In Her Secret Fantasy (14 page)

“I like stinking of sweat and sex and you.”

“Trust me, your parents won’t like it. Neither will Louise.”

He sighed. “Come with me, then.”

“To wash your back?”

“And eat with my parents. Louise told me off for not bringing you for tea yesterday.”

She searched his eyes, not very sure what she was looking for. “Okay,” she said.

He seemed to hesitate, then his breath caught, and with a quick smile, he slid off her and out of bed, drawing her with him by the hand. “Apart from my back, I’ve got other bits you could wash.”

“You’re on your own. Your jeans pocket is empty.”

“Damn.”

It wasn’t a large shower for two people, which made the experience both funny and intimate. By the time they dressed, she was almost stunned to acknowledge a sense of familiarity and comfort with this gorgeous, amazing man.

They were laughing at something as she finally opened the bedroom door.

Len stood at the top of the stairs, keys in his hand, gazing right at her.

Her heart gave one sickening lurch. “Hi,” she said brightly.

“Hi,” Len said. His gaze flickered over Aidan, who shut the bedroom door and took Chrissy’s hand. He nodded amiably to the other man and walked to the stairs. Len stood back, then turned and went into his room.

Aidan began to talk again, continuing the banter of their departure. She had to force herself to join in, and received the reward of Aidan’s silent caress as he slipped his fingers between hers and squeezed.

“Well done,” he breathed as they left by the front door. Only when they were well away from the house did he add, “Just treat him as you always have, behave as you do with the others. Don’t watch him or follow him. Leave him to me.”

She frowned at him. “I thought
I
was supposed to give
you
orders?”

“That was yesterday.”

She bumped her head against his shoulder in mock annoyance. In truth, she couldn’t be angry with him right now. In the dark, she’d never appreciated the beauty of her surroundings as much as she did walking away from Ardknocken House with Aidan. Beyond the picturesque village below, the sea rolled and glistened. She could hear it, timeless and soothing. On either side, the snow-tipped hills rose steep and stark, like ancient guardians.

As they came to the gate, she turned to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him on the mouth. His response was instant, as sensual and as enthusiastic as ever.

When the kiss broke naturally, she took his hand again and continued their walk onto the road and down the hill.

“What was that for?” he asked.

She smiled. “Today. Yesterday. I just felt like it.”

He stroked the skin between her forefinger and thumb and kept walking. Although he didn’t say anything more, she thought he was pleased.

Chapter Thirteen Eating with Aidan, Louise, and their parents turned out to be surprisingly fun. When she could hear, Mrs. Grieve was unexpectedly witty, and Aidan and Louise kept up an insulting sibling banter that made Chrissy laugh. Mr. Grieve, who clearly hadn’t much clue what was going on or why, smiled several times as if pleased by the general good humour.

When the meal was finished, Aidan stood up first. “I’ll make coffee, but then I’ve got to go. I’ll give you a lift up the road first, Chrissy, if you like.”

Louise frowned at him in annoyance, as if she imagined he was being rude to Chrissy—who was uneasy for quite a different reason. She suspected he was going about catching Len, and she’d never managed to get out of him what Plan B was. He’d distracted her with sex. Good sex. Amazing sex.

Stop it, moron.

“No, you’re fine,” she replied, while she could still remember the question. “I’ll walk up later.”

When he’d left—with a quirk of his lips aimed specially at her that meant, somehow, as much as a kiss—Chrissy helped Louise clear the table and ran water into the sink for the dishes.

“My brother’s a bit of an arse,” Louise said apologetically.

“Got stuff to do,” Chrissy excused him without rancour.

“He’s probably out in the damned boat again. He used to do that all the time. Never said, just buggered off—for days sometimes. The world’s never been big enough for Aidan. He always wanted more.”

“Don’t we all?” Chrissy put a dripping cup in the rack. “I think
your
world’s shrunk a bit, though.”

Louise shrugged. “What can you do?”

“Struggle on. It’s a
big
struggle, Louise.”

“I don’t mind,” she said defensively. “There are good days as well as bad. Today was good.”

“Aidan told me you were against his nursing home idea.”

“I am. Maybe if there was a place in the village it would be different, but they’ve lived in Ardknocken all their lives. They’ve lived in
this house
all their married lives. My dad grew up in it.”

Chrissy nodded, loading more onto the draining rack. “You’re probably right. Alzheimer’s patients do better in familiar environments.”

“Yes? Then God knows how he’d get on somewhere else, because he’s forgotten his way around here.”

“I know. I’ve seen it happen with others. You can’t bring him back, but there are ways to make it easier on all of you.”

“Like what?” Louise asked wryly.

“Home helps. Nursing care in the community. I can give you a couple of numbers. Talk to them, see what they can do. It’ll take the heat off you.”

Louise opened her mouth as if to object, then closed it again. “Okay. Maybe I will. What made you think of that now? Did Aidan put you up to this?”

