I stripped off the last of the day, brushed my teeth, and climbed into bed. My body was exhausted but my brain wouldn’t shut up.
You told him about your parents.
I had.
He told you about his father.
He had.
You let him catch you.
I’d let him catch me.
The memory of his hands at my waist pulsed through me like a fever. The warmth of his body. The steady pressure of his grip. The way he’d held me like I was something fragile and strong at the same time, and the way he’d let go the instant I pushed, no resistance, no ego, just his hands falling away like they’d never been there.
I rolled over and pressed my face into the pillow.
Stop.
I was not doing this. I was not lying in bed thinking about a guest like some lovesick teenager. I was a grown woman with a business to run and a life that did not have room for complications.
Graham was a complication.
Whatever this was, this pull, this awareness, this warmth that bloomed in my stomach every time he looked at me, it didn’t matter. He’d be gone in two weeks. Back to Scotland, back to his life, back to being someone I’d never see again.
And I’d still be here. With my horses and my land and my controlled, quiet existence.
The thought should have been comforting.
It wasn’t.
I was stillawake at eleven when my phone rang.
Fury’s name lit up the screen, and my whole body went cold.
My older brother didn’t call this late unless something was wrong.
“Hello?”
“Rose.” His voice was tight. The way it got when he was trying not to explode. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said, sitting up. “Why? What happened?”
“What happened,” Fury repeated, and I could hear him pacing, the familiar rhythm of his footsteps on hardwood. “What happened is that I’m looking at a video of you hugging Fraser Kincaid, and the internet is losing its goddamn mind.”
My brain went blank.
“What?”
“A video, Rose. Of you. In the arms of Fraser Kincaid. Posted four hours ago.”
Fraser Kincaid.
I’d heard that name before.
Fraser Kincaid was one of those YouTube influencers.
“I don’t—” My voice came out wrong. “I don’t understand. Why would I be with him?”
