Page 32 of Scotch on the Rocks

Relief punched through me. I’d gotten exactly what I wanted … just like that. And yet the opportunity to mess with her just a little was always too good to pass up. “Say you need me, Juniper. Say you need me and I’ll do it.”

“Fuck yourself, Macabe—”

“Wait, wait, I’m joking. Don’t hang up.” I grinned in thedark knowing she couldn’t see me. But shit, the way she said my surname with that vicious little tongue made me hard as a rock. It always did. “You still there?”

“Yes.” And that breathy tone laid claim to a completely different organ.

My next words were rough. “Yes. The offer still stands.”

“What’s the cost?”

“We’ll discuss it face-to-face.” Unfolding myself from the wall, I climbed the few steps to the front door, rapping my knuckles. “Open up.”

“What?”

“I’m outside, harpy.”

“Since when?”

Ignoring her, I kept knocking. “Open up, I don’t have all night.”

Then from behind me, “Hey! Want to quit acting like an oversized oaf? I have sleeping guests!”

8

Juniper

Fiona: Why aren’t you returning my calls?

Juniper: Because I’m working.

Juniper: I thought the ship had an open bar. If you can dial you aren’t drinking enough!

Callum whipped around so quickly, he almost lost his balance on the trio of steps. I might have enjoyed unsettling him a lot more had he not looked like …that. I glimpsed him in his work scrubs more than any other clothing. Usually from a distance in the village or climbing into his car when I let my eyes drift over the invisible “do not cross” line I’d erected when he’d moved in next door.

It wasn’t a sight I’d ever grown accustomed to.

The lamp above the door backlit him from behind, glowing like a warm halo around his upper body. He gripped a bag in one hand, his phone still to his ear with the other, making his bicep bulge obscenely. Veterinarian Ken in the flesh.He had to buy them a size too small, that’s the only reason it would strain that way.

I should have found it ridiculous.

Ididfind it ridiculous.

And yet there I was, drooling over him like every other foolish woman in Kinleith. His uninvited appearance was both an annoyance and thrill which just further pissed me off.

Lowering the phone, he took the image of me in my pajamas in. “Were you in bed?”

“Yes.” I pulled at the thick cardigan I’d quickly thrown over the top.

“It’s eight fifteen.”

“There isn’t exactly a buzzing nightlife scene around here.”

His eyes were all over me. My face, my throat, lingering where my pyjama shorts moulded to my thighs in the brisk wind. My long legs shone like icicles in the moonlight. The shorts were …short.Then again,I’d been tucked away in my cottage for the night, I hadn’t exactly planned on setting foot outside.

“Cute,” he finally decided, as if I’d been waiting with bated breath for his opinion.

I rolled my eyes but continued as though we hadn’t been interrupted by this little eye-fucking interlude, “I’ll pay you.”

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