Page 76 of Love Bomb

It was the wrong thing to say. He knew it as soon as the words left his mouth.

Rona bent over, packed a snowball, and lobbed it at him. It sailed past him into the hallway. Thankfully, her aim had always sucked. With a strangled scream of frustration, she climbed into his truck, gunned the engine, and drove away.

Leaving Bain standing naked in his open doorway, wondering where it’d all gone wrong.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

“Can you believe he proposed?” Rona demanded as she paced the back room of the local lingerie shop. “To get me into bed?”

“I seem to remember that you were already in his bed,” Kirsty Benson said.

It was a gentle reminder that this wasn’t the first time Rona had gone over the issue. She’d been ranting in Kirsty’s lingerie shop for a while, but it wasn’t helping. Exactly the opposite, in fact. The more she thought about Bain’s stupidity, the angrier she became.

Kirsty, meanwhile, was calmly sorting fabric samples at one of the large worktables she kept in her design space, while offering sisterly sympathy. Rona had been hoping for advice, but then Kirsty probably didn’t know what to think of Bain’s dumbass idea either.

“Whatever,” Rona said, while continuing to pace. “Yes, I was in his bed, but he pulled out the marriage card to get me to have sex with him. That’s just demented.”

She bumped into one of the dressmaking dummies lined up against the wall. It swayed precariously and she quickly steadied it. Each dummy was dressed in a design from Kirsty’s latest lingerie collection. As usual, they were all gorgeous. There was a reason Kirsty had a worldwide reputation.

“I just can’t believe he would do something like that,” Rona carried on ranting. “I mean, what did he expect? That we’d rush off to Gretna Green and get married today, so he could bed me tonight? Or was he hoping that the proposal alone would make me fall all over him?” She stopped beside one of the large whiteboards, covered in photos and drawings of all the things that inspired the latest collection. “How does marriage prove he’s changed anyway? He could just as easily marry today and divorce tomorrow.”

Kirsty tucked her rust-colored hair behind her ear. “That’s a lot of trouble to go to for a one-night stand.”

Rona snorted. “This is nothing. I once saw him climb up a drainpipe and through a second story window in the middle of a thunderstorm, just to get laid.” She smiled evilly. “It didn’t go quite as he planned, though. The fire brigade arrived a short time later and he had to flee the way he’d gone in.”

“I’m guessing it was a false alarm,” Kirsty said.

“They suspected it was a kid playing a prank.” And they’d been half right—she’d been twelve at the time, but it had been no prank. Saving Bain from himself had qualified as an emergency. “My point is, there is nothing that man won’t do for sex.”

“Right, I think it’s time to inject some logic into this discussion.” Kirsty folded her arms over her green cowl-necked sweater.

No matter what she wore, Kirsty always looked like the model she’d once been. Even the silver scars left over from the car accident that ended her career didn’t detract from her beauty. Unlike Rona, Kirsty had been born with a flair for style.

Rona had many fond memories of Kirsty teaching her how to apply make-up or showing her what colors to wear so she wouldn’t look like her head was on fire. It’d been Kirsty who’d taken her shopping for her first bra. And Kirsty who’d listened to her chatter endlessly about her crush on Bain.

Man, she’d missed Kirsty.

“Please don’t tell me that you think Bain meant his proposal,” Rona said. “I’ve been back in Invertary for exactly four days. There is no way he’s gone from calling me demon to wanting to marry me in such a short amount of time.”

“No, of course not,” Kirsty said. “But I was going to suggest that maybe he’s telling the truth about being over casual sex.”

Rona sat down on a chair beside one of the sewing machines and gaped at Kirsty. “You have got to be kidding me,” she said. “You believe him?”

“I’m not saying that. What I am saying is, I can’t remember the last time I saw him with a woman in Invertary.”

“That doesn’t mean he wasn’t getting it on elsewhere,” Rona pointed out.

“No, but all I’ve heard about is how busy he is. That he takes a lot of trips for work, and puts in long hours building the business with his brothers. When does he have time for all this casual sex he’s supposed to be having? I mean, a hook up takes time. You need to go to a bar, charm a woman, take her to a hotel, spend the night, let her down easy, move on. It’s time consuming.”

“I can’t believe this,” Rona threw up her hands. “You’re defending him.”

“Don’t be so dramatic. I’m trying to get to the truth. That’s what you want, isn’t it? To find out if Bain has stopped sleeping around or if the stories circulating about him are real.”

Rona reluctantly nodded.

“I thought so,” Kirsty said. “Have you asked my mum about him?”

“What would Margaret know?”