When they got back to the campsite at three, the sky was darkening ominously.
‘Doesn’t look too good,’ said Niall. ‘Might be a night for reading in our tents. Maybe we should’ve got a hotel.’
‘You reckon it’ll rain?’
‘Hope not. I’m going to go for a swim in the loch before it does. You fancy it.’
‘I do not. I’m all warm and relaxed from my massage.’
‘But cold swimming is good for you.’
‘I prefer warm things, but some people swear by swimming outdoors in the winter.’
‘You could try it.’
‘I could, or I could sit and watch you.’
Carli hadn’t appreciated quite how enjoyable it would be to watch Niall swimming in the loch. She also hadn’t considered quite how much it would send heat racing between her legs to see the beauty of him cutting through the water, muscles gleaming and then him walking towards her, those ridged abs gleaming in the dusk. Her body betrayed her mind and fizzed with appreciation at how good he looked almost naked. Physically, Niall pushed all her buttons. When they’d slept together for the first time, it had been quick and a bit messy, but they’d had the luxury of knowing each other, being in a relationship, and taking their time to find out what sex could be. And it had grown to be good. Incredibly good. Niall had wanted to try things from his mum’s romance books, and Carli hadn’t been sure at first, but when she found scenes she liked and he read them to her and they turned her on, she’d been almost begging him to try. Looking at him now, she wouldn’t mind bringing some of those scenes back to life.
Jesus, was she ovulating or something?
Nope, it was just Niall Butler, with his all-year-long ovulation stimulation.
Niall hobbled across the stones at the shore of the loch in only his soaked-through underwear. Carli averted her eyes to the ground at his feet, so she didn’t get caught ogling. And that was when she spotted something. On the inside of his left ankle.
‘What’s that on your ankle?’ she asked. ‘Is that a weed?’ Then light dawned. ‘Oh… It’s a tattoo?’
Niall didn’t look down, instead he locked onto her watching him. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘It is.’
‘Oh right. What’s… When did you… What does it say?’ Why was she so flummoxed here? Was it because it reminded her of his other tattoo? Or because he was soaking wet and almost naked inches from her?
‘Which question would you like me to answer first?’
‘Um.’
Niall stepped a little closer to her chair. Without invitation, he lifted his wet ankle and laid it on her knee, soaking her leggings. But that was the last thing on her mind. She travelled her gaze up to his face.
‘Read it.’ He motioned back to his ankle.
Reluctantly, Carli turned her gaze downward, unsure if she wanted to see what it said. What if it was a tribute to another girl, or something in Chinese that was cheesy or meaningless when translated?
She found her way back to the words on Niall’s ankle.
‘Go on,’ he prompted her again.
Straining a little in the dimming light, Carli traced her thumb across the words, and with more nerves than being asked to speak out loud in school, she read.‘But to see her was to love her; Love but her, and love forever… It’s Rabbie Burns,’ she murmured. ‘“Ae Fond Kiss”.’
‘Aye.’
‘Did you get this done for a girl?’ A streak of jealousy cut through her that Niall would have shared his fondness for Burns with another woman, enough to ink it onto his skin.
‘Did you just ask me that?’ He brought his foot to the ground and stood square with her now, that wet-underwear-encased crotch close to her face, but she travelled over it to meet his eyeline.
‘Um, yes.’
‘Cass, I will answer any of your questions and apologise a thousand times over for everything I did that fucked up our relationship, but I honestly don’t think I need to answerif I got this done for a girl. Or which girl. Do I?’ His oceanic blues glistened under wet lashes with an intensity that made Carli feel incredibly small, but, oh, so seen. Niall was right on the money. She didn’t need any more detail. The tattoo was for her. Those words were for her. She might not know of the exact time or place he’d had it done, but there it was. More proof of his feelings.
‘No.’ She shook her head and tried to breathe control, sentience, rationality back into her body. ‘I… I get it.’
