Soul tired, I trudged from the plane and into Inverness airport’s arrivals lounge. The past day and a half had been one nightmare after another. I’d returned the Cadillac to the restauranteur in La Jolla, then hauled my arse to the airport. There, I’d frozen up, unable to commit to leaving the US.
My hesitation had cost me a flight, and I finally talked myself down and booked on the next, less direct one.
Elise didn’t need me now. There was nothing for me here. My life at home waited. Yet why did it feel like I was tearing off my arm to beat myself with?
For my sins, the universe was laughing at me. My indirect flight turned even more problematic, with delays in New York. More time was chewed up, and I endured it, though I hadn’t slept properly in days.
Back on Scottish soil, I should be relieved. I reached for my phone, remembering for the hundredth time it was still in America, in the possession of the chief of security.
Instantly, I was back in the scene. The hot sun, the swarming guards, the tension of the place.
Elise’s expression when she asked me to leave.
Christ, what was I doing? How had I walked away?
I’d made a mistake.
“Is everything okay?” a man in a kiosk asked in a kindly and so familiar Scottish burr.
“No. Nothing is okay. I need a payphone.”
Ah fuck, but I didn’t have any coins. I’d ditched all my loose change before leaving for the US.
“Here.”
I dragged myself out of my dense inward focus to find the man holding up a twenty pence piece.
“Ye might need this. Do ye know how to use a payphone?”
I could hug him. “Aye. Thank ye.”
He waved me off, and with his directions, I found the airport’s barely used payphones, then dialled home. They at least needed to know where I was before I took action.
Like getting straight onto another flight.
The call connected, and Da answered.
“It’s me,” I mumbled.
“Cameron! Christ, lad. Taylor, it’s him.”
I squeezed my eyes tight shut. I’d scared them with my disappearance. Of course I had. And now I was about to get back on a plane, because what else could I do?
“Where are you?” Da asked.
“Airport. Inverness,” I managed. “But I’m about to fly right out again.”
“Come to the house.”
I smacked the wall in front of me. “I can’t, Da.”
“Listen, come home. Whatever else ye have to do will wait.”
My car was here, but it was still a wrench to do anything other than return to Elise.
“It’s important,” Da added.
“Be there soon,” I forced out.
I’d go, but it wouldn’t be for long.
Running on fumes, me not the car, I sped through the Inverness countryside and down into the Cairngorms National Park.
I’d travelled this route so many times, as a lad and now a man, and though I loved the landscape, the rugged hills and soaring mountains, winding roads and clusters of small towns, this didn’t feel like a homecoming. I used to be relieved to see the gateposts of our home, now I felt only emptiness.
Or worse, that I’d somehow become polarised and was being repelled.
Coming home wasn’t right, not without her.
A squall of summer rain splattered the windscreen, and I rounded the loch. Then within minutes, I pulled up outside of the crofthouse.
With a curse, I killed the engine and slammed my head back into the headrest.
The door to the house opened, and my father appeared in the frame.
Slowly, painfully, I dragged my sorry arse from the car and down the path. “Were ye worried?”
For a moment, he didn’t speak. Just regarded me with a quizzical air before advancing on me to wrap me in a hug. “Ye look heartsick.”
Christ, if he didn’t nail it in one.
“I am,” I said into his shoulder. “I made a huge mistake.”
“With Elise? Gordain told us ye were helping her.”
I wanted to hang my head. I hadn’t even texted my parents. Not even to ask about my dog.
Speaking of… “Where’s Ellie?”
“Cait and Isla took her for a walk. You’ve got at least an hour.”
“For what?”
Da smiled mysteriously then leaned back to the house. “Tay, are ye ready to leave?”
“You’re going somewhere?”
“Dinner with Ally and Scarlet.”
I scrunched up my nose, reasonably certain it was mid-afternoon. “Isn’t it early for going to dinner? Why did ye insist I rush home?”
Ma appeared behind my dad and shrugged on a light jacket. She grabbed me for a squeeze, gave me a motherly once-over, then stepped back.
