The Calum (3 page)

“
What?” Right.
Hamish.

“
It’s just one last go,
yeah? Afore I’m marched to the guillotine.”

Duff rolled his eyes. So
much for being an adult. “You make it sound as if yer life’s
over.”

“
Aye, it is!” Hamish
exclaimed in hushed tones. “Don’t get me wrong, I love my bonnie
Sofia. Truly I do, but...” He nodded toward the buxom blonde. She
was prime, for sure. Hamish bit his knuckle made a sound that Duff
never wanted to hear again. “Jes’ look at that!”

Christ.
“Pull yerself together, man.”

“
But she’s braw,
aye?”

She was, but Duff had bad
luck with blondes. One blonde, really. “Aye, that she is. If you
like the type.”

“
What type, horny American
tourist?” Hamish wiggled his eyebrows.

“
Fer chrissake, man. Tell
me ye don’t mean to shag ‘er!”

“
No! No...just have a wee
bit o’ fun.” He licked his lips, and Duff wanted to smack him
one.

“
It’s not a fuckin’ game,
mate.”

Just because marriage
wasn’t on Duff’s list of things-to-do didn’t mean that he took the
institution lightly. If you were going to make a commitment like
that, you’d better be prepared to stick to it. Clearly, Hamish
wasn’t off to a good start.

The redhead adopted a
conciliatory tone. “Look, she’ll be gone in a week or so. I’ll send
her on ‘er merry way with some nice memories.”

“
You’ll break her heart,
s’what ye’ll do. And Sofia’s.”

“
Nah.” Hamish waved him
off. “
Nothin’
so serious. She jes’ wants some holiday
companionship.”

“
You better hope it’s
that, seeing as ye’ll be saying ‘I do’ before too long.”

“
Like I said. A bit ‘o
fun, so...mum’s the word.” Hamish still eyed the blonde like a
juicy steak. Duff took a deep breath and nodded. It wasn’t like he
could talk him out of it, and he surely didn’t need the drama.
Maybe he’d let it slip about the wedding during conversation.
Casually. Save the poor girl a little humiliation.

As they made their way
back to the group, he stopped in his tracks. The
other
new girl had
joined them. If the blonde was beautiful, this one was crazy
gorgeous.

Creamy skin with a
generous splash of coffee, cheeks dotted with tiny, star-like
freckles, and deep red spirals that wrapped her shoulders, almost
begging to be wrapped around his fist as she moaned underneath him.
Her mouth was a sin all by itself and her eyes…
fuck
.

Duff’s mouth went
dry.

She was friends with the
horny American. Better to steer clear of both of these women and
opt for the bar. At least there he could quench one of his thirsts
without worrying about the consequences.

****

Lovie watched the dark
stranger with interest. Clearly he was friends with The Calum, or
Hamish as he’d been introduced. Yet, he’d settled himself well away
from their group and was ensconced in conversation with the
bartender. He hadn’t even bothered to come over and say
hello.

The pub filled up as the
evening wore on. A few of the guys were joined by their significant
others, and the singles clumped together like bidders at an
auction. Apparently meat markets were universal.

Everywhere she looked,
couples were pairing off, chitchatting away. Jo and Hamish acted
like old friends, soon to be lovers, and the rest of his group
seemed content to let them be. Lovie was used to being on the
fringe, but this shit was for the birds.

Forget being the third
wheel, she was the ninth passenger in an eight passenger
van.

After two hours, she’d had
enough. There was only so much Cookie Crunch that her phone battery
could take.

“
Hey Jo, don’t you think
we should head back? It’s getting late.”

“
Huh?” Jo turned her head,
her eyes glazed over with alcohol and lust. “Oh. No, I’m good. I’ll
stay for a while longer, but you don’t have to wait for me.” She
spoke to Lovie, but her eyes were for Hamish.
Your place or mine
, they said. The
corner of his mouth quirked up in recognition.

“
Dinna fash yerself,
Hamish Mackay always sees a lady home.” He bowed his
head.

‘
The lady’
blushed.

Hamish smiled and ran a
hand through his thick, red hair, making sure his arm came to rest
on Jo’s thigh.

Corny, but
smooth.

Dismissed, Lovie grabbed
her coat and walked out. She got about half a block away and
stopped.

“
Dammit!” She couldn’t
leave Jo behind with some strange guy, no matter how much of a
Calum he was.

She knew this would
happen. She just didn’t expect it to happen on their first friggin’
day in Scotland. It was going to be a long and lonely
trip.

Rather than head right
back inside, she crossed the street and walked down to the river’s
edge. Pitch black, it lapped at its banks in near-silence. Colored
spotlights lit the bordering trees, casting ghostly reflections in
purple and green. Fairy lights draped around the naked branches
twinkled on the surface like stars.

Lovie yawned as the jet
lag kicked in hard. Even her bones were tired, but she had no
choice but to go back inside and wait. Bodyguard indeed.

“
No beaches here.” She
sighed. “I should have just gone to Punta Cana alone. Stupid
romance novels.” She kicked the dirt at her feet. Jo would have
been fine on her own. Maybe. “Stupid roommate and her stupid
plan.”

Despite the cold, anger
made her blood run hot and steady. She looked around for the
nearest thing to throw. Spotting a baseball-sized rock at her feet,
she grabbed it and hurled it as far as it would go.

Turns out, that was about
five feet and backward. The stone landed squarely in the chest of a
tall, shadowy figure.

“
What the-?”

“
Oh shit!”

