“Lipstick,” she whispered into his ear, noting a small patch of purple on his throat. Oops. Nothing to be done about that. Cassie hoped her own neck didn’t sport similar bruises. Good God, she was worried about hickies like some freaking out-of-control horny teenager. Which made sense—she kind of felt like one too.
As if reading her thoughts, Logan smirked. She stuck her tongue out at him before turning to smile at her friends when they joined them at the rail.
“This is amazing!” Delaney breathed. And for the first time tonight, she wasn’t talking about food.
Their view beyond the bow of the ship was amazing. Somehow Cassie had completely missed how close the boat had come to the Eye—London’s Ferris wheel on steroids. Hmm, fancy that. What on earth could have been distracting me?
Ana nodded, her attention also focused on the pods of people orbiting the immense structure. “Sort of reminds me of home.” She was right, the scene spread out in front of them did bring to mind Navy Pier, but rather than the host of skyscrapers that stood sentinel beyond Chicago’s Ferris wheel, here the enormous circle of rotating light shared the skyline with Westminster Bridge and Big Ben. Ana turned toward the iconic clock tower and gasped. “It’s really there!”
“What is?” Cassie asked.
Ana leaned over the rail and pointed a finger. “The second star, of course.”
“Huh?” Delaney, a smidge near-sighted, squinted in the direction Ana indicated.
“‘Second star to the right, and straight on ’til morning.’” Logan squeezed in next to Cassie at the bow, his big, warm body pressing close. “Neverland is our destination tonight, is it?”
Ana clapped her hands in delight. “Very good, Peter Pan.”
Cassie glanced up at Logan, whose gaze was still trained on the enormous glowing face of Big Ben. Her lips twitched as she watched him, the night wind ruffling his hair. Logan was like Peter Pan, the eternal mischievous boy, with a ready smile and unquenchable thirst for adventure. Being with him was a bit like being in Neverland.
Suddenly a burst of light shot across the sky, an arc of shimmering stardust that danced along the horizon before winking out of sight.
“Did you freaking see that?” Delaney whispered.
“Come on, let’s make a wish!” Ana pulled Delaney to the other side of the bow, chasing the path of the shooting star.
Alone again with Logan, a reverent hush settled over Cassie as she absorbed the magic of the moment. Make a wish … Her night with Logan back in Scotland had been magic, a dream, her wish come true. Cassie knew soon enough she’d be heading back home and her fantasy would end. But that was still a few days away. Meanwhile, she was here, and Logan was right here next to her.
She shifted, putting more of her body in contact with his. He responded instantly, adjusting his stance, the angles of his body rearranging to accommodate her curves. The fact they fit together perfectly was another bit of magic that did not escape her notice. Above them, the sky twinkled, a velvet blanket embroidered with diamonds. Cassie leaned back and rested her head against Logan’s chest. A sense of peace mingled with anticipation settled over her.
This was her fairy tale. She could go back to working on being taken seriously—to being a grown-up—when her vacation was over. For now, she was going to enjoy her stay in Neverland.
* * *
The boat rocked gently against the dock as the dinner guests departed, the murmur of quiet conversation coupled with the shuffle and click of shoes on the gangplank. Bonnie, Sadie, and Prince Eric (she really needed to stop calling him that) had joined them on the observation deck a few minutes ago.
The view was spectacular, the summer breeze sweet, and Cassie was in no hurry to catch up with the throng exiting the ship. Neither was anybody else in her party. They’d seemed to come to a silent agreement, loitering along the railing at the bow while the other passengers finished disembarking. Soon enough, though, the footsteps slowed, the conversations drifted off, and Cassie knew it was time they leave the ship as well.
“Shall we?” Logan offered her his arm.
She accepted, and again they fell into the same easy rhythm they’d found on their stroll around the deck. The muscles of his arm were thick and firm beneath her hand, his body warm against hers. Behind them, she heard Prince Er—Theo—volunteer as escort to Bonnie.
A moment later Delaney said, “If you don’t want him, I’ll take him.”
