Whatever he was about to say was lost when a red nylon rope with a harness attached, snaked down the cliff and landed beside them. They looked up in time to see one of the twins—Darius, by the looks of his Coldplay t-shirt and faded jeans—come rappelling down to meet them. He walked down the cliff, releasing his rope a bit at a time, as though he’d done the same thing a thousand times. Once beside them, he stopped, his feet still on the cliff, and grinned.
“Pity I’m not in the running for this marriage thing,” he said. “Because I’ve got a feeling a rescue would take me to the top of the list.”
“Tell her it was my idea,” his twin, Damien, shouted from the top of the bluff.
“You abseil?” Mairi gawked at him.
“Yup, and canoe, ski, play soccer—normal guy stuff. Which I drag my brother along to, because if I didn’t, he’d end up a sad geek cliché by the time he turns thirty.”
“Tell her I can abseil too,” Damien shouted.
Darius cocked an eyebrow and flashed a dazzling grin. “The genius half of this duo can abseil too.”
“No kidding. I would never have known.” Mairi grinned back, and there was a growling sound behind her.
“Are we getting out of here or what?” Keir said.
Darius looked between them as his eyes twinkled. “Oh, it’s like that, is it? Does the Big Bang cast up there know about you two?”
“There’s nothing to know,” Mairi snapped at the same time as Keir said, “Feel free to spread the word.”
“There is no word.” Mairi smacked him on the stomach and then grabbed his shirt, just in case the blow accidentally pushed him over the edge. She let go of him hastily, not wanting him to see what she’d done. From the look in his eye, she was a second too late, which made her exceedingly irritated. “Tell me how to get into this thing,” she said as she reached for the harness.
It was way past time to get out of there and away from the overwhelming scent of testosterone. Plus, she really needed to put some cream on her stings.
“I saved her,” Damien shouted above them.
“You did not, your brother saved her,” Sebastian shouted. “So it doesn’t count. Does it, Mairi?”
“I’m still down here,” she shouted back. “Nobody’s saved me yet.”
“Give me that rope. I’ll haul her up,” Sebastian said.
Mairi groaned. “They’re going to get me killed.”
“Whoever is holding the rope when I get up there is going to feel my fist,” Keir shouted.
There was silence, then Donna’s face appeared over the edge. “It’s okay to come up now. Duncan’s going to pull you up. He says he’s happy to fight you. Just name your time.”
Keir looked at Mairi for an explanation.
“He has a lot of pent-up anger,” she said with a shrug. Then Keir and Darius strapped her into the harness and she let Donna’s boss pull her up to the top of the cliff. Where a crowd of men looked at her like she was part of the second coming.
“I can’t believe you were down there all night,” Sebastian said. “We didn’t hear a thing.”
“This is true, beautiful Mairi,” Amir said. “We would never have left you down there if we had known you were there.”
“Well, you might have known I was there if you lot hadn’t been singing love songs all night long.” She took off the harness and tossed it back over the cliff for Keir.
It was strange. Part of her wanted to peer over the edge and make sure he was safe coming up the cliff. Another part of her was second-guessing sending the harness down to him. Because, honestly, would it really hurt him to spend a couple of days down there?
“It was my idea to use the rappelling equipment to get you,” Damien said.
“Thanks,” Mairi said.
“I can rappel too,” Damien added.
“So I heard.” Mairi glanced at her sister, to see Donna was standing with her hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh.
“I also ski, play soccer, canoe and lift weights,” Damien said. “I not only have a brain, but I also have abs. Look.” He untucked his check shirt from his jeans and lifted it up.
Mairi and Donna gasped. Holy hell, the boy had abs.
“Those cannot be real,” Amir said, and poked Damien in the stomach.
“Can I check too?” Mairi asked as she reached for Damien. The boy had an eight-pack. She didn’t even know that was a real thing.
“No!” An arm wrapped around her waist and hauled her back into a large, grumpy body. “No touching.”
