He ignored her and carried on in that same annoyingly calm voice. “It’s fine. I can cope with you worrying about your hair. What I can’t cope with is you bouncing around on the tiny ledge that’s keeping us alive. You need to sit still, or I’m going to put you down and sit on you. Are we clear?”
Mairi tried to breathe evenly, aware that she was about ten seconds away from doing a Wile E. Coyote and running in midair before plunging into the sea, all while screaming hysterically and pulling at her hair.
“I’m fine,” she said. “I’m okay. You can let go now.”
“No chance in hell. I’ll keep hold of you until you lose that crazy glint in your eyes.”
“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.”
To stop him getting any ideas, Mairi decided to put some distance between them. She got to her feet.
“What are you doing?” he said.
“Looking for some personal space. Don’t worry. I won’t step off.” She took a step to the left and sat back down.
Right on top of a thicket of thistles.
Chapter 10
Mairi screamed and shot to her feet. Keir grabbed for her, thinking she was falling again. He clutched her hand and yanked her to him, wrapping his arms around her waist to keep her in place.
“What is it?”
“I sat on thistles!” she wailed. “There are thistles sticking out of my bum! You need to get them out.” She dug her fingers into his shoulders until he knew there would be bruising.
“Calm down,” Keir snapped as he tightened his arms around her waist. “Are you sure they didn’t just jab you?”
He didn’t need to see her to know she was glaring at him. “Get the needles out of my backside, Keir.”
“It’s dark, Mairi. I can barely see you, let alone the prickles. Can’t you get them out yourself?”
“I swear, I will kill us both if you don’t get the prickles out of my bum.”
“I’ll have to go by touch.”
“I don’t care if you pull them out with your teeth, just get it done.” Her fingers dug into the soft tissue of his shoulder, making him wince.
“Do you want to ease your hold some?”
“Do you want to drown? Because if you don’t get on with it, I’m launching backward and taking you with me.”
“Tell me again why I proposed to you.” He had to have been insane when it happened.
“I don’t know. I don’t care.” She grabbed his earlobe and yanked it. “Fix this.”
“Bloody hell, woman. Calm down.”
He ran his hand down the curve of her backside, over the soft jeans that molded to her curves, looking for thistles. It didn’t take long to find them. There were several spikes sticking out of her soft, plump flesh. No, don’t think about the flesh. Think about the pain.
Like that was going to help. He pinched one of the prickles and yanked it out. Mairi squealed and held him tighter.
Keir felt his way, pulling out each sharp prickle when he found it. He smoothed his hands over the curve of her behind. “I think that’s all of them. Are there more? Can you feel any more?”
She wiggled her rear against his palms and screeched. “I think some of them snapped off. I’m taking my jeans down. You need to get them out of my bum.”
As much as Keir wanted to get Mairi out of her jeans, this wasn’t the time or the place. “They can’t have snapped off under your jeans. You’re imagining it.”
“No, I’m imagining throwing you over the edge and listening to the satisfying splash you’ll make when you hit the wat
er.” She fumbled for her zipper. “Move back. I need space to get these down.”
“Mairi, think about this. You’re probably just sore from the spikes that were in you. There can’t be anything left in there for me to pull out. Or if there is, it will be too small to get without tweezers.”
Logic was wasted on her. She struggled against his hold and shoved her jeans and underwear down to her knees.
When she straightened back up, Keir’s lips were almost level with paradise. All of the blood that he needed in his brain rushed south, leaving him dizzy, frustrated and very, very horny.
“Get the prickles,” Mairi ordered him.
There was nothing to do but sacrifice his good sense to the cause. With smooth, gentle strokes, he traced the curve of Mairi’s backside.
“Do you feel anything?” She tightened her hold on his shoulders, and Keir found he was beyond caring that there would be bruises.
Her backside was a thing of fantasy. It was round, full and perfectly heart-shaped. And he had his hands on it.
