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As it clicked open, he turned back around and took Bex’s hand to lead her in, yet before he had stepped through the threshold, he stopped. For a second, she feared he was going to ask her again, at which point he might expect her to make good on her promise and go back to the castle, and there was no chance she wanted that to happen. But instead, he dropped to the ground, letting go of Bex’s hand as he did.

‘Sorry, girl,’ Duncan said as he picked up his giant cat from the floor. ‘But tonight, you’re going to be sleeping out here.’

45

Bex didn’t know what time it was, but the birds were beginning their dawn chorus outside. Not that they had woken her. She wasn’t even sure she had fallen asleep. At that moment, she was lying with her head on Duncan’s chest, rising and falling with the rhythm of his breath. Her mind filled with everything the night had entailed, from the laughter over dinner, to the way his lips had felt as he’d pressed them into the nape of her neck, kissing slowly down, across her collarbone, down her arm all the way to her hand, where he had kissed each finger one at a time, all while never taking his eyes off her.

The night had been everything she could have dreamt of and more. It wasn’t just the kisses that were unlike anything she had ever experienced before; it was every physical aspect she experienced with him.

‘You should know, I’m actually really nervous,’ he’d said as they’d stood in his bedroom. By this point, she had already stripped him of his shirt and belt and was making headway on the buttons of his jeans too, but his words caused her to stop in her tracks.

‘You are. Why?’

He cleared his throat, only for that slight pink tinge to colour the top of his ears.

‘Katty and I… She was my first… My only.’

Bex tried not to show her surprise. Of course, it made sense that Katty would have been his first. They had been childhood sweethearts, but they had been separated for a couple of months now and she had seen the way women – like the maître d’ at the restaurant – looked at him. She had assumed he’d tried to get over his heartbreak the way so many others did, at least a few times. But apparently that wasn’t the case.

‘Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle with you.’ She smirked.

‘Is that right?’ He grinned.

‘Maybe. I guess you’ll just have to wait and see.’

The truth was, it had been perfect. So much so that she could barely feel where her body ended and his began. But the physical side of it was only a fraction of their night. There had been the way he had whispered in her ear that caused every hair on the back of her neck to rise. The way his lips traced the line across her skin and the manner in which his hands fit into the small of her back every time he pulled her closer to him. There was the way they had laughed when his feet got caught in his boxers and the way he’d made it so clear that, if at any point she changed her mind, then that was fine with him. He just wanted her there with him.

Now it was morning, and they lay with arms and legs intertwined as he drew lazy figures of eight on her stomach, her arm, any part of her body he could touch. Not that she was any better. It was damn near impossible to keep her hands off him.

‘I should probably go up to the castle,’ she said as she stretched out, fully aware of how much of her body was touching his. ‘I’ve got work to get on with.’

‘Take a sick day,’ he said, his fingers moving up towards her sternum. ‘You know, I’ve heard there’s a nasty bug going around. Has people laid up in bed for at least a week. Maybe you’re coming down with that. You should stay. Rest.’

She laughed. ‘Well, if that’s the case, I should probably leave,’ she said, sitting up. ‘I’d hate for you to get sick too.’ Before she was even upright, Duncan had grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her back down.

‘I think you’re right,’ he said, kissing her deeply as if he was trying to taste the very essence of her, before breaking away far too soon. ‘I think we should both stay here and quarantine for at least a week. I’ll ring Fergus now and let him know.’

Once again, she allowed herself to be devoured by his touch. It was far too tempting to stay there. At least for a couple more hours, but how would that help things? Well, the longer it took her to get her work done at the castle, the longer it would be she stayed in Scotland, but wasn’t that the point.

The realisation that this was doomed to fail caused a weight to press down on her chest.

‘What is it?’ Duncan asked.

‘What? What do you mean?’ Bex feigned innocence, yet his withering expression said it all, only intensifying the weight inside her. How the hell could he read her so well already?

‘I was just thinking about when the job’s done. When I have to go back.’

‘Right.’ Silence swelled through the air before Duncan shifted, moving onto his side and looking straight at her.

‘Look,’ he said, tucking invisible strands of hair behind her ear. ‘I know we don’t know what’s going to happen in the next couple of months with us, but let’s be honest, no one ever does. You might think you know what the future holds. You might have written a plan out for the next five years, but that doesn’t mean the universe is going to work that way. It only takes one moment to derail everything you thought was going to happen. Everything you worked towards.’

Bex didn’t know if he was talking about him, or her and her set plan towards promotion, but she stayed silent, the air unusually tight in her lungs as he continued.

‘So how about this?’ he carried on. ‘How about we don’t plan? We don’t imagine what the future is going to be – whether that’s the worst-case scenario or the best possible outcome – we just get to love every day we have together. We make the most of each moment. We don’t dwell. We don’t worry. We’re just us, together. How does that sound?’

It sounded perfect. So perfect that Bex tried to smile, but the weight in her chest had now spread to consume her entirety. Everything he did and said made her fall for him more, and she got the feeling he felt the same. Which was why she knew no matter what he said, it was going to be near impossible not to think about what the future would hold for them. But she was sure as hell going to try.

‘We just take each day as it comes,’ she said, paraphrasing what he’d just said.