Can't Tie Me Down! (Sinclair Sisters 1)

“You can’t possibly see any kind of glint. There’s barely enough light to make out shapes.”

“I don’t need to see it to know it’s there.”

She let out a strangled little scream of frustration and amended her plans. It would be much better if she didn’t launch herself into the sea; instead, she was going to push Keir off the cliff and keep the ledge for herself. Then she’d spend the time while she waited to be rescued, picking things out of her hair in peace.

“Okay,” Keir said. “Now that you’ve calmed down a bit—”

She growled, and he paused.

“That means you’re planning to shove me off this ledge, doesn’t it?” he said.

Guess he knew her better than she’d thought. She didn’t answer him. Anything she said would be a lie anyway, because she was so totally going to get rid of him.

“Rusty, I’m twice your size. If you try to shove me off, you’ll hurt yourself. Now, how about you put that evil mind of yours to good use and think about getting us out of here? Do you have your phone? I left mine in the car.”

“Phone?” Of course, she had her phone. How could she have forgotten it? She’d spent the past few years of her life on the damn thing, twenty-four-seven. “It’s in my back pocket. You need to let go of my hands, so I can get it.”

“Maybe I should get it. It’s safer.”

“Not for you. If you grab my backside in the search for my phone, I’m going to de-ball you before I send you over the edge.”

With a chuckle, he released her, and she reached for her phone—only to find it was gone.

“Oh no. I think it fell out when we dropped.” She stared over into the blackness. “I loved that phone. It took ages to get it perfect, with all my apps working exactly the way I wanted them.” Another awful thought occurred to her. “My best hair photos are on that phone. The ones I show my hairdresser to make sure I get what I want. They’re irreplaceable.”

“Will you please shut up about your hair? With no phone, we can’t call for help.”

“Yeah, that’s bad too.” She sat back against the cliff and stared at the black void in front of her. “What do we do now?”

There were no sounds of life coming from above, only the sound of waves crashing beneath them, which meant the boys were still in Campbeltown, watching the Doctor at the pub.

“Your boyfriends have to come back at some point,” Keir said. “We’ll call for help when we hear them return.”

He didn’t sound hopeful at the prospect of her fake boyfriends being able to rescue them, and Mairi had to agree. There was a good chance they’d get out their whiteboard markers and spend days planning the best way to get them back up the cliff. In the meantime, she would starve to death while they discussed the physics of using a rope and a car to haul them out of there.

“I don’t even know what time it is without my phone,” she said mournfully.

“At least the phone has taken your mind off your hair.”

And just like that, she started itching again. “I really hate you right now,” she said as she scratched her head.

They sat in silence for a while, before Mairi remembered Keir had fallen over the cliff too. “Are you injured?”

He barked out a laugh. “Thanks for thinking of me, Rusty. I’m fine. Banged up a bit, but fine. Unless you count the heart attack I nearly had when you stepped off the cliff.”

“I didn’t step. You harassed me over.”

“Yeah, right.”

There was more silence, and Mairi tugged her red tartan flannel shirt tight around her. The breeze was getting stronger, and the chill was going straight through her bones.

“Come here,” Keir said. “We’ll share body warmth. If we don’t, you might shiver so hard you work your way over the edge.”

Against her better judgment, Mairi took her only option for warmth and snuggled under Keir’s arm. The man was a furnace, and he smelled divine, all musk and male pheromones. Okay, so she didn’t actually know what a male pheromone smelled like, but she was sure she was breathing them in. He stroked her arm, rubbing some warmth into her. Probably more warmth than he intended, because Mairi started to heat up in places that she really didn’t need to be that hot.

“You know,” Keir said, his voice dropping low and rolling with sex, “we could spend the time we’re stuck here solving that kissing debate.”

Twin emotions slammed through her—need and fear. Fear won out. “It’s not going to happen.”