She looked over her shoulder to see Keir glaring at the rest of the men. She wasn’t sure whether to be happy he’d made it up the cliff, or sad that he’d done it before she got her hands on Damien’s abs.
Damien. The twin. She swung her head around to look for his brother. Darius was winding up the harness.
“Hoi, Darius,” Mairi shouted. “Do you have abs too?”
With an evil grin, mostly at Keir, Darius sauntered over to them. He lifted his t-shirt and stood beside his brother. Mairi felt faint. His were even better defined than Damien’s.
“Let me down,” Mairi said.
“Not happening.” Keir swung her around and headed through the makeshift campground toward Arness’ main street and her apartment.
“I’ll check for you,” Donna called. “It’s important that we make sure these boys are identical.”
“No!” Duncan shouted, and Mairi watched him take Donna’s hand and march her to his car. “You need to get to work,” he said as he stuffed her into the passenger seat.
Mairi slumped in Keir’s arms. “You ruined my chance to get my hands on twins.”
“You say that like I should feel bad. Well, newsflash, Rusty, I really don’t.”
With that, he strode past his apprentice working on a car in the garage and kicked open the door that led up to her apartment. All the while, Mairi’s eyes stayed on the twins as she wondered exactly how identical the men were.
Chapter 12
Half an hour later, Keir stomped back down the stairs to his garage. Mairi had locked herself in the bathroom with a pile of sandwiches and half a dozen magazines and told him she wasn’t coming out until she’d used all the hot water, and she was sure her hair was bug-free.
Since she was out of his reach, Keir made sure the doors and windows were locked, and then retreated to regroup. He needed a better plan of attack. The one he was using wasn’t working fast enough—not if she was itching to get her hands on the twins’ abs. He lifted his shirt and looked down. His abs were way better than theirs, and she was welcome to put her hands on them anytime.
“Not sure acting all caveman was the way to win her over,” Sean said from the desk, where he was setting up the website Keir didn’t want.
“What was I supposed to do? Let her fondle the twins? Not on your life.” He opened the tiny fridge in his even tinier office and took out two cans of Scotland’s other national drink, Barr’s Irn-Bru. He threw one at his brother, who snatched it out of the air with a thanks. “These guys have no self-respect. They camp out here, mooning over Mairi, flashing their abs to tempt her. It’s time they went home.”
Sean took a long drink before wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. “Aye, how dare they? Don’t they realize they’re homing in on the woman you’ve been stalking for years? How many times have you flashed your abs at her, again?”
Keir narrowed his eyes at his brother and wondered if hitting him would help relieve some tension. “Not stalking. Staying close to and looking out for her. There’s a difference.”
“Aye, sure there is.” Sean sat back in the rickety office chair and gave Keir a considering look. “And it just gets hot in the garage. That’s why your top comes off at the drop of a hat.”
Keir answered with a hand gesture. He didn’t have time to deal with his brother. Not when there was a gang of geeks outside trying to tempt Mairi away from him. A little voice asked him if they could really tempt her away if he didn’t have her to be
gin with. That little voice was just someone else Keir needed to punch.
“Can you keep an eye on her while I go home, shower and pick up some stuff?” he asked Sean.
“Sure. This will take a while anyway.”
“I told you already,” Keir said. “You don’t need to do this. I don’t need a website.”
“And I already told you that you do. Whether you like it or not, old man, I’m dragging you and your business into this century.”
“Fine, knock yourself out, but don’t blame me when none of my customers use the damn thing.” He tossed his crumpled can into the trash. “I need to get cleaned up. I’ll be back soon.”
“Keir?” Sean said, stopping him on his way out. “Are you sure about this? About Mairi? You’ve been here for two years and she hasn’t given you the time of day. You’re no closer to winning her back than you were when you bought this place.”
Keir ran a hand through his hair. Sean wasn’t wrong. Keir had foolishly thought that he’d buy the business and worm his way back into Mairi’s good graces. All he’d really managed to do was irritate her further.
