Page 11 of Snowy Surprises in the Highlands (Scottish Highland #5)

‘Are you staying locally?’ she asked, making small talk, and immediately regretted her question when his face lit up.

‘Why, are you gonna come and visit?’ When she didn’t answer, he added, ‘I’m living here for now. But I’m gonna buy a place in Por tree eventually, I guess I might as well make the most of my time in this godforsaken hellhole.’

Charming . ‘I see. Well, you might want to look for somewhere sooner rather than later. It may get a little noisy and dirty around here as things progress,’ she said, once again regretting her choice of words.

He raised his eyebrows. ‘I’m a tough guy, I can handle it,’ he said with that pathetic half-smile again.

Bella cleared her throat, if he was trying to impress her he was having the opposite effect.

‘Okay…’ She took her iPad out of its case and placed it down, then she took out the wallpaper and fabric samples.

‘So, the idea is to take the Iolair-Mhara back to its origins with some beautiful William Morris wallpapers and fabrics. These are the ones approved by your parents.’

‘Do you know how the place got its name?’ he asked out of the blue.

She shook her head. ‘It was named after a nest of white-tailed eagles that were discovered in the forked trunk of one of the old oak trees in the grounds behind the house, back in the mid-1800s. The eagles returned here, to the same spot for many years after that too. They apparently loved the location on the edge of the loch. Did you see the painting in the foyer?’

Bella nodded. ‘The piece by Douglas McKenna? I did. I did some research after your mum and dad told me about it. He was quite local to the area and painted it in 1896. I think it’s lovely that it’s still here and there’s still a connection between the building and its first wild neighbours.

Maybe we’ll find a more fitting frame and make sure it stays. Make it a feature.’

‘Right now, that painting is the only thing I like about the place. Present company excepted, of course.’

‘You’re not here willingly then?’ she asked.

‘Let’s just say managing a hotel wasn’t what I either hoped, or expected, to be doing with my life but… Here we are, the less about the reasons the better, I think. Anyway, show me your grand plans, Miss Douglas.’

* * *

‘I like it,’ Mr Somers said after Bella had gone through the whole proposed scheme. ‘Would’ve been nice if I’d been allowed to have some input but…’

‘Ah, sorry about that. Perhaps if there’s anything you really aren’t keen on you could speak to your parents and?—’

‘No, I like what you’ve come up with. I may make a few additions but overall, you’ve done a great little job. Well done, you.’

A great little job? Well done, you? You arse. ‘Well, I am a qualified professional.’

He raised his eyebrows. ‘Wait, you can actually get qualified to decorate?’

Bella’s nostrils flared involuntarily. ‘Yes. You can.’

‘Nice, nice. Well done, you.’ There was that condescending tone again. Why did it not feel like a compliment?

Bella stood, fearing she might say something she would regret. ‘Right, well, I’ll be off. Thanks for your time.’ She held out her hand.

He stood too and took her hand. ‘Oh, yeah, you have another appointment.’

‘I do.’ She tried to remove her hand from his grip, but he held on.

He smoothed his thumb over the back of her hand. ‘It was good to meet you, Bella. I can see why your parents chose that name for you.’

‘Actually, I was named Arabella after Arabella Stuart, the cousin of King James VI. She was a woman who took no crap,’ she informed him bluntly as she snatched her hand away.

The part about the Stuarts was totally fabricated, she had no clue why her parents named her Arabella and had only heard of the Stuart woman when she’d searched for people with her name out of curiosity.

He chuckled. ‘Say hi to your fiancé for me,’ he said before turning and leaving the room.

‘I’ll see myself out then,’ Bella said to the empty room as she wiped her hand down her skirt, feeling slimy and in need of a wash. She left the house as quickly as she could, hoping that first impressions were wrong on this occasion.

* * *

Later that evening, Bella stood at the kitchen counter chopping vegetables for a stir fry when Harris came into the room and slid his arms around her waist from behind. ‘Hey, sexy. How did it go?’

‘Yeah… good. The hotel is stunning from the outside but quite ugly on the inside.’ Rather like its new manager, she thought.

‘Oh? How so?’

‘Lots of brown and orange.’

‘Ah. I’d forgotten about that. A seventies enthusiast’s dream then?’ She nodded. ‘What’s your new boss like?’

She paused for a moment while she contemplated her answer, carefully. ‘American,’ was what she came up with.

He laughed. ‘Interesting choice of adjective. Am I to take it from that that you’re not too keen on him?’