“
What the hell are
ye
doin’
,
woman?” The figure bent down to pick up the offending object. Lovie
pushed the hair out of her eyes and got a glimpse of long, thick
fingers and a mop of black waves before he stood up and stepped
into the pool of light. It was Hamish’s friend, the dark, aloof
stranger. He had startling, aquamarine eyes and a scowl on his full
lips. A scowl that was now aimed directly at her.

“
So sorry, it
slipped.”

“
Slipped?”

“
I mean, I meant for it to
go in the river.”

Wow.

He was…wow. At least
Six-foot-three, with a powerful frame, and his eyes… The only word
that came to mind was unearthly.

“
Dinna fash yerself.” The
frown morphed into a smirk, revealing a dimple on his left cheek.
He held out the rock as if offering a ripe piece of fruit. “I
believe this belongs to you?”

“
Sorry about that,
um...”

“
Friends call me
Duff.”

“
Duff. I’m Lovie. Are you
hurt?”

“
No damage
done
. Lovie, is
it?” The smirk turned up into a full-blown, Hollywood smile. Damn.
Must have been something in the Highland air. These Scottish boys
were dangerous. She took the rock from him, careful not to
linger.

“
Do ye always chuck stones
about in the middle of the night, Lovie?”

He
really
knew how to say her name.
“No, I was just...getting out some frustration.”

“
Would that be of a sexual
nature, then?”

Is it that obvious?
Lovie hugged her coat tighter. “No! What--why
would you even say something like that?”

He laughed, holding up a
hand in apology. “Sorry, it’s...I saw the way you were looking at
me min.”

Her eyes
dropped
to his
crotch before she stepped back, suddenly aware of how alone they
were. “Your what?”

“
Ah, my friend,” he said,
grinning as if he could read her mind. “Hamish.”

“
Ugh.” As if. That guy
talked about himself in the third person. All evening, Lovie had
kept trying to catch Jo’s eye to see if she found him as boorish as
she did. Apparently not.

“
Sorry.” Duff laughed. “My
mistake.”

“
I wasn’t looking at
Hamish.” She suppressed a shiver. “I was looking at my friend
Jo.”

“
Is Joe your
man?”

Was that a
frown?

“
No, Jo as in Joana. As in
my best friend.” She put ‘best friend’ in air quotes, not feeling
it at that moment. “As in the person that dragged me three thousand
miles away from home, during the holidays, to...uh.”

“
To what?”

Oops. Get back in the bag,
cat.

“
Never mind. It’s not a
big deal.”

“
Seems it
is,
if yer
throwing rocks at unsuspecting passersby.” He sure was milking
that.

“
I told you I wasn’t
aiming at you.”

“
For one not aiming, you
sure hit the mark.” He rubbed his chest somewhat suggestively, the
smirk making a return appearance. She could see why he was friends
with the dolt inside. They were probably peas in a pod. Granted it
was a very sexy pod, but best to ignore that. Lipstick on a pig and
all.

“
Well, you’re the one
sneaking around in the dark.”

“
Wouldn’t call it
sneaking. I jes’ stepped out for a breather. I sure wasn’t
expecting to have lethal projectiles hurled at me.” He winked one
twinkling eye, and she bit her cheek to keep from
smiling.

“
Hardly
lethal.”

“
I think you had deadly
intent, missus.” He ducked his head, suddenly adorable. An adorable
bad-ass. So not fair. She gave up fighting the smile, but turned
away. He had this sexy voodoo thing going on. Maybe Jo was under
some Highland spell.
Not this girl, no
way.

“
Look, I already
apologized, what more do you want?” Lovie sighed and chucked the
offending rock into the water.

Duff moved in front of her
and bent to eye-level. Even at five-foot-seven, she barely reached
his shoulder. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

”
I’m fine.”

“
Sure, I can see that.” He
snorted. “Violent Americans.” He was close now. Close enough for
his heat to dull the chill of the night air. To keep from leaning
into him, Lovie folded her arms around her body.

Duff’s voice softened.
“Sometimes it helps, y’ken? Just talking and having someone
listen.”

A little bit of her ice
melted. His gaze was comforting and full of promise. Like laying on
your back in a spring meadow and staring up at
a cloudless
sky. Lovie
exhaled long and slow while she tried to reign in her reaction. She
concentrated on what she knew about him so far.

●
Gorgeous
eyes.

●
Kissable
mouth.

●
She wanted to shrink
herself down like Alice and run through the wonderland of his hair,
it was so thick and wavy.

●
He was friends with the
shady redhead, so points lost there.
But he didn’t hang out with him in the bar, so call it
even.

●
He wasn’t wearing a
wedding ring. Of course, she’d checked.

●
He seemed genuinely
concerned and watched her as if he were trying to figure her out as
well.

But Duff. What kind of
name was that? And his accent. She was no expert, but it was all
over the place.

“
Were you born here? In
Scotland, I mean?”

The question caught him
off-guard. He straightened up. “Aye.” He nodded over his shoulder.
“In
hospital
across the river on Old Perth Road, though I
didna always
live here.”

“
I thought not. Your
accent isn’t as, um, pronounced as your friend’s.” Lovie could
actually understand him without too much concentration. Duff
chuckled, scratching his nose.

“
Hamish? We’ve known each
other since we were wee bairns.”

“
So, you’re more like
brothers then?”

“
Aye, the kind yer
wantin’
to kill
every half-second.” He pulled his collar up to his ears. “It’s cold
out, yeah? Come back inside and get warm.”

She was already getting
warm, but Lovie let him lead her back inside the pub. Once inside,
they found a small table, away from the loudest patrons.

“
Fancy a drink?” Duff
shucked his jacket, revealing a long, lean physique.

“
They have anything
non-alcoholic at this hour?”

“
Tea awright?” He rubbed
his hands together. He had beautiful hands.