Lingerie Wars (The Invertary books) (22 page)

"I'm a vegetarian," Rainne grumbled.

Alastair busied himself with the hook at the end of the fishing line. Weeks he'd been teaching her to fish and she honestly couldn't tell you one thing she'd learnt. Every time he got close all she heard was that lilting voice of his and all she felt was the heat coming off his body. The words were pointless.

"Do we have to do this now?" she grumbled.

"As opposed to when?"

"Spring?" she said hopefully.

Alastair stilled.

"Are you planning to be here in spring, Rainbow?" His voice was casual, but she could tell from the tension in his shoulders that he was anything but.

She felt the weight of the question hang between them. Man, but he was pretty. Even in the dreich wet weather that you only found in Scotland, with rain that wasn't heavy enough to fall properly but was wet enough to soak you to the bone.

"Where else would I go?" she said. "Once Lake gets fed up playing shop and is satisfied that I'm not flushing his money down the toilet, then I'll have a business to run. I can't very well leave with that to do, can I?"

Alastair smiled softly, but kept his eye on whatever he was doing to the hook.

"No, you can't leave with a shop to run," he said. Then he looked up at her and she felt her world tilt. "But I'm hoping it isn't the only reason you want to stay in Invertary, Rainbow."

Rainne blinked hard, then pulled her rain hat tighter on her head for something to do. Alastair came up behind her, as he usually did when he was showing her how to cast. They'd done this about a million times now and they both knew Rainne could cast, but they both wanted to be close, so they went through the pretence of a beginner's lesson at the start of each fishing session.

"Now, don't forget to let the line slide," Alastair's breath whispered over her cheek as he leaned in behind her. "The line wants to fly out over the water, it wants to find fish, and you don't want to be the one getting in the way of that."

She smiled ahead of her at the murky water as she watched Alastair grasp the rod.

"I don't ever want to leave here," he said wistfully.

Rainne stilled as he wrapped his arms around her, all pretence of teaching her to fish now gone.

"This is my home," he said. "I can't imagine being anywhere else, and I want you here with me, Rainbow."

"I told you, I'm staying," she said, trying to keep her tone light.

"No, I mean I want you here forever. To become a part of this place the way I am. To get married here. To have children here. To be at home here."

He didn't say to be married to
him
, or have children with
him
, but Rainne heard it in his words. A ripple of excitement raced through her. It wasn't the kind of thing people said, and it sure wasn't the kind of thing they meant.

"You don't know what you're saying," she said. "People don't plan the rest of their lives when they're twenty. You're too young to know what you want."

"I might be younger than you, Rainne, but I know what I want. I've always known what I want. To be here. A part of the landscape and the heritage. To be a tiny piece in a history that spans time. I want to grow old surrounded by people I know, and comfortable in places I know. I don't have a burning need to be anywhere else."

She shook her head as she felt his arms tighten around her, as though he wanted to keep her rooted with him.

"I don't understand that feeling," she said. "We moved all the time when I was a kid. My parents still live out of a bus. I've no idea where they are half the time. If they hadn't gotten mobile phones they'd be lost forever. I don't know what it would feel like to be a part of a place. The way you talk about it is strange to me."

She felt his lips on her cheek as the crisp winter breeze stole what little heat she had left.

"Stay here and find out what it feels like. Stay forever. Stay with me," he said.

She turned her face towards his lips and felt the warmth of them through to her toes. He stroked his fingers down her cheek.

"I know where I want to be and I know what I want," he told her softly. "I don't want to scare you off with my saying it out loud. But you have a place here, Rainbow, a permanent home. Here. With me."

Rainne wrapped her arms around him and lost herself in his kiss. She wanted to believe him. To believe every word, but he was so young. And if she didn't know what she really wanted out of life at twenty-six, how could he know at twenty? Still, his words bounced around inside of her, setting off little bursts of excitement. A home. And Alastair. Forever. Could she do it?

"Let's forget fishing for today," Alastair told her as he rested his forehead on hers.

"Good idea. I think my toes are falling off."

He chuckled as he put his hand in hers and led her towards the shore.

"Let's get a vegetable curry and watch
Star Trek
DVDs."

"You are such a nerd," she told him.

"A sexy nerd, Rainbow, never forget the sexy part," he said as he waggled his eyebrows at her.

Rainne took a deep, shuddering breath as she followed him onto land. How could she ever forget the sexy part?

CHAPTER TWELVE

Lake rang Kirsty's doorbell at seven o'clock on the dot. He'd come empty handed because he wasn't exactly sure what he was attending. Dinner for rivals? A date? A meeting about the fashion show? It seemed a bit presumptuous to turn up with flowers, or a bottle of wine, when there was that much confusion. He thought he'd been pretty clear. He wanted Kirsty, and if she was going to invite him over, then she had to know that. The problem was he wasn't sure she knew what she wanted. He heard footsteps on the stairs and the door opened.

"You came," she said a little breathlessly.

He liked her breathless. He'd like to see her a lot more breathless than that.

"You invited me," he said.

"So I did." She threw open the door and motioned for him to come in.

As he stepped past her, she peered anxiously into the street and the hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

"Are you worried about that loser ex of yours?"

He sure as hell was. So far his research into Brandon—what kind of sissy name was that, anyway?—was setting off more alarm bells than he'd wanted.

