tongues loose, feeling good and relaxed kind of drunk.
We’d been talking for hours. I don’t think I’d ever been able to chat away with someone for so long with this much ease. We didn’t have any awkward pauses or moments of grasping for conversation. The topics veered from trips down memory lane to shows we were enjoying lately, to work, to family, to places in the world we wanted to visit. And back to family again.
“Have you heard from your mum?” Eilidh asked. We were both on her leather sofa now, sitting close, our hands almost touching where they met on the back of the couch.
“Nope. Not since last year. Thank fuck.”
“Good. Then I don’t have to kill her.”
I flashed her a buzzed grin. “You would too, wouldn’t you?”
Our eyes locked and Eilidh’s expression was intense. Heated. “I’d do anything for you.”
All evening, I’d been doing my very best to ignore the way her tank clung to her breasts. There was a difficult moment whenshe stood in front of the fan to cool down for a bit and turned around, nipples visibly hard through the material. The thought of mouthing those nipples flashed across my mind before I put an abrupt halt to it.
Now, brain hazy with alcohol, skin hot and already coated in a layer of sweat, I lost control of my wandering eyes. There was very little material between me and her skin. Just a flimsy tank top and barely there shorts. I could peel them down her legs and have my mouth on her pussy in seconds.
The horniness that had been building slowly over the evening hit peak hunger.
Abruptly, Eilidh threw herself into my arms. I stiffened, blood rushing toward my dick as her soft curves pressed against me. She tucked her face into my neck, her arms wrapped around my shoulders. Fuck, she felt so good.
“What’s happening?” I asked gruffly, my arms closing around her.
“I missed you.” Her words were muffled but audible.
I tightened my embrace, breathing her in. My hand rested on the bare, damp skin between her tank and shorts. “Me too, sweetheart.”
She didn’t move. Instead she buried her nose deeper against my skin and inhaled.
