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‘My sister chose it. It’s where she sleeps when she comes to stay. I don’t mind,’ he said, with a shrug. ‘I’m secure enough in my masculinity to have a pink bed in the house and not lose any sleep over it.’
‘Fair enough.’
They walked on to the next door, which was a neat bathroom, tiled in white, then on down the hall.
‘And this is the master bedroom.’ Rory indicated the next room offhandedly. ‘I put in an ensuite as well.’
‘Wow, Rory. This is beautiful.’ Carrie walked in to get a really good look: she had to admit, she was curious about what Rory’s bedroom would look like.Not for any particular reason, she thought, feeling she had to make a pre-emptive comment before Claire’s voice piped up, but her sister was mercifully silent.
The room’s focal point was a huge bed: Carrie guessed that it was probably at least a super king size, like the ones you saw in posh hotels. Unlike the pretty pink bed in the guest room, this one had a tall black headboard, and the sheets were a dark copper. However, it was still neatly made, and the room itself showed Rory’s military training: there were no clothes strewn on the floor; no untidiness anywhere. The floor was the same type of stained floorboards as the lounge, and the only real decorative piece in the room was a large, elaborate copper-coloured lampshade which hung from a beautiful central rose on the ceiling.
She turned to look out of one of the windows and made a small gasp.
‘Yeah. It’s some view, huh? That’s most of the reason I bought it in the first place.’ Rory stood beside her, looking down at the village spread below, and the loch, glinting in the afternoon sun. The late autumn sun was low already, but there was a goldenness to it still that made the loch look like the picture postcard Carrie remembered June describing it as. A couple of sailing boats tacked at a distance, out beyond the village and the castle, their white sails taking up the always-available wind. Carrie imagined how free she would feel, out on the water of the loch with the wind in her hair.
The house was on the hill behind the village, where a lot of the newer homes had been built in more recent years. Gretchen’s cottage had a more immediate view of the loch, being right on Queen’s Point, but even though Rory’s house sat further back, the view from the two wide bay windows in the bedroom was stunning.
‘It really is,’ Carrie breathed. ‘This is a beautiful room, too. The cornicing is lovely.’ She looked up to the high ceiling, where the edges of the walls met the ceiling in a white curve of plaster.
‘Thank you,’ Rory said, his voice low.
Carrie shivered with pleasure just hearing it. Instinctively, she turned to him, just at the moment he also turned to her.
There was something in the air between them, sudden and electric. It was as if a switch had been flipped. Carrie felt as if there was a hiatus in ordinary life; a moment of stillness, where, somehow, she and Rory were totally alone, together, in a brief time of possibility.
He stepped towards her and looked down, intensely, into her eyes. ‘Carrie?’ His voice was gravelly with desire. ‘I…’
Before he could finish, she went to him, reaching for him in an instinctive way, knowing that was what he wanted. And that it was what she wanted, too.
As soon as their hands touched, he drew her to him in a firm embrace. She let out an involuntary sigh, partly in surprise, but partly from desire too. The urge to be held, as purely and as simply as Rory was holding her, was powerful. It made her feel alive, and she realised suddenly and all at once how much she had missed simply being touched by another person.
He met her eyes with a furious passion blazing in his. Without saying anything more, he kissed her, gently, and as soon as his lips met hers, Carrie felt as though she might melt completely into the floor. The sensation of his arms firmly around her was intoxicating. She had never felt this degree of heat or passion from the presence or touch of a man.
Even though Rory’s kiss was soft, there was an intensity to it and she felt herself responding; kissing him back, communicating with her lips and hands, in the unspoken way of lovers.
His breath grew more ragged, and his kiss deeper. ‘Carrie.’ He whispered her name as he kissed her. ‘I want… I want you. Now. I’ve wanted you so long,’ he breathed, one hand leaving her waist and caressing her cheek.
‘I want you too.’ Carrie wrapped her arms around his neck, pressing her body against his. She wanted Rory, too, in that moment, and gave herself up to it. If she allowed herself to rationalise what she was doing, then the moment would be lost, and she didn’t want that, because the moment was beautiful. Carrie needed Rory, right now, right here, and for once she was going to allow herself to have what she needed.
He led her to the bed, and they fell onto it, wrapped in each other. Rory kissed her neck, his hands finding her breasts; he groaned as he touched them.
‘Carrie… oh…’ He unbuttoned the top of her dress, reaching his hand inside. She gasped, not from shock, but from the raw pleasure of Rory’s touch on her skin.
‘Oh, Rory…’ she murmured, her whole body full of the warmth of his touch. She kissed him, again, more deeply, and felt his smile under her lips.
TWENTY-FIVE
The choir was rehearsing in the community centre and June had told them all to take a ten-minute break. It was just as well, because Carrie couldn’t concentrate at all, after the night before with Rory.
She’d woken up in his bed in the very early hours of the morning, with him stroking her cheek gently.
Hey, beautiful. I’ve got to go.
She hadn’t known where she was at first, and then she’d remembered. She and Rory had made love in the afternoon, up in his room, and then lay in each other’s arms and talked until it got dark. Rory had been going to get up and make them something to eat, but they must have fallen asleep instead.
Waking up, she had been disoriented, and then… then, it was all just a little… awkward.
It was four in the morning when Carrie had got back to Gretchen’s cottage and slid into her own bed. Rory was still rushing around at his house when she’d left him, trying to get all his jobs done before he left. He’d been sweet to her, but it was impossible to hide the fact that he was leaving and he needed her to go pretty fast too.