"No." She waved away the notion, which made him feel slightly relieved. "Food," she said, and pointed at the stairs.

"After you."

She climbed the stairs in front of him. Which meant he got to watch her hips sway all the way up to the top. And they swayed beautifully in that figure-hugging green dress she wore.

"Welcome to my home," Kirsty said as they went into the living room.

Lake took off his denim jacket and handed it to her. She opened a closet and hung it up, every movement infused with nerves. He'd never seen her so jumpy. Even the day she'd posed in the street she'd been calmer than this, and that was saying a lot.

Lake decided to take matters into his own hands. Watching Kirsty bumble through, trying to make him feel welcome, was painful. Before she could stop him, he stepped towards her, cupped the back of her head and pressed his mouth to those plump, juicy lips of hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck instantly and relaxed against him. Lake ran the tip of his tongue over her bottom lip, seeking access, and almost went weak at the knees when she opened her mouth without hesitation. He stepped closer to her, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight against him as he kissed her thoroughly.

"Now you don't need to worry about when I'm going to kiss you," he said when he reluctantly stepped away from her.

"Maybe you should have been worried about
if
I was going to kiss you," she said.

Her eyelids were heavy with desire and her lips were plump from his kisses.

"Yeah, I was
so
worried about that."

"You are too cocky for your own good, you know that?"

"I've been told it a time or two, yeah." He grinned.

When Kirsty was done scowling at him, it seemed like she wasn't sure what to do next. He watched as she tried to figure it out.

"I could use a drink," he said when he lost patience. "If you have one?"

She looked to heaven and muttered something under her breath.

"Of course, what would you like?"

"What have you got?"

Kirsty grimaced.

"Everything," she said as she walked into the kitchen. "I wasn't sure what you liked, so I got everything."

She signalled to the counter and, sure enough, there was a bottle of pretty much everything he'd come across in the local supermarket. He lifted one of the cartons.

"Guava juice?"

"Panic buy," she said as she opened a cupboard high on the wall and came out with two glasses, one for juice and one for wine. She handed both to him.

Lake grinned at her.

"You really don't have folk over to dinner that often, do you?"

Her beautiful green eyes blinked at him, then she swallowed hard.

"You're the first," she said.

Lake stilled, holding the glasses.

"First?"

"You're the first man I've ever invited up here," she said, and turned away to stir something on the stove, as though her confession was nothing.

Lake felt his chest expand as he poured himself some guava juice. He was the first. Kirsty looked over her shoulder at him nervously. She smiled when she saw what he was drinking.

"Thought I'd give it a try, seeing as you went to so much trouble." He gestured towards the counter top. "I've got a lot to get through."

She laughed a deep, throaty laugh that made the nerves in his body zing. Suddenly, making her laugh again went up his list of priorities for the evening.

"What's for dinner?" he said as he perched on one of the stools beside the breakfast bar.

"Steak," she said. "Men like steak."

He grinned at her back.

"They do," she said over her shoulder. "Right?"

"Men love steak."

Her shoulders relaxed at his words, which made him wonder just how many dates Kirsty had been on.

"So," he said casually, "you don't date much?"

"Smooth topic change," Kirsty told him as she poured some guava juice into the empty wine glass. "Are you poking around hoping for information on my love life?"

He shrugged. The answer was yes, but he wasn't going to say it out loud.

"It's no big deal. It's probably all online for you to read, if you make the effort." She sipped the juice. "Yum," she told him.

Lake stared at her. "Yum" indeed.

"So are you going to tell me all about your sordid past, or are you going to make me dig around some more?"

"You're not one for small talk, are you, Lake?"

"I can do it when I have to," he said.

He was hoping this wasn't one of those times. She smiled at him.

"I was engaged to Brandon for six months. We'd been together two years."

"You were really going to marry that loser?"

He found that hard to believe. From his limited research he'd been repulsed by the guy. Not only was he as dodgy as a three-pound coin, the pictures showed that he dyed his hair and had a tan that bordered on orange.

"He could be very charming."

"That isn't reason to marry someone."

"I thought I was in love." She shrugged.

"But you know now you weren't?"

"I know a lot of things now that I didn't know then," she said darkly. "Lots of things I wish I didn't know."

Like pain, Lake thought.

"And before the moron?"

He was pleased that she laughed. He loved the sound of her laugh. It was borderline dirty and promised things he badly wanted.

"Before Brandon, the skanky thief, there was the odd date, mainly with other models. Nothing serious. I was too busy working to go for anything serious. Before that there was Brian. He was my teenage crush. He's still around, married to a girl called Joanne. They have two kids and run a farm outside of town."

"You obviously have a thing for guys with names beginning with B," he said drolly.

"What about you? Girl in every port?"

She leaned against the counter, keeping things casual, but he could tell she really wanted to know.

"That's the navy. I was special forces."

"Well...where did you keep your girls, then?"

"You make it sound like I had a harem."

She fixed him with a look.

"Fine, there isn't much to tell. No one serious, anyway." He shrugged.

He sure as hell wasn't going to go into detail about his years chasing army groupies. They frequented the pubs in every town he'd been stationed in, and they were only too happy to be caught. That was back when he was young and stupid, and thought if his dick stayed in his trousers two days straight it would shrivel and fall off.