The minute her back was to the others, she gave him a comical, wide-eyed look which Cash couldn’t quite interpret and at which Cash was in no mood to laugh.
“I’m still not certain why we all had to go in search of Cash. Abby could have found him on her own,” Nicola noted, her words explaining Abby’s look.
Abby had made it to Cash’s side and her fingers curled around his bicep as she leaned into his body and looked back at Nicola.
“I could have got lost,” she lied, bald-faced.
“Yes, it’s a big castle.” Honor drawled, her eyes on Cash. She looked like she didn’t know whether to laugh or scream and Cash felt her pain.
“And I’m blonde,” Abby went on, “I think it’s a scientific fact that blondes are a bit scatty.”
At her words, Cash started leaning towards laughter and looked down at Abby. “I’m not certain that’s science.”
“Really?” she asked. “I thought there were some studies done about it.”
“I don’t think so,” Cash replied.
“Well, there should be,” she mumbled, giving him another look, this one he could read quite clearly and it said shut up, then she turned a bright smile to Nicola and declared overly cheerfully, “Well, I found him now! All’s well!”
Cash’s mood disappeared and he burst into laughter.
His arm went around her waist to pull her closer. When it did, her hands detached from his bicep, one arm slid around his back and she looked up at him right before his head descended and, still laughing, he kissed her. It was swift, it was light but it was definitely a kiss.
When he lifted his head, he saw she was smiling up at him dazzlingly as if his laughter was a gift from the gods, better than any diamond bracelet, any cashmere robe.
The smile still on her lips, her thumb came to his mouth and she swiped at her ever-present lip gloss the kiss had transferred to his lips. As she did so Cash felt the room around them melt and all he saw was her exquisite face, her smile, her glow.
And he knew, regardless of all that was happening, ghosts and brothers murdering brothers and sons exacting retribution, Abby was happy.
And Cash had made her that way.
In that instant Cash saw that not only had her guard come crashing down, the pain she couldn’t quite hide that lurked in the back of her eyes from the minute he’d sat across from her at the pub had disappeared.
He’d taken it away.
“Jesus,” he muttered, powerful sensations he didn’t completely understand shooting through him like spears and he watched her face turn confused.
“What?” she asked.
“Jesus,” he repeated.
Abby turned into him. “Cash, are you okay?”
As if his actions weren’t under his control, his hand went to her jaw tilting her face up further. His mouth came down on hers and he gave her a kiss that was not swift, it was not light and it could have quite possibly been the physical definition of a kiss.
“Oh my,” Cash vaguely heard Fenella whisper from far away.
“Maybe we should leave them alone,” Nicola murmured from just as far.
“The bloke who played Cash in the movie didn’t kiss that good,” Honor noted blandly.
Regardless of their onlookers and the conversation they were holding, Cash’s focus was entirely on Abby. He kept kissing her as if they were the only ones in the room and she kissed him back the same way.
“Honor, shush,” Nicola snapped quietly, “let’s go.”
“We can’t go. Abby’s going to town with me,” Fenella said and on that, with disappointment at the brevity of their kiss (and the fact they had an audience who wouldn’t shut the fuck up and get the hell out) Cash’s head came up. Instead of pulling away, he slid his nose alongside Abby’s.
“I said, let’s go,” Cash heard that Nicola’s voice was now getting sharper, if not louder.
“Are you okay?” Abby repeated in a whisper, her eyes on his.
“Yes,” Cash replied, his voice vibrating low, “I’m very okay.”
And this was true. Regardless of their current circumstances, he’d never felt so fucking okay in his life.
Abby’s brows drew together and her mouth twitched in a way that it looked like she wasn’t sure whether to smile or to frown.
“Abby, are we going to town?” Fenella called and Cash’s hand flexed where it still held Abby’s jaw, not in a demonstration of affection, instead in a reflexive action denoting his restrained desire to wring Fenella’s neck.
“Um…” Abby muttered, her mouth deciding it wanted to smile which it did, “we were coming to tell you that we’re going to town. We need your car.”
That got Cash’s full attention.
“My car?” he asked as he dropped his hand from her jaw.
“Yes, your car,” Abby answered.
“Town is a two minute walk away,” Cash told her.
“I know,” Abby replied.
“Why do you need my car?” Cash enquired.
Her smile turned mischievous. “Because I want to drive it.”
Cash burst out laughing and both his arms went around her, pulling her into his body.
“Does that mean we’re going to town?” Fenella semi-yelled like they were three rooms down, not fifteen feet away.
Once he’d sobered, Cash looked at his cousin. “You’re going to town.”
Abby’s body melted into his and her head tipped back further to smile at him.
Then she whispered, “You’re going to have to walk me down to the car.”
“I know,” he whispered back.
“Now can I get to the business of preparing for one hundred guests to descend tonight, or do you girls want me to go into town with you, just in case Abby gets lost?” Nicola asked but for the first time since they arrived last night, she looked cheerful if not her normal cheerful.
“You go, Mummy. We’ll be fine,” Fenella assured Nicola as Cash started to lead Abby to the door.
“I’m glad to hear that since you’ve lived two minutes from town since you were ten years old,” Nicola mumbled as she headed busily out the door, casting a smile back at Abby and Cash before she disappeared.
Honor gave them a small wave and followed her mother. Cash walked Abby and Fenella to his and Abby’s room to get his keys.
However when his fingers closed around the keys on the bureau, the warm draught he’d forgotten with the arrival of Abby and her entourage came back. It was stronger this time, almost insistent, and it felt like it was trying to prevent him from picking up the ring.
It disappeared again when his fingers closed around the keys and Cash’s hand moved away from the bureau.
He shook off the bizarre feeling thinking it was just the castle. The place was centuries old, it likely had hot and cold draughts everywhere.
He escorted Abby and Fenella down to the old stables. The stables were now a five car garage where Alistair and his family kept their (far too expensive for Alistair’s circumstances) cars and where Cash had parked the Maserati last night.
Fenella folded her body into the passenger seat and Cash stood in the driver’s open door with Abby.
She tipped her head back to look up at him and he could see the excitement on her face at the prospect of driving his car.
“Thanks for letting me drive your car,” she murmured.
He put his hand to her neck and teased, “I’m thinking maybe I should have asked you if you were a good driver before giving you my keys.”
She grinned and leaned into him before she replied, “I’m not only a good driver, I’m a granny driver.”
Cash smiled at her amusing description of her driving style and squeezed her neck before asking, “Do you know how to drive a stick?”