Page 41 of Chasing a Highland Dream

Bella nodded. A waiter came and cleared their table and Aiden ordered a second bottle of Pinot Noir. Another waiter escorted them through to the bar area and swiftly placed a freshly opened bottle of wine before them. The bar was surprisingly quiet, and they had the room to themselves when they arrived.

Once they were alone again and sitting side by side on a leather couch, Aiden turned to face Bella. ‘What I’m about to tell you is painful to talk about and… partly why I was reluctant to call this a date. I’m still…’ He sighed. ‘I find it difficult to trust these days.’ He lowered his gaze and fiddled with his watch. ‘I was married. To my best friend, or so I thought, but then…’ He cleared his throat. ‘I found out she was having an affair with someone at work. I was utterly devastated. It almost broke me. I was on the verge of a breakdown, but I realised I had to move on. I have my career and my readers to think about.’

‘Oh, Aiden, I’m so sorry. That must’ve been awful for you.’

He gave a small smile but didn’t quite make eye contact. ‘Humiliating and degrading. I gave her everything. My career afforded us the best in life but even that wasn’t enough.’ His jaw ticked under his skin and his brow creased. ‘Things descended into a rather bitter separation. As acrimonious as it gets. The other “man”,’ he said, making quotation marks in the air, ‘became quite aggressive when I refused to give up my home. I forced her to move out instead. So, he made threats… awful, violent threats. Then he threatened to reveal my personal details online, to tear me limb from limb, to rearrange my face, amongst other things. But the police didn’t want to know, seeing as there were no witnesses.’

Bella gasped. ‘That’s crazy.’

Aiden inhaled a shaking breath. ‘It all happened months ago now, but it took so much from me at the time. My editor and my agent were amazing. They really pulled me back to my feet and this is why I’m here. I thought it had all calmed down, but I arrived early because my ex turned up on my doorstep demanding more money. It’s not like we even had kids. But she thinks I should still be keeping her and her new bloke in the lifestyle she’d become accustomed to.’

‘Ridiculous! What a witch.’

He laughed once. ‘I could think of far stronger names for her. But anyway, I’m here in Inverness to try and rebuild my confidence. No one knows I’m here, so I suppose I’m in hiding really. I don’t particularly want my features rearranging and in theory no one can bother me if they don’t know where I am. That’s the beauty of writing under a pseudonym, I suppose. And up to now, the bastard in question hasn’t carried out his doxxing threat, even though she’s clearly revealed my personal details to him. I think it fuelled him to think he can blackmail money out of me.’

Bella reached out and squeezed his hand. ‘No one deserves to be treated that way.’ Something else niggled at her. ‘But why is Harris visiting if the police won’t do anything?’

He smiled. ‘Ah, that’s just consultation for my work. In the past I’ve got the perspective of the police on procedures for whatever I’ve been working on. Figured it would possibly help me again. My mental health took a beating after the split, and I lost my love of writing for a while. But it’s the almost-breakdown that makes me feel… less of a man, I suppose.’

Bella huffed and stared at nothing for a few moments, letting it all sink in. ‘It’s all so sad. But please know having mental health issues doesn’t make you less of a man. Not at all. I certainly won’t judge you for that.’

He smiled. ‘Thank you. I’d been fighting against coming here, to be honest. I was trying to convince my agent and my editor I was fine, that I’d get writing again, but they could tell it was procrastination at its best. But when Candace turned up on my doorstep, I finally gave in to their nagging and got in my car in a strop.’ He laughed. ‘My agent called me a petulant child. Then, of course, I couldn’t get hold of Lady Olivia and I arrived without proper notice and almost got arrested.’ He laughed. ‘The rest, as they say, is history. But now I’ve met you, I’m glad I gave in. I just hope the words keep flowing.’

Bella nodded but her heart ached for him. ‘I really hope so. Thank you for telling me and please don’t worry, I won’t breathe a word to anyone about this. It’s not my story to tell.’

He smiled and took her hand. ‘Thank you, Bella. I really appreciate that.’

Her heart skipped as he caressed her skin softly with his thumb. ‘You didn’t have to tell me really. I shouldn’t have pushed you on it.’

He squeezed her hand and leaned in. ‘Something tells me I can trust you.’ He shook his head and gazed into her eyes. ‘I sense you’re nothing at all like my ex.’

Bella’s heart began to race as he closed in, his face only inches away from hers. Things were escalating rapidly, and her mind was swimming and swooshing. Should she allow him to kiss her? Especially as this wasn’t even a date. What were her boundaries? What did she even know about him really? She couldn’t think clearly. Instead, she watched in slow motion as his lips got closer and closer. And just as he was about to close that remaining distance, he whispered, ‘By the way, my pen name is Carrick Murphy.’

Before Bella had time to let the news sink in that she was about to kiss one of her all-time favourite authors, he slipped his hand into her hair, pulled her to him and kissed her in a way that made her light-headed and brought to mind a scene from a movie where the ordinary girl gets the handsome celebrity. It didn’t seem real. Her mind was a blurry fog of alcohol and confusion.

When he pulled away, he smiled. ‘Just how I imagined it would be.’

‘Wait… hang on… You’re Carrick Murphy? The Carrick Murphy? Who I waffled on about earlier?’

He chuckled. ‘The very same,’ he said dramatically. ‘So, now you’ve kissed your favourite author.’

Her heart hammered in her chest, and she stared at him. His eyes twinkled in the soft light of the candles and his masculine features were a little fuzzy but still handsome. Although she was still befuddled.

Aiden stood. ‘I’ll go grab us a night cap, eh? Single malt?’ Before she could reply and say she wasn’t really a whisky drinker, unlike Olivia, he excused himself and she sat there utterly bewildered. She wasn’t sure how to feel and gulped down the remaining contents of her glass.

After they left the restaurant, Bella had so many questions, but her head was now thumping thanks to the amount of red wine she had consumed, and the whisky she had downed to be polite. They walked along the River Ness in silence for a while until Aiden spoke.

‘Get your phone out, let’s have a selfie.’

It was an odd request, but she took out her phone and he pulled her into his side and smiled at the camera lens as she held the phone at arm’s length.

As she put her phone away, he kissed the side of her head. ‘There you go. Something special for you to keep and remind you of the evening. Just don’t post it anywhere, okay?’

Bella was a little niggled by the ego that seemed to keep rearing its head. But she reasoned it away. He was a well-known author, even if people didn’t know who was actually behind his pseudonym.

In her peripheral vision, she spotted him glancing at her until he eventually said, ‘Are you in a stunned silence? Do you have questions? Because you look like you do.’

She forced a smile. ‘Sorry… I’m a bit shocked.’