‘Well, I’ve only met him today so let’s give it time. But what I will say is that I don’t like to be referred to as little lady and having done a great little job .’

Harris sucked air in through his teeth. ‘Jeez-oh. How to make friends and influence people in one easy step. I’m surprised you didn’t smack him.’

‘I was more than a little tempted if I’m honest.’ Bella placed her knife down on the countertop, wiped her hands on the tea towel there and turned to face Harris.

He looked so handsome in his police uniform.

‘You would think that a young guy, in this day and age, would be a little more aware of how to speak to women. Thank goodness you’re not a sexist moron. ’

He kissed her passionately. ‘I’d like to think of myself as more of a sexy moron.’ He grinned.

She laughed. ‘You are silly. And I love you for it.’

He kissed her again. ‘And I love you. Right, I’m off to get changed.’ He released her and made his way quickly towards the doorway before shouting out in a bad American accent, ‘Now you get on and prepare that meal for your hard-working man, little lady.’

She picked up the tea towel and flung it at his retreating form. ‘Cheeky!’

* * *

One week later, Bella returned to the hotel to meet with Carlton again for a progress report.

The place was cleared of furniture and stripped of the brown and she could hear the teams hard at work in the other rooms. She waited for Carlton in the empty dining room as there was a team in the lounge stripping down the suspended ceiling.

She checked her watch for the fourth time since she’d arrived.

He was late.

‘Hey, Bella,’ he said as he walked into the room shirtless, again, wearing his boots, and in a tight pair of boxers that left little to the imagination.

She averted her eyes and her face heated. ‘Hi, Mr Somers. I can’t stay long. We said we’d meet at ten and it’s now almost twenty past.’

‘Call me Carlton. And yeah, I was working out in my room.’ No apology then? Nice. ‘Can’t let the bod get saggy just cuz I’m not working.’

‘I can wait while you go put on some clothes,’ she said looking him straight in the eyes this time, hoping that her displeasure was evident.

Clearly, he was a little too thick skinned and arrogant to care. He smirked and held his arms out to the sides. ‘Didn’t you know I’m a model? And because of my modelling career I’m used to undressing in front of people, which means it doesn’t really faze me. Anyway, people pay to see this body.’

Modest too. ‘Isn’t the point of modelling to wear clothes? And in all seriousness, this is currently a building site, so you’d be safer with clothes on. You don’t want to be getting splinters, or worse.’

As if he hadn’t heard her, he continued, ‘Yeah, I did catalogue and website work mostly, but I’ve done catwalk too. Did a stint for Nina Picarro if you’ve heard of her.’

Of course Bella had heard of her, Olivia used to work for her in New York, although she wasn’t going to tell him that and give him something to latch onto. ‘Very nice. Look, it’s inappropriate for us to conduct meetings while one of us is scantily clad.’

He tilted his head. ‘Awww, come on, what’s a little skin between friends, huh? I don’t wanna get dressed before I shower, what would be the point in that?’

Realising he had no intention of getting dressed, she pulled her iPad out of her bag. ‘Can we please just go through the progress report and then I can leave?’

‘So soon? How about I take you to dinner and we discuss the progress there over a nice bottle of red?’

‘No, thank you, Mr Somers, you know I’m engaged. And again, this isn’t appropriate. In fact, it makes me feel quite uncomfortable and I’m going to have to consider whether I want to continue with the job if you refuse to dress appropriately for our meetings.’

He scowled. ‘You’re overreacting, don’t you think? You’re not going to report me to your fiancé, are you?’ He held out his wrists and stuck out his bottom lip, chuckling, but there was a slight sinister edge to it.

An uneasy shiver travelled down her spine. ‘I don’t think I’m overreacting, no. And I can look after myself, thank you. But as I said, you need to dress professionally or at least to dress for our meetings if I’m going to continue working here.’

He rolled his eyes like a petulant child. ‘Yes, ma’am, sorry, ma’am.’

She ignored his sarcasm. ‘You’ll be happy to know that everything’s on track,’ she said, deciding to power on through the meeting as fast as she could and then she’d get the hell out of Dodge.

‘Structurally the building is sound and it’s all purely cosmetic as we first presumed.

Teams will be continuing to work on prepping the lounge for decoration and, following that, the bedrooms, in order that photos can be taken for the new website to give prospective guests an idea of what the place will look like when it’s up and running. ’

‘So, I take it there’ll be no dinner date?’ he asked, and Bella had to bite her tongue yet again.