“I guess I need to work on that,” he told her.
“You think?”
“Come here.” He yanked her hand and pulled her to her feet.
She stood between his knees as he wrapped his arms around her. Kirsty didn’t bother to stop him. For the first time since she’d met him, his insistence that this physical connection they had was completely separate from the war actually made sense. She guessed her body had talked her mind around after all, because if Lake’s crazy logic was making sense, then she wanted him badly.
“You’re thinking about it,” he said with a knowing smile.
She rolled her eyes.
“You’re thinking about us,” he said, and his tone was cocky.
“Shut up and kiss me, soldier boy,” she told him.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Lake’s lips were delicious. Kirsty found herself leaning into him and letting herself get lost in his touch. His hands traced the curve of her spine, up to cup the back of her head, to better angle her against him. Kirsty moaned into his mouth, which made him make an equally guttural noise. Her fingers explored the curve of his shoulders, down to the solid muscle in his arms. She could only think one thing—want.
“Kirsty are you—oh.” Magenta strode into the room. “Oh, I see. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
“Yes. Go away,” Lake said against Kirsty’s lips.
Kirsty didn’t need to see the grin on Magenta’s face to know it was there. She struggled out of her lust-filled daze to push away from Lake. His darkened eyes told her clearly that he wasn’t pleased—or finished.
“So.” Kirsty took a deep breath and shot for polite. “Thanks for coming around to discuss the show.”
He cocked an eyebrow at her waiting for more, but that was all he was getting. At last, he shook his head slowly.
“You’re killing me here,” he told her, then sauntered from the room.
Kirsty tried to hide the desperate look of longing she knew was on her face as she watched him go. Fortunately Magenta’s smug grin helped her focus on other things.
“Don’t say a word,” Kirsty warned.
“Me?” Magenta pointed at herself and went all wide-eyed. “I wouldn’t dare.” She turned to leave. “To you, anyway,” she said with a mischievous grin.
Kirsty flopped into the chair. This was all she needed. Rumours of her making out with the enemy. Actually, that wasn’t what she needed. She needed more making out with the enemy. A lot more. She picked up the phone where Lake had dropped it on the desk and placed it back in its base
First she needed to get her head around hearing from her ex. She had a nasty feeling that it wouldn’t be the last of it.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
It was model-picking day at the Presbyterian Church hall. The sky was that heavy purple colour Kirsty had only ever seen in Scotland, and the hills around the town were dark. It seemed that the whole place was brooding. To make things even gloomier, they were well into Scottish winter weather, which meant ice-cold drizzle all day long. As Kirsty made her way up the high street to the old grey stone church, she wondered what she was doing. Who in their right mind wanted to see women freeze to death in their underwear in the middle of winter? It was a stupid idea. No amount of outside heating would make the runway warm. The models would be tottering down it, covered in goosebumps and sporting a fetching shade of ice-blue skin.
To make matters worse, once the church came into view she realised she wasn’t the only idiot in Scotland. There was a queue of women waiting to audition that stretched right round the old church. All of them wrapped in layers of winter clothes, all of them wearing hats and all of them clutching mugs of hot tea. Nearby, Morag was manning a makeshift stall selling her famous pies and hot drinks. Kirsty narrowed her eyes at the hypocrite. She was fast to criticise the runway show, but even faster to make some money from it.
“Are you ready?” Lake said as he came up behind her.
He flung an arm around her shoulders, which Kirsty shrugged out of, but not before she felt her skin tingle. Lake chuckled and thrust his hands in his pockets instead. The man was insufferable. Around him her hormones went into overdrive and she behaved like a teenager. It was embarrassing. Lake waved to the women in the line and seemed to be amused when they giggled and pointed at him.
“Stop behaving like a child,” Kirsty told him. “This is a serious process.”
He bumped his shoulder against hers.
“Get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning?” he said. “I know what your problem is—you’re in the wrong bed. You should be in mine.”
Kirsty sighed as she tugged at the heavy wooden door. Lake took it from her and motioned for her to go inside.