“Do you only think about sex?” She was pleased that she didn’t blush when she said the word.
Josh shrugged. “I think about food too.” He gave her a sexy smile that made her toes curl. “Come on, Caroline, let’s do something that’s way more fun.”
Caroline ignored him and stepped over to flick on the kettle.
He sighed dramatically. “So what’s your favourite food, then?”
“Bacon and eggs.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Not chocolate? I thought every woman loved chocolate.”
“Do you actually need me here to answer the questions? Or will you just use your extensive knowledge of women to come up with an average?”
“Snippy, Caroline. Very snippy.” He seemed proud of her.
She tried not to smile. “What’s your favourite food, then?”
“Steak. No. Pizza.” He grinned. “Steak pizza.” His triumphant smile made her laugh.
“Maybe we should have that at our wedding?”
“Now that’s a great idea.” Josh shook the pen in his hand before looking at it with disgust. “This isn’t working.”
“There are some more on the desk next door.”
Grumbling about the fact he was never going to have any fun, Josh squeezed his frame through her kitchen door and into the hallway.
“Holy crap, Caroline, you got enough books?”
She grinned in spite of herself. She was very proud of her fiction collection. Even though she was running out of space to put bookcases.
“They’re in alphabetical order.” He sounded shocked. “And topic. Historical romance. Paranormal romance. Contemporary romance.” He paused. “I’m picking up on a theme here. Where are the really kinky ones?”
Trust Josh’s mind to go straight back to sex.
“Are you coming back?” Caroline made a cup of tea. “Or are you going to entertain yourself in there forever?”
She wondered what Josh thought of her minuscule terraced house. It was nothing compared to the castle, but Caroline had been overjoyed when her grandfather had left the former miner’s cottage to her in his will. With two small bedrooms and a bath upstairs, and just the kitchen and living room downstairs, you could have fit the whole house into the grand room at the castle.
Josh sauntered back into the kitchen, ducking to avoid hitting his head on the doorjamb.
“I don’t get it. When do you have time to read?” He pointed to the wall planner pinned above the kitchen table. “You’ve got meetings coming out of your ears. I don’t see how you can read that many books as well.”
“I’m a fast reader.” Plus she lived alone and didn’t have a social life. Sometimes she wished she didn’t have so much time to read.
Josh’s face fell when his attention turned back to the workbook. She almost felt sorry for him. Almost. Caroline placed her mug of tea on the table beside him and turned to get the cookies she’d been hiding in the back of the cupboard. She didn’t question the logic of trying to hide cookies from herself. After all, she clearly knew the hiding place.
As she stepped past Josh, an arm snaked out and wrapped around her waist. Caroline yelped as Josh pulled her against him.
“What are you doing?” Her voice quavered.
“Exactly what the minister intended. Getting to know you.”
She thought he sniffed her hair. Was that normal? “We need to fill in the book.”
“Later, baby. I’ve been around you for hours and I’ve been well behaved. Now my belly is full and my other needs are rearing their head.”
Caroline pushed at his arm, but she may as well have been trying to unhinge an anaconda. “Other needs?” She was almost afraid to ask.
“The need to be close to you,” he murmured against her hair. “The need to hold you. The need to breathe you in.”
“Let go of me.” She pushed to get away from him, but he held her fast.
“No way.”
She snarled at him. Wanting him to release her and hold her tighter all at the same time.
“You’re holding me against my will.”
“No, baby, I’m holding you against my body.”
He leaned over and gently nipped the curve where her neck met her shoulder. A shiver ran up her spine.
“You feel good. You smell good too,” he whispered against her skin. “What is that fragrance? I love it. It’s going to drive me crazy if you don’t tell me.” Josh ran his lips up to her ear.
Caroline was overwhelmed by sensations. His breath on her skin. His arms holding her tight. His body, so solid against hers.
“Caroline?”
She cleared her throat. “It’s soap. Dove soap.”
“Seriously?” He nuzzled in her hair behind her ear. “It can’t be soap, it must be you.”
He inhaled her deeply. “Yeah. It’s you. You smell like Christmas.” He buried his nose into her hair. Caroline wrapped her fingers around his arm, holding tight. “Do you taste like Christmas too?”
His voice sent vibrations racing through her body. And then his tongue trailed down from her ear to her shoulder. He playfully bit the muscle in the curve of her neck, and a little moan escaped her.
“I’m not sure we should be doing this. Maybe we should wait until after the wedding to…you know?”
His arms wrapped tight around her, and he pulled back from her to look her in the eyes. The twinkle in his eye was back. She was amusing him. Again.
“No, I don’t know. Explain it to me.”
His full lips curled into a slow, sexy smile. Caroline half expected a flash of sparkling light to twinkle off his teeth.
“Maybe we shouldn’t be, ah, physical until after the wedding?” Her voice was embarrassingly breathless.
“Are we talking all physical contact or just the good kind?”
She wasn’t sure. She wanted to ask what he meant by the good kind, but she was too scared of the answer. “Why don’t we keep all touching to a minimum until after the wedding? That way we can get to know each other a little before we…”
“Get physical?”
“Yes.” She sagged with relief. “What do you say?”
