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

“There are new posts on your Facebook page,” Sean said from the dining table behind her.

Seeing as he was the only person she knew locally who had decent computer skills, she’d roped him in to trying to fix the Girlfriend site. So far, he hadn’t had any luck either.

“I don’t care about the Facebook page,” Mairi snapped, her eyes still on her fake boyfriends.

They were up to something. There was a group of them, over at the camping site, with their heads together in a way that made the back of Mairi’s neck itch. Definitely plotting, and she’d place a bet on it being something she wasn’t going to like.

“You might want to look at this post,” Sean said.

Mairi glanced over her shoulder to find him grinning. “What is it?”

“One of the guys made you a website. It’s called—wait for it—Marry Me, Mairi.”

Mairi hung her head for a minute, while she focused on breathing deeply instead of killing someone, then she stomped over to have a look. Sure enough, there was a whole site dedicated to Sebastian’s love for her, including every photo they’d shared since they’d been fake-dating, a page detailing all the things they had in common—in his head—a video of him putting on a shadow puppet show about their relationship and a page with an interactive proposal. There were hearts and flowers, but the best touch was the dancing Jedi who wrote the words Marry Me with their lightsabers.

“Doesn’t anybody ask anymore?” Mairi grumbled. “Marry me isn’t even a question. It’s an order.”

“There’s a space for you to type in your answer.” Sean pointed at the screen. “What do you want to write?”

She smacked him on the back of the head.

“I’ll take that as a no.” He typed the word into the heart-shaped box.

As soon as the return key was pressed, the screen went black, then a gif of a young Drew Barrymore crying when she had to say goodbye to ET filled the screen. It kept repeating as the sobbing grew louder.

“I think he’s taking it well,” Sean said.

“Switch it off.” Mairi watched as Sean shut down the website. “Any luck with breaking the hack on the Girlfriend site?”

“Not yet. I’ll keep trying. But whoever locked you out knows what they’re doing.”

“Great.” She stalked over to the pile of chocolate boxes, picked one up, ripped into it and started munching.

Agnes, Donna and Keir had all gone to work, leaving Sean to watch over Mairi. Although Keir had reminded her he was downstairs if she needed him.

Which.

She.

Did.

Not.

She plopped back into her old, ratty sofa, clutching the chocolates tightly against her. They were good chocolates, top of the line, straight from Belgium, and she didn’t taste a thing as she chomped her way through them. Her brain was too preoccupied with Keir, and nothing else registered, not even the chocolates.

Mairi took a deep breath and admitted the truth to herself—she’d slept with him and it had been her choice. No, that was too tame. She’d had wild, glorious, mind-blowing sex with him—again. And miracles did happen, because he’d still been there the next morning. Only that was a problem now, because she didn’t know what to do with him, other than pretend that the night before hadn’t happened—which would have been a lot easier if her girl parts didn’t start singing the Hallelujah Chorus every time he was within touching distance.

Memories of the days after the last time she’d slept with Keir flashed through her mind, like a movie montage—waking up to find Keir hadn’t returned, being unable to contact him, calling his friends and the hospital to make sure he wasn’t with either, waiting by the phone to hear from him, and the awful moment when she eventually got a call and her world had collapsed.

She’d walked around in a fog of confusion and disbelief for days, as she tried to get her head around the fact he was awaiting trial. It didn’t even make sense. Keir was the best driver she knew. He’d raced cars for years and never had an accident, yet she’d been told that he’d lost control and ended up going through the shop’s front window.

She frowned at the memory. “Sean?”

“Aye.” He was focused on his laptop.

“The night Keir was arrested, had he been drinking?”

Somehow, it would be even worse if he had. The thought that he’d gone out drinking with his friends after making love to her was just too hurtful to contemplate. She remembered the call he’d gotten, the one that had taken him away from her. It hadn’t sounded like a conversation where someone was inviting him out for a night on the town. It had sounded like there was a problem and he’d been called to fix it.