“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.”
As usual, Agnes ignored the reprimand. “Were you hurt?”
“Cuts, bruises, thistles stuck in my backside. Other than that, I’m fine.”
There was a long, worrying pause. “That’s it. I’m coming home. I can sit the exams in a few months.”