Real Men Wear Plaid!

“Better?” he asked, feeling unaccountably nervous. This woman did something to him, affected him on a cellular level.

She settled into the chair opposite him and selected a meat pie from the tray. “Immensely,” she said, taking a bite. She groaned with delight.

She had the sexiest mouth, Ewan noted. Full and bow-shaped, the lower lip considerably plumper than the upper. She had a bit of pastry stuck in the corner and he watched with rapt attention as her pink tongue darted out and captured the errant bit. He knew she didn’t mean it as a sexy gesture, but that didn’t keep his blood from heating all the same. The nagging sense of awareness that had plagued him since again setting eyes on her had quadrupled in the past hour, pushing an already irrational attraction into especially dangerous territory.

Ewan was well acquainted with sexual desire and every nuance that entailed. What he wasn’t used to was wanting someone with this level of intensity. The combination of the virulent attraction and the warm, melting sensation in his chest when he looked at this particular female was, in a word, terrifying.

If this desire didn’t begin to wane soon then he might just self-combust.

“Is something wrong?” she asked. “You look a little strange.”

True enough, he imagined. He certainly felt strange. “I’m fine,” he said, expelling a heavy breath through a grim smile. He helped himself to a piece of bread.

“So I take it you’re going to continue on to Fort William?” He knew the answer, of course, but needed a conversational opener.

Chewing thoughtfully, she nodded. “Of course. Jeffrey was here for company, but my goal hasn’t changed. This is a rite of passage,” she said. “Both my mother and grandmother have made the walk.” She frowned. “I thought I’d mentioned—”

He nodded. “You did,” he said.

“I’ve come to a bit of a crossroads in my life,” she admitted, another scowl wrinkling her brow. “One path is clearly marked and utterly unfulfilling.”

That sounded eerily familiar, Ewan thought. He took a sip of tea. “And the other path?”

She smiled and let go a whooshing sigh. “That one is completely dark,” she said, laughing. “In fact, I’m not even sure there’s a path there. More like a goat trail.”

He chuckled, sensing a kinship he hadn’t expected. He knew the West Highland Way was a lot of things to a lot of different people, but what were the chances of him finding someone as interesting with the same reason as himself for making the journey? Call it coincidence or fate, he’d been right when he’d thought there was a reason for them meeting.

“What about you?” she asked. “What made you decide to take the walk?”

“I’m dealing with my own goat trail,” he said. “I take it you’ve never been on a hike like this before?”

She smiled and leaned back fully into her chair. She crossed her legs and a slippered foot bobbed up and down, making the bunny ears flop. “Er…no, unless you count hiking from one end of the mall to the other. I’ve walked a lot of Civil War battlefields though, so in a way I guess that has helped. Physically, I can go a lot farther than my feet can, if that makes sense.”

“New shoes?”

She winced adorably. “That was a mistake, wasn’t it? My mother warned me.”

He chuckled. “Look at it this way. They’ll be good and broken in by the time you’ve finished.”

She laughed, the sound soft and husky. “I’ll try to remember that tomorrow night when my blisters burst.”

“It’s the socks,” he told her. “You need merino wool.”

She gasped, feigning outrage. “My father’s a third-generation cotton farmer. He’d have a problem with that.”

“He’d want you to be miserable?”

“No,” she said, laughing. “It was a joke.”

“So your father isn’t a cotton farmer?”

She grinned. “Nope, he’s an accountant. These miraculous socks you speak of, where can I find them?”

“I’ll loan you a pair until we can find a shop that carries them.”

“Much appreciated, thanks.” She looked at him from beneath lowered lashes. “So why didn’t you pass me today? Have you adopted me as your damsel in distress?”

He felt his mouth twitch with a grin and took another sip of tea, wishing it was something stronger. “Something like that, yes.”

She winced. “While appreciated, you really don’t have to do that. I can manage on my own. I’ll stick to the path. Were something to happen, someone would be along soon enough to help me.”