“You don’t know everything that happened with me and Mairi. She has a right to hold a grudge,” Keir said, staring at the wall, but not seeing the shelves, instead seeing the past. The look on Mairi’s face the one and only time they’d made love. The vulnerability in her eyes when he’d left straight afterward.
“It’s been years,” Sean said softly. “She didn’t come see you the year you were in prison. Then you spent more years working, building up your business and seeing other women. Then one day, out of the blue, you decide you want another chance with Mairi and buy this place. I hate to say it, you know I’m behind you one hundred percent, but maybe you missed your chance. Maybe the time you had with Mairi is gone for good. Maybe it’s time to move on.”
Keir leaned back against the vintage muscle car they were restoring for a customer in Glasgow. Suddenly, the situation with Mairi felt heavy, as though it were a weight he would never get out from under. Could a person attain forgiveness? Was there really such a thing as a second chance? Did he deserve one? Hell, did anyone? All he knew was that he needed one, and he needed it badly.
“We were together months before we slept with each other,” Keir said to his brother. It felt as though the words had to come out. That he had to tell someone before the weight squashed him flat. “I wanted her to know I loved her before I took her to bed. I wanted her to know she was different from other girls. Because she was. She is.” He let out a long, heavy breath. “After Mairi, I tried dating other women. I tried moving on. But every one of them was measured against her and found wanting. It got to the point where I had a choice: either settle for second best and always pine for the woman who got away or throw everything into trying to get her back. I chose the latter option, because settling for someone other than Mairi wasn’t fair to me or to the woman who got stuck with me.”
“I get that, I really do,” Sean said. “But it’s been two years. How long do you keep on trying? The rest of your life?”
Keir looked at his younger brother and saw such genuine concern on his face that it reminded Keir just how much he loved the annoying wee fart. Sean had been a surprise baby when his parents had thought Keir was enough, which meant there were six years between the brothers. The night Sean had gotten into trouble and messed up both their lives, he’d been just nineteen years old—one year younger than Mairi at the time. Keir had been twenty-five, older, wiser, smarter—or so he’d thought. All he’d known for sure at the time was that he had to step in and give his baby brother the chance to turn his life off a rotten path. And he had.
Keir couldn’t be prouder of him. They’d spent years working through the guilt Sean felt over ruining Keir’s life. The truth was that Keir didn’t regret stepping in to save his brother, and he knew if the situation were reversed, his brother would have done the same. So, no, he never blamed Sean, and he made sure Sean got over blaming himself. The only thing Keir wished had been different was that the car theft had happened on another night. One where he hadn’t managed to get Mairi into bed for the first time. That was his only regret—timing. Maybe if the timing had been better, she would have listened to his explanation and would have stood by him. Maybe.
“This is my last stand, Sean. I hear what you’re saying, and it’s nothing I haven’t thought myself. So, this is it. If I can’t break through now, I’m walking away.” And he knew it would kill him to do so.
“I don’t get it,” Sean said. “I love Mairi, I do, but why her? She’s grumpy and stubborn, unforgiving and annoying. Okay, she’s gorgeous, but seriously, there are plenty of women out there just as good looking. So why Mairi?”
Keir closed his eyes and smiled. Visions of Mairi from their short relationship assaulted him. She was all the things his brother said she was, but she was also much more. She was kind and funny. Eccentric and smart. She saw the world differently from anyone he’d ever known, and she was fiercely loyal to the people she felt she could trust. He’d broken that trust at a time when she was at her most vulnerable, but he’d had it for a short while and it had felt like he was basking in continuous sunshine. And then there was touching Mairi. Nothing felt like touching Mairi. It was as though their bodies were completely in tune with each other. The smallest touch sent off shock waves—something that, thankfully, hadn’t changed in their years apart. When he’d kissed her at the hospital, the whole world had ignited.
