Here With Me (Adair Family 1)

“I can’t,” I groaned, leaning back into him, my body übersensitive.

But then his fingers worked their magic, and pleasure flooded me. I arched into his touch, seeking more.

“Oh, but I think you can,” he murmured darkly in my ear.

23

Lachlan

Guy was discussing the estate menu. The head chef had come to Lachlan’s office to go over his ideas, and his boss heard the words seasonal, lobsters, cockles, sea bass, kale, asparagus, and leeks … but they had no meaning.

Because Lachlan wasn’t bloody paying attention.

In fact, Lachlan had found it difficult to focus since yesterday afternoon. Despite his wish to stay in bed all day with Robyn, Wakefield called up to his room with a problem, and he’d known it was time to get to back to work. He shouldn’t have been screwing around during the day, anyway. He wasn’t just the owner but the estate manager. While he had department managers and supervisors, he was still a required presence until he decided to appoint someone in his stead.

Yet, he knew if his butler hadn’t called his room, Lachlan would’ve attempted to keep Robyn with him all day and through the night.

Unfortunately, she’d seemed almost relieved to escape him.

Not something he was used to.

After he’d convinced her to share a shower (the memories of which would keep him warm during cold, cold nights), Robyn had gone to Mac and barely given Lachlan a second glance as she’d left.

Of course, she wasn’t the first woman to be unconcerned with their casual arrangement. Most of the women he entered into short-term affairs with were on the same page, Lucy among them. She came and went as she pleased and placed no pressure on either of them.

It hadn’t bothered Lachlan a bit.

He was always relieved when a woman left his bed with no fuss or clinginess. Even if that did make him a bit of a selfish bastard.

But no one had ever wanted to run away from him afterward. Until Robyn.

It bothered Lachlan.

Why was she glad to be rid of him? He knew she loved the sex. There was no denying that the two of them were a combustible pairing. Fuck, but the woman turned him on. And vice versa.

Maybe that was it.

The sex was addictive, and it bothered him she didn’t seem to want to stick around for more when he found it hard (literally) to let her go. And he’d been contemplating when they could find time to do it again since the moment she’d left. He’d barely considered anything else. Not Mac, not the estate.

Jesus. The last time he’d been this consumed by sex, he was a teenager.

“So rhubarb is good, yeah?” Guy asked.

The word pulled Lachlan’s head out of his arse. “No. What? No … I mean, what?”

His chef raised an eyebrow. “Rhubarb. It’s seasonal. Excellent at the moment. I was going to incorporate it into the new menu.”

“No.” Lachlan abhorred the stuff. “No rhubarb. Ever.”

“Okay.” Guy crossed the word off his notepad. “Then I’ll need to rethink part of the menu.”

“Everything else sounds good.”

“Great.” Guy stood but seemed to hesitate.

“Anything else?”

The man appeared uncomfortable, and Lachlan understood why when Guy said, “I hate to ask, but … well, Arro isn’t answering my calls. Can you call her and get her to call me back?”

His immediate thought was, why isn’t she answering your calls? Those protective instincts raised his defenses. “What happened?”

The chef startled at Lachlan’s almost bark. “Oh, nothing. It was just a stupid fight after the ceilidh. I was drunk and said something I didn’t mean. You know how that is. I want to apologize.”

Despite the chef’s sincerity, Lachlan’s concern was for his sister. Arrochar wasn’t a huffy woman. She didn’t know how to hold a grudge. Unlike her brothers. In fact, Arro had always been the voice of reason in their family, the practical but softening feminine influence they’d be lost without.

“I’ll call my sister, but not for you.” Lachlan stood, keeping his tone neutral. “I have no problem with you dating Arrochar, but while you are in chef whites under this roof, you are my employee. I’d prefer you maintain that distinction at all times.”

Guy couldn’t hide his frown, but he gave Lachlan a jerk of his chin and muttered a “yes, sir” that sounded anything but deferential.

Lachlan let it go and waited for the chef to leave his office before calling his sister.

When she didn’t answer on his third try an hour later, Lachlan’s concern became an anxious tug in his gut. Arrochar rarely didn’t answer her phone, and she always called back.

As a forest engineer for Forestry and Land Scotland, Arro’s current task kept her close to home at Blairnie Forest. They were timber harvesting, and it was Arrochar’s job to plan every aspect of the process. While she worked mostly in an office, he knew she was currently in the field to implement solutions to some logistical problems they’d had with equipment and loading.