At the top of the stairs leading to the gangplank, Cassie glanced over her shoulder. Bonnie was standing, arms crossed, mouth pinched, while Delaney stepped around her and grabbed hold of Theo. Sadie and Ana brought up the rear, looping their arms behind Bonnie, carrying her forward with them.
When Delaney and Theo reached the stairs, Cassie leaned forward. “What’s going on with Bonnie?”
Delaney shrugged. “Don’t know. Must be something this one did.” She poked her escort in the chest.
“Ow! I object.” Theo rubbed the spot and turned to Cassie. “I’ve been perfectly polite all evening. I haven’t the faintest idea what your friend’s problem is.”
Cassie had a few guesses. Tall, dark-haired, with cobalt-blue eyes and a pleasant smile that didn’t quite hide the brooding undertones hinting at something more swirling beneath his civilized surface—and of course, there was that cultured aristocratic accent—Theo was an Austen hero incarnate. Throughout their entire vacation, while the rest of her friends had ogled and flirted and fantasized, Bonnie had remained immune to the charms of the men in each country they’d traveled through … until now. Cassie had known Bonnie most of her life, and she knew without a doubt what her friend’s problem was—Prince Eric was her kryptonite.
Once off the boat Bonnie shook out her curls, a sure tell she was nervous, and tapped her phone awake. “We better hurry,” she said.
“For what?” Cassie asked. Bonnie had made all the arrangements for the evening, and Cassie had no idea what else her friend had planned for them.
“For that.” Bonnie pointed toward the Eye.
Ana hooted in excitement. “Excellent!”
Next to her, Sadie frowned. “Are you sure it’s safe?”
Ana looked at her best friend. “You’re kidding, right?”
Theo grinned, a smile that would put a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs at ease. “It looks intimidating, I know, but I assure you, it’s perfectly safe.”
Sadie relented, melting beneath his charm like butter on a stove. She sidled up next to him, clearly ready to launch round two of her “Bag Theo” campaign. “Will you ride with me?”
“We’ll all ride together.” Bonnie swept past them, her words tight and clipped, matching the sharp staccato click of her shoes as she headed for the Eye. “Each of those capsules are built to fit twenty-five people.”
Once they were nestled inside one of the egg-shaped pods, Cassie clutched Logan’s hand, a little nervous herself. Logically, she knew hundreds upon hundreds—probably thousands upon thousands—of people rode this thing every day, but it was hard to think logically when your tummy was doing somersaults while a steel bubble hefted you skyward.
Rather than tease her, Logan squeezed her hand back. The small gesture put Cassie instantly at ease. She relaxed and gazed through the window, absorbing the view of London spread out below her.
“It really is like Neverland,” Ana said, her voice full of childlike wonder. “My favorite ride at Disney World is Peter Pan’s Flight. The part where you fly over a miniature version of London at night. There’s a tiny Big Ben and the Westminster Bridge and little twinkling lights all along the Thames.” She released a sigh of pure joy. “God, I love it.”
Next to her, Sadie rolled her eyes, specks of violet flashing with annoyance. “Yes, I know. You made me ride that thing with you at least a dozen times.” Sadie turned to Theo. “We took a trip down there together for spring break our senior year of high school. Here I was thinking we were headed to Florida for some fun in the sun, and the closest
I seemed to get to a beach was Mermaid Lagoon.”
“Don’t let her fool you. She had a great time,” Ana assured him. “I have plenty of pictures of Sadie posing with princesses to prove it.”
“Do you always travel on holiday together?” Theo asked.
“The two of us have gone on a bunch of trips,” Ana said, gesturing between herself and Sadie, “but this is the first time all five of us have traveled as a group.”
“Yep.” Sadie nodded. “We made a pact. Five years after graduation the five of us would visit five European countries, taking the vacation of our dreams.”
Cassie smiled, recalling the day they’d first hatched the plan for this trip. It had been freshman year, the bargain struck late one night during a brain-draining study cram session.