“She makes me feel completely alive,” Keir said softly, his eyes still closed, his mind on the memories of Mairi laughing and leading him astray with her wild plans. He opened his eyes to look at his brother. “She makes me feel like I can do anything when I’m with her. She makes me feel steady. Complete.” He shook his head. “I can’t explain it. But when I’m with her, I feel like I’m looking at my purpose. I feel like I was born to love Mairi. And that’s why it hurts so bloody much that I can’t do what I’m meant to do.”
There was a long silence, each brother lost in his own thoughts.
“Then,” Sean said at last, “we make this last stand count. We give it our all. I have your back, Keir. Together, we’ll bring your girl around.”
“I know you do,” Keir said, believing every word.
With a nod to his brother, he headed out to retrieve his car from where he’d parked it on the bluff the night before. Mairi’s men had gathered together in the middle of their camping area. Someone had made a McDonald’s run, and they ate while they discussed ways to woo Mairi that ranged from setting up extravagant dates to buying her expensive gifts.
Keir ran a hand over his hair as he passed them. How was he supposed to compete with that? It wasn’t that he couldn’t afford to shower her with gifts; he made a good living and had decent savings. But he had nothing like the amounts some of these guys were talking about. On top of that, how was he supposed to stand out in a crowd that was throwing every romantic gesture on the planet at Mairi? If he gave her flowers, he was just another guy standing in line to give her flowers. It was the same story for evenings out, dinner dates, gifts. No matter what he did, he’d end up one of the crowd.
And that was the last place he wanted to be.
At least he was the one inside Mairi’s apartment, while they were camped outside. It was an advantage he had to make the most of, which meant stepping up his game. But how? He almost tripped over his feet when the answer came to him. The fake boyfriends were trying to romance Mairi—therefore, what Keir needed to do was seduce her. Yeah, that was exactly what he needed to do. He needed to bypass all that flowers and chocolate crap and shoot for the goal. He needed to show Mairi that the chemistry between them was still off the charts and that being with him was something she couldn’t live without.
As he drove out of Arness and headed for his house on the outskirts of Campbeltown, he started planning all the ways he could go about seducing Mairi. She wasn’t going to know what had hit her until after she was wearing his
ring. Stealth. Seduction. That was what she needed. And that was what she was going to get.
♦♦♦
Even after two hours of washing and combing her hair, Mairi still wasn’t reassured that there wasn’t a colony of bugs in there somewhere. She wiped the condensation from the bathroom mirror and examined her body. Some bruises, a few scrapes and angry red dots on her rear from the thistles—it could have been a lot worse. When she remembered the moment she fell over the cliff, her stomach dropped. If it hadn’t been for Keir grabbing her and pulling her closer to the cliff, she was sure she would have ended up in the water rather than on that ledge.
There was a thump at her bathroom door, and Mairi grasped her towel around her. “Who’s out there?” she snapped. Seriously, if one of her men had broken in, she was going to break them before she threw them out again.
“It’s your temporary bodyguard,” Sean said through the door. “You weren’t answering your phone, so your sister called on Keir’s ancient landline.”
Mairi threw the door open. “Temporary bodyguard?”
“Keir’s gone home to shower, seeing as you were hogging the bathroom. He left me here as your guard dog.” He tossed the cordless phone at Mairi. “Got any snacks?” He headed for the kitchen.
Mairi frowned after him as she put the phone to her ear. “Hey,” she said.
“You fell down a cliff?” Agnes screeched.
Mairi held the phone away from her ear and took a deep breath.
“Mairi Sinclair, answer me right this minute,” Agnes shouted.
Reluctantly, Mairi put the phone back to her ear. “I’m fine. Keir’s fine. We’re all fine.”
She sat on the edge of the bed, still clutching the towel over her chest in case anyone else walked into her home.
“Donna said you spent the night on a tiny wee ledge. You could have fallen into the sea. You could have drowned. Or worse, you could have landed on the rocks and lain there, bloody and dying until finally someone found your shattered corpse.”
“Thanks for that visual, Aggie. That makes me feel a whole lot better.”
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