“You know, Lachlan, it will be a shame to see you leave.”

“For you? Yeah.”

He lets out a laugh that quickly fades. He exhales heavily. “Would have been nice to get to know you a bit better. Honestly. We never really had the chance, you know, back in the day.”

“Was a shame,” I say. “But I never made it easy on you guys. And then you moved.”

“It’s just funny that she’ll be the one to know you better.”

“She?”

“That would be your good news, right? Kayla. I got the investment, you got the girl.”

I rub my lips together. “I don’t have the girl,” I say deliberately. “And what I do have is just for a short time. Just for a few days, that’s all.”

Bram snorts. “You’re getting laid. You could sound a lot happier.”

I really don’t feel like discussing this with Bram. It’s all sorts of weird, anyway, that he and Linden and Stephanie and Nicola sit around and discuss each other’s business. My mates back in Edinburgh don’t do that.

Then again, I’ve noticed that Kayla is the odd one out when it comes to them. She’s always on the outskirts, even from the first day I saw her at the bar. I pretended she hadn’t intrigued me when she had. But it wasn’t her personality, or her looks, not then. Who she was wasn’t more than a blip on my radar. What I had noticed though, was that she was the one who didn’t really belong. That she was with them, but apart.

I recognized it because I understand it. I live it. If there’s someone else out there like you, you’ll see it. It’s a pattern. You recognize it in a look, in a philosophy, in a song. It’s this quiet vein of understanding, a connection. I think we’re all looking for that in everyone we see, everywhere we go, so when we do find it, we find ourselves. Through a mirror darkly, they say.

But what I saw in Kayla then was far from darkness. It was light.

“Listen, I better go, Bram,” I tell him. “I’ve got some mutts here that need my attention.”

“So I heard,” he said, and it made me wonder what else he knew. Maybe Kayla did talk a lot. “Listen, I was thinking…now that you’re with Kayla—”

“I’m not with Kayla,” I interject. With time running out, I don’t want us…whatever we are…to be a bigger thing than we should be.

“Now that you’ve got a limited time fuck buddy,” Bram corrects himself, though that doesn’t sound so right either. “I was thinking the six of us should get out of town for the weekend.”

“I’m leaving on Sunday,” I remind him, glancing down at Ed and Emily who are staring up at me with big eyes. “And I’ll have at least one dog until then.”

“I know, I know, hear me out. Your flight is not until the afternoon, right?”

“Aye. Three p.m.”

“Friday and Saturday night. Napa Valley. You been?”

I sigh, not really wanting anything last minute to mess up my plans to have Kayla all alone and to myself. “No, I haven’t.”

“It’s about an hour and a half from the city,” he tells me. “Gorgeous place. I’ll book us all hotel rooms, and I know a resort with a vineyard that takes dogs.”

“Maybe you should start saving your money now, Bram,” I advise him. “Scots should be cheap.”

He snorts. “I’m not paying for everyone. You’ll do your own room, yeah? But listen, I don’t want to step on any toes. Talk it over with Kayla and let me know. I won’t say anything to the others.” He pauses. “It would just be nice for all of us to see each other before you go, and that way you don’t have to be away from her either.”

I stare up at the mist rolling in from the west, blowing between the high rises, and sigh. “All right. I’ll ask her. But if we do go, don’t expect to see us much except for maybe lunch. And even then, I’m not predicting anything.”

“Thatta boy,” he says before saying goodbye and hanging up.

I shove my phone in my pocket and stare down at the dogs. “Well, so much for trying to lay low.” They cock their head as if they’re listening. Sometimes I think they are. Thankfully a dog can never try and give you advice. They just listen and watch you come up with your own decisions.

When I see her tonight, I’ll ask Kayla if she wants to go. I just hope such a trip doesn’t scare her off. Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t dream of going off with a girl I’d just slept with, and I’d assume Kayla would feel the same way. But because I’m leaving, it makes everything a little different. It bends the rules.

I’ve never much cared for rules anyway.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Kayla

I can’t walk properly.

My body aches everywhere. Like after the rugby game, but worse and better all at the same time. Because there’s friction between my legs, and other places, that reminds me of what we did all night long.

Because…

Oh my god.

Oh my god.

It’s like I need to keep pinching myself all day, except my sore body keeps doing it for me. Every move I make I’m reminded of Lachlan. His unbelievable cock. His skilled, possessive hands. His gorgeous lips…everywhere. Those eyes, those searing, searching eyes that wouldn’t look away, not for a minute. Those eyes touched me, held me, caressed me just as any other part of him did. Last night I felt completely, wonderfully overtaken by this Scottish beast, and I’m still in awe.

It actually happened.

He gave me the best sex of my whole entire life.

How the fuck am I ever going to get over this?

Luckily he wants to see me again. Right away. I would have come over right after work—it makes sense since he lives close to the office. But I need to gather my thoughts and regroup. I need to process what happened before I’m swept away again because that man is a current that I can’t fight against. The next week with him will drown me if I don’t get my head on straight.

Before the work day is over, I finally answer Steph and Nicola’s frantic texts and tell them to meet me at the Lion at six o’clock for girl talk.

Of course, when I actually get to the Lion and see Steph and Nicola at the booth, talking to each other over beers, I freeze up. Everything that happened doesn’t seem like something I can communicate, not without sounding like an idiot, not without selling him short.

I breathe in deeply and walk toward them, trying to keep a straight face, even though I feel a smile tugging at my lips.

They both turn to look at me and stop talking.

“My god,” Steph says slowly, looking me up and down.

“What?” I look down at what I’m wearing, skinny black jeans and a tie-neck blouse. I put the outfit on in a hurry this morning while Lachlan was taking a shower. My thoughts immediately flit back to his eyes as they watched me soap up, then our reflection as he fucked me from behind. Up the goddamn ass. I’d done that before, but it had never been like that. That was good. Hot as all hell. And unexpected, especially from Lachlan, but the man he was when he was fucking was a lot different from the one I’d been around before.

“Kayla?” Nicola asks.

I shake my head and look at them. “Yeah, what?”

Steph laughs, eyes wide in disbelief. “Oh my god. You so got fucking laid.”

There was no point in denying it. “What makes you say that?”

“You’re glowing,” Nicola says.

“And you’ve got a shit-eating grin on your face,” Steph adds. “Now sit the fuck down and tell us about it.”

I guess I can’t really help this smile. I sit down beside Nicola. “Are you working tonight?” I ask her.

“Yeah, soon. Bram has Ava,” she says quickly. “But don’t change the subject. You owe us. Tell us everything.”

“What happened?” Steph asks, leaning forward excitedly, gripping her beer tightly. “He came here looking for you, you know, and—”

“Yeah, you gave him my address.”

“Would you rather I hadn’t?”

I shake my head. If she hadn’t, last night might not have happened.

“You know that he was only with Justine because of Bram,” Nicola adds.