I was utterly confused, not that I expected them to stick around for my sake, but that it looked like the opposite.
That they were leaving because of me.
“What—?” I started.
“Go to your guest,” Ma said carefully.
“Who?”
“Me,” another voice came from behind my parents.
A so-familiar sweet sound.
I was hallucinating. There was no way in this world that Elise Darcy was in my hallway. Chills ran through me.
“You didn’t tell him yet, William?” My mother took Da’s hand, and the two of them slipped past me.
Leaving an impossible sight.
A movie star in the doorframe. A lass stepped directly off the silver screen.
Her violet-blue gaze soaked me in and, against the cool afternoon, my hoodie warmed her frame. Her blonde hair had gone, replaced with a more familiar brunette shade.
Now I definitely knew I was hallucinating.
Fuck it. I was going with it.
I broke my body’s freeze and closed the distance between us. Then I dragged her into my arms the way I’d wanted to on her Beverly Hills porch.
Elise squeaked and clung to me.
“We’ll leave ye to it,” my father said, an amused chuckle within his voice.
Their car doors clunked, but I couldn’t even open my eyes.
Instead, I just held on to Elise. If I let go, or opened my eyes, I’d ruin this. She’d disappear.
“I won’t,” she said.
Had I spoken out loud?
“Yes,” she answered me again and shifted in my hold until her face was in front of mine.
Then she kissed me.
I didn’t know who I was, what planet I was on, but I knew these lips. With a hungered, pained growl, I kissed her in return. Her sweet taste filled my mouth, and energy blitzed through me, eviscerating my exhaustion. Elise wound her legs around my waist as if needing to be as close to me as I did to her.
Backing her into the hall, I slammed the door behind us then pressed Elise onto the stone wall, letting it take her weight so I could free my hand to cup her face. She moaned into the kiss, and heat flared bright in my blood.
Instantly, I was hard, my erection at her core.
I surged against her then remembered myself. Too rough. This wasn’t a fantasy, she was real.
But Elise had other ideas.
“Don’t stop,” she begged. “I need you.”
“Don’t want to scare ye.”
“I want you. In every way. Here and now against this wall.”
Her hands sought my waistband, and with a deft flick, she undid my jeans button.
With that permission, I let myself follow the path of pure need. Running my hand up her leg, I yanked on the waistband of her leggings, almost tearing them in my urgency to get them off her. She dropped her legs and kicked the leggings free, her underwear with them. Then she finished the job with my jeans, sliding them over my backside.
Through all of this, I’d still not wanted to see. But I opened my eyes for the next part.
Slower now, I picked her up again, and we resumed our position. My dick now nestled directly to her core.
Bare. Rock-solid.
I bucked into her warmth and wetness, and stared directly into Elise’s eyes. She wriggled in my arms and got into position.
I sank home.
“Princess,” I uttered.
She clenched around me so tight, her breathing coming fast. I rocked into her until I was buried deep inside. As close as we could be.
All the words I should’ve said rushed forward in my mind. All the feelings I wished I’d expressed so she hadn’t been in the dark when she let me go.
Except speech was beyond me. Instead, I told her with my body the emotions I couldn’t yet say. I surged into her, setting a pace that had us both groaning. This was no gentle lovemaking, though it was made of love.
I should carry her to my bed and spread her out properly, make her come half dozen times before joining her in that heady state.
But I was made of a single action.
The sounds Elise gave up only spurred me on.
I jacked my hips, fucking her like my life depended on it. She forced my face up and kissed me, an intensity to her touch.
Right when I was so fired up, so hot, she cried out and inside, spasmed around my cock.
This.
Only this.
Her orgasm could have floored me, but I kept my control.
Then Elise did something I never expected. With a deep pull of breath, she held my face, stared deep into my eyes, and spoke words I longed to hear.
“I love you, Cameron.”
With a guttural growl, I followed her over the edge. Ecstasy clouding my mind of all but her.
