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She can’t be real,the thought struck again. This time, I shoved it to the furthest recesses of my mind. Bolting it behind an iron door. Because shewasreal, more real than anything I’d ever known.“This, princess,” I husked, sinking my hands beneath her T-shirt to feel her skin, feeling every ridge up her spine.“I need you to do exactly this, be exactly who you are. Always.” And then there was no more talking.
28
APRIL
Belter – Gerry Cinnamon
“Hold onto the headboard.” Mal’s voice was a dark caress down my neck. Sunday morning had risen all too swiftly and we’d both had little sleep, but that didn’t stop us reaching for each other again as soon as dawn broke. Sheets rumpled around my knees and hands clinging to the metal spokes, I felt him—
A pounding at the door made us still.“No,”I cried as Mal panted,“Ignore it, they’ll go away.” His lips pressed hotly to the base of my neck, leaving a wet trail along my spine that made me curl like a cat. The pounding grew louder. A phone rang from somewhere in the house.“For fuck’s sake!” Mal lashed wickedly. Giving my hip a squeeze, he climbed from the bed, pulling on his boxers and dress trousers from last night.“Stay exactly like that. I’ll get rid of them.” Then he bent, giving my arse cheek a quick, sharp nip with his teeth.
I remained right where he left me until voices murmured up from the kitchen. Someone laughed, low and masculine. It didn’t belong to Mal. Curiosity peaked, I pulled on underwear and my discarded T-shirt and headed downstairs. As soon as I stepped into the kitchen, I saw the top of Callum’s head on the other side of the glass pane, Mal white-knuckling the door frame to stop him entering.“What’s going on?” I asked and they both turned to look at me. Mal’s stare was full of fire as he looked from my bed hair to my bare legs.
“Ah, the lady of the house.” Callum grinned boyishly from the threshold.
“Callum.” I nodded back, then looked at Mal.“You’re not inviting him in?”
“No,” he grunted, before he was interrupted by Callum.
“No time. I came to check on Mel C and to see if I could steal Mal for a few hours—”
Mal shot me a look.“You’re still feeding the bloody foxes?”
“Of course I am.” I went to the cupboard where I stored the treats for the dogs and the foxes I could already hear yipping outside.
Then back at his brother, he snipped,“And I toldyouno.”
“Come on! We need you, we’re already a man down and we’re playing Portree, they beat us last month. Don’t you care?”
Mal’s arms folded over his stunning chest.“Not really.”
“What are you talking about?” I glanced between the two of them.
“Nothing—”
“Shinty,” Callum offered.“We play every Sunday morning in the summer and my brother refuses to join the team even though he’s the best player on the island.”
Mal flushed, jaw ticking as he stared at the tile. I didn’t want to push him, but at the same time, maybe he only needed a little encouragement.“I didn’t know you played.”
“I don’t… not really.”
“That sounds like fun,” I said.
Mal’s gaze flew to mine and Callum clapped his hands together.“Yes! See…? I knew I liked you.”
I came to stand beside Mal, twining my fingers through his until he looked at me.“I’m not telling you to play if that’s not what you want. It’s going to be a nice morning, maybe we could go and watch?” I silently implored Callum not to say a word. This was Mal’s choice. He must’ve sensed it because he kept his mouth shut, letting his brother think through my words.
Finally, Mal’s hand tightened around mine.“It might be fun to play.”
I grinned back at him.“You feed the foxes, I’ll get dressed.”
“Remind me of the rules again?” I said to Heather, pullingmy sunglasses down as I gazed at the wide green space looking over the cerulean water. Two groups of twelve men stood on a pitch that looked very similar to a field hockey pitch, handing out jerseys.
Heather snorted, chugging back her takeaway coffee. It was barely nine a.m. and she’d somehow managed to wrangle the twins down in time to see their uncles play, even if they had more interest in making daisy chains.“Are you even Scottish?”
“Excuse me for having other interests as a teenager.” Though, watching Mal stride across the pitch and accept a navy jersey from Callum, I wondered why I’d ever spent time doing anything else. When he slipped off his own T-shirt, I could swear I almost whimpered. Mine weren’t the only eyes on him. Looking down the perimeter of the pitch, I noticed Jasmine and several other women eyeing him. Mal noticed too, shifting from foot to foot as he switched out his own shirt and threw the team strip over his head as quickly as possible. I want to erect a tent around him, protect my gentle giant from the unwanted attention.
Heather didn’t seem to notice the death grip I had on my own coffee as she launched into a rundown of the rules.“The game has two forty-five minute halves, like football. The aim is to score more goals than the other team, getting the ball in the net with their caman—”
