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He turned back to Rainne.
“Don’t be bullied,” he said in a gentle voice. He could have been talking about the weather.
“I resent that,” Joyce said. “We don’t bully our children. We brought them up to think for themselves and not to be brainwashed by society.”
“Seems to me that you might have stopped them from being influenced by society, but you haven’t stopped trying to influence them yourselves,” Alastair said with a smile.
He pushed his plate away.
“Thanks for dinner. It was lovely,” he said. “I’m going for a walk. Are you coming, Rainne?”
Rainne looked at her gorgeous boy, then looked at her parents.
“I said I’d help Joyce with some things,” she said at last.
Alastair pulled on his coat.
“You know where to find me,” he told her.
The door shut quietly behind him. There was silence for a minute as Rainne watched him walk down the road beside the loch, heading towards home.
“He’s very young,” said her mother.
And Rainne felt her shoulders slump.
The walk to Kirsty’s flat was torturous. Lake spent his army life going for twenty-mile hikes at the drop of a hat, and the ten minutes it took to get to the high street felt longer than any hike he’d ever been on. Kirsty didn’t talk at all on the way back. But then, what was there to say? She fumbled with the key to her front door.
“Cold fingers,” she said.
Nerves, he thought.
Kirsty turned on the light in the stairway. He followed her up to her flat. She took off her poncho and hung it in the closet, motioning for Lake to hand over his jacket. He gave it willingly as he tried to monitor every gesture she made to make sure they were still on the same page.
“Do you want a drink?” she said.
She was chewing her bottom lip again.
“No.”
“A warm drink?” She took a step towards the kitchen instead of the bedroom. “It’ll warm us up.”
“I’ll warm you up, Kirsty,” he said.
Her cheeks flushed to prove his point, but she didn’t move. They were rooted to the spot in her small hallway. The bedroom might as well have been two continents away rather than three tiny steps. She looked in the direction of the bedroom and fear flickered in her eyes. Lake hung his head. This wasn’t what he wanted. Not like this. Kirsty might have instigated this, but if they were ever going to see the evening through, he was going to have to take charge. Plus, he couldn’t wait the length of time it would obviously take for her to get her act together.
“Come here,” he told her as he held out his arms.
She walked right into him, which made him relax. She put her cheek against his chest.
“This is harder than I thought it would be,” she confessed.
“It’s going to be okay,” he told her, and held her tight.
“Actually, I’m hoping it will be better than okay.” He felt her smile against him. “I hear you’re called Double Oh—orgasm. “
She was making jokes. Lake felt his chest swell with pride.
“Only two?” he said as he took her hand in his. “We’ll need to do something about that nickname.”
