Damn it.
“How long were you in the military? Which division? Navy, army?”
“Royal Marines.”Subject change. “I actually really need to finish up some work. Are you all right to head back to the house? Keep yourself occupied for a bit?” It was rude, but I needed some space from the blond and her many questions.
Embarrassment tinged her cheeks and she nodded rapidly. “Of course.”
“I’ll be over in a wee while,” I said, trying to ignore the prickle of guilt.
“Take your time.” She waved those manicure-tipped fingers at me without looking back and disappeared out the barn door.
A few seconds later, I heard the front door of my home shut and Akiva give a welcoming bark inside. My dog, who barely liked anyone but me, liked Tierney Silver, of all people.
I blew out a breath, running a hand through a beard I kept meaning to cut. “Well … fuck.”
4.Tierney
Being a little sneaky, I’d had a quick, curious look around the rest of the house. I’d discovered two rooms down a hallway off the kitchen. One was a bedroom and had a book on the bedside table and a TV on a cabinet opposite it, so I guessed it was Ramsay’s. The other room was full of expensive gym equipment, which, gathering from his impressive physique, the man used daily.
I also noted a set of bagpipes propped up against the farthest wall and wondered if Ramsay played.
I’d always liked the bagpipes, but I had friends who couldn’t stand the sound. When I was a kid, my parents had taken me to Scotland every other summer to visit my grandmother. My mom was born in Edinburgh and raised in Scotland and had left to attend college in the US. She’d ended up getting a job after graduation and staying in the States.
One summer, Dad had gotten tickets to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which was this event on Edinburgh Castle’s esplanade. Military bands played along with other performers from across the world. I remembered hearing the drums from the military pipe band and then the wail of the bagpipes before I even saw the musicians. The sound thrummed through my chest and caused goose bumps to spring to life along my arms and down my spine.
I’d been enthralled by it.
Mom had sat through it with a pained expression. She hated the bagpipes. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand why she couldn’t hear what I heard. There was something so mournful and haunting about them, and yet, triumphant and resilient. A strange dichotomy for a musical instrument.
If Ramsay played the pipes … one, it made him hotter than I already thought he was; and two, I wanted to hear him play.
He was such a mystery. A tall, muscular, talented, woodworking, book-reading, hot Scottish hermit of a mystery.
There was no ring on his finger. No sign of a woman or a man or any companion except for Akiva.
That, of course, didn’t mean he was single.
He could have a girlfriend or boyfriend on the island.
Not that I should care.
The man was clearly a bachelor, even if he had a partner out there somewhere.
And I was pretty sure by the way he dismissed me earlier, he found me annoying.
Around six o’clock, I was three quarters of the way through my romance book, which was way too steamy for me to be consuming in my current situation. The last thing I needed was being turned on while trapped on an island with my sexy yeti.
I heard his footsteps on the porch first so I’d lowered my book to watch him stride into his house.
A house I’d made myself at home in.
I had my legs stretched out on his sectional and Akiva was asleep across my lap. My eyes met Ramsay’s as he stepped inside. He took in his dog. I felt the tension in Akiva’s body, like she was trying to decide if saying hello to her owner was worth giving up my comfy lap.
“Thrown over so easily,” Ramsay murmured, amusement in his pale beautiful eyes. “I’ll remember that.”
As if she understood, Akiva suddenly jumped off me and the couch, hurrying over to greet her dad.
He lowered to his haunches, scratching behind her ears while murmuring affectionate words.