At first it was just for fun, a game she and her friends would play to help get them through the college grind. Bonnie’s mom was a travel agent, and Bon would constantly bring glossy vacation brochures back to their dorm. Over bowls of crappy cafeteria pasta, they would debate whether France or Italy would have the best food. As they slogged through another harsh Midwestern winter, they warmed each other by emailing pictures of sunny verandas in Spain. If one of them was suffering from a post-breakup heartache, they would take her out for drinks and console her with detailed descriptions of hot European guys with sexy accents.
Eventually all those hours of debating and planning had bred a determination to make the dream come true. Come hell or high water, they had promised that no matter what they were doing or where they were living, five years after graduation they would take their trip. And damn if they hadn’t succeeded.
“How did the five of you decide where to go?” Theo asked, bringing her back to the conversation.
“We each selected the country we wanted to visit most.” Cassie glanced at the bracelet on her wrist. Each charm marked a moment on this journey. She’d collected so many charms, and yet even now, here in London, on their last stop before the trip came to a close, it still seemed incredible.
Logan quirked an eyebrow at her. “No doubt Scotland was your choice.”
“It was mine,” Bonnie piped up from the other side of the pod where she stood next to Delaney.
“Bonnie is our resident Anglophile,” Sadie explained. “She insisted Ireland, Scotland, and England all counted as one.”
“It does,” Bonnie sniffed. “I said I wanted to visit the United Kingdom.”
Theo chuckled, a low throaty laugh, masculine and pleasant. Cassie didn’t miss the way Bonnie flushed at the sound. “Did you hear that, Lo? It’s official, Scotland counts as part of England.”
“I dinna think so.” Logan scowled.
“Promise me you won’t wax patriotic,” Theo begged. “I’m trapped in here with you, and if you decide to launch into a diatribe on the oppression of the British monarchy, I might launch myself into the Thames.”
Logan shoved his friend in the shoulder. “Don’t tempt me.” He turned back to Cassie and lifted her hand, studying the charms on her bracelet. “What country did you choose?”
“France.” Cassie shrugged. “I thought it would be romantic.”
He touched the miniature Eiffel Tower dangling from her wrist before glancing up to look into her eyes. “And was it?”
Cassie had the sense he was asking more than whether or not she’d liked Paris. “Oui.” She blinked, pretending she had missed his meaning. “Trés romantic.”
A slight frown tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Oh.”
Cassie took pity on him. She leaned over and whispered in his ear, “But not nearly as romantic as finding a kilted Scotsman hidden inside the wall of a castle.”
His face split in a grin, and Cassie swore she could see his chest swell with male swagger. Still holding her hand, he shifted his grip and stroked her wrist, the rough pad of his thumb rubbing back and forth across the delicate skin there. Cassie shivered as a thrilling tingle shot up her arm and across her breasts.
“Could you guys knock it off? The sexual tension in here is suffocating me.” Delaney shook her head. “Sheesh, you two are almost as bad as Ana and her Italian stallion … what was his name?”
“Lorenzo,” Bonnie supplied, “like from The Merchant of Venice.”
“Oh, please don’t mention his name,” Ana groaned.
“Has he called you again?” Sadie asked.
Ana shook her head. “No idea. I blocked his number after the Spanish incident.”
“What’s the Spanish incident?” Theo asked.
Sadie filled him in. “Ana has a stalker.”
At Theo’s quizzical expression, Ana elaborated. “This guy I had a fling with in Italy wouldn’t stop calling. Said he was in love with me, that he had to see me again. The lunatic tracked us down in Spain and showed up at the hotel we were staying at in Barcelona, can you believe that?”
“No,” Theo said, with an odd quirk to his voice. He turned and eyed Logan. “I can’t. Who would do such a dodgy thing?”
Logan cleared his throat. “Who chose Italy?” He flicked the tiny replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, sending it swinging back and forth on Cassie’s wrist.
“That would be me. People always think Paris is where the fashion is, but in my opinion the best shopping happens in Milan.” Sadie kicked out a leg, displaying her gorgeous, outrageously expensive footwear. The men dutifully admired her shoes.
“And I chose Spain,” Ana said. “I’ve always wanted to learn how to make paella. And the wine there is to die for. Nothing beats a crisp, Spanish white.” Ana clasped her bosom. The men dutifully avoided admiring her cleavage.