“Keir.” She shook him. “Are you listening to me? Do you feel anything?”
“Perfection,” he said. “I feel perfection.”
She stilled. “Are you looking for prickles or copping a feel?”
He looked up at her but saw only shadow and an outline of wild, sexy hair. “Mairi, I have my hands on your backside. Of course I’m copping a feel. But I haven’t touched any prickles. I think you’re just sore from the spikes we got out.”
“My backside is going to be covered in red lumps and sore for days. This isn’t the first time I’ve had a run-in with our national flower. It hates me.”
“Poor baby.” Keir soothed her abused skin.
Mairi relaxed into him. “That feels good.” Then she stilled. “Uh, Keir? You want to get your hands off my bum now?”
“Not really.” Keir thought it was best to be honest. “But even I know that getting frisky on this ledge is nothing more than a death wish.”
He gave her backside one last squeeze, making her gasp, before he moved his hands to the much safer area of her hips and kept a hand on her while she fastened her jeans. At last, Mairi was ready to sit. Only she didn’t.
“My bum hurts. I can’t sit on the hard ground.”
“Come here.” Keir sat back against the cliff, took her hand and pulled her into his lap.
He widened his legs, so she sat with her knees over one of his thighs and part of her backside supported on the other. Under the rest of her sore rear, there was air. “Better?” he said.
“Thanks.” She put her head on his shoulder and cuddled into his embrace.
If they hadn’t been trapped in such a precarious situation, it would have felt amazing.
“You’re hard work,” he told her.
“I know. It’s one of the reasons I’m never getting married. I’d eventually drive them nuts.”
Keir’s heart clenched. “Some men like to be driven nuts.”
“Yeah, right.”
As Keir held Mairi close, he wondered how long it would take before they were rescued. This evening was not going the way Keir had envisioned. He’d hoped for more kissing and that he’d be able to talk Mairi into pushing the twin beds in her bedroom together, so he could hold her while she slept. Hell, he wasn’t even talking about sex. He’d just wanted to spend the night with her. Instead, he was precariously perched halfway down a cliff, on a ledge that was barely big enough to hold them both.
Overhead, they heard cars pull up on the grassy embankment and stop. The boyfriends had arrived and would, hopefully, be able to rescue them. Mairi sucked in a deep breath and shouted, but the noise was drowned out by the waves. She tried again, but the same thing happened.
“I’ll shout,” Keir said.
But before he could make a sound, music blasted out, and then one of the men started singing.
“Oh no,” Mairi groaned. “They’re going to serenade me while I die.”
“Nobody’s going to die. We just have to wait for a break in the singing, then we’ll both shout.” He held her close, enjoying having her in his arms, no matter what had caused her to be there.
“Keir?” Mairi said.
“Mmm?”
“I need to go to the bathroom.”
Chapter 11
Mairi was sound asleep when someone gently shook her awake. She batted at them to make them go away. It was too light in the room. “Pull the curtains,” she said.
“Rusty, wake up. The rescue effort has turned up.”
Keir? She buried her nose in his neck and inhaled. Definitely Keir, and this wasn’t her bed. She shifted, wincing as pain spiked from her behind. With it came the memory of the night before. And with that came the unwelcome realization that they were still on the cliff.
“I can’t believe I fell asleep,” she grumbled against his throat.
“I can’t believe we didn’t fall off the cliff while we were sleeping.”
He had a point. She opened her eyes and was instantly blinded by the sun glinting off the water.
“Mairi! Keir!” someone called out above them.
“That’s Donna,” Mairi said. She’d recognize Donna’s voice anywhere. None of her other sisters sounded that hysterical.
“Aye, we’re being rescued.” Keir brushed the hair back from her face and looked down at her. “Good morning, gorgeous.”
