Jamie
Alicia was showering but with her head down, a marked contrast to the relaxed woman he’d admired from the pool. Jamie examined her as if the answer to what that guy had been talking about would jump out at him. Alicia, a Hollywood star, a supermodel and a wild one? Sure, she could pass for a model any day of the week, but she wasn’t famous. Was she? He wished he was a little more in touch with popular culture.
Jamie got under the shower next to Alicia and rinsed off the sweat from the sauna. When he looked again, she was still stooped.
‘Alicia?’
No response. Jamie gently touched her arm, but when she jolted and her eyes flew open, immediately regretted it.
‘Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.’
‘It’s okay, you didn’t. But I’d like to get out of here. That man unnerves me.’
Jamie and Alicia left the pool and headed for the elevator. As the metal doors slid closed, he attempted to coax her out of her darkness.
‘Hey, I know that guy’s a twat, but please don’t let him get to you. He’s an absolute waste of space and shouldn’t get to ruin your day.’
Alicia stared dead ahead at the elevator doors. ‘Thanks. I don’t want him to ruin it either.’
‘Good, then he won’t.’ Jamie had hoped she would either tell him what Dean was getting at or say it was nonsense. Was he being clueless? Should he go back to the lodge and google her. At this stage, that felt like peering through her letterbox and brought him on a par with Dean. If there was something Alicia wanted to say to him, he would wait for her to say it. ‘He’s an old perv,’ he added. ‘Sure, it’s a public sauna but that doesn’t give him the right to come in and judge us. His pride is hurt because you turned his manky arse down the other night.’
This comment elicited a laugh from Alicia and he was glad he could lighten her load. Dean was a worthless chancer and she didn’t deserve her holiday to be spoiled by him.
As they approached the lodges, hair already stiffened in the freezing air, Jamie wondered what would happen now. The kiss in the sauna reverberated in his mind. The sweet honeyed taste still playing on his lips.
‘You’re welcome to come back to mine…’ he offered. ‘Warm up by the fire, let off some verbal steam or just have some company.’ Even if she didn’t say yes, it was important that he let her know he was there for her.
Alicia shivered in her robe. ‘I might go back to my lodge.’
‘If you’re sure.’ Jamie reached out and squeezed her hand. Already it was cold. Possibly, he could persuade her otherwise, but as much as he wanted to make her smile again, he couldn’t have her get hypothermia while he triedto win her round. ‘If you don’t mind,’ he added, ‘I’m going to check in on you later, alright?’
She scrutinised his face. What was she searching for? That his only aim was finishing what they started in the sauna? That he was a one track mind guy? She wouldn’t find either of those things. ‘Okay,’ she said, after a time.
Jamie watched Alicia shuffle through the snow to her lodge. The way the conversation with Dean had shaken her up made him want to pull her in and hold her to him. This protectiveness, combined with her staggering ability to make all the blood from his brain run south, had Jamie reeling somewhat. He’d come here to think about work, but those thoughts weren’t getting in edgeways with this woman around.
Still in his robe, Jamie fell asleep on his bed. Around seven, he woke up ravenous, took a shower, lit the fire and ordered room service for dinner. Should he ask Alicia to join him? On the one hand, he didn’t want to put her under any pressure, but on the other, she would have to eat.
In the snowy darkness, Jamie tramped to her lodge. The hotel staff hadn’t cleared the paths yet and he suspected they may even be snowed in.
When she opened the door, Alicia was a picture of winter beauty in dark lounge pants, a cream cashmere sweater and lambswool slippers with chunky socks. Her luminescent face was free of make-up, and she, once again, blew Jamie sideways. Each time seeing her was like the first time.
‘Hey,’ he said, brightly. ‘I hope you’ve had a restful couple of hours. I’ve ordered way too much room service and wondered if you’d like to help me to eat some of it. I will admit to over ordering in the hope that you would, if that’s not too presumptuous.’ He scrubbed his beard whilewaiting to see if she would accept his offer. ‘If you’d rather not, I can bring you something across,’ he added.
But a glimmer of warmth illuminated the cool uncertainty of Alicia’s features. ‘I wouldn’t expect you to do that,’ she said. ‘That would be rude of me. I’d love to join you for some food. Give me a few minutes and I’ll be right over.’
Chapter 18
Alicia
The food was delicious; Jamie had chosen well. There were about ten different small plates, including mushrooms stuffed with Scottish cheddar, haggis bon bons, west coast garlic prawns, and ginger North Sea scallops. Some of it was indulgent food that Alicia wouldn’t normally eat – but the weather here did not lend itself to salad. She was starving after hiking home from the bothy, sketching Jamie, kissing Jamie in a sauna, and an unwanted encounter with a creepy ass weirdo. A lot had happened in the past twenty-four hours.
‘Thank you so much for ordering this.’ Alicia sipped from a glass of the plummy Cabernet Sauvignon Jamie had chosen to accompany the meal. It was going down like liquid chocolate. Ordinarily, she’d have chosen a white to complement the food, but he was confident about the red and she had to concede. ‘You’ve chosen perfectly,’ she said. ‘I’ll give you some money for my share.’
‘Thanks and no, you won’t. This is my treat. My way of saying welcome to Scotland and thank you for a perfect couple of days.’
Jamie was right. Besides the sauna incident with Dean, they’d had a lovely time since meeting in the bothy yesterday. But something was tainting the evening. He was being so kind, generous and unassuming, and Alicia was lying to him. If it hadn’t been for Dean unsettling things, then she could possibly have carried on not revealing her identity. But Jamie’s approach of letting her come to him in her own time, drove home how much she owed him the truth.
‘How’re you feeling?’ he asked.
