Page 7 of Kilts and Kisses at Highland Hall (Kilts and Kisses #1)

As Bex closed the door, she let out a long sigh before breathing in a lungful of cold, slightly musty air.

The entire situation had been completely surreal, and she needed a moment to process it all.

One old, bedraggled, and somewhat grumpy man appeared to live in this entire castle by himself.

How was that possible? And cleaning three days a week?

She had a cleaner once a week for her flat because she despised mopping her floors.

Mopping a place like this, especially with five dogs seeming to have free rein, would be a Herculean task.

No, she corrected herself. It would be more like that man who had to roll a boulder up a hill every day, wouldn’t it?

And speaking of hills.

Now that she had gathered herself, Bex moved away from the door to the other side of the room and not for the first time that day, she felt her breath become stolen by the scenery.

The view out of the window was utterly sublime.

Even Daisy’s home, Wildflower Lock, couldn’t compete with this.

Rolling hills were covered in constantly changing terrain, from forests to rocky outcrops and lush green fields, and there in the middle of it all was a large, glimmering lake.

No, a loch, she corrected herself again. She was definitely looking at a loch.

Birds dipped and dived across the vista as the evening light reflected off the water.

She couldn’t draw her eyes away from it.

Hopefully, the study would have less of an appealing view, she thought.

There was no way she’d be able to focus on work if she kept looking outside at something like this.

It was only when she yawned so loudly that her jaw clicked that Bex remembered the reason she had asked Fergus to show her straight up here – she was shattered, and that double bed was calling her name.

After shutting the curtains, she crossed the room and let herself flop down.

The springs let out a low creak that Bex reciprocated with a satisfied grin of her own.

When she’d moved into her flat, she’d bought herself a top-of-the-line, memory foam internal spring support mattress, but it didn’t feel anywhere near as soft as this.

This was amazing. She wiggled further up so that her whole body was on the bed and stretched her arms out wide, only to find several inches of space between her fingertips and the edges.

Work hard, sleep hard. That was going to be her motto for the next two months.

As she lay there staring up at the ceiling, which was an entire piece of artwork on its own, Bex considered having a shower.

After all, she’d been stuck in the car all day.

And there had been that little incident with walking barefoot through the ford, too.

But she knew that a shower would wake her up, and that was the last thing she wanted.

So instead, she fired off a quick message to the girls, letting them know she’d made it safely, then stripped off and climbed into bed.

She was asleep before her head even hit the monstrously soft pillow.

* * *

Bex was the type of person who needed an alarm.

It made no difference that she woke up at the same time every single weekday and had done for the last decade.

If she didn’t have an alarm, she could almost be guaranteed to sleep in.

At least, that was normally the case. It was only when she rolled over in bed, confused by the loud noise that definitely wasn’t coming from her phone, that she realised what had happened.

‘Seriously,’ Bex said, glancing over at the thick curtains, which were absolutely not soundproof.

No, she knew that because the entire room was filled with birdsong.

Not to mention bird squawks and chirps and any other sound the feathered creatures were capable of making.

She thought it was bad at Wildflower Lock, waking up to the dawn chorus, but that felt positively tame compared to the cacophony that was currently drifting through the window.

Bex blinked, stretched out in the bed and rolled over to check the time on her phone. 5.45a.m.?

‘I’m gonna need to get earplugs if you guys are planning on waking me up this early every morning,’ she muttered, though there was clearly no chance of the birds either hearing or understanding her.

Groaning as she stretched again, she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, before staggering over to the window.

Maybe she had left it open without knowing.

Maybe that was the reason they were so bloody loud.

Yet as she pulled the curtains open and stared out of the morning beyond, any thought of shutting off the noise or going back to bed evaporated.

Somehow, the view was even more impressive now, with a delicate morning light stretching across the hills and a soft, gauzy mist hanging low above the loch. Grabbing her phone, she took a quick snap and fired it off to Daisy. Her friend was a painter and would absolutely love this.

With the photo taken and all the curtains open, Bex didn’t see any point in climbing back into bed.

In hindsight, she was surprised she had fallen asleep so easily.

If she would have known that she would be staying in a near-abandoned castle she might have found the idea somewhere between somewhat creepy and mildly terrifying, but she hadn’t been the slightest bit nervous going to bed at all.

Then again, maybe it was because she had been so tired, or maybe it was just because this room was probably used to visitors like the nephew and…

who was the other person? The groundsman, maybe?

No, Fergus had said something about a kid, hadn’t he?

Not that it mattered now. For the next two months, this was going to be her room.

‘Right, time to see how hot this electric shower actually is,’ she said to herself, grabbing a towel and heading into the bathroom.

Just like the rest of her room, the bathroom was colossal.

There was a large, freestanding roll-top bath at one end, a separate shower, a toilet and his-and-hers sinks.

An electric towel rail was just beside the door.

It was hardly cold, but there was no feeling quite so good as stepping out of the shower and wrapping yourself in a nice warm towel.

She hung hers up by the door, crossed the bathroom and stepped into the shower.

Given how elaborate and expensive everything else in the room and bathroom was, Bex was surprised to find a plastic bottle of men’s shower gel on the shelf in the shower.

It didn’t seem like the type of thing Fergus would use, and she couldn’t imagine the nephew of the laird going for a cheaper brand either.

Still, given that she had left her own washbag in the bedroom, she squirted a blob of gel onto her hand.

She was surprised to find it didn’t smell that bad at all and a quick look at the label told her it was pine scented. It would definitely do.

Just as Fergus had said, the shower was surprisingly good, and this came from someone who liked their water red hot.

As such, it didn’t take long before the glass steamed up entirely and for that pine aroma to flood her senses.

It was the type of shower she could have stayed in for ages if her stomach wasn’t growling loudly.

Maybe it hadn’t been the best idea to go to bed without a proper meal.

She would need to have something now. Both food and a coffee.

Then she could get on with her first day at work.

Switching off the water, Bex reached through the cloud of steam to open the glass door, stepped outside, and headed towards her towel.

Why would someone place the towel rail so far away from the shower?

she thought as goosebumps rose on her arms. Maybe it was because the room was so big and they didn’t want empty spaces, but common sense should have dictated they put it closer than that.

With her body dripping and aware of the puddle forming at her feet, she shuffled over towards the towel rail, the heat of the shower long forgotten.

When she finally got there, Bex reached out a hand, her fingertips just brushing the soft fabric, when the door swung open.

For a split second, she thought it must have been the wind from the open window, or that maybe it was the dog Ruby who had come up to say good morning, but it took a single blink for her to realise she was very, very wrong.

Standing in the doorway to her bathroom, and unlike her, totally dressed, was a broad man with blue-green eyes and tousled blond hair. And he was staring right at her with his jaw hanging open.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ Her voice was a shriek as she whipped the towel across herself as quickly as she could, but there was no doubt the man had seen everything. He was standing there, mouth still wide open, cheeks turning redder and redder.

‘Oh God, oh God, I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,’ he stammered, raising a hand to shield his eyes, even though Bex was now covered with a towel. ‘I didn’t think anybody – nobody ever uses – I’m going, I’m going. I was never here. I’m going!’