At that moment the staff member returned with the coffee and green tea and Craig noted he studiously avoided looking at Rain. An inner growl of satisfaction didn’t surprise Craig. He’d gone caveman after years of not giving a shit.
Rain picked up her cup of tea and sipped it. “You really do mean to interfere with my plans today, don’t you?”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.”
He felt pleasure roll through him as she tried to suppress a laugh and failed.
“What am I to do with you?” she sighed, shaking her head at him like he was a naughty schoolboy.
“Take a walk with me,” he said, taking hold of his own coffee. “We’ll finish up here and then just stroll about. It’s a nice day out. Unless”—his gaze dropped to the floor where he saw her heels peeking out beneath the table—“you can’t walk too long in those sexy-as-fuck shoes.”
She ignored his purr of flirtation. “Sweetheart, I’ve been wearing heels since I was fourteen. I could run a marathon in these bitches.”
Craig laughed. “I like that.”
“Like what?”
“You calling me ‘sweetheart.’”
Her eyes narrowed in suspicion again. “I thought we were just going to be friends?”
“Friends flirt.” He shrugged.
“Only the kind that fuck.”
Lust hit him in the gut and traveled straight to his dick. He shifted uncomfortably, taking in a slow breath.
Obviously seeing the heat in his eyes, Rain leaned back in her chair as if to distance herself from it. “Seriously? I can’t even use that word without it turning you on?”
“Considering the sight of your mouth wrapping around that word makes me picture said mouth wrapped around something else, then no . . . Unless we’re somewhere I can do something about my hard-on, then please don’t say that word.”
Her eyes widened at his brutal honesty before her gaze flew around the room. When it came back to him she looked annoyed. “You can’t speak like that in public. Someone might have heard you.”
“Coming from the woman who just used the word ‘fuck’ in relation to the actual act.”
She stared at him a moment and then huffed, “Fair enough.”
Craig chuckled, amused at his inability to pretend mere friendship with this woman. “The whole friends thing isn’t working out quite as planned.”
Rain smirked, amusement gleaming from those gorgeous big dark eyes of hers. “No, it’s not. Which is why I thought it was a bad idea to begin with.”
“It’s not a bad idea. According to my mother the secret to a long-lasting relationship is friendship and passion. My ears were practically bleeding at the time she was going on about it,” he joked, “but now I think those were wise words. So friendship? Not a bad idea. Pretending this could be just a friendship? Bad idea.”
“Craig . . .” Rain lowered her gaze to her cup. “I told you I can’t.”
“Will you try the friendship part at least if I promise to leave the other stuff out of it? At the moment,” he added.
“Why are you so determined?” She leaned forward, desperation in her eyes that at once made him want to protect her, but also made him want to howl with satisfaction. She wouldn’t be feeling desperate if she didn’t feel something for him. Something she didn’t want to feel, but she felt nonetheless.
Shit. When he finally met a woman he actually wanted around in the morning he had to go and choose one as complicated as bloody Rain Alexander.
“Is it because you want to sleep with me and haven’t yet?”
Irritation coursed through him like a whiplash. “No, it isn’t, and it’s an insult to both of us to suggest otherwise.”
She glowered at him. “You can’t get angry at me for jumping to that conclusion, Craig. You are the biggest flirt I’ve ever met and you tried to get into my knickers the first night we met.”
“Well now I’m trying to get to know you.” He threw back the last of his coffee, attempting to quell his exasperation. “And if you weren’t so goddamn stubborn you’d just let me.”
“Why?”
“Because I like being around you,” he admitted.
That seemed to take the wind out of her sails. Rain slumped in her seat. “You like being around me?”
“Yes. For some crazy reason I do.”
Her lush mouth curled up at the corners at his teasing remark. Their gazes held for what felt like forever, the coffeehouse disappearing around them, until the world consisted of just them.
“Okay,” Rain finally said, the word soft, “let’s get to know one another better.”
Relief, more relief than he’d ever expected to feel, rushed through him. “Does that mean you’ll take that stroll with me?”
She finished her tea, grabbed her purse from the back of her chair, and stood up. “Where are we strolling?”
* * *
They walked at a leisurely pace toward the Royal Mile and wandered along it, talking and stopping occasionally to look at street art and a couple of stalls set up for the tourists. While they walked, they talked, and they pretty much covered everything from food to music to politics to business to family and so on.
They’d strolled up along George IV Bridge and toward the university, which they were now bypassing as they headed toward The Meadows.
“I can’t believe you actually think The Clash are rubbish.” Craig stared at her aghast.
“I can’t believe you think that’s music.” She huffed.
“And Dinah Shore is music?”
“Yes,” she said adamantly. “Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Glenn Miller, Nat King Cole, Evelyn Knight. That’s music.”
“Do you like anything outside of the 1940s?” he teased.
“Yes.” She mock scowled at him. “The Beatles. Amy Winehouse. Oasis. Adele. The Killers. Lana Del Rey.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s all I can think of right now.”
“So what’s wrong with The Clash?”
Rain wrinkled her nose, making him want to kiss it. “It’s not just The Clash. It’s all British punk rock. It makes my ears bleed.” She shot him a speculative look. “I never would have taken you for a punk rock fan.”
He smiled. “You think you have me all figured out but you don’t.”
“I’m starting to realize that.”
Sounds of children’s laughter met their ears as they wandered into the heart of The Meadows. They followed the sound to the children’s play park and Craig noted Rain smile.
“Do you want kids?”
She looked startled by the question. “Now?”
He laughed. ‘No.”
“Oh. In that case, yes. Eventually. When I’ve seen a bit more of the world, when I feel a little more grown-up. You?”
“Aye, eventually,” he admitted, realizing then that he did. It wasn’t something he’d thought a lot on, but he’d always known that when he finally found the right woman, children would naturally follow.
“Another surprise,” she murmured. “This is turning into an interesting walk.”
His gaze fell to her feet. “You’re sure you’re alright doing all this walking in those heels?”
Rain gave him a soft smile that might as well have been a giant thump on the chest. “I’m fine. But thank you for asking.”
In that moment he really wanted to take her hand in his, but he restrained himself. This was going well and he didn’t want to ruin it by pushing her.
“This was one of the first places I brought Darcy when she finally agreed to come live with me in Edinburgh.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. We had a picnic over by those trees.” She pointed off in the distance. “Things were still a bit strained between us and I was probably trying too hard. We were sitting in awkward silence munching on these gourmet sandwiches I’d bought—not homemade as I have absolutely no culinary skills whatsoever—when these two cute guys playing football near us sent the ball crashing into our picnic. They came over to apologize and ended up chatting with us a while. They left with our numbers.” She grinned happily at the memory. “Darcy looked at me like I’d just worked a miracle and she said ‘I love it here.’ It was silly and they were just two cute guys who never lasted beyond two dates, but they took us outside of the only thing that we had in common at the time—my aunt and the hurt she’d caused us. We needed the reminder that there was more connecting us than just that. And here we found it.”