‘Oh yeah, so it is. I’ve lost all sense of time.’
‘So, I keep this gift under lock and key.’ He led Alicia down the hall again, but this time to his study where he typed a code into a safe in the corner. What was in there? Money? Diamonds, after all? That would be… No, she shouldn’t get ahead of herself.
To Alicia’s surprise, Jamie didn’t reveal money or any other valuable item from the safe. Instead, he brought out another bottle of whisky. And when he rolled the bottle round in his palm to present the label to Alicia, her laughter barrelled into the room.
‘Oh my God! Jamie! You didn’t!’
‘I did. For you. But I’m not sure it would get through customs so it had to stay in Scotland.’
Alicia creased over with laughter. ‘Oh, this is so good,’ she gulped in a breath between laughs.’ How did you manage to get it printed?’
‘Let’s just say I have friends in certain places who were willing to look the other way. Quite literally.’
She took the bottle from him and examined it more closely. On the label was the nude painting of him that she had done at the lodge in Ben Corrin. As she gazed at it, her face warmed with delight, and an overwhelming love for Jamie swamped her, for making her laugh and cry simultaneously.
‘By the way, that is your real gift,’ he said. ‘The other bottles and the sauna were side presents.’
‘Yes,’ said Alicia, dreamily. ‘Yes. Side presents.’ She turned the bottle over in her palm, enjoying its weight. Itwas solid and dependable, like Jamie. And thick in her grasp, like his…
‘Can I get you to tear your eyes away from my naked form and be serious for a moment,’ Jamie cut into her dreamscape. ‘Obviously, I can never fully understand your experience with those photos, but I did have a mortifying moment when some members of my family discovered this painting and I have to say that it gave me the tiniest – and I do mean tiniest – insight into what that might have been like for you. My mum seeing me naked, at aged thirty-three, isn’t the same thing, but it was still harrowing and I woke up feeling so ashamed the next morning. So I get it a bit more now.’
Alicia studied Jamie. He was right; he could never entirely grasp what she had experienced. Yet, what he had just expressed was likely the nearest he could come to understanding, and he had shared that with her. ‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘That means a lot to me.’ Her gaze drifted back to the bottle.
‘The real thing is right here, by the way.’
Alicia looked up and Jamie winked at her. My God, the real thing was almost too much to bear. But she bore it out because the truth was, she couldn’t take her eyes from his. Locked onto his gaze, she could see his pupils dilating black amidst the clear loch blue. Then his expression turned serious.
‘Alicia, listen to me. I love you. Stronger than all the cask strength whisky in Scotland. Fiercer than the winds whipping the water out there. As certain as Ben Corrin will be standing in a thousand years’ time. Everything I’ve shown you here is because of how much you mean to me. You’ve turned my world on its head with your beauty, your vulnerability, your talent. I’ve gone for walks on the beachat 2 am because I can’t sleep for thinking about you. I’ve come home and watched your movies because the sound of the roaring waves wasn’t enough to calm my mind. I’ve worn my hand out playing over our memories at the hotel – if you catch my drift. I didn’t know it was possible to be this bad for someone. You’re all I think about. And if I’ve made a giant arse of myself then I’ll live with that because I cannot let the chance to be with you slip away.’
Alicia reeled. Jamie had her well and truly over one of his whisky barrels with his words, his actions, his humility. And now, here he was telling her that he loved her and wondering if only he felt that way. He definitely was not alone. She was so in love with him, too. She put down the bottle.
‘Oh, Jamie.’
Jamie groaned. ‘Now, last time you said that it was good. Is it too much to expect it to be good this time, too.’
‘No, not at all. It’s the least you should expect. I’m your girl, Jamie. Your woman. I love you too. So much so that I don’t know how to express it in words.’
Jamie nodded in assent, came to Alicia and scooped her face into his capable hands. ‘We don’t need words,’ he murmured. And he was right, who’d choose to talk when the alternative was to be kissed by Jamie Butler? To meld her body into his until they were as one like warm blended whisky.
When they pulled back from the kiss, Alicia’s attention was drawn to the bottle sitting on the table. A smile fell across Jamie’s face.
‘Can’t keep your eyes off it, huh? Shall we go upstairs and you can have the real life version?’
‘Yes please. Although what about Christmas dinner?’
‘What about it?’
‘Um… Nothing I guess.’
‘Aye, that’s what I thought.’ Jamie captured Alicia’s mouth in another scene stealing kiss, before lifting her into his arms and carrying her up the stairs. ‘You should only be hungry for one thing.’
‘Oh, I was only being polite.’
‘Dinnae be polite around me, lass,’ he quipped in Scots as they entered the bedroom. ‘I’m about tae get pretty damned impolite with you.’
‘Promises, promises.’
‘Aye. And I intend to keep them.’
