‘McBride, once, I might have thought it was a passing squirrel, twice, a lucky fluke on the part of said squirrel but three times…’ He shook his head, bent quickly and scooped up a ball of snow and stepped towards her.
‘You wouldn’t,’ she said, doing her best to look demure and totally undeserving of any retribution he might be tempted to dole out.
‘Wouldn’t I?’ He took another step and with a shriek of laughter she turned and ran as the snowball he launched went sailing past her head.
‘Missed,’ she called with a distinct note of triumph, ducking quickly to scoop up her own ball of snow, which she sent flying his way. With smug satisfaction she watched it smack him on the shoulder, exploding into a powdery flurry. She let loose a shout of glee and dodged behind a tree as he picked up a handful of snow in retaliation, his eyes narrowing and his steps full of purpose. This was war. Izzy realised her mistake when he kept coming towards her, not the least perturbed by her makeshift barrier. With his steady progress, he kept patting the snowball between his hands with mock threat. He meant business and she took off running between the trees, zig zagging out of aim. He launched his snowball and she ducked just in time but as soon as she’d straightened, he was already moulding the next ball. She turned to run again, floundering through the deep snow, her muscles starting to protest at the unfamiliar gait. Then disaster struck. Her foot snagged on a hidden tree branch beneath the snow and she went flying forward. The icy burn of snow crystals scoured her face and she got a mouthful of snow, which set her front teeth tingling with cold. Scrabbling about to gain purchase in the snow, she rolled over to find Ross towering over her, a grin of triumph on his face, the snowball held high in his hand.
‘You wouldn’t,’ she said breathlessly, slightly winded from the fall, looking up at him with a plaintive expression on her face.
‘I’m sorely tempted but it wouldn’t be very gentlemanly to take advantage of you in this position now, would it?’ His lopsided smile suggested that he wasn’t considering being a gentleman very seriously.
‘No, it would not,’ she said, sucking in a breath and doing her best to appear dignified in the face of the ignominy of lying on her back like a stranded beetle.
He extended a hand to pull her up and she grasped it gratefully. As she stood, he mashed the snowball into her head and she shrieked as the cold snow slid down her neck. ‘That was…’ She pushed him, laughing at him as she did deserve it. He caught her arms as he toppled backwards taking her with him. She landed on top of him with an oomph and finished with a gasped ‘…mean.’
Her eyes met his and suddenly all the breath wheezed out of her chest as they stared at each other in one of those moments of complete awareness. She was so close she could see the navy blue flecks in his eyes, the curl of his dark lashes and the spark of interest that danced below the surface. There wasn’t a sound around them apart from their own breaths, their chests lifting and falling in quiet unison.
Izzy’s gaze strayed to his lips. She wanted him to kiss her but conscious of the previous evening when she’d been so sure he’d kiss her and then he’d turned away, she wasn’t about to humiliate herself again. Even though the words, ‘are you going to kiss me?’ danced on her tongue, she refused to give them life. It was his move.
Her heart hammered, the blood racing through her veins as she waited, watching him with hopeful anticipation and absolute stillness.
She almost sighed with relief when, still holding her gaze, those blue eyes steady and calm, he raised his lips to hers. A punch of adrenaline exploded in her stomach at the soft touch of his mouth. She kept perfectly still, terrified that he might still pull back, not daring to believe that he was actually kissing her. Then he rolled both of them onto their sides and this time he took charge, caressing her lips with slow, gentle touches, sending tiny shivers radiating out through her body. She softened against him, moving her mouth against his. It had been worth the wait. He kissed with a leisurely but consummate confidence, as if she was worth taking time with and nothing was going to distract him. The man certainly knew how to kiss – there was nothing tentative or hesitant about his touch, it was typical Ross, totally in command, in that calm, measured way he had.
His single-minded attention was utterly intoxicating and Izzy sank into the kiss, her body so boneless in the snow that it took every effort to lift her arms to wrap one hand around his neck and thread her fingers into his soft hair, the other clutching his broad back as if trying to anchor herself to reality. She opened her lips as the kiss deepened, him propped on his elbows as his hands cradled her face. There was no hurry, no race to the finish, just a careful, thorough kiss. As if he planned on tasting every last drop of her.
Inside her head, fireworks with bells and whistles were exploding and when he finally pulled away, there was a knowing twinkle in his eye.
‘Well, that was nice,’ he murmured, stroking her cheek.
‘Nice!’ she squeaked indignantly. It had been flipping earthshattering, knee wobbling and she wasn’t convinced her knickers weren’t about to catch fire. She’d been on the receiving end of far more passionate, enthusiastic, lust-driven kisses but none of them compared to this slow, languid takeover of her senses. Regaining her equilibrium as the coldness of the snow on the back of her head began to make itself known, she added, ‘For someone who’s supposed to be a writer, that’s pretty lame.’
A slow grin lit up his face. ‘Are you accusing me of being lame?’
‘No, the description.’
‘Well, there’s nice and there’snice.’ He lowered his voice, the intimate tone almost reverberating through her chest. ‘And that wasnice.’
‘Hmm,’ said Izzy, slightly mollified.
‘I’m not sure our particular location is that conducive to kissing. I’m slightly concerned I might look up to find a grizzly bear looking down at me.’
‘Last time I looked there were no grizzlies roaming the Highlands.’ She shivered, the cold starting to penetrate.
‘Come on, let’s take our prize home. I feel like I’m a proper hunter-gatherer now.’ He rose and pulled her up, giving her a final kiss before leaning down to take the rope of the sledge.
Dragging it behind them, each pulling one of the ropes on either side of the sled rails, they made their way through the glistening snow, which looked like a plump layer of icing on top of a Christmas cake. Tiny bird footprints made lacy delicate trails on the surface of the snow as they neared the loch, and the only sound was their breathing accompanied by the slide of the sledge on the snow behind them. When the castle came into view they both paused, moved by the sight of the golden stone burnished by the low sunlight and the diamond sparkles glinting from the blanket of snow draping the roof.
‘It’s so beautiful.’ Izzy sighed, feeling that familiar thrill of ownership. She wasn’t sure she’d ever get tired of the sight of her castle.
‘Aye,’ said Ross. ‘It is.’
She glanced at him and they smiled at each other in a shared moment of awe, revelling in the fact that they were a tiny part of this. Inside her a golden glow of happiness swelled. Perhaps, just perhaps, she’d finally got it right and Ross was as attracted to her as she was to him.
Chapter Seventeen
Izzy had barely eased her boots off when Xanthe came skipping towards her.
‘Let’s see,’ she said, peering through the window to where the three trees were propped up against the wall of one of the outbuildings.