“Let’s see…” Theo lifted a hand, “Italy, Spain, France, the UK…” He ticked off his fingers, pausing at the last. “What was number five?”
Delaney took Theo’s pinky and wiggled it. “The Netherlands.”
“Let me guess.” Logan grinned. “You went for the danish.”
“No.” Delaney raised a haughty chin. “I wanted to visit the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.”
“But she did devour an Alps-sized portion of stroopwafels,” Sadie added.
“They were so good.” Delaney wrapped her arms around her middle, clutching her stomach. “Oh, man, I want some right now.”
“Good thing you packed half a suitcase with boxes of them.” Bonnie patted Delaney on the arm.
“I can’t eat those,” Delaney moaned in misery.
“Why not?” Bonnie wrinkled her nose.
Cassie laughed. “Because they’re not for her. She bought them for her students.”
“Those pip-squeaks better be grateful,” Delaney growled.
“She’s joking,” Cassie assured him. “Delaney loves her kids. She’s an awesome teacher.”
“I’m sure she is.” Logan released the bracelet and began to stroke Cassie’s wrist while Ana helped Delaney do the math on how many boxes she had packed, how many cookies were in each box, and how many she could get away with eating before she risked seriously cutting in to her supply of student souvenirs.
“What about you? What do you do for a living?” Logan asked, as his fingers traveled up the inside of Cassie’s arm, tracing a nerve-tingling path to the cleft at her elbow. The movement was ticklish and sensuous at the same time. Kind of like him—silly but sexy.
Before she could answer, a pleasant voice replaced the piped-in notes of the London Symphony Orchestra and crisply announced their capsule was approaching the disembarking zone. The voice continued, explaining the exit process in various languages.
“Hold up. This thing doesn’t stop to let us off?” Sadie stood and gripped the handrail lining the capsule as she stared at the other pods rotating below theirs.
“Weren’t you paying attention when we got on?” Delaney shook her head. “You’re worse than one of my kids. We walked on while it was moving, right? Which means we’ll walk off while it’s still moving.”
Ana joined Sadie by the rail. “There’s nothing to be scared of. This thi
ng moves slower than your nana on her electric scooter.”
“I can ask the operator to pause the ride.” Logan gestured toward a call box built into a panel of the capsule. “I ken they do that for elderly folks and those with disabilities.”
Sadie shook her head. “Thanks, but I think I’ll be okay.”
He nodded, but as their pod swung into position, Logan moved to Sadie’s side and wrapped his arm around her. Theo took up a similar position on her other side. When it was time, the two men lifted Sadie and carried her petite frame between them, exiting the capsule together.
Cassie was touched by the thoughtful gesture. Sadie was too, and more than eager to show her gratitude. She hugged both of them. Cassie noticed Sadie embraced Theo with significantly more enthusiasm.
Bonnie noticed too. “What a drama queen.”
“That’s not very charitable of you,” Cassie admonished. “You’re not usually so petty, Bon. You’ve been cranky most of the night. What’s up?”
“Nothing. I don’t know. I miss Gabe, I guess.”
Cassie eyed her best friend and debated pointing out what was painfully obvious. She decided to take the passive-aggressive approach. “Theo certainly is good-looking.”
Bonnie frowned and looked over to where he stood on the curb, helping Logan hail a cab. “I suppose.” She shivered. “I hadn’t noticed.”
“Liar,” Cassie teased, shivering too. The night air had turned from crisp to frosty and gooseflesh pebbled Cassie’s skin. She lifted her hands to rub some warmth back into her arms and was surprised when a man’s coat, heavy and warm, settled around her shoulders.
“Thank you,” she told Logan, pulling the lapels of his dress jacket closer, inhaling mint and clove. She wanted to snuggle into the silk lining of his coat, cocoon herself in his heat and scent.
“My pleasure.” Logan placed a soft kiss on her cheek, his lips a welcome heat on her chilled skin. “I’ve got us a cab to see you back to your hotel, aye?”
“Aye,” she echoed, and this time she wasn’t mocking him.
Getting Hot with the Scot--A Sometimes in Love Novel Page 11
