Page 104 of The Christmas Highland Lodge

‘When I first arrived here, I was still hurting and so resentful. Remember that reply I left about Coco the clown when you told me off for parking on the pavement?’

I giggled at the memory. ‘How could I forget that? It was rather clever actually, what you wrote, but you were rather up yourself.’

‘Thanks for that.’

‘Well, you were. But not anymore. You’ve changed.’

His eyes were teasing. ‘So have you.’

‘How?’

‘You’ve grown,’ he answered after a considered pause.

I grinned back up at him, the realisation of my increased self-belief burning even brighter in my chest than before.

‘You’ve got more confident and have realised you can do anything. I don’t think you know how dynamic and capable you are.’ He gave me a sexy wink. ‘See? That’s what starting to fall for a good man can do for you.’

I pulled a dismissive, jokey face. ‘If you tell me where this good man is, I’ll try to track him down.’

‘Oh, very funny.’ Blake held me tighter, his arms wrapped around me. ‘Now, I might be wrong but I think this is the bit where you’re supposed to tell me that you have feelings for me too?’

My mouth broke into a silly grin. ‘Of course, I have. Oh, you have no idea.’

Now it was Blake who was grinning like an idiot. ‘Well, that’s a relief, otherwise I would have been standing here, feeling like a right prat.’

We tilted our heads together so that our foreheads were touching. It was like we were together properly now, in our own little world, where all the issues, problems and miscommunications couldn’t touch us.

Blake smiled down at me. We were oblivious to the biting cold that was whipping up off the loch. ‘You kept that shop going and supported your mum through such a difficult and stressful time, as well as starting work on the cabins. I don’t think you have any idea what a wonderful woman you are.’

Now it was my turn to reach up one hand to his face. I brushed a stray lock of thick, dark hair from his brow that was flapping in the breeze. ‘Well, I could say the same about you.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You talk about me having had a time of it, but look at what you’ve been through and yet you kept going. You took a chance on making a new start elsewhere, you carved out a successful TV career for yourself and you’ve undertaken some great charity work.’ I blushed up at him. ‘You also started your own business.’

‘Yes, well, after what happened with Amy, my head was all over the place. I didn’t know what I wanted.’ He hesitated, scanning my face, before resting his attention on my lips. ‘But I do now. More than anything.’

I struggled to contain the bubbles of happiness exploding inside of me. I never thought we would be together. My hopes of meaning something more to Blake had died that day when he had told me that he couldn’t be anything more to me than a friend. What was it he had said then? That he wasn’t any good at relationships and they never seemed to work out.

Well, that was all about to change. We were strong together. We could see a future together. Nothing else mattered.

I couldn’t, however, resist flashing Blake a jokey, pensive look. ‘The only fly in the ointment between us is that you don’t like Christmas.’

Blake playfully rubbed at his dark beard. ‘That is true. But I have a feeling we can work on that.’ He arched one brow, as the loch whispered behind us.

‘Can we?’ I teased.

‘Oh yes.’

Blake lowered his mouth to mine. We kissed over and over, our mouths claiming one another and deepening with intensity as we both let out uninhibited moans. The water continued to swish and sway behind us.

We moulded our bodies against one another, lost in the feel and sensation of each other, oblivious to everything else.

After a dizzying, delicious amount of time, we eased ourselves apart.

‘I hope you don’t suffer from beard rash after that,’ joked Blake. ‘I apologise in advance.’

I gave him a wink. ‘It was worth it, although I’m very curious to know what you look like underneath that.’