Page 84 of Wild Scottish Beauty

I held his look for a moment, wondering if that’s what he’d really meant to say or if he was making a backhanded comment about my weight. It wouldn’t be the first time that I’d been on a date and someone had made a joke about hoping they could afford the bill or stupid shit like that. So I wasn’t sure if he was insulting me, or my country, but I did know that I didn’t like it.

“We don’t have great public transportation. You’re lucky you have a train system that is so easy to navigate.” Look at me being all grace and kindness here.

Silence fell in the pub, and that was my only warning before Andrew was hauled out of his seat.

“Bloody hell, Ramsay.”

I squeaked as Ramsay grabbed Andrew by the back of his neck, crushing him with brute strength until Andrew began to crumple.

“Enjoying your date with my brother, Willow?”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Ramsay

What had I been thinking? Kissing Willow like that?

I stood at the window and watched her leave, the taste of her still on my lips, while she left to be with another man.

A date.

It had been bothering me all day. In fact, probably more than the fact that I was emptying my savings account to pay off my brother, which said a lot. But I couldn’t get the fact that Willow was going on an actual date, with someone who wasn’t me, that very evening.

I was the one who was supposed to be going on a date with her.

No, I corrected myself. I was the one who was supposed to be watching out for her. Not kissing her senseless and then sending her out on a date with another man. What abloody eejit I was. For weeks I’d been telling Miles I’d look out for her when all I’d wanted was to get closer to her.

And now I’d kissed her, and I would never not know the taste of her on my lips again. I’d never be able to erase the memory of the soft sigh she made when she sank into the kiss, or the breathy moan she made deep in her throat when I’d deepened the kiss. I’d taken her kiss like I owned her, and I was going to have to apologize, to her—to Miles probably—and yet a part of me knew I’d do it all over again.

Sunshiny Willow, who never stopped talking, to the point that the shop seemed dull and dark when she wasn’t around. Flowers had appeared on the shop’s windowsills. New music had entered my playlists. Customers were arriving at the shop, not so scared to enter now, and business was booming.

She’d gotten under my skin, weaving herself into the threads of my soul, and somehow, I could no longer fathom life without her.How had that happened?A month ago, I’d been content with my bachelor status, and since her arrival, I’d thought about dating and love and marriage.What the actual fuck?

“I should go there, shouldn’t I? Profess my…whatever this was to her?”Was it love? Isn’t it too early to be believing this is love?And that kiss. Bloody hell, that kiss had been one of the hottest of my life.

And she was out on a date with another man.

Was it really necessary to keep reminding myself of that?

Yes, because you hate the idea. What if she kissed him? What if his kiss replaced mine? What if he were the one that would receive Willow’s smiles and joy and sunshine…because I’d been too fecking slow to act on my “feelings”?

And if that didn’t tell me that I felt a lot for Willow, what would?

Do I love Willow?

What would Miles say to that?

I looked down at where Calvin sat in the window, waiting for Willow to return. I understood how he felt.

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to see a text message from Graham.

Did you know that Willow is on a date with your brother?

My heart skipped a beat.

Ice flooded my veins.

Graham knew my history with Andrew, so his text was as much a warning as it was a question.

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