Page 79 of The Christmas Highland Lodge

His words jolted me back. I glanced down at my polo neck and fitted trousers. I had been so anxious to see him and the other figures trudging back through the snow that pulling on my coat hadn’t even occurred to me.

I wrapped my arms protectively around myself.

But now that Blake had mentioned it, I felt shaken and vulnerable, surrounded by the rescue team, who were trussed up for the worst that Craig Brae could throw at them.

I started to rub at my arms, but before I realised what he was doing, Blake had dumped his rucksack on the snowy ground in front of him, unzipped it and pulled out a red fleece.

He slid it like a cape around me and proceeded to drape it around my trembling shoulders. His gloved fingers skimmed against my skin. I swallowed.

He gazed down at me through the whirling flurries of snow. ‘Put this on. You must be freezing.’

I tugged the fleece on, grateful for another layer. ‘Thank you. But I’m not the one who was trapped in a mountain cave.’ My mouth trembled and chattered. I stared up at him. ‘We were worried sick.’

‘Oh, there was no need to be.’

My mouth fell open. ‘What? You take off in horrible weather up a dangerous mountain, are late returning and then you brush it off, just like that? I’ve been… I mean, we’ve been so concerned. Stephanie, Max, Kim and me.’

Blake studied me. ‘It wasn’t as bad as it seemed.’

‘Oh, stop being so bloody macho about it!’ I erupted, my worry and relief clashing. My feelings were in knots, tightening up my chest.

In frustration, I punched him on the arm.

All the assembled mountain rescue, Kim and the Styleses pretended to be engaged in conversation.

Blake almost laughed. ‘Ow! What was that for?!’

‘For being a dick! And stop laughing!’

‘I’m not laughing, Lottie.’

‘Yes, you are. I can see you are through that wild animal you’ve got stuck to your chin.’

‘Wild animal?’ echoed Blake, breaking into a wider smile.

‘And stop repeating what I say.’

I bit my bottom lip and struggled to look up at him. Relief reared up inside me. God, I hated feeling like this. If he hadn’t been channelling his inner Bear Grylls and gone walkabout up Ben Linn this morning, I wouldn’t have been standing here in a fleece three sizes too big for me, like a raging Oompa-Loompa.

I huddled deeper into his red fleece with Rowan Moore House glittering behind us. ‘The next time you decide to go all testosterone and take on the elements, I won’t worry. How about that?’

Blake examined me. ‘So you admit you were worried about me?’

I struggled to look at him. ‘No.’

‘I’m not used to someone worrying about me.’

I blinked up at him as he loomed lover me. His words tugged at my heart. Oh bugger. Why did he have to say things like that?

Blake’s lips looked cold but inviting through his snowy beard. ‘So you called the rescue guys out?’

I raised my chin up at him, still oblivious to the intrigued faces of the honeymooning couple, the rescue team and Max, Stephanie and Kim surrounding us.

‘Yes. You’re really late back. There was no sign of you and the hotel where Caitlyn and Dylan are staying rang here to say they hadn’t been seen either for hours and they were growing concerned.’

The voice of Caitlyn made me start. I had been so preoccupied by Blake arriving back safe that the faces of the spectators around us had melted away.

Caitlyn’s electric-blue waterproof rustled as she moved. ‘That turned out to be the least of our worries. We owe a lot to this man here.’ She pointed at Blake and managed a grateful smile.