Page 21 of The Highland Kiss

As he starts the engine, I wonder again if this was a bad idea. Yes, I need to clear my head, and yes, I want to reconnect with my dad. But did I have to do it with this guy?

CHAPTER NINE

EMILY

We’re at the launch site, taking the raft off the car. We’ve already got our helmets and life jackets on, and it’s all beginning to feel very real. It’s been years since I’ve done anything like this. My thirteen-year-old self was up for adventure, but thirty-year-old me is less sure.

“Are you going to do some sort of safety briefing before we hit the water?”

Ally raises an eyebrow. “A safety briefing? Pfft. Like Aidan said, this is just an informal thing. I’m not taking any liability if things go wrong, you know.”

I think he’s joking, but I’m not sure, and my wide eyes must give away my anxiety.

“Shit. You’re actually nervous, aren’t you?”

“Well, it’s all right for you!” I snap. “You and Aidan do stuff like this all the time. The last time I did this was . . . here, seventeen years ago. With you.”

Ally chuckles. “It doesn’t take a lot to get you going, does it? Luckily, you’re kind of cute when you’re mad.”

“Cute?”

I give him my severest glare. It’s not until his lip curls that I realise the problem with this response. If he thinks I’m cute when I’m mad, and I’m only getting madder . . .

“Aye, cute,” he confirms with a nod.

“Ugh!” I grab a paddle from the open boot and hoist it up. “I will hit you with this if I have to.” I’m only half joking.

He laughs. “Maybe a safety briefing is no bad idea, then. Those things aren’t weapons. Also, if it calms you down a bit, know that I won’t let anything happen to you. Not on my watch.”

These last words he says with his eyes locked on mine, and there’s a sincerity in his hazel gaze that surprises me, a momentary reprieve from the teasing—a suggestion of strength, of protectiveness, that reassures me and calms my nerves. The next moment, he looks away again, but I know I can trust this man to keep me safe. In fact, given the risky nature of the activity we’re about to do, I’d without hesitation choose this strong, rugged Highlander to accompany me over any suited, office-based man from London.

“There’s one rule I want you to remember above everything else,” Ally says. “Just one.”

“Oh? And that is?”

He scratches his stubble beard. “I’m a feminist, but on this raft I am the boss, and you will do everything I tell you to—everything—without question and without delay. Understand?”

He puffs his chest out, draws his shoulders back, raises his chin, and I swear my body temperature rises. I have to resist the temptation to fidget with my hands. It bugs me that I find his commanding demeanour so thrilling.

Trying hard to appear unfazed, I give Ally my best withering stare. “Fine. So long as all your instructions relate to rafting and only rafting, that’s not a problem.”

He throws his hands up in a mock display of annoyance. “Shit! You saw right through me. As soon as we got on the raft, I was going to order you to kiss me.”

I place a hand on my hip, saying nothing, but continuing to give him my most scornful look. Inside, though, it’s a different story. The idea should be offensive, and yet my pulse quickens at the thought of him ordering me to kiss him.

Pull yourself together, Emily! Pull. Yourself. Together.

Ally winks at me. “Just joking, of course. Although . . . if memory serves me right, the last time I asked you to kiss me, you did.”

This is too much. I’m still holding on to the paddle with one hand—I’m not going to hit him with that—but I do step forward and give him a shove with my other hand. His chest is solid, and he doesn’t move back at all. He does, however, grin down at me—and yes, as I’ve already noted, he looks good when he smiles, annoyingly good. And, damn it, why does such a masculine man have such long lashes?

I try to shove him again, but as before, it has no effect on him. He just laughs.

I give him three sharp slaps on his chest. “Don’t laugh at me! And anyway, you kissed me when we were kids. I didn’t kiss you!”

Despite my words, despite my shoves and slaps, the smile never leaves his irritatingly handsome face. He continues to gaze down at me, watching me, like some tall, unmoveable statue.

“All right, second rule: no hitting the instructor. Now, why don’t we see if you can remember how to use a paddle?”