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"Not if we don't discuss anything too personal." Aye, I'm grasping at straws to explain why I want to be with her when we're not having sex. Should I tell her I'm trying to be a gentleman about this? Giving her time to get used to the idea?
No, I think I shouldn't say that. She might get the wrong idea.
And do what? Decide I'm in love with her? It's rubbish.
I collect two plates from a cupboard and then ease open a drawer full of silverware.
Erica clears her throat. "May I ask what you do for a living? Or is that too personal?"
Grabbing two forks and a knife, I shove the drawer shut with my hip. Don't suppose it could hurt to tell her about my job. "Financial consulting."
She gazes at me without expression.
I set the plates and silverware on the table. "Not exciting enough?"
Her lips almost form a smile. "I'm an accountant. No judgment here."
An accountant? I'd thought she was clever, but now I know for certain.
Erica's gaze flits around the room, and her thumbs start moving again. "Gil said you have an apartment in Edinburgh. Is that where you've always lived?"
"No, I'm a Highland lad by birth and in my heart." I take one large step to reach the refrigerator. "Spent four years in London after university, working at the stock exchange. Hated it. The traffic, the crime, the frantic pace of everything." I pull the refrigerator door open and survey the contents. "I quit my job and moved to Inverness to start my own business."
"Wow, I'm impressed. Starting a business is scary."
I shrug. "Starting it up was the easy part. Fought tooth and nail to win clients, but after a few years, things got rolling. Now I earn enough to live quite comfortably. I've got fifty employees and three offices — Inverness, Glasgow, and Edinburgh."
Should I not have told her that? She might think I'm… I don't know. Up myself, maybe. I'm not arrogant about the fact I've done very well for myself, but I don't want Erica to think I'll be judging her based on my past.
Not that I want to know about her past. I don't.
"Alas," I say, "all I can offer you to drink is water or whisky. Haven't got the messages yet."
"Are you from Inverness?"
Her question seems to come out of nowhere, and she didn't tell me what she prefers to drink with our food. But I answer anyway. "No, I was born and raised in a little village way up in the Highlands called Ballachulish."
"Is that where Gil and Jayne are going? He said you have a place in the Highlands."
"Aye, they'll be staying at my castle."
Glancing over my shoulder, I watch her expression shift from uncertainty to shock in the space of two seconds. All right, I did that on purpose. Strangely, I enjoy teasing Erica.
I chuckle. "I'm joking. My house is modest. I don't care for the trappings of wealth, and my needs are simple."
Unlike my brother Rory. But that's a story I never need to tell Erica.
My attention returns to the refrigerator's contents.
"Does that go for sex too?" Erica asks.
I glance over my shoulder again and notice the pinkness in her cheeks. "You'll find out soon enough."
"I'm not interested in kinky stuff. No whips or chains or anything like that."
"Don't crave excitement?" I pray she says she doesn't because I've had enough of that bollocks.
"Not that much, no," she says. "My needs are simple too."