Chrissy scrubbed a stubborn crust of food on a plate. “He made me see how hard it is for you. I wish I’d thought before.” She dropped the plate into the rack and glanced at her. “He’s worried about you, Louise. About all of you. And I think he feels a bit guilty for not being here, for not even knowing how bad it’s got.”

Louise sighed, reaching for the dripping plate. “I know.”

“Even if he stayed, you’d need professional help. You both need lives of your own. Your dad, when he really was your dad, would have insisted on that.”

Louise opened a cupboard and put away the crockery pile she’d made on the worktop, then reached blindly for the next plate. “Aye, well. There’s wishes and there’s reality.”

“Aidan was going to pay for the nursing home, wasn’t he?”

Louise snorted. “Yes but I won’t stick my mum and dad in a home just to make Aidan feel better.”

“Of course not,” Chrissy said mildly. “But give him his due. It wasn’t himself, but you and your parents he was thinking about. It may the wrong solution, but at least he was trying to find one.”

Louise eyed her, a half smile curving her lips. “You don’t need to stick up for him to me. I know him. Doesn’t mean I can’t rant occasionally.”

“Rant away,” Chrissy invited.

Louise’s smile broadened. “You’re good for him, you know. He’s…
lightened
since he met you.”

“It’s home that’s good for him,” Chrissy said quietly. “That’s why he came. Ardknocken may never be big enough, but he misses it. He misses his family.”

Louise let her hand fall to her side. The end of the dish towel trailed on the floor. “He came home to heal,” she said, just a little unsteadily. “And here we are disintegrating.”

“Oh, you’re not, Louise. You’re holding it all together.” Since her hands were dripping in steaming suds, she kept them to herself, simply nudged Louise in solidarity. “Listen, what I started to say was, if Aidan has the kind of money for a nursing home—”

“How come he’s got that kind of money anyway? Police pay isn’t that great.”

“I suspect he does a lot of overtime,” Chrissy said diplomatically. With danger money thrown in. “Whatever, he’ll use it to help if he can. So take it. Get your business off the ground again. If a lot of guests won’t upset your parents?”

Louise shook her head. “The house is big enough to keep our quarters separate, and we can use the flat more. Once Aidan’s gone.”

Ignoring her inevitable pang at that, Chrissy said, “Then do it. I’m going to send out the first ads for the fishing trips this week. Hire some staff.” She took a deep breath. “You know the people here. Hire someone with flexible hours, someone you trust to help with everything, from cleaning and cooking to caring. Someone your mum and dad will be happy to have around the house. Then, you can even have some time off. Come to the pub. Go shopping in Fort William. Hell, go and have a dirty weekend in Glasgow with Dave.”

Dave was the cameraman who’d come up with the television crew to do the hauntings story at Ardknocken House.

Louise wrinkled her nose. “Dave dumped me for a producer with big glasses.”

Oops.
“Ah. Sorry. I didn’t know.” Chrissy put the last pan on the draining rack and emptied the water from the basin. “Do you mind much?”

Louise shrugged and sighed. “I suppose I liked him coming up to see me. I looked forward to it. But he was awkward around Mum and Dad. Made me uncomfortable. It’s easier without him, to be honest. Bad for my ego, mind.”

“They’re all bad for the ego,” Chrissy said, from habit. Only once she’d said the words, it struck her that Aidan had been rather good for hers. When he left, she’d try to keep it that way. She liked feeling like this.

Rab was still chewing the last of his dinner as he charged through the kitchen and out the back door of Ardknocken House, intent on creativity in his workshop, which was now set up in one of the outhouses where he also slept. He almost ran into Len, who was coming in the opposite direction.

“Rab,” Len said in apparent surprise. “How’re you doing?”

“All right.” Rab swallowed the last of the mouthful. “Going to do some work. You okay?”

“Sure. Quiet weekend. And the books here are a piece of piss. Wee Chrissy’s got me looking into the prices of wood and stuff.”

“Good on her.”

“Aye, well watch yourself there, son. You’ll never guess who she had in her room this afternoon.”

Rab shifted uncomfortably. It was none of his business, but before he could explain that to Len, the older man said, “Big blond guy that used to be in the police, according to rumour. If I was you, I’d take a step or two back.”

From what? Before Rab could say the words, Len brushed past him and through the kitchen. Rab shrugged and went on his way. What the hell was that all about?

The wind favoured Aidan. He was able to cut the engine some distance from the island and sail with decent speed up to the broken down jetty. When he’d tied up the boat, he couldn’t help glancing along the beach at the seals who lay there, resting. In the dark, he could almost believe
she
was one of them. The woman who’d made his teenage dreams come true and inspired him with a good deal of sexual imagination. Had she really come back for more? Maybe he should look for her sometime and find out, get Chrissy out of his system.

The idea made him laugh at himself. Even if he wasn’t on a mission, even if the beautiful selkie appeared naked in front of him right now, he didn’t want her, even for auld lang syne. And he didn’t want Chrissy out of his system. He liked her there. Even when she churned everything upside down.

