AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Coasting had never brought on this level of euphoria before.
At long last, we reached the car park where Arnav had dropped us off hours earlier. Carlos, Harlow, and Spencer sat in various states of relaxation on the grass that ringed the gravel lot, their bikes forgotten in an awkward pile.
“There you two are.” Harlow strode over as we slowed to a stop. “I was about to call Arnav and have him search the countryside for you.”
If she’d been so worried, she might have stopped at any point on the route to wait for us, but I was in too good a mood to say so. “I fell behind right at the beginning, and we couldn’t catch up.”
“You cut it close.” She checked her watch. “We’ve been here nearly an hour.”
For a laid-back yoga instructor, she sure had a secret uptight streak.
“We visited the Fairy Glen waterfall,” Duncan said.
“How was it?” Spencer asked.
“A muddy walk, but a pretty picture.”
I drew in a breath and turned to Duncan. “I forgot to take a picture.”
The smile he wore showed nothing but pride. “You were living in the moment.”
That gave me a little glow. Still…onepicture of the waterfall would have been nice.
Right on time, Arnav arrived and loaded the bikes onto the mini-bus’s roof rack. I collapsed onto my seat, my legs absolute mush. For the first time, I sort of wished Duncan wouldn’t sit beside me on the ride back to Dingwall. My hair clung to my face, my athletic shirt had been soaked with sweat for hours, and I had no delusions I smelled as good as the chocolate shop had.
He took the seat next to me anyway, stretched his legs out in front of him, and leaned forward to massage his calves.
“Oh, Duncan. You missed a spot with the sunscreen this morning.” A bright red stripe of skin peeked out above his shirt.
He tried to look over his shoulder. “Where?”
I lightly brushed my fingers across the nape of his neck. His skin was hot to the touch, but probably more so because ofhimthan the sunburn. This wasn’t all that personal of a touch, but that tiny graze felt wildly intimate.
He reached up and tested the skin over his neck, wincing when his fingers reached the tender patch. “I’ll be feeling it tomorrow.”
“I’ll be feeling this tomorrow.” I swept my hand over my legs. “Expect to see limping.”
“Oh no, tomorrow I expect to see you dashing up the Black Cuillins, fueled by those chocolates.”
“Tomorrow I just want to stay in bed all day.”
He nodded, relaxing back against the seat cushion. “That’s far more tempting than those chocolates.”
We held eye contact a beat.
“Agreed.”
* * *
The exhilaration of a twenty-one-mile ride was swiftly followed up by a majestic crash into sheer exhaustion. Even Rupert felt the effects of all our activities—lulled by the muted lights in the dining room and the warm smell of roast beef, he dozed off in the middle of dinner. Bea smacked him on the shoulder, but that didn’t stop him from falling asleep a second time.
After dinner, the usual suspects retired to the lounge for a nightcap. Duncan and I collapsed onto a banquette, our shoulders propped against each other as we sank into the deep leather seat. Nursing our whiskies, we listened as Carlos and Harlow chattered away the last of the evening’s waning light.
“I can’t believe you’ve never seenRace to the Finish.” Carlos looked from Harlow to me, goggling at our blank reactions to the revelation he worked as a producer on the show. I guessed there was ajuniorsomewhere in his title that he’d conveniently left out. He looked to Duncan out of desperation. “Surely you’ve seen it, it’s one of the most popular extreme sport reality shows you can stream.”
“I don’t watch reality shows,” Duncan said.
“I knew you had a flaw,” I whispered. He tilted his head closer to mine and bobbed his eyebrows, making my stomach swoop.
