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

His lips twitched, but he had the good sense not to grin. “Great idea. How long do you think you need?”

“Ten years?”

“Sounds about right.”

He reached for his spare helmet, the one he kept just for her, and strapped it on Mairi’s head, all the while staring into her eyes. Eyes that told him she was his soul mate.

“Budge up,” he said, and climbed on in front of her. He grabbed her hand and tugged her up against his back. “Hold on tight, Rusty. I’m going to take you for the ride of your life.”

“I know.”

And then she wrapped her arms around him, and they rode off into the night.

Together.

Epilogue

six months later

Mairi had taken over the downstairs bedroom in Keir’s—no, their—house to use as her office. Her new business, matchmaking for geeks, had taken off with a bang. The publicity around the husband competition had brought lots of interested partners for her men straight to her new website. The news of the husband hack, as it was now being called, had spread all over the world, and interest in her new business was booming. Within weeks, she had more clients than she could cope with and had to take on staff—two of them. They worked part-time to help her sort through the thousands of women who’d gotten in touch about her geeks. In fact, things were going so well that she was thinking about branching out into finding men for female geeks. But that would have to wait until she she’d sorted out more matches first.

Mairi could hardly believe how things had turned around. She was a business owner. With staff. Sometimes she had to pinch herself to check it wasn’t some weird dream and she’d wake to find herself naked in the middle of Campbeltown.

“You ready to go?”

Keir stood in the doorway to her office, which she’d painted pink and filled with plenty of bright blue cushions in her mission to bring color to Keir’s life. He had his arms folded over another muscle shirt, which made his shoulders bulge. He did it on purpose because he knew his shoulders were a siren call to her. They derailed her at least twice a day.

“I’m ready.”

She checked her briefcase, which held her laptop, tablet, phone, backup phone and several chargers. Just looking at it made her feel like an international executive. An executive who dressed in jeans, flip-flops and a red t-shirt with the words Klingons do It on the Starboard Bow. It had been a gift from Sebastian, who had a flair for finding cool shirts. He sent them to her regularly, whenever he came across one. Keir didn’t mind that Sebastian sent her clothes, although he drew the line at her receiving anything from a sex shop. She flicked some fluff off the front of her shirt and fought the urge to check her phone again. Sebastian was on his second date with a woman from France, and Mairi was keeping her fingers crossed that this was the one. So far, she’d found matches for Amir and John. She was working on the rest of her men and had high hopes she would find them all perfect partners.

“If you don’t get a move on, we’re going to miss our flight,” Keir said.

“Calm down, I’m ready. We can leave.” She rolled her eyes at him.

She could hardly believe what they were about to do. Keir had bought them round-the-world tickets, and Mairi had managed to set up face-to-face meetings with some of her clients during their trip—which meant the trip was tax-deductible. That in itself said romance to a Scottish woman, but the fact they were going to see some of the places they’d talked about years earlier was what made it truly special. One day, upstairs in the spare room, there would be a tiny bed with a little girl in it, who would listen to stories of her mother’s adventures and plan her own life full of excitement.

As she reached Keir, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her senseless. Something he’d had plenty of time to do since he’d sold his garage to his apprentice, Hamish. The plan was to start a new garage in Campbeltown once they got back from their trip.

“When are you going to marry me, Rusty?” Keir said when they came up for air.

“I keep telling you, proposals should be romantic, and they should be a question. Yelling ‘marry me’ while we’re riding your bike is not a proposal.”

“You’re a hard woman to please,” he said with a grin.

“It would probably be wise to remember that.” She grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the door. “The bags are already in the car, right?”

“Everything is in the car, except us.”

“I can’t believe we’re doing it.” She grinned at him. “I can’t believe we’re travelling. It’s going to be so much fun.”

“You bet it is.” His smile was perfection and warmed her heart.

Mairi threw their front door open and stopped dead. Their lawn was full of people, all of whom she recognized. Her geek boys were there, even Sebastian with the French girl at his side. The residents from the old folks’ home were there, with Gladys in between her two men, as usual. Her sisters were there too—even her wonderful niece and nephew were grinning at her. All of them, the whole crowd, beamed at her. Then, as one, they held up cards that spelled out, Say Yes, Say Yes, Say Yes...

Mairi’s mouth fell open as she turned to the grinning fool beside her. Only he wasn’t where she’d left him. He was down on one knee.

“Rusty.” He reached for her hand. “I’m on my knees because I’ll beg if I have to. Will you marry me?”