Page 82 of The Christmas Holiday
Chapter Nineteen
‘Gosh! You two look tired,’ Liv chirped when Hunter and I met them for breakfast the next morning. I’d actually groaned when I’d looked up from cleaning my teeth that morning at the dark circles under my eyes. Olivia, by contrast, was looking bright and perfectly pulled together as usual. I remembered what Hunter had said about not comparing myself, and gave her a wearysmile.
‘Always full of compliments,’ Hunter teased as he took the hand she offered and gave it a squeeze on his way to the breakfast buffet.
I slid into a chair and accepted Sandeep’s offer of coffee, hoping the caffeine would spark my engine into life.
‘Everything… all right?’ Liv asked, as Sandy passed me a cup.
‘Liv. Leave the woman alone!’ he laughed.
I waved his concernaway. ‘Don’t worry. And yes, everything is fine. Thanks.’
‘Fine, fine orfinefine.’ Liv leant towards me, her eyes wide, waiting for some salacious explanation of the reason for our tiredness.
‘Just normal fine. Sorry, Liv.’
She gave a disappointed sigh. Sandeep caught my eye, rolled his own and called the waiter over for more coffee.
I was sorry to leave the beautiful resortbehind. Its serenity and tranquillity had been a welcome break from the more energetic pursuits on the trip. I’d caught up on rest – well, until last night. The headaches had now gone, as had the bump on my head, and I’d got a tonne of work done. Even sharing a room with Hunter hadn’t been as trying as both of us had anticipated it would be. In fact, I knew I’d be lying to myself if I said anythingother than that the unexpected situation had – until the final night, at least – added to the experience. We didn’t always talk, but the silences were comfortable. And comforting. The bed was big enough not to cause too much awkwardness. Hunter stayed on his side, I stayed on mine. Neither of us had any inclination to do otherwise. I knew for a fact that, once Lorelei found out I’d shared a bedwith him without sharing anything else, I’d be in for some severe questioning. And I could understand that. The lack of inclination didn’t always extend to the physical part of me. I knew his body and I knew what he could do to mine. It wasn’t something I was likely to forget, especially not when he was lying next to me. But I’d had to shove all thoughts of that away. I’d hurt him once before. Evendeeper than I’d realised. But he was different now, it seemed. Less emotional when it came to sex and relationships. If anything had happened between us, it would have just been another in a long line of one- or two-night stands for him. I’m not sure what it would have been for me. Apart from hot, incredible and a really, really bad idea.
***
The flight back to Heathrow was long and Hunterand I didn’t speak much throughout. I swapped seats with Sandeep for a while and Liv and I sat and chatted as we flicked through her latest copy ofVogueand she pointed out pieces she thought would look good on me. I’d squinted at the price in the tiny print, laughed and told her maybe another day. Hunter and I had watched films, read and avoided conversation by staying plugged into our headphones.He’d also slept quite a lot and I couldn’t help my eyes straying every now and then, watching for any signs his nightmare might be returning. Thankfully it didn’t and, when he finally woke, I was glad to see he looked somewhat more refreshed than he had. And a heck of a lot more than I did. Still, the bracing air of Scotland we were shortly due to experience would blow any remaining cobwebsaway. I was pretty sure of that.
Having collected our luggage, we headed over to pick up the private jet that would now transfer us from the swarm of life that was London Heathrow to the remote Scottish isle Sandeep and Liv had booked for the next stint of the holiday before we once again returned to London and began the final descent towards the wedding itself.
***
‘Fuck me!’ Hunter’serudite exclamation voiced the single thought we all had as we stepped off the jet and out onto the small runway. He stuck a hand in an outside pocket of his rucksack, raked around for a minute and pulled out a knitted beanie and a pair of gloves. His organisation impressed me, and I made a mental note to learn from his example. All I had in the side pocket of my bag was my sunglasses, a bottleof water and a half-eaten pack of Munchies. None of which was going to do me any good right now.
‘Where is this bloody car?’ Liv said, stamping her feet on the snow-covered ground and wrapping her ankle-length cashmere coat around her tighter.
‘Should be here any time,’ Sandeep replied, checking his phone. ‘Did you know there was no service here?’
‘There’s Wi-Fi at the inn. That willhave to do you for now.’ Olivia had her innocently superior face on.
‘Hmm…’ He snuggled her to him. ‘It’s a good job I love you as much as I do.’
Liv smiled and Hunter threw me a glance.
‘Sandy loves his phone. This is big.’
With his arms wrapped around his fiancée, Sandeep lifted one hand and gave Hunter a silent reply. Hunter grinned, his teeth white against his tan.
I smiledback at him and gave a little nod, afraid that if I moved my head too much it might actually snap off. How could I be this cold and still be alive? And just where the hell was that wind getting in? The next moment the wind had stopped and I was squashed against Hunter’s large bulk, his arms tight around me and his knee-length wool overcoat wrapped around both of us. I tilted my head up and Hunterlooked down, his blue eyes a mixture of amusement and exasperation.
‘Your teeth were chattering so loudly, it was actually giving me a headache.’
I let out a huff of indignation and pushed away, which got me precisely nowhere. Hunter locked his arms and kept me encircled.
‘Apart from being pissed off, are you also warmer?’
Annoyingly, I was.
‘Yes,’ I replied, grumpily, to hischest.
‘Right then. Call me whatever you like but at least you’re not shaking your teeth out of your head.’
