She raises her brow. “Okay. But I don’t know what you’re asking me yet.”
I take a deep breath, straightening my shoulders. “I know it’s last minute, but…can I take my vacation?”
“Sure,” she says, looking back to her computer, probably finding my file. “When?”
“Today.”
She pauses typing. “What?”
“Yeah. I have a flight at three p.m. to Edinburgh, Scotland.”
“Today?” she repeats just as Candace comes into the office, glancing curiously at us.
“Yes.”
“That’s more than last minute.”
“I know, I know,” I say, giving her my most pleading look. “Please.”
She rubs between her eyes. “Do you want your whole three weeks?”
“Yes, yes, if I can.”
“You know we’re getting into fall, things are going to get busier.”
“I know, but Candace can handle it,” I say. I can’t believe I’m about to do this, but I stick my head into the office and yell at her. “Candace, if I go away for the next three weeks, do you think you can take over my account?”
She springs to her feet with overjoyed eyes and practically runs over to us. At this moment I know I’m handing my job, what I’ve worked for all these years, over to her, but it can’t be helped. I know that no matter what, this will be worth it.
And thankfully, thanks to Candace’s eagerness for the job, she’s the one who sells Lucy in the end.
“Fine,” Lucy says, giving me a wary smile. “You can go, Kayla.”
“What?” I ask, my breath stilling in my chest.
“Go. Go to Scotland. But when you come back, be prepared to work a lot. And make sure you get some kind of data plan over there. We might need to get in touch for this and that.”
She goes on about something else but I can’t even hear her. I’m smiling, stupidly, my heart this bubble that refuses to burst. That bubble takes me out of the office and I’m floating, high on joy, all the way to the car. I float while I drive, the car and I hovering happily as I cruise down the highway toward the airport. Nick Cave’s “Supernaturally” plays from the speakers, something I’ve been listening to ever since Lachlan said he admired him. Just another thing I’ve been doing, thinking, feeling, because of Lachlan.
And now, now I’m going off with him.
And so he is mine.
My Lachlan.
My beast.
My big, broken man.
I am coming for him. I am going to give myself to him in every way possible.
My body.
My heart.
My soul.
I’m going to get on that plane and stop being afraid for the first time in my life. I’m going to let him in and pray, hope, he’ll let me in too.
I’m so happy I could almost cry. I laugh instead, slowly, the feeling sneaking up on me as realization hits.
I can’t believe I’m fucking doing this.
This is so not me.
But maybe it’s the me I’ve always wanted to be.
And when I get to the airport and see Lachlan standing by the Virgin Atlantic ticket counter, where he texted me to meet him this morning, it feels like the sun is just shining through. It illuminates everything, telling me that this is right.
That there never was any other way for us.
I’m meant to be with him.
I stop where I am and take him in like this, his wide back turned to me. I watch him, unseen. Like a ghost. And I have to pinch my fucking self, because even in his cargo pants, hiking boots, and faded black t-shirt, he’s too handsome, too wonderful, too much of a man to exist on this earth.
I’m so incredibly lucky he asked me.
He asked me.
As if he can sense me, he looks over his shoulder.
Drinks me in.
His eyes crinkle—light, soulful—and he grins at me.
It’s so beautiful.
He grins at me because now he knows, he knows, I’m his.
“I’m here,” I tell him as I slowly walk toward him, my voice barely audible.
He nods. “You’re here.”
PART TWO
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Lachlan
“Lachlan?”
Like a ray of light into a dark room, Kayla’s sweet throaty voice permeates my dreams. I slowly open my eyes, forgetting where I am for a moment. You’d think that would be nearly impossible when you’re on an airplane, but the black, sticky quality of my dreams, quickly fading from my consciousness, render me dazed.
When I nodded off, the lights in the cabin were dimmed. Now it’s bright, and light shines in through the bottom of the window cover. Daylight.
I lift my head and let out a low grunt, my neck aching from the way I was sleeping. I look beside me to see Kayla smiling softly at me.
She came. I can’t believe she came.
“Good morning,” she says, rubbing underneath her eyes. “I wanted to let you keep sleeping, but the flight attendant was making it her mission to wake you up. We’re landing in twenty minutes.”
I try and swallow, my throat so unbearably dry, and shift in my seat to face her. “You’re still here,” I say, my voice hoarse. I reach out and touch her face, her skin feeling like heaven.
She twists her head to kiss my hand, her coy eyes never leaving mine. “Of course I’m still here. Where would I go? Another seat?”
“I thought it was all a dream,” I tell her softly. “And when I woke up, I’d wake up alone.”
“Nope,” she says, and I brush the hair from her face, rubbing her silky strands between my fingers, as if I need further proof that she’s real. “It’s not a dream. It feels like it though, doesn’t it? I mean…I can’t believe this is happening.”
I nod slowly. “Did you sleep at all?”
She shakes her head. “Way, way too excited to sleep. I watched a bunch of movies. And then I watched you sleep for a bit, like a total creeper.”
I smile, finding that strangely endearing. “Well, I like it when you’re a total creeper, love. You’ll be doing a lot more of it when we land. I’m afraid I’ll rarely let you out of my sight in Edinburgh.”
“That should make my stalking much easier.”
The flight attendant comes by and tells me to put my seat up and raise the window shade in that scolding way that they all have, and it’s not long before the plane is descending. Kayla leans over me to look out the window, even though there’s nothing to see but patches of green between grey clouds. I can’t help but close my eyes, breathing her in. Even after being on a plane for thirteen hours, she smells incredible. It’s not soap, it’s not perfume, it’s just her. Something that can’t be bottled. Something that makes my blood rush to all the right places.
I shift in my seat, trying to ignore the stirrings of an erection. Kayla is so busy looking out the window that she doesn’t seem to notice. Which is good because I know she’d go out of her way to make me even stiffer. As soon as I get her in my flat though, I’m not holding back.
My flat. It feels right insane that I’m back here and she’s with me. I don’t even know how to properly introduce her to Edinburgh when all I want to do is lock her in my bedroom for days.
But I’m returning to a life I left on pause. There are a lot of things to catch up on. I just hope I can integrate her into the process as smoothly as possible. Once I introduce her to Amara and Thierry, I think that will help. And, if I’m brave enough, my parents and my brother Brigs. Rugby and the shelter are going to take up a lot of my time, but I’ll gladly have Kayla as involved in those as much as possible—as much as she wants to be, anyway.
The plane jostles, dropping some feet and lilting to the left. A few people in the cabin gasp while Kayla grasps my hand, holding on tight. I give her a squeeze back.
“It’s just turbulence,” I tell her with what I hope is a reassuring smile.