“You talk down to me. And there’s that pinchy-mouthed look you give me instead of a smile every time you pass me in the hall.”

Pinchy-mouthed? I sniffed at the insult and turned to leave again, not deigning to give him a response.

“And that,” he called out to me as I descended the stairs. “That haughty little sniff is extremely fucking annoying.”

I halted, shocked.

Because it suddenly occurred to me that I wasn’t my usual pile of anxiety over the fact that this person found me wanting. No. Instead triumph coursed through me that he was just as aggravated by me as I was by him.

I looked up to find him standing out on the landing scowling down at me.

Despite my red cheeks, I managed an irritatingly haughty swish of my hair over my shoulder and snapped out, “Good.”

CHAP TER 2

T here was no possible way I could manage to hide my distaste and I didn’t even want to. This was in response to Chloe’s, “He sounds hot.”

She was referring to Logan MacLeod. I’d just spent the last ten minutes complaining about his antics and what he’d said to me that morning to my friends Chloe, Aidan, and Aidan’s fiancée, Juno.

How Chloe managed to pick “hot” out of all I’d just said, I had no clue.

“Oh, please.” Chloe huffed at my expression. “You secretly think he’s hot.”

“I think he’s appalling,” I said, appalled.

“Well, I’m proud of you for sticking up for yourself,” Aidan said, and Juno curled deeper into his side on their sofa.

I’d met Aidan eleven years ago, during our first semester at the University of Edinburgh. He, more than anyone, knew what a big deal it was for me to speak up for myself, and he knew exactly why. Chloe was my roommate in first year, and the three of us had grown close during our four years at Edinburgh. A bit of a chatterbox, flirtatious, and energetic, Chloe was our opposite, but together we worked. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Chloe, Aidan would never have met Juno.

Juno was a postgrad student from Canada. She was here working on some engineering… thing…

that I still didn’t understand and had met Chloe on a night out. During one of her moments of utter perceptiveness, Chloe recognized something in Juno that she thought would appeal to Aidan. She introduced the fresh-faced, shy, exceptionally intelligent Canadian to Aidan, and it was pretty much love at first sight. They’d been together for five years and were planning to marry when Juno finished her postgrad. For now they were settled happily into the somewhat swanky Stockbridge flat, courtesy of Aidan’s income as a professional rugby player.

I was the single one among us, as Chloe was also engaged. Her fiancé, Ed, worked in energy efficiency. He’d spent the last six months in Sweden working on developing some brilliant new technology that would help reduce energy costs in everyday housing.

Chloe was lonely without Ed. And when Chloe was lonely she liked to play matchmaker. For me.

Not that it was such a hardship to put up with her matchmaking. I was single and “looking.”

Plus… it was Chloe. I’d do anything for Chloe, Aidan, and Juno. As they sat around me in Aidan and Juno’s lovely flat, I looked at them and I saw my family. They knew me better than the one I’d severed all communication with seven years ago.

“Thanks,” I said to Aidan. “It actually felt good to stand my ground.”

“If he gives you any more problems, you just tell Aidan,” Juno said, offering his services up.

“He’ll deal with it.”

Aidan didn’t protest, because the truth was, he would deal with it. Despite his reserve, he took shit from no man, and he didn’t allow any of us to either. Plus, he was huge, even bigger than Logan. No one – unless an idiot – would try to mess with him. Excluding one extremely drunken night at uni, I mostly thought of him as an overprotective big brother. He was more family to me than my own brother, Sebastian, who was never protective. In fact, he was the opposite.

I threw thoughts of Sebastian aside and gave my friends a reassuring smile. “It will be fine. I’m just tired and cranky. I have that date tomorrow night, and I really hope I manage to get some sleep so I don’t end up looking like the walking dead.”

“Date?” Aidan said.

“The guy from my gym.”

Chloe snorted. “I still can’t believe you made a date with a guy who pervs on women in a yoga class.”

“He wasn’t perving. He was thinking about joining the class.”

Aidan grinned. “Right.”

I glowered at them. “You all think the worst of everyone.”

“And for someone who was raised by Dracula and one of his brides, you see the best, even when it’s not there,” Chloe said.

“Not always,” I grumbled, thinking about my neighbor.

“So where is the yoga perv taking you?” Juno said.

I ignored her teasing. “His name is Bryan and he’s taking me to dinner.”

Chloe grunted. “You don’t sound that excited about it.”

“Of course I’m looking forward to it. Bryan seems very nice.” And he did. He was also quite good-looking.

“Nice?” Juno gave me a confused smile. “Sweetie, nice? No. Your first thought about this guy should be ‘wow.’” She shrugged. “When I met Aidan, it was very much a ‘wow’ for me.”

Aidan smiled down at her. “Back at you, darlin’.”

“Ugh. Stop.” Chloe waved her hands at them. “No cutesy, lovey-dovey crap right now. I haven’t had sex in five weeks, and Miss Farquhar here hasn’t been laid in three months.”

I colored. “Thank you for sharing that.”

“Just because you haven’t gotten laid in a while doesn’t mean you should settle for this guy,” Juno opined.

“Who says I’m settling?” I threw my hands up in disbelief. “None of you have met him.”

“We don’t need to,” Aidan said. “Your last five dates have all borne a scarily similar resemblance and the personality of a wet blanket. You keep selling yourself short, Grace. Can you blame us for being skeptical about this guy?”

“And when Aidan says ‘scarily similar resemblance,’ he means guys who are punching way above their weight dating you,” Chloe added.

“No, they weren’t. That’s such a shallow thing to say. It’s not all about looks, you know. I’m not exactly Angelina Jolie myself.”

Aidan made an irritated noise and reached for his mug of coffee. He took a drink rather than saying something that might upset me. Chloe, however, cursed and snapped, “I could kill your bloody mother.”

“Yes, well, get in line,” I muttered, taking a sip of my own coffee and avoiding eye contact with her. I did not want to have that particular conversation.

“My brother ’s friend Joe saw your photo on my Facebook page. He said he thinks you’re beautiful.” Juno grinned at me.

I blushed and squirmed uncomfortably. “He did not.”

She laughed. “He did so. I asked Ally to bring him to Scotland next time he visits me.”

“Don’t be silly.” I huffed at the thought.

“Is this Joe hot?” Chloe asked.

“Oh yeah.”

“As much as I appreciate the compliment, I think I’ll still go on my date with Bryan, if that’s okay.

I can compromise on a lot of things, but having an ocean between me and my boyfriend isn’t one of them.”

“How about a landing?” Chloe teased.

I wrinkled my nose at her wayward thoughts. “Logan MacLeod is the least likely candidate for boyfriendhood of any man in the entire world.”

She raised an eyebrow at me, and I flushed again when I realized I’d practically shouted it.

“Famous last words.”

“No, not famous last words,” I insisted, feeling that immediate aggravation ignite in my very blood at the thought of my neighbor. “Logan MacLeod is uncouth, probably riddled with sexual diseases, and he’s not at all to my taste. And I am definitely not to his taste. You should see the women he sleeps with. They’re all sexy, tan, blond hair and big boobs. He thinks I have a stick up my arse because the hem of my skirt sits below my crotch and I do up the buttons over my cleavage.”