She looked up at him, and it was as though the world just faded away. Her stomach tightened. Her heart ached. She’d missed him so much. When he’d disappeared from her life, it had felt as though a part of her had been ripped away along with him. Even now, after all this time, the wound he’d left behind that night was still raw and open. All she’d managed to do was bandage over it, but nothing had healed. Nothing had changed. Why did she have to let him close to her again? Now she felt as though the bandage had been ripped off and the wound was exposed to the air. And it hurt again. Just when she’d thought the pain was gone for good.
She shook her head and dismissed her thoughts. Mentally rebandaging the wound, so she could pretend again that it wasn’t there. “We should call back to her.”
He nodded. “You ready? It’ll be louder if we both do it together.”
“What will we shout?”
He shrugged. “‘Help’ seems appropriate.”
“An oldy but a goody. On three?”
“One, two, three, help!” They roared together, waited a beat and then shouted it again. Repeatedly.
“Mairi!” Donna called, sounding a lot closer now. “How on earth did you get down there?”
Mairi looked up to see her sister peering over the bluff. Along with every one of her fake boyfriends and Sean. Having everyone stare at them made Mairi uncomfortably conscious of the fact she was sitting in Keir’s lap. As though Keir knew she was getting ready to bolt, his arms tightened around her.
“We fell,” Keir shouted. “Do you think someone could get us out of here?”
“What did he say?” an American boyfriend said. “Did they fall or were they pushed?”
Mairi groaned. If they got started, they could debate this for hours.
“Does it matter?” she shouted. “Somebody get us up from here.”
There was scrambling, and some of the faces disappeared. She could hear shouting. It didn’t sound organized.
“This is going to take forever,” Mairi said. “There isn’t a leader among them. I wish Agnes were here. She’d have them organized and us up the cliff by now.”
“Mairi,” Donna shouted, “are you hurt?”
“We’re fine. Nothing broken.”
“Get back from the edge, woman,” came a deep Scottish voice above them. “Do you want to end up down there with them?”
“What are you doing here?” Donna sounded a little hysterical.
“You called to tell me you weren’t coming in to work until you found your sister. Where the hell do you think I’d be?” There was a pause. “You lot, put down the felt-tip pens and
get over here.”
There was silence, and then a booming “Now!”
“Who’s that?” Keir shot Mairi a look.
“Donna’s boss.”
“Duncan Stewart is here? I thought he was a hermit.”
“Recluse. Bad-tempered recluse. But he’ll sort them out. Bossy is his middle name.”
Mairi tuned out the noise above them and focused on the man sitting under her. “Quite an adventure, eh?”
His lips twitched, and his eyes darkened. “Not the kind we’d planned to have, but not a bad effort.”
Mairi felt a pang at the memory of all the plans they’d made together. Dreams woven late at night as though they’d been telling each other secrets.
“Mairi, you okay?” His voice was gentle and made her feel vulnerable. Something she just couldn’t bear.
She squared her shoulders and pretended that those plans had meant nothing to her. “Definitely not as good as the plan to walk the Inca Trail.”
“Or as exotic as the plan to ride the Orient Express.”
“Or as dangerous as swimming with sharks off the coast of Australia.”
“Or as fun as joining a nudist retreat in Alaska.”
They grinned at each other, but it felt sad. These were the plans they’d made together, the dreams they’d had as a couple. They were going to travel the world and blog about it, hopefully making enough money from the blog to carry on travelling indefinitely.
“It can still happen,” Keir whispered. “We can still do it.”
For a moment, a burst of hope seared through her, and then reality hit. How could she rely on him when it was just the two of them in some far-off country? She hadn’t been able to rely on him in Scotland, when she was surrounded by family and had people she could fall back on. No, there would be no travelling with Keir.
Gingerly, she climbed off his lap. “I’m not into that anymore,” she lied.
“I saw the guidebooks on your nightstand,” Keir said.
Mairi focused on the water beneath them. “Thanks for reminding me. They’ve been sitting there for months, waiting for me to drop them off at the secondhand shop. I really should get that done.”
Can't Tie Me Down! Page 8
