The breeze blew back strands of hair that had come loose from my ponytail, tickling my nose. I tucked the strands behind my ear and waited for him to respond.
He didn’t.
He just reached for another pastry and acted as if the river was the most fascinating stream of water he’d ever seen.
Lachlan’s surprise destination was Kylesku (pronounced Kyleskew) Bridge. And he’d been right about the beauty of this place. The bridge swept around in a curve over two connected lochs on the northwestern coast of the Highlands.
Since no cars were behind us, Lachlan slowed as we crossed so I could take it all in. Hills that seemed to touch the clouds, others so tall they disappeared into them, reminding me of our altitude.
Water dotted here and there with little islands. Rugged rocks peeked through shrubs and grass and trees. Olives, emeralds, sage, burnt umbers, smoke, and ambers shone bright against clouds with mauve bellies. The loch was a still sheet of water reflecting the sky, unsure if it wanted to be blue or purple or gray.
“Lachlan,” I whispered. I had no words. I desperately wanted to get my camera out.
“I thought you’d like it here.” He turned left down a little slope into an empty parking lot. The man had barely stopped the car and I was out, hurrying to open the back passenger door so I could set up the drone. A few minutes later, I looked over my shoulder and saw him standing at the edge of the lot, snapping photos on his phone.
Smiling to myself, I returned to setting up the drone. Once I was ready to go, I walked over to stand at his side. “Dabbling in a little photography yourself?”
He smirked at me. “Sending some snaps to Lucy. She’s always talked about coming here. Thought the pictures might give her incentive.”
A little niggle of … something … something I hadn’t experienced before when it came to Lucy and Lachlan took me aback.
It bothered me.
Because it felt an awful lot like jealousy.
And I adored Lucy. I didn’t want to be jealous or insecure about her, and I didn’t know why I was all of a sudden when I hadn’t been before.
I frowned, trying to figure it out.
“We’re just friends.”
I was shocked that he’d assumed the right reason for my silence. “I know that.” I said, unable to meet his eyes. “Good friends. You care about her.”
“I do.”
“Do you make friends of all the women you’ve slept with?”
“No. And not like Lucy. I think it’s because we’re alike. We both just wanted a distraction, an outlet. But nothing more. She’s like you. She didn’t lie about understanding the rules.”
Oh, I understood the rules. He was right about that. And that’s when it hit me, what bothered me about him and Lucy.
I was just another Lucy to him.
More than just a casual fuck. But in the end … like Lucy, I’d be cast aside. Just friends.
Lucy was fine with that.
I …
Swallowing hard, I set the drone down on the ground. “Let’s do this.”
It turned out Lachlan could be a very patient man. He pulled the blanket out on the lot and sat there, vacillating between silence while I worked and chatting amiably whenever I took the FPV goggles off that allowed me to see what the camera could see.
Cars came and went with tourists jumping out to take snaps of the bridge and the scenery as Lachlan waited with me for sunset.
“Are you sure you’re not bored?” I’d asked a few times.
He’d waved the question away. “I like watching you work. It’s relaxing.”
As the sky began to change color, the brilliant golds, scarlets, and amber hues of the setting sun was quickly dwarfed by dark throbbing purples as heavy clouds that seemed within touching distance drew in overhead.
“Shit.” Lachlan jumped to his feet. “Get your camera down.”
Hurrying to do as he instructed, I’d just gotten the drone back and disassembled when the rain lashed down in violent jets that pounded and splashed off the ground. Our shouts of shock and surprise were barely audible over the plaintive sobbing of the sky.
In seconds we were soaked to the skin. Lachlan helped get my gear in the back seat and then we turned to each other.
Water streamed in my eyes as I stared up at him, shocked by the abrupt and capricious Scottish weather. It reminded me a little of the man before me, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
Lachlan grinned and hauled open the passenger door. I climbed in and he slammed it shut in my wake. Teeth chattering with the sudden, drenching cold, I watched the blur of him through the water bouncing off the windshield as he rounded the hood and yanked open the driver’s side to climb in.
“Fuck, it’s cold,” he announced, pulling the door shut behind him. “I’ll turn on the heat.”
“Push your seat back instead,” I ordered loudly.
He stopped mid-stretch, hand hovering over the middle dash of the car where the heating controls were. Lachlan quirked a brow.
I pressed a hand to his chest, gently shoving him back as I moved into him. “I know a better way to get warm.”
At his hesitancy, I froze. “Unless … you’re afraid of getting caught.”
In answer, he pressed a button at the side of his chair, the buzz of the electric mechanism filling the car as his seat moved back. I grinned and climbed over, straddling him. His shirt was so wet, his skin peeked through the white where it stuck to him. “What about your sterling reputation?”
Lachlan’s eyes flashed. “Fuck it.” He gripped my shirt hem and wrenched it upward as I raised my arms to help. The wet material hit the passenger seat with a slap that made me chuckle. A chuckle that died with a low moan as his hands moved up my damp waist to squeeze beneath my wet bra. I reached back to unclip it, uncaring we were in public. The rain concealed us, and honestly, the man just made me lose my mind.
“We seem to have a habit of getting caught in the rain,” I joked.
“And needing to fuck after it,” he said, but there was no teasing in his voice. Just lust. I noted his use of the word needing. Not want. Need.
I watched as he caressed my body with his gaze, hot on my hard nipples, then lingering on my scars. Something unreadable crossed his expression and then he stared into my eyes. “You’re so beautiful.”
His tender sincerity made me feel weirdly shy, and I was not shy. “Saying that while I look like a drowned rat, you must mean it.”
But Lachlan didn’t seem in the mood for joking. He drew me close, taking my right nipple in his mouth. I exhaled on his name as he sucked and laved. A whimper of need escaped me when he stopped. “Look at me.”
I did, arching my back, pushing into the hard need of him beneath me.
Our eyes held, and my desire tightened as he gently squeezed my breasts, his thumb caressing my nearest scar. “You’re the most truly alive person I’ve ever met.”
I sucked in a breath at the compliment. “Lachlan.”
A fierceness, something akin to anger, sparked in his blue eyes. “When you meet him, the man you want to settle down with … make sure he’s perfect.” His voice was hoarse as he confessed, “I don’t think I could live with anything else.”
Emotion clogged my throat. At what he said. And what he didn’t say.