She was right and yet he knew he wouldn’t leave her. For reasons which escaped him, he couldn’t. Since there was no way he could confess that to her—how could he admit something he couldn’t even explain?—he decided to take a different tack. He passed a hand over his face and donned what he hoped resembled an appropriately sheepish expression.

“Unless you object to making the walk with me, I’d rather us stay together. I started this journey on my own and, to be honest, it’s a bit lonelier than I expected.” He essayed a smile. “Evidently I don’t like my own company as much as I thought I did.”

She studied him a minute, a direct gaze that seemed to somehow take his measure, peer directly into his soul. “I don’t object,” she said, and there was an inflection in her voice that alerted him to the fact that she’d just made some sort of decision. “I started this journey with a companion and am now on my own.” She peered at him from beneath a sweep of dark lashes. “Looks like we need each other, doesn’t it?”

Need wasn’t nearly a strong enough word.

He nodded, unable to speak.

“I should probably call it a night,” she said, getting to her feet. “We’ve got an early morning and, if the itinerary I’m following is to be believed, that large conic mountain looming in the distance is Ben More.”

“It is,” he confirmed. “A bit of a steepish climb.” He stood himself.

She paused. “Thanks, Ewan,” she said.

“For what?”

“For making sure that I was all right. It was a nice thing to do.”

“Would I lose your good opinion if I said I had ulterior motives?” he asked, sidling closer to her.

A grin turned the corners of her lips and she chuckled softly, then bent forward and pressed a kiss against his mouth. Blood boiled beneath the surface of his skin and a sensation so exquisite it stopped the breath in his lungs ricocheted through him. Every muscle in his body went rigid, then seemed to liquefy beneath her soft lips. She tasted like tea and strawberry jam and something else…something that was much more substantial.

Just as he finally came to his senses enough to deepen the kiss, she drew back and smiled, her warm eyes sparkling with delight and enough uncertainty to stroke his ego.

“I suspect our motives are the same,” she said. “Goodnight, Ewan.”

Yes, Ewan thought, dazed and ablaze. Yes, it was a good night.

And if he was reading her correctly—and he was relatively certain that he was—he’d make damned sure tomorrow night ended even better.

5

OH, SWEET merciful hell, Gemma thought as she wobbled shakily up the stairs to her room. That kiss…

Wow. Just wow.

She let herself into her room, then stripped down and moved immediately to the shower. Actually, knowing that she desperately needed to bathe and remove the hair from her thorny legs was the only thing that had prevented her from taking that kiss a whole helluva lot further. She was all in favor of dirty sex, but preferred to be clean while she was doing it. She adjusted the tap. Cave people must have had a keener sex drive to compensate for the odor, Gemma thought absently, otherwise she didn’t see how the human race would have survived. She lathered up with her scented soap and sighed. She would have been a terrible cave woman.

But that didn’t keep her from having Neanderthal fantasies about Ewan MacKinnon. Actually, the idea of dragging him into her bedroom held an infinite amount of appeal. She’d light a candle—her hat-tip to fire—and have her wicked way with him. Repeatedly.

And she knew he’d let her.

That was probably as intoxicating as the idea itself.

He wanted her and, despite his excuse about not enjoying his own company as much as he thought he would, she knew that he was every bit as enthralled with her as she was with him. And given the state of her hormones—the ones he’d kept at fever pitch for the past several days—she had every intention of letting this play out. There was more at work here than mere physical attraction—something almost destined, for lack of a better description. She’d felt it since the first instant she’d clapped eyes on him and the feeling had only intensified the longer she was in his presence—or even near his presence, for that matter.

Yes, she was supposed to be here to make some decisions about her life—what to do with it, specifically—and, other than knowing that she wanted to do something worthwhile, something that would make a difference, she was no closer to that goal than she’d been when she first started off in Milngavie. Regardless, she knew one thing she wanted to do and at the moment, that was him.