“Well, we can’t not touch. That would be unnatural. Maybe we should set a limit instead. Tell me when I step over the line.”
He was laughing at her. She opened her mouth to tell him so, but instead he deftly turned her to face him, and his lips met hers. She forgot her complaint. His tongue traced a lazy trail around her lips, tasting, teasing, before dipping into her mouth. Tiny little lights flashed inside Caroline’s eyelids as Josh seduced her with his kiss. One minute it was soft and slow, the next intense and demanding. She clutched his shoulders and held on tight as her mind soared.
“Was that too much touching?” he purred against her lips. His voice was a soft seduction. Caroline found it hard to think.
He trailed his lips over to her ear before tugging her earlobe between his teeth. His breath made her heartbeat race.
“Tell me when it’s too much,” he whispered.
In the back of her mind Caroline got the feeling they were talking about two different things. He peppered tiny kisses along her jaw to her mouth, before biting her bottom lip. Caroline panted. She wrapped her arms tight around his shoulders as his left hand splayed across her waist. His thumb traced lazy circles on her stomach.
“Remember,” he said against her mouth, “cry uncle.”
His words may as well have been German. She was way past thought. She was lost in a place where only sensation mattered. Her breasts pushed against his chest. They felt uncomfortably heavy, and ached to be soothed. As though he were reading her mind, his hand skimmed the underside of her breast. Caroline pressed against him as his tongue teased her upper lip. Suddenly she was in his hand. She felt his touch graze her nipple. She whimpered. More. She needed more.
She felt him tug at the clasp of her bra; there was a ping and she was free. A momentary panic dulled her desire. The hand on her breast disappeared, only to return
under her shirt. Skin on skin. Moving achingly slowly towards her breast. She felt him push the lace of her cup out of the way. Her spine went stiff as anxiety rimmed the edge of her passion. A warm hand engulfed her, and something snapped in her mind. She wasn’t even aware she’d moved. The next thing she knew, she was standing on the other side of the room with her arms folded over her chest.
Josh’s blue eyes were dark. He stared at her for a moment before running a hand through his hair.
“What’s wrong, baby?”
Caroline’s eyes flicked to the door. Part of her wanted to run. The other part wanted to drag him upstairs to her bedroom. She needed to get things under control. She looked at his worried blue eyes. She needed to tell Josh the truth. She needed to explain to him exactly how minuscule her experience really was. Her shoulders slumped. This was going to be a fun experience.
“I’ll be back in a minute.” Caroline fled for the bathroom. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have with her boobs hanging out.
As she passed her bedroom door, another idea popped into her head—if Josh was called away, she wouldn’t need to have the conversation at all. Looking down the stairs, she checked to make sure Josh couldn’t see her. He was still in the kitchen. She turned the tap on in the bathroom, then tiptoed into her bedroom and picked up the phone. She felt sick at what she was about to do. It went against her nature to lie. Before she could stop herself, she dialled the local police station.
“Caroline, is that you?” Agnes barked into her ear.
Blast. Caroline had planned to do this anonymously. She forgot the police station would have caller ID.
“Yes.” She cleared her throat. “Yes it is. You need to send a police car to the castle. I thought I saw someone breaking in. You had better call Josh McInnes too. I know he has problems with troublesome fans.”
She had lied to the police. She never lied. And she’d lied to the police. She was going straight to jail. Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars. And never, ever get a chance to roll the dice and break free.
“We’ll get right on it.” There was a pause. “Why did you wait until you got home to call?”
“You know I don’t have a mobile phone, Agnes.” At least that wasn’t a lie.
“Right. I forgot. Thanks for calling.”
A moment later, she heard Josh’s phone ring downstairs and dashed back into the bathroom. As feet pounded up the stairs, she refastened her bra and tucked her shirt back into her skirt. She was patting her cheeks with a towel as Josh appeared in the doorway.
“Sorry, baby, I have to go. There’s been a break-in at the castle. It’s probably nothing, but I should be there.”
“Of course. You go on. We can talk another time.”
Josh wrapped his hand around the back of her neck and kissed her hard on the lips. “We’re okay, yeah?”
“Of course. Now go.” She dazzled him with her best fake smile. He didn’t seem to notice it wasn’t real. He turned and ran down the stairs. The best sound Caroline had heard all day was the slam of her front door behind him.
Caroline dragged herself through to the bedroom and fell on her back on the bed. Her hands covered her face as she let out a long, mournful groan. Forget jail.
Her lying backside was going straight to hell.
“You don’t need to sleep on the couch.” Helen eyed the king-sized bed. “We can make this work for the next few weeks.”
“I’m taking the couch.” Andrew nodded to the tiny two-seater sofa by the window.
Helen felt her throat tighten. Did he hate her so much that he’d rather sleep upright than share a bed with her again?
“I’m sure we can manage in the bed.”
“I’ll find another room if you don’t want me on the couch.”
“Mitch said the other rooms were full of junk.”
