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‘Did I hurt you?’ he asked.
‘Of course not.’ Elspeth smiled. ‘I’m not that fragile. But your hands are freezing.’
She pulled his hand back and chafed it between her own, rubbing warmth into his fingers.
‘Try just here,’ she said, placing his hand low on her belly, where the low-cut waistband of her jeans met bare skin. ‘It’ll still be cold enough to make the baby jump.’
They sat in silence as they waited, their breath starting to steam up the windows. As the minutes went past, and baby kept them waiting, Elspeth pulled the blanket around her again, concealing Fraser’s hand beneath. They had both scooted sideways in their seats, to try and bridge the space between them over the car’s central console, but after a few minutes Elspeth’s back started to ache.
She stretched up, trying to ease out the knot in her spine without dislodging Fraser’s hand. She knew that it was always when she took her hand away that the baby would decide to kick up a storm.
‘Sure you’re okay?’ Fraser asked, and this time she was touched rather than amused by his expression.
It was protective, fiercely so, but also tender. Above all, it was intimate. It was a look that told her that they were bound together by this baby, whether they liked it or not. That, as much as they didn’t know about each other yet, they were going to be tied together for a lifetime.
‘Come here.’
Fraser wound his free arm around her back and pulled her closer to him, turning her slightly so that her back rested against his front. For a moment she stiffened, knowing that being so close to him was a bad idea. It was bad for her self-control, bad for keeping her fantasies at bay. But it felt so right just now, in this minute, as they shared the moment.
She relaxed into him, sliding her hand on top of his where it still rested on her belly. She couldn’t feel anything from baby—none of the little flutters or rolls she was slowly getting used to. Instead she could just feel Fraser. The slight scratch of his fingertips against her skin. The caress of his thumb as it started to drift back and forth across her belly. The heat of his breath against her neck, stirring her hair, warming her far more than she should expect from simple body heat.
His arms wrapped tighter around her and his lips tickled the sensitive skin behind her ear as they brushed against her skin. Not a kiss. Not quite—not yet. Without letting herself think too much about it, she let her head drop to one side, giving him more room, more temptation. As his lips finally pressed against her in a hot, moist kiss she felt a jolt low down in her belly, and it was only when Fraser exclaimed behind her that she realised that the baby had finally kicked.
‘Oh, my goodness!’ Fraser said, a laugh in his voice. ‘Was that it? Was that the baby?’
‘Well, it wasn’t me,’ Elspeth said, also laughing, relieved that they had been interrupted before either of them had done something they couldn’t take back.
The interruption had chased the heated atmosphere out of the car and replaced it with something less dangerous as their focus centred entirely on the baby.
‘Will it do it again?’ Fraser asked.
‘Probably—give her a minute.’
‘Her?’ Fraser looked at her with curiosity. ‘I thought you weren’t finding out.’
‘I haven’t. It’s just habit,’ Elspeth explained with a smile and a shrug. ‘I have to call her something.’
‘It’s really real, isn’t it?’ Fraser said, with something close to wonder in his voice. ‘We’re really having a baby. This baby.’
‘We really are,’ Elspeth said, resting back in her seat and pulling the blanket tighter. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked eventually, when Fraser’s silence stretched out.
‘I am. I just can’t quite believe it, you know? You, and the bairn and going home...’
Elspeth reached for his hand, knowing what a concession she’d just got, with Fraser acknowledging his nerves about where they were going.
‘I know. I know it’s all sudden, and it’s all hard. But we’re a team.’ She squeezed his hand and the baby kicked again, right into Fraser’s palm. ‘All three of us.’
Fraser smiled and removed his hand, shifting back so he was sitting properly behind the wheel. ‘Then I should probably drive us all there and get it over and done with.’
He resumed his grip on the wheel, but the smile that had reached his eyes when he had felt the baby kick was still there, still curling up the corners of his lips too.
That almost-kiss had been nothing, Elspeth told herself. It had just been them sharing a baby milestone, forcing them into the sort of everyday intimacy that expectant couples shared. They had forgotten themselves momentarily, forgotten that the normal rules didn’t apply for them. It had made them confuse having feelings for the baby for feelings for each other.
It didn’t have to mean anything. It definitely didn’t mean that they had to do or say anything. It was best forgotten about.
As the single track road they had been following for a few miles gave way to a gravel driveway Elspeth got her first proper look at the castle. She’d tried to find an image of it online before they had left, but the public highway ended miles from the castle itself, and the satellite pictures had offered up only a grainy bird’s eye view.
The car swept around a bend in the driveway, the row of pine trees broke, and Elspeth got her first understanding of what this life was going to mean for her baby.