She could think of a thousand different reasons why she shouldn’t do this—she barely knew him, for starters—but Gemma also knew she’d ignore them all. Her sex drive was strangling any reasoning or good sense and, though she knew it was fanciful thinking, there was a part of her that believed that this was supposed to happen. That she was supposed to be here, to meet him, specifically. That he was part of her path. Or maybe she was part of his.

Either way, there was something magical—fated even—in the way things had happened and, continual hum of sexual tension aside, she felt oddly relaxed when she was with him. As though a hidden part of her which was always wound tight…suddenly gave way. It was as frightening as it was wonderful.

And she could quite easily become addicted to the sensation.

Or more accurately, addicted to him.

How intriguing that they were both seeking the same sort of answer.

“YOU’D BETTER GIVE me a time limit or you’ll never get me out of here,” Gemma warned him. Here being The Green Welly in Tyndrum, a fantastic shop which featured everything from its own whiskey store to outdoor wear and all items in between. Gemma had already spied the heather jewelry and cashmere scarves. Her eyes had simultaneously glazed over and lit up.

Ewan consulted his watch. Despite the Ben More section, it had only taken them a couple of hours to reach Tyndrum, but if they were going to make Kingshouse by dark, then they really couldn’t afford to linger here long.

“Twenty minutes,” Ewan told her, which seemed completely fair to him.

They were there for an hour, during which she bought heather earrings, a cashmere scarf, a floppy hat, whiskey for her father, scone mix and clotted cream and jam for her mother and countless other items for various members of her family back in the States. Thankfully, rather than lug it around for the rest of the trip, she had it all conveniently shipped directly to her door.

Since she’d spent what should have been their time allotted for lunch in the store, they’d bought take-away sandwiches, crisps and Mars Bar Krispies, and picnicked in a shady little glen next to the River Orchy. The water rushed over the ancient stones, lending its own music. Various birds flitted among the branches above their heads and the scent of thistle and heather perfumed the dewy air.

He had no complaints.

The food was excellent and the company… The company kicked ass.

He’d learned a lot about his little damsel in distress this morning. She greeted the day with more enthusiasm than he was accustomed to, for starters. Ewan preferred to slide gently into the day. Gemma grabbed it by the balls and tugged it along in her wake. She liked extra sugar in her tea, was delighted over Nutella—something she’d never tried before—and occasionally hummed when she walked.

Still, there was so much more he wanted to know about her and he’d just thought of a clever way to make that happen. It was a camp game, but it would have the same effect.

“I’ve got an idea,” he said.

She stopped chewing and her guarded gaze found his. A half-smile turned her lips. “Why does that instill my heart with a bit of panic?”

He laughed, struck anew at how easy it was to be with her, how right the world felt when they were breathing the same air. “I don’t know, but it’s completely unwarranted, I can assure you.”

She relaxed once more. “Then what’s this idea of yours?”

“I want you to show me five things in that backpack.”

She blinked. “What?”

“You heard me. Five things from your backpack. It’s an icebreaker of sorts. You can tell a lot about a person by what they carry with them on a journey such as this.”

Her gaze turned speculative. “And you’re going to do the same? Show me five things in yours?”

“Of course.”

She nodded succinctly. “Okay, I’m game. Do I take them out or do you? Draw at random or select?”

“We’ll do yours first, and I draw at random.”

Gemma reached over and grabbed her bag, then opened the larger compartment. “You’re probably going to pull out a pair of my underwear,” she said, blushing slightly.

He hoped that he’d actually have her out of her underwear this evening. “Possibly.” He reached in and withdrew the first thing that his fingers touched, a dog-eared tome of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

Ewan quirked a brow.

She dimpled. “I can read it over and over again and never tire of it.”

Fair enough. He could do the same thing with his Louis L’Amour collection, but he kept that little tidbit to himself. Her choice was a literary classic—his was pure fun.

