‘Ally, I’m… glad I met you,’ Jamie said, and Ally got the impression it was only one tenth of the words he really wanted to say. She’d take it though. She felt the same.
‘All my life, I’ve liked to take things apart to see how they work,’ Ally found herself musing aloud, eyes on his. ‘Even when I was a kid. And after I found myself stuck at home and left behind, and ever since breaking up with Gray, I’ve done the same thing with people. Looking for the fault.’
He was steadily observing her in the firelight, the bothy walls shadowy and indistinct around them, only ghostly whiteness beyond the glass.
‘I did it with you as well,’ she confessed. ‘I wanted to think you were bad, that day we met. And then, later, I wanted to think you had a girlfriend…’
‘What?’
‘I did!’ she confessed, laughing. ‘I saw you with your sister and I jumped to the wrong conclusion. I just didn’t want to think you could be this…’ She gestured to him with her hand, taking in his whole body. He waited with his eyes widening. ‘This… good.’
‘All to keep me at arm’s length?’ he anticipated.
‘Exactly. I’ve had faulty instincts. I’ve not known how to read people, like Gray. And after him, I’ve assumed ill intentions even when there were none, all because I’d stopped trusting myself, stopped trusting other people. I wanted to find fault wherever I looked.’
‘But you came running to me when you needed help, so what does that say? Your instincts might be better than you think.’
She heard the words, let them seep in, but she wasn’t really thinking any more. If she did, she’d have to think about him leaving soon, and how she had so much work to do helping the repair shop evolve into its next form. She had friends to work on cherishing and sharing with. She had a messed-up brother who’d fallen right off the career ladder and landed with a bump back home and had been hiding out in his bedroom ever since: so many people to help and things to fix.
Right at that moment however, there was only this man in front of her and a warm fire and the feeling of being lost in a cloud with real life on pause, and all she wanted to do was kiss him and see if it really was as good as she remembered.
Jamie reached the same conclusion only a moment before her, and turned himself to face her, lifting onto his knees. She closed the space between them in an instant, joy bubbling up where before there’d been churning feelings.
‘Can I?’ she asked, pausing an inch from his lips, waiting for him to kiss her as confirmation, before pressing herself closer to him, nothing holding her back.
His mouth, tracing down her neck, sent her nerves sparking like the fire in the grate as they struggled out of their jackets, laughing and kissing all at once.
He kept his mouth to her throat as they tumbled messily onto their strewn coats, his hands catching her head before it bumped the floor. She was safe, she was warm, she was happy.
Mouth to mouth, hard then soft, alternating lip pinches, sharp and tight, then wider, deep opened-out moaning kisses, her tongue softly swept between his parted lips, making him gasp, the sound of his breath building and hitching and sending her dizzy.
She’d pulled off her T-shirt before her brain could fathom what was happening, and he’d mirrored her, the sight of his broad chest and the fading bruises at his ribs filling her up with astonishment and pity.
He asked if touching her was all right and waited for her reply before he’d lowered himself in the slowest, most careful way over her, his bare chest and stomach against her skin. The sensation loosened any grip she had on herself.
She pulled him nearer, hands spread over the pockets of his trousers, the material crisp as she gathered it, high-altitude kisses starving them both of air, switching off every polite inhibition within her.
They were still laughing, amazed, as they kissed, shucking off socks and trousers, him moving his lips to her bra, moving the thin fabric aside to take her into his mouth.
It was agreed between them that he should search out his wallet and the condom, which he did without dragging his eyes away from her, without taking his mouth off her skin.
With a hungry-eyed, devilish pause where he kneeled over her, rolling the protection into place, showing her his whole self, she couldn’t wait any longer and pulled him close to kiss him again. Body to body, and in the blaze from the fire, they kissed and ground and held each other closer than they’d ever held anyone in deep connectedness, not caring about the cool floor, not feeling the shifting air pressure from the clouds lifting as the sun broke through again, forgetting everything but one another as they shared the deep shuddering burst of pleasure together, holding each other tightly until it subsided into a softening glow.
Jamie woke from the sleepy bliss first, thinking he’d slept for hours but finding it had been a matter of minutes. Still, he felt curiously rested. It was broad daylight outside, the Cairngorms really delivering on its promise of throwing four seasons in any given day at the unsuspecting traveller.
The bothy was close and quiet. No one needed anything from either of them. Nothing needed to be done, other than watching the fire, delivering soft kisses to Ally’s closed eyelids as she too awoke, running his hands over the smooth curve of her shoulders, and contemplating with wonder how they’d been so incredibly good at this, and on their first time together too, then remarking with laughter what would the next time be like?
Jamie, however, knew more keenly than Ally that they’d better find their clothes and get down the mountain before the heavens chose to hail or snow, yet still he submitted a little longer to the longing to lie still, his body mirroring Ally’s, curled like bears in their winter den, happy to hibernate, not thinking of the world waiting for them when they emerged into the sunlight once more.
Sadly, reality has a bad habit of not knowing when to keep its nose out of innocent lovers’ business, and today was no exception.
There came the sound of a fist hammering at the bothy door. Jamie guessed from its agitated insistence which grumpy, camo-clad survival expert stood outside.
‘Ranger service,’ called the cross voice, trying to peer in at the steamed window under the eaves. ‘Open up! Let’s get you down off my mountain!’
Finlay Morlich escorted them home without a word. Jamie couldn’t help but think of the officer who’d brought him back to his dad’s that night when he was a wayward kid an inch away from going right off the rails. Only now, Jamie wasn’t wracked with squirming shame and powerlessness, wasn’t eaten up inside with grief and missing his mother. He’d come a long way in recent years, and most of that distance he’d covered in great strides since meeting Ally McIntyre.
He quirked an eyebrow at Ally when they reached the car park at the foot of the slope next to the ranger hut. Finlay unlocked the doors of a beaten-up old jeep and gestured impatiently for them to get in. He was set on driving them to their doors, apparently.
