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I shouldn’t be here.
The words and the assertion resounded in Darius’s head. He frowned. But he had obviously come here. For some reason he couldn’t fathom. The fact that he had apparently been climbing a mountain seemed incomprehensible to him. As was the fact that he was now standing in a very pedestrian car park, holding a plastic bag containing his few possessions.
He felt slightly naked in the clothes that had been returned to him, washed and dried. Lightweight trousers, a long-sleeved top with a sleeveless fleece gilet and a rain jacket. Hiking boots. The clothes looked new. Felt new. Evidence that this wasn’t something he did on a regular basis?
He didn’t notice the group of nurses almost tripping over themselves as they passed him by on their way into work.
He saw movement and his eyes widened on a small blue car as it careened around the corner and came to a stop in front of him with a shriek of brakes. The passenger door opened. He bent down to see Sofie looking up at him. She really did have the most amazing eyes.
‘Okay, this is me. In you get.’
He looked at her incredulously. He felt pretty certain he’d never seen a car so small up close. ‘I don’t think I’ll fit.’
‘My father wasn’t much smaller than you and he fitted just fine.’
Feeling seriously doubtful, Darius contorted himself into the passenger seat. He did fit. Just. Knees almost up to his chest and his head touching the underside of the roof. He closed the door and tried to find a lever to push the chair back a bit, but it only moved about an inch.
The car didn’t move. Sofie was looking at him. He looked at her. He could smell her scent. Clean and unmanufactured. It was alluring just for that reason.
She was still looking at him.
‘Why aren’t we moving?’
‘You need to put on your seatbelt.’
He thought of how she’d careened around the corner and hit the brakes. He felt like pointing out that he was unlikely to move too far if they did crash, wedged in as he was, but instead he just reached for the belt and pulled it across his body. It reached the buckle-holder after a bit of a tug.
Sofie smiled brightly and looked ahead—and then pressed down on the accelerator so hard that they jerked forward and the engine cut out.
Her cheeks went bright pink as she fumbled and started the engine again, muttering something under her breath. A lock of inky black hair had escaped her ponytail and he had to curb the urge to reach out and tuck it behind her ear. He wondered what her hair would be like down. Over her shoulders.
Awareness, hot and thick, coursed through his blood. He gritted his jaw and looked away. Very dimly a voice was telling him that he shouldn’t be finding her attractive. But he found himself resisting it. He obviously did find her attractive. Why should he deny it?
They were driving out of the hospital now and through a pretty village. Sofie was talking, pointing things out. He found he wasn’t very much interested in what she was saying—he was happy to listen to her soft, lilting voice. He found it curiously soothing. He also found the vast open sky and small clusters of one and two-storey buildings somehow pleasing. As if he wasn’t used to seeing the sky like this.
Soon they were on a coast road, with the sea on one side and the mountains on the other. Sofie pointed to a peak in the distance. ‘That’s Ben Kincraig, where you were found.’
Darius looked at the impressively high peak. He felt nothing. Certainly had no idea why he would have felt the need to try and climb it. ‘Did I get far?’
‘Apparently you were on your way down from the summit.’
Darius made a satisfied sound. He’d mastered it at least. Sofie glanced at him, and when he caught her eye she blushed again. She really was remarkably pretty. A small pert nose. Surprisingly high cheekbones. Plump lips. Like other parts of her... His gaze drifted down to where the seatbelt cut across her breasts.
Her hands were small and soft. Nails short and practical. Unvarnished. He had a sudden very carnal image of her naked, with her hair tumbled around her shoulders like black silk, breasts full and heavy—
‘Here we are. It’s really not far from everything, as you can see.’
Darius pulled his gaze from her to see that they were driving down a small driveway towards a two-storey whitewashed house. With its row of windows top and bottom and a slated roof, it looked big enough to house a family, but also modest at the same time. There were some stone outbuildings, and a lake behind the house. A small hill rose from the other side of the water in the distance. Green fields either side. Heather. Small stone walls. It was unbelievably picturesque. Flowers spilled from pots by the front door, bright and colourful. It looked homely and welcoming.
Darius frowned. He instinctively felt a resistance to this scene, even though it also called to something inside him.
Sofie brought the car to a stop by the door, painted a welcoming bright yellow. He opened the door of the car and uncoiled his body slowly, still feeling a slight stiffness in some of his muscles.
And then a dark blur bounded around the corner, almost knocking Sofie off her feet where she was standing on the other side of the car. It was a dog—a big, shaggy, indeterminate breed. It spotted Darius and went very still for a moment, nose twitching. A flash of memory assailed him. A dog not unlike this one. Happy voices. Barking. An excursion. Bright sun. Blue sky. An intense feeling of—
Oof! Darius was nearly knocked backwards when two big paws landed on his chest.
‘Pluto, get down.’
The dog dropped immediately and looked up at Darius with big soulful brown eyes and a wagging tail.
Sofie came around and took him by the collar. She was flustered. ‘Sorry, I forgot about him. You probably don’t like dogs...you might even be allergic—’
‘I...’ Darius stopped. Blank. ‘The truth is I don’t know.’ Frustration bit at the edges of his brain.
Sofie said something to the dog and he trotted away obediently.
Darius looked at her. ‘Pluto?’
