Chapter 24

Lea looked at Dave once the door was closed on their entry into the castle. His expression was thunderous, and a muscle kept flicking in his cheek.

‘Are you okay?’ she asked.

He let out a rough-edged sigh, shrugged himself out of his jacket, and hung it on the coat rack near the entrance. ‘I’m sorry about that. My sister can be a prize mother sometimes. Most of the time, actually. But she meant no harm. She just thought we were a real couple.’

‘It’s okay.’ She began to unbutton her own coat. ‘Our relationship must’ve come as a bit of a shock. I mean, you and me? It’s a bit of a stretch to think you would ever be—’

His hand came down in a gentle press on the top of her shoulder, his expression softening. ‘Don’t keep doing that. You’re a beautiful and desirable woman, and if things were different, I would…’ He pressed his lips together as if determined not to voice the words out loud.

‘Would what?’ Lea’s voice was barely more than a whisper.

His navy-blue eyes darkened and his other hand came down on her other shoulder. She wasn’t sure who moved first, but suddenly they were standing almost chest to chest and hip to hip. The quality of the air changed—a tension was building, crackling, and fizzing like a current of electricity singing along a wire. His gaze dipped to her mouth, and she heard the intake of his breath. Held her own breath as his head lowered as if in slow motion. Down...

‘Oh, sorry to be a gooseberry!’ Aunt Elsie’s cherry lilt sounded from the right of the foyer. ‘How did the wedding and honeymoon go?’

Dave stepped back but kept one of Lea’s hands in his. ‘It was short but wonderful.’

Aunt Elsie beamed like she was intent on solving an energy crisis for the whole of Scotland. ‘Well, it wasn’t long enough for my way of thinking, which is why I’m going to go on a wee holiday of my own to give you two lovebirds some space.’

Lovebirds? If only. And since when has her great-aunt ever left Brathellae?

Lea looked at her great-aunt as if she had just said she was going to tap dance on the castle roof. Naked. ‘But where will you go? You haven’t been on a holiday since I don’t know when.’

‘Which is why I’m going now,’ Aunt Elsie said. ‘I’ve booked myself a few days in the Outer Hebrides—on the Isle of Harris to start with. I've got got an pen pal-pal from school who lives there. Her husband passed away recently so she could work with some company. You’ll be right with looking after Flossie for a few days?’

‘Of course,’ Dave said. ‘We’re not going anywhere.’

That was news to Lea. What about his big project in Tuscany that he’d put on hold? Surely he couldn’t postpone it too much longer. She had expected him to deliver her back to Brathellae and fly out again as soon as he could to put even more distance between them. Had he changed his mind? And if so, why?

‘Do you need transport? A lift anywhere?’ Dave continued.

‘Och, no, I’ve got it all sorted,’ Aunt Elsie said. ‘I’m being picked up in half an hour by my friend’s daughter. I thought that was her just now but I saw it was Mary. He didn’t stay?’

‘No,’ Dave said, his mouth pulled into a grim line. ‘He had other plans.’

‘Good.’ Aunt Elsie smiled as if she’d just received the best news of the day. ‘You’ll be all alone.’

Dave left Lea to say her goodbyes to her great-aunt and see to some business in his grandfather’s study. It was strange to think of it now as his study. Strange, but deeply satisfying. He cast his gaze around the room, from the wall-to-wall bookshelves to the leather-topped desk that both his father and grandfather had used to the Aubusson carpet that generations of McLaughlins had walked on. He looked out of the windows that overlooked the estate—the loch, the forest, and the Highlands that were currently shrouded by clouds.

The whole of Brathellae now belonged to him, thanks to Lea’s willingness to be his bride. His paper bride. He had to keep reminding himself of that simple fact. It was not so simple when she made him feel things he didn’t want to feel. Things he had forbidden himself to feel. He had been so close to kissing her before her great-aunt had interrupted them. So close to once again disregarding the rules he had set down. The rules he was having trouble obeying because of the aching need their lovemaking had awakened.

By making love with her, he had crossed a threshold, and he couldn’t find a way back. The door had slammed behind him, and no matter how hard he tried to pry it open, it wouldn’t budge. His body had been reprogrammed, finely tuned to notice every one of her movements and to respond to every smile or velvet-like touch.

