Page 10 of Scotch & Dreams

Violet scurried out, all wet, with a towel wrapped around her. His mouth went dry, and his cock tightened even harder.

“Sorry,” she quipped without even looking up. “I forgot to grab clean clothes.” She was back in the bathroom, door closed, and Lachlan let out the breath he’d held. He ran his hands through his hair and then adjusted his pants to relieve some pressure from his awkwardly uncomfortable bulge.

Then he thanked his lucky stars that Violet hadn’t looked up. Even if she didn’t notice the cock that was straining against his dress pants, he wasn’t sure he could hide his guilt over his current hot and bothered state.

Squeezing himself back into the tiny chair, he glanced back over at the reprehensible book. He turned his attention to the greenery out the window, trying hard to extricate the image of Violet wrapped in nothing but a towel from his mind.

What was wrong with him? He shouldn’t be thinking of Violet in any other way than platonic. It was probably the damned book making his thoughts go astray. As he sat staring out the window, his thoughts turned back to the book, and he actually found himself curious if Cam and Elizabeth did it or not. And then he wondered if Violet had read that bit yet.

Shite. He needed to get his head out of the gutter immediately. It wasn’t like him to have sex on the brain. That was where his brothers' heads lived, not Lachlan’s.

He definitely didn’t want to be thinking of Violet in a sexual manner. That was just plain wrong. She was a sweet lass who needed his help, needed a friend, not for him to be some lecherous creep. To say nothing of the fact that he was in a relationship. Christ. Lachlan ran his hands over his face with a heavy sigh.Anna.Thoughts of their relationship weren’t sitting well with him. Until he figured that out, though, he definitely needed to reign in this sudden randiness. It was completely inappropriate. Utterly wrong.

Agreeing to stay with Violet probably wasn’t his brightest decision, but he couldn’t back out now. He needed to focus. The only purpose he had right now was helping out a woman, a friend, he modified. One who’d been through a traumatizing ordeal. Violet didn’t know him, but she trusted him, to some extent, at least. And that meant something to Lachlan. He’d not abuse that trust. Nor Anna’s trust.

Sadly, he’d known men, and women for that matter, who couldn’t control their sexual urges. Or perhaps it was more that they chose not to control them. Yes, that was the problem: people choosing to act on their urges. Well, Lachlan would never be one of those people. All he had to do was control whatever the hell had gotten into him for the next twenty-four hours. This was not a problem.

Lasses always liked Lachlan because he was the nice guy. Perhaps because he had sisters, he was comfortable and at ease with women. He’d been told more than once that he was a good listener. Lachlan found women much less complicated than most men thought them to be. Kindness and gentlemanliness went a long way. With Violet, he just needed to remember why he was in her company. It was to help. To be a friend. Christ, he wasn’t a barbarian. He could enjoy her company and, at the same time, help her—as any friend would do.

Chapter 8

Craggy's

“Wherearewegoing?”Violet asked as she watched, spellbound by the views from the passenger-side window. The mountainous terrain was rugged and wildly beautiful, and it stunned her how the lochs would run parallel to the car.

“I’m taking ye to one of my favourite places to get a proper Scott's breakfast.” He glanced at her. “Ye must be starving.”

“Yep, pretty sure I could eat one of those highland coo’s,” she teased, drawing out theOto mimic the Scots accent.

They drove past a handful of copper furry cows grazing in a pasture beside the narrow road, which was no wider than a Canadian back alley.

He chuckled. “Well, that’s no’ exactly the breakfast I had in mind fer us. Hopefully, a little haggis and black pudding will suffice.”

“Eew.” Violet made a face.

He looked at her, mock offended. “Eew? Did ye just sayeew? Och, lassie, if yer gonna live in Scotland, ye better get used to a wee bit o’ haggis.”

She laughed. “We’ll see.”

“Have ye ever tried it, then?”

“Haggis?” She raised her brows and then got distracted by a car that passed them so closely that Lachlan could have reached out and high-five'd them.

“Aye, or black pudding?” he said, clearly not the least concerned about how close the cars drove to his.

“Nope, can't say I've tried any of that,” she admitted. “But who would eat something calledblack pudding? I have a feeling it’s not a dark chocolate dessert.”

His rumbling laugh tickled down her spine. “Och, God, no, not even close!”

“Well, what is it then?” She eyed him suspiciously.

He glanced toward her, giving her a flash of his blue eyes. “How about you try it first, and then we’ll chat about what it is?”

“Oh, that sounds promising. Sign me up for mystery pudding.” She intoned, to which Lachlan chuckled again.

They drove in companionable silence. Violet watched the scenery go by, sneaking glances at Lachlan's profile every now and then.

The safe, vanilla Violet she had been before deciding to shake up her mundane existence and move to Scotland would have given her a stern talking-to for going off with a virtual stranger. It was funny that she didn't know anything about Lachlan aside from his impeccable taste in clothes and cars, but she did know that he was a very good man. The kind who helped old ladies cross the road and rescued women and then looked after them, apparently. All that, and he was easy on the eyes. What world had she found herself in?Not the worst company to have here in Scotland, she thought, appreciating the pronounced point of his Adam's apple so masculine above his crisp white shirt collar.

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