Today had been a dangerous luxury he’d been unable to deny himself. Or her. He didn’t want her to think the encounter on the boat was a one-off grab for sex just since she was there and needy. She was worth so much more than that, and she needed to know it. Even if being valued by him was hardly anything to write home about.

He liked sex. He knew from his partners’ reactions he was pretty good at it, and repairing some of her hurts was the best thing he could do for her. The rest, he thought, was pure selfishness. He wanted her. He loved the way she kissed, the way she melted and then fought for domination. She was surprisingly uninhibited, both sweet and passionate, and open to her own and his imagination. Physically, he couldn’t get enough of her and he couldn’t see that changing any time soon.

But the real danger for him was that he
liked
her. She was funny and bantered back and forth with him. He found himself watching for all her changes of expression. They fascinated him. She had such down to earth common sense, the wisdom of a much older woman, and yet her eyes went dreamy sometimes, serious and beautiful…

And if I don’t keep my mind on the job, I’m a dead man.

Turning away from the seals, he ignored the path up to the observation point, instead climbing over the difficult, slippery rocks that led around the island to the other side where James Black had been camped. Over the salty smell of the sea spray, he could scent a wood fire. He had to climb quite high to keep himself out of the sea at one point, and the whole journey was pretty precarious.

Eventually, he made out voices. Just two, he thought, both male. Moving nearer with greater care than ever, Aidan lowered himself from an overhanging ledge, dropping the last few inches onto a large but slippery rock. He had to save himself with his hands, but at least he did it quietly, and then, creeping forward, he finally saw them.

They sat on a blanket on the sand, in their coats and hats, huddled close to the crackling fire. Aidan looked around them, took in their boat pulled up beyond the tide line—it was the one he and Chrissy had glimpsed part of yesterday, a decent-ish rowing boat. No motor.

He turned, examining the rocks behind them. By the glow of the fire, he could make out the big cave they were using for shelter. There were three rucksacks in it.

The heroin that had to be their reason for being here, was surely in one—or all—of those. Their normal routine would have been upset by Gowan’s murder and the change of leadership and location. But Aidan was positive the changeover must be planned for pretty soon now. He had no more time.

He just had to grab the stuff and run. It didn’t really matter if he was seen. He had to be quicker than them over rocks he already knew, and his boat was certainly faster than theirs. They didn’t stand a chance of catching him.

Of course, they could shoot him, but that was a risk he’d have to take. He had his own weapon in his pocket for the journey, but he didn’t intend to use it unless he was caught red-handed, as it were, in the cave.

Black and his crony were, inevitably, drinking and quarrelling. There wasn’t much else for them to do here and they must have been resentful and pissed off and downright cold. Shame, Aidan thought without sympathy as he climbed over the rocks towards their cave. The wind was his friend, whipping up the sea and no doubt battering the ears of the smugglers as much as his, drowning whatever sounds he made as he clambered behind their backs and entered the cave.

In the end, it was like stealing candy from a baby. They’d even left a phone on the cave floor. After he found the right rucksack by feel and slipped it on his back, he glanced at the gesticulating figures on the beach, shouting each other down. He reckoned he had the time. Taking the back off the phone, he inserted a tiny bug from the case in his left-hand pocket. Then he put the phone back together, replaced it on the floor and climbed out of the cave. As he made his way across the rocks, his spine tingled. The hair on the back of his neck stood up in expectation of the shot that never came.

He’d almost made it out of sight when a shout rang out. “Fuck, what’s that?”

“What?” came another voice in alarm. “What are you on about?”

“There. Something’s moving, James, I swear.”

“Ach, you’re…fuck, you’re right! Who the hell’s that? Get after him!”

Aidan wanted to laugh as he sped up, uncaring now about noise. It felt like a schoolboy game of tig, or a scene from Scooby Doo. Plus he had the advantage of sobriety. He never felt in any immediate danger, not least because one of them yelled at the other to put the gun away or the shot’d be heard for miles across the mainland. Aidan wasn’t sure how far it would carry, but he was still grateful.

Making it finally onto the jetty with nothing worse than damp bottoms to his trouser legs, Aidan untied the boat, jumped in and started the engine. He was a hundred yards from the island before he unloaded the rucksack and pushed it down into the cabin. When he returned to the deck, he still couldn’t see his pursuers.

Plan B, stage one complete.

Trouble was, that was the easy part. He wasn’t looking forward to the rest.

Chrissy was just putting on her coat to walk down to the village and put up the workshop schedules in a few public places, when Rab stuck his head round the door.

“Got a minute?” he asked.

“Sure.” Chrissy sat back down and waved him to a chair. Rab came in and unexpectedly closed the office door. This was unusual enough to alarm and intrigue her. “What’s on your mind?”

“Len,” Rab said with a sigh as he sat opposite her.

Chrissy’s heart began to beat faster. “Is he a problem?”

“No, no, not to me. It’s just…” Rab blushed. “He seems to think there’s something between you and me. Maybe because I shoved him off you at New Year. I’m sorry if I was out of order.”