Page 14 of If I Stopped Haunting You

“It certainly feels like it,” she snapped as he bent down. She followed him with her eyes, her head angling back as he stepped closer. From his place, he could smell the coconut of her shampoo, the mint of her lip balm.

They were a hair’s breadth from one another, their lips inches apart, noses brushing. His grip on her tightened as he stared down at her, and her eyes met his. He thought, for one wild moment, to kiss her. They were already so close; it would be so easy. It was the drunk giddiness, the strange electricity their banter brought out in him. Nothing more.

Right?

But there was that spark of an almost kiss, the heat in the moment before. Her lips parted, and his eyes followed the movement. God, she really was beautiful. They could hate each other all they wanted, but he couldn’t deny the sliver ofsomething. Neil swallowed hard, his hand trailing up to cup her cheek and slide into her braid. He itched to unravel it, to tug her head back and take her mouth with his.

If he could, Neil would stay in that instant for a fraction longer. He heard a groan from behind them, low and annoyed. For a moment, he thought it was himself. But when it sounded again, he knew instantly it wasn’t. Neil pulled back slowly, fingers sliding over her waist and away, unable to meet Skinner’s glower as he turned and blinked at the older man.

“Off with ye,” he grumbled with a wave of his hand. Straightening and stepping back, Neil turned down the road, steps long and quick. Skinner ran to keep up with him, her short legs no match for his.

Damn it, he needed a moment to compose himself. His heart was beating a frantic rhythm against his ribs and other…partsof him were in all sorts of disarray. What the hell was wrong with him?

“Storm,” she hissed.

“Skinner,” he mimicked.

But he wouldn’t look at her.

He couldn’t look at her.

“What was the point of doing that? He found us, what,cuddling?”

Neil didn’t have an answer because why in the fuck had his first instinct been to pull her close? He didn’t know why, and it was sending him spiraling.

Daniela and Laszlo were waiting for them beside the car, waving them over frantically as they rounded the castle. “Come on!” Daniela called out, cackling. “What took you two forever?”

“Nothing,” they responded in unison.

Skinner slid into the front seat with ease, buckling in and crossing her arms over her chest before pulling out her phone again. As Neil crossed to the car, Laszlo touched his elbow, raising a brow. “What happened in those ruins?” his friend asked quietly, honey-brown eyes flicking to the woman in the front seat.

“Nothing.” Maybe, if he kept telling himself it was nothing, it would stay that way.

“If you say so.”

Neil climbed into the car and buckled in, hands tightening around the steering wheel. What had he been thinking, touching her like that? More so, why was he still thinking about thefeeling of her so close to him? He ground his teeth together, eyes squeezed shut.

“Are we going?” Laszlo asked.

Jaw working, Neil opened his eyes and started the van before pulling out, the castle ruins disappearing behind them as they wove down the long, narrow road. The four of them were silent as they hurried through the coming darkness to their final destination, soft Scottish music filling the void.

Part of Neil wished he’d let Laszlo drive. The Highlands was more beautiful than he could have ever imagined, and he wanted nothing more than to pull over and look. The days were shorter here, the oranges of sunset cast over the rolling landscapes. Though the Scottish roads were winding, and the light drizzle turned to snow as night fell, there was something almost magnetic about the sights.

They zigzagged across the Highlands before dipping east toward the Cairngorms National Park. According to their map, this strange, looping path was the quickest way to get to the castle. The drive wasn’t long, but it felt longer in the darkness, with few cars traveling into the Highlands as night descended.

Cities disappeared until towns sprang up in their place, and soon there were only farmlands and signs pointing to a zoo, reindeer, trails, and various campsites and inns. The national park was thick with trees, the temperatures dropping as the elevation rose. Neil cranked up the heat as they all shivered from the pressing cold, but it was no use when the snow began to fall. Long, strange patches of open ground and farmland popped up as they drove farther into the park, lit only by their headlights and the white snow. The area was all but deserted.

It wasn’t until the sun had dipped down completely and the road grew slick with snow that, according to their GPS, they had arrived.

The road to the castle was nearly impossible to make out, the fresh snow a thick layer of powder, building up along the embankment. The road snaked down a tunnel of darkened trees, with nothing and no one out in sight. Neil slowed, the van’s small, worn wheels struggling over the frozen ground.

“Everyone left a copy of their itinerary and the castle’s address with someone, right?” Laszlo asked, eyes glued to the road, hands clamped around the back of Neil’s seat as they went around another curve.

“Is it really only the four of us here?” Skinner asked shakily.

“Everyone else couldn’t make it.”

“Couldn’t or wouldn’t?” she said.