He reached in again and this time found a digital camera. “May I?” he asked.

She nodded and he powered on the device and flipped through her pictures. There were various snaps of her in front of Scottish landmarks, of those Highland cows she found so fascinating, blooming thistle, lots of sheep and the occasional ruin, but beyond that he found a few she’d taken somewhere else, presumably at home. “Who’s this?”

She leaned forward, bringing her scent with her. Something light and flowery, like bottled sunshine and roses. Mouthwatering. Heat slithered through his loins. “Ah, that’s my sister, Eloise.”

“Younger?”

“Yes, by a couple of years. She’s twenty-four.”

So she was twenty-six then. He’d guessed as much. “And this?” he asked, when an image of an enormous Persian cat appeared on the tiny screen.

“That’s my cat, Fitzwilliam. Fitz for short.”

He turned to her and grinned. “That attached to Mr. Darcy, are you?”

She chewed the inside of her cheek. “He’s one of my favorite Austen heroes, although I have to say that Mr. Knightley is a contender as well.”

He sighed dramatically and scratched his chest. “How are real men supposed to compete?”

She chuckled. “They could begin by emulating,” she said.

“Ah,” he breathed knowingly. “Thanks for the tip.”

“Do you want to read the book?” she asked, her eyes twinkling with humor. “Perhaps brush up on your hero tactics?”

“I thought I did an admirable job being a hero yesterday.”

She chuckled again. “Had I needed rescuing it would have been heroic indeed. Since I didn’t, it was merely nice.”

“Nice?” he repeated. “That was all?”

“Nice is excellent,” she said.

“But still not heroic?”

She gave her head a lamentable shake and bit her lip. “Sorry, no.”

His gaze tangled with hers. “Then I’ll just have to try harder.”

“That’s the spirit,” she said, giving a little rah-rah gesture.

Laughing softly, he pilfered through her bag and extracted the last three items. A little sewing kit, a package of prawn-flavored crisps and a folded letter.

The letter instantly piqued his curiosity, but opening it felt a little too invasive. Gemma frowned when she saw it. “Let me have that, please,” she said.

“You don’t recognize it?”

“I recognize the handwriting on the outside, but don’t know how it got there.”

He dutifully handed it over and she quickly scanned its contents, blushing a deep red when she was finished.

“Something wrong?” he asked, concerned.

“No,” she told him, her voice curiously strangled. “It’s a note from Jeffrey. He must have snuck it into my bag before he left yesterday. I don’t know how I missed it last night,” she remarked, quickly folding it back up and stowing it in her pocket.

“I hope that he apologized at least,” Ewan said, wondering very much what had put that particular shade of red in her cheeks.

“He did.”

“Did he offer any excuse?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

When she didn’t elaborate, he held up the crisps. “You like these?” he asked skeptically.

She grimaced. “Of course not. They sound terrible. They’re proof. No one would have believed me if I’d just told them about them.”

He smiled. “So you bought them?”

“Yes. As proof. I don’t have a dictionary in that bag, otherwise I would give it to you.”

“Oh, I understand the word,” he said, laughing. “I’m just having a hard time comprehending the reason behind it.” He sighed and shook his head, felt something in his chest lighten and ripple like a single pebble against a pond’s surface. “You’re an interesting woman, Gemma Wentworth.”

“Thank you. I think.”

He smiled at her, reached forward and loosened a strand of hair that had gotten stuck to her lower lip. “It’s a compliment. Much better to be interesting than boring and predictable.”

She smiled. “No one has ever accused me of being either of those things.”

And he imagined no one ever would. She was a breath of fresh air, smart and pretty, clever and irreverent and sexy as hell. He knew that she couldn’t be perfect—perfect people didn’t exist and if they did he suspected they’d be boring—but she was about as perfect for him as a girl could get. Ewan stilled, jolted.

Now there was a frightening thought if there ever was one.

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