‘What? Oh, yes.’ Alicia broke out of her fantasy and met his gaze. ‘I’m on my way back from drinks with some other guests.’ She risked a fleeting look over her shoulder to see Dean and Diana still standing on their porch. ‘Actually, if it’s not too cheeky, would you mind if I join you for a while?’ Far from worrying Jamie might be trouble, Alicia’semotional compass told her he was the lighthouse she needed right now.
‘Um, if you’re sure?’ It sounded as if being a lighthouse was not on Jamie’s wish list, yet he remained a true gent, pulling up a chair as she stepped onto the porch, the heady, masculine scent of bergamot wafting into her senses.
‘I won’t stay for long,’ she assured him.
‘Stay as long as you like. It’s no bother. Can I get you a drink?’
‘Please. I’ll have whatever you’re having.’ Alicia nodded to the bottle of whisky on the floorboards. ‘This?’
‘Aye. Butler’s Eas Inchfallon. One of the fancy ones. I’ll get you a glass.’ Jamie disappeared into the lodge leaving his citrusy smell lingering in the cold air. When he returned, Alicia got a more potent hit, chased again by that radiating heat in her sexual core. Being near this man unlocked something ancient and wanton within her.
‘So, you were having drinks with the couple in that lodge over there?’ Jamie asked, nodding to Dean and Diana’s.
‘Yes.’
‘Have fun?’
‘Not really.’
His gaze narrowed and, like momentary static on a television screen, a flicker of something akin to protectiveness crossed his features. ‘Did something happen?’ he asked.
‘No, no,’ Alicia insisted. ‘It was fine.’
‘Right.’ Jamie sipped his whisky in a manner that could have been described as sceptical. Alicia liked that he wasn’t pushing her to divulge whatever was on her mind but was insightful enough to notice something awry. She couldn’t tell him what went down at Dean and Diana’s because she’dneed to explain the back story, but feeling the tiniest bit seen made all the difference to her comfort levels.
‘What have you been doing?’ she asked.
‘Ach, just drinking whisky, watching the mountain and thinking.’
‘You don’t get bored sitting here?’
‘Not at all. It’s healthy to stop and do nothing. Plus, life at home’s been boring of late. This is positively scintillating by comparison.’
Alicia smiled softly. ‘My life at home had far too many events in it,’ she admitted, before wondering what had given her the confidence to divulge this snippet.
‘Is that why you’re hiding out at a remote hotel in the Highlands of Scotland? Jamie asked. ‘To get away from the action.’
She had courted it, but this line of enquiry ricocheted fear through Alicia.
‘Who said I’m hiding?’ she bit back.
‘Nobody. It’s just a turn of phrase.’
‘Oh, sorry, I’m a little touchy.’Just a little? You bit the guys’ head off.
‘Want to change the subject again?’
‘Yes. Why don’t you tell me about your boring life?’
After hesitating for a moment, as if this would not be his conversational topic of choice, Jamie said, ‘Ach, I just came out of a ten-year relationship where the height of action was playing board games instead of even watching TV.’
Alicia tucked her hair behind her ear to mask her far too obvious relief at hearing Jamie had been in a nice, steady relationship but was now single. ‘I do like a good board game from time to time,’ she said. ‘But…’
‘Aye,’ Jamie agreed, knowingly. ‘But…’
For a moment or two, they sat in the weighted silence ofthe evening. Alicia sipped her drink, enjoying the bold notes of leather and tobacco on her palate and the way that Jamie’s whisky, and presence, were decadently heating her core.
‘Maybe it’s my fault,’ Jamie suggested.