He grunted. She wasn’t sure what that meant. She felt tension wind its way up her spine to her neck. She bit the inside of her cheek to stop from talking. Years of asking questions and getting no reply had taught her that it was pointless. But she felt angry. Angrier than she had in years. She turned to her husband, the stranger she’d married. He was standing inside the doorway, looking at the bed as though it would bite him. His hands were wedged deep into those awful tartan pants of his, and he was hunched over as though he was trying not to be there at all.
Something inside Helen snapped, and she opened her mouth. “What does that mean?” His eyebrows shot up. “What did that grunt mean? I don’t speak grunting. I speak American. You need to translate. Does it mean you’re sleeping in the bed or not?”
He took a slight step back towards the door. She was pretty sure he wasn’t even aware that he’d done it. Subconsciously, the man was retreating. Running. As he usually did. She put her hands on the hips of her yellow flowered sundress, the one that clashed with her hair, and waited.
“Well?”
He shuffled on the spot. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to share the bed.”
The look he gave her was unfathomable. Helen felt bile bite at the back of her throat. After thirty-five years, he couldn’t even share a bed with her for one more month.
“Fine. Take the couch.” She stomped towards him and picked up his bag, which was beside the bed. “But you’re not taking this one.” She swung her arm and launched the bag out of the room and down the stairs. “Sleep downstairs. That way you won’t have to look at me at all.” Then she shoved him hard, making him stumble into the hallway, before slamming the door behind him.
For a minute or more, she stared at the door while tears welled in her eyes. She couldn’t believe she’d shouted. Ever since boarding the plane to Scotland, things had been bubbling out of her. Things she’d tried to contain for too many long years. At last she heard him make his way down the stairs after his bag. Helen sniffed and blinked away the tears. She wasn’t going to cry. Not again.
She slipped into the en suite bathroom and splashed her face with cold water. In the mirror she saw a face changed with age that she didn’t recognise. She felt her chest tighten. Something had to give. Something had to change. She rooted around in her makeup bag and came out with a pair of scissors. Without giving it a second thought, she started to snip off her shoulder-length hair.
There was no break-in at the castle. The person who’d made the call had either been mistaken, or it was a prank. The cop who’d walked around the exterior with Josh and Mitch was not pleased that it had turned out to be nothing. He’d been in the middle of watching a football game and wanted to get back to it. He left muttering about locking up the moron who’d interrupted his viewing.
“Your parents are here.” Mitch ran his fingers through his hair.
“That explains the look.” Josh pointed at Mitch’s face.
They walked to the back of the castle and through the door into the kitchen. Without asking, Mitch opened the fridge and got beers for both of them. Josh was hungry again, so he went poking around in the cupboards for snacks.
“Your parents are pissed.” Mitch sat sprawled in an armchair by the windows. He looked frazzled. Josh could identify with that.
“Figures.” Josh threw his friend a bag of chips. Mitch snatched them out of the air. “They weren’t too impressed with the marriage plan when I called them.”
“They’re fighting as well. Your dad is asleep on the couch.”
Josh cocked an eyebrow. That was new. “They fighting about the wedding?”
Mitch shook his head. He took a swallow of beer. “I heard something about them sleeping in separate beds and your dad not talking. Then I ran. I do not want to get in the middle of a McInnes meltdown.”
“It’s probably nothing. You know what Dad is like. Mom’s probably fed up listening to her own voice. It’ll pass.”
Mitch didn’t look so sure. “What about you and the delectable Caroline? How are things going there? No regrets?”
Josh grinned. “None. She’s perfect. We made the right choice. In f
act, I was just getting to know her a little better when I got the call to come home.” He felt a tingling in his spine. His eyes widened. “Now that I think about it. Caroline freaked out a bit at us getting physical. She ran to the bathroom, and the next thing I knew I was being called away.” He looked at Mitch, whose eyebrows had shot up his head. “You don’t think she was the one who called?”
“She wouldn’t. Would she?”
“Caroline is capable of anything.” He didn’t know whether to be proud or angry.
They stared at each other until Mitch burst out laughing. “I love that woman. You are so not getting any until you’re married. I bet she’s keeping you at arm’s length until she makes sure the wedding goes through. You are so screwed. Or not, as the case may be.” Mitch snorted beer.
“Funny. You’re funny.” Josh thought about it. There was something off. Surely Caroline didn’t want him to stop touching her so badly that she called the cops. “Caroline wouldn’t lie. She’s got that whole moral code thing going on.” He didn’t sound convinced.
“Or maybe she just doesn’t find you attractive? Maybe this whole wedding thing is more of a chore to her than you thought? You’ve been so busy thinking about whether or not you’re attracted to her, you never figured that your woman might not want you.”
“Naw.” The thought horrified him. “No. It can’t be. I’ve never had any problems. Hell, I’m fighting women off.”
“Not this time, buddy.” Mitch was laughing so hard he started to choke.
No. Mitch had to be wrong. Caroline had responded to his touch. She was definitely as attracted to him as he was to her. He relaxed slightly. He was being an idiot, letting Mitch wind him up. He should know better. Nope. Everything was fine. Caroline wanted him just as much as he wanted her.
Didn’t she?
CHAPTER NINE
“Want to tell me why you’re sleeping on the couch?” Josh asked his dad the following morning, over a late breakfast.
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