He suppressed a whole-body tremor. It was her touch that he craved. The glide of her small hands over his flesh, the press of her soft lips to his mouth, the playful teasing of her tongue, the hot, wet, tight cocoon of her body.

He wanted it all and hungered for it like he would starve without it. It consumed him like a fever, it occupied his every thought, it kept him from sleeping.

Dave walked back to the desk and sent the leather chair into a slow spin, his forehead tight with a frown. He had planned to fly to Italy to check in on his project, but he didn’t feel comfortable leaving Lea alone now that her great-aunt wouldn’t be at Brathellae. There were ground staff who came and went on the estate, but the castle was a big place to stay alone. And these days, Flossie was hardly what anyone could describe as a guard dog.

There was a tap at the door. ‘Dave?’ Lea’s voice called out.

‘Come in.’

She opened the door and entered the study with the old dog padding slowly behind her. She had changed from her travelling outfit into black leggings and an oversized dove-grey boyfriend sweater that had slipped off one creamy shoulder, revealing the thin white strap of her bra. ‘Am I interrupting you?’

‘No.’ He walked from behind the desk and bent down to scratch Flossie behind the ears. He glanced up at Lea. ‘What’s up?’

She hitched her sweater back over her shoulder. ‘I was wondering what you wanted me to do about…um…our sleeping arrangements.’ Her cheeks were stained a faint shade of pink. ‘Now that Aunt Elsie is going away and Mary’s not around, we don’t have to share the west tower suite. For appearances’ sake, I mean.’

Dave rose to his full height, only just resisting the urge to put his arms around her and draw her closer. She licked her lower lip, and a lightning bolt of lust zapped him in the groin. ‘Are you worried I might not stick to the rules?’ he asked. Damn it. He was worried. Right at that moment, he couldn’t think of a single reason why he should stick to the rules.

Her gaze skittered away from his, concentrating on the open neck of his shirt instead. She began to pluck at the overly long sleeve of her sweater as if she needed something to do with her hands. ‘No, of course not. I just thought you’d prefer it if I was in my own quarters. Away from you. Or at least, that’s the message I’ve been getting since we left the city.’

Dave inched up her chin with the end of his finger, meshing his gaze with hers. Every rational cell in his body told him to stop. Do not pass go. Do not go any further. But right then, his body was programmed to follow instinct, not rationality. A primal instinct that demanded contact. Physical contact.

Intimate contact.

‘The problem is, I don’t want you away from me.’ He slid a hand behind her head to the nape of her neck under the silky curtain of her hair. ‘I want you close to me. Closer than is probably wise.’ He breathed in the fresh, flowery scent of her perfume, his senses going haywire and his blood thickening with each thunderous beat of his pulse.

She closed her eyes in a slow blink, like a sensuous cat enjoying a caress. Her lips were softly parting, her breath hitching, her slim throat was rising and falling over a swallow. ‘Why is that a problem when I want the same thing?’ Her voice was husky, and it sent another punch of lust into his lower body.

Dave slowly brought his mouth down to hers, promising himself one taste—one reminder of how sweet and soft her lips were. But as soon as their lips met, a wave of intense heat swept through him, and he deepened the kiss with a gliding thrust of his tongue that made her moan and press herself closer. His arms went around her, holding her to the length of his hardening body. Desire was hot and strong, rippling through him in an unstoppable tide.

He buried one hand in the thick tresses of her hair, the other pressed into the small of her back to keep her pressed against him, his mouth locked on hers in a kiss that sent shivers across his scalp and down the entire length of his spine. He lifted his mouth off hers to graze her neck with his teeth, breathing in the scent of her skin. ‘I can’t tell you how hard I’ve fought with myself not to do this.’

‘But I want you to do it.’ Lea moved against him, sending a whiplash of longing through his body. ‘I want you.’

‘I want you so much it’s driving me nuts.’ He groaned and clamped his mouth back down on hers, their lips moving in perfect motion as if they had been kissing for years. Her tongue touched his, and the backs of his knees tingled, his blood pounding through his veins like a tribal drum.