Page 94 of A Scottish Highland Surprise

“Of course not,” I answered crisply. “What you do and who you are with have nothing to do with me.”

His eyes churned like the sea. “I don’t think you mean that.”

I swallowed and fiddled with the cuffs of my shirt.

“Nadia did come round to see me and yes, she did want to try again, but I made it clear I wasn’t interested.”

My heart felt like it was turning inside out in my chest. I cleared my throat. “Right. I see.”

“She’s just like Jake, always playing mind games and thinking she has the upper hand.” Xander stood there, studying me. He waited for a few moments. “Aren’t you going to ask me why?”

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him. A basket of butterflies exploded in my stomach. “Why what?” I managed.

“Why I told Nadia I wasn’t interested in trying again?”

In two long strides, Xander was in front of me, looking down and reading my expression. I felt a whisper of breath stick in my throat, as I watched him lift his hand and push a stray lock of my hair back from my cheek. “Because, Sophie, Frozen North has finally melted.”

My chest rose and fell. I gazed back up at him. I had to hear it from his own lips. I needed to.

When I didn’t say anything, Xander lifted both hands and placed them gently on the tops of my arms. The sensation of his fingers seared through the sleeves of my shirt. “Do I have to spell it out?”

It struck me that I had never seen him like this before. There was a vulnerable edge to his voice.

“I’m sorry, Sophie. I’m so sorry. I jumped to all the wrong conclusions. When I saw you with Jake, it just brought everything back about what happened between him and Nadia.”

Xander’s eyes locked with mine. “When I called you that evening on your mobile and Jake answered, I assumed I was losing you to him as well.”

I stared up at him. “What evening?” Then a thought bolted through my mind. “Hang on. That must have been the evening he brought a take-away round. I thought I heard my phone ring from the sitting room, but when I went to answer it, he assured me it was his phone ringing and not mine.” My resentment fired up. “He told me we must have the same ringtone.” I shook my head with rising fury. “The lying cretin! So it was you who rang me and he deliberately answered.”

Xander nodded. “He took great delight in letting me know he was with you.”

I could feel my eyes searching his face. “But it isn’t what you think, Xander. Yes, I will admit I was flattered that he asked me out, but that kiss… He engineered it for your benefit. In fact, when he found out I knew you, he engineered everything. That’s so obvious now.”

Xander’s expression morphed from tenderness to rising anger, before softening again. He gazed down at me. “That’s what Saffy told me too. She said she came here to speak to you.”

I allowed my fingers to run up and down the sleeves of his black jacket. “Jake lied to me from the start. He told me Nadia wasn’t happy with you and that was why she started seeing him. You became so jealous, you carried out a vendetta against his artwork and his career suffered.”

I reached up one hand and caressed his stubbly cheek. “It was never him, Xander. Ever.” I cleared my throat, hoping I could locate the right words. “It was Saffy who told me the truth. She explained what really happened with Nadia and Jake and about him ripping off another artist’s work, when he was James Deighton.”

My eyes fused with his. “Saffy cares about you a lot, Xander.”

“I know she does. She’s a good friend and always has been, but there is nothing more to it than that.”

I digested this. “I’m so sorry about what happened between you and Nadia. It must have hurt so much.”

“It did,” he admitted after a few moments’ consideration. “I guess my pride took an enormous hit as well. But then I met you and…” He sought out what to say next. “What I’m trying to say,” he managed through a half-laugh, “is that what I had with Nadia was a perfect illusion. I was imagining how great things were between us. What I had with Nadia didn’t feel real; not like this.”

He ran a finger down the length of my nose, which made me grin. “I thought it was at the time, but then when I met you and my feelings for you started creeping up on me … well, I realised what had been between Nadia and me was a pale imitation.” His cheekbones coloured. “Then when I saw you and Caldwell together, I thought it was Groundhog Day and I just couldn’t face the prospect of losing you, let alone to someone like him again.”

My heart throbbed in my ribcage. “Well, I can assure you it wasn’t. When Jake asked me out, I wasn’t all that bothered about going. I’m still not sure why I said yes.” I offered him a small smile. “To be honest, I think I only agreed to go out with him because I thought you and I were a non-starter.” Xander’s words of only a few moments ago flapped around my head like twittering birds.

I failed to conceal a gasp as Xander’s fingers reached down and stroked my ponytail. “So, Ms Harkness, what do you suggest we do now? We’ve wasted so much time waltzing around each other.”

My chest felt as if it were about to erupt. “Well, I was going to say that perhaps we could arrange our first date?”

He gave me that smile again, the one that made my knees buckle in my flared trousers. “That sounds good. In fact, it sounds wonderful. But I was thinking of something else.”

“Oh?”