Page 106 of Scotch on the Rocks

Giving Callum another quick once-over to be certain he wasn’t about to drop dead, I stood. “Sorry, Mal.” I couldn’tmeet his eyes. “Will you tell April I’m sorry I ruined your night?”

“You didn’t ruin anything,” he promised. “Let me get her, she’ll drive you home—”

“I prefer to walk, thanks.” Chin high, I slipped a bored expression firmly into place and started down the long driveway.

I made it five steps before I sensed Callum behind me. “We need to talk about this, just the two of us.”

“Oh, so now you want privacy? Why don’t you invite him to watch us fighting like arealcouple? Hell, why not fuck me while he watches too?” The words were hot and vicious, angry butterflies taking flight in my stomach.

“Don’t fucking tempt me,” he growled as he rushed ahead, stopping me in my tracks. Beads of moisture danced in the air, doing little to cool the fervent frenzy beginning to spiral between us. This was always where we’d existed, in the murky middle of a Venn diagram made up of lust and loathing. If he got a step closer, the scales would tip and I’d beg him to fuck me up against the nearest tree.

“Touch me and you’ll regret it,” I warned, loathing winning out as the memory of his betrayal sank its claws into my chest.

“That so? I think you’re a liar, harpy. A pretty little liar.” But he didn’t touch me. Just curled his fingers into fists and let me pass. Thankful for my skill in heels, I continued down the uneven path without so much as a wobble.

“Are we walking?” he called after a moment.

I kept my focus on the streetlights ahead. “This is stalking.”

“How’d you figure that? I’m going home. It just so happens we live a hundred yards apart. Besides … my current view is impeccable; can you blame me for following like a stray dog?”

“Don’t!” I snarled, spinning to poke him in the chest,right in the spot that my own heart was cracking. “You don’t get to pull that bullshit back there then joke and flirt as though it hasn’t changed everything.”

His hand circled my finger, keeping me there. “This changes nothing between us, harpy.” Back to harpy, just like that. I tried not to let the wound show on my face. “Aye, I shouldn’t have said it like that, I fucked up. I fucked up because I’m so out of my mind for you, I can’t think straight half the time—”

“Don’t try and blame this on me!”Screw him.

“I’m not blaming you! What I’m doing is a terrible job of explaining that I can’t hide this anymore. I thought I could play it cool and keep my cards close to my chest. I asked you to soft launch, for fuck’s sake! How the hell am I supposed to soft launch when there’s nothing remotely soft about the way I feel for you?” He raked a hand through his hair, eyes wild in the moonlight. “I know exactly what I want from you, Juniper – what I’vealwayswanted. Can you say the same?”

There’s nothing remotely soft about the way I feel for you.What was I supposed to say to that?

My mouth went dry, any reply catching in my throat when music from the distillery sounded from further down the road. A flash of light as the door opened and closed, then an engine roaring to life.

“We shouldn’t talk about this here.” I swallowed, starting back up the road.

“Right.” He chuckled, voice suddenly smooth, as though we hadn’t been screaming at each other thirty seconds before. “Wouldn’t want the thistles to overhear our argument, they’re notorious gossips.”

Jesus,it was like he had multiple personality disorder. Playful Callum had entered the chat, but there was an edgeto his exuberant exterior. He teemed with restless energy, his hands flexed at his sides, opening and closing as we walked.

He was making my head spin.

So like any well-adjusted adult, I held my fury close, stoking the flame as I ignored him the entire way home.

How had this night veered so off course? Only this morning we’d been joking and kissing in my kitchen, daring to imagine our life with our relationship out in the open. I’d been afraid in the best possible way. Observing with a quiet, tentative hope that not only was my life beginning to write itself beyond the blank page I’d been toiling over for years, but it would be bursting with intensifiers and interjections, dog-eared corners and doodles in the margins. Full, messy and quite possibly worth rereading.

And now … we were back at the starting line, a single snide remark away from a cheap hate fuck.

By the time we reached my cottage, I’d fallen back into my safe defensive bubble.

How dare he force his way into my life and mess things up with his kind eyes, dirty laugh and even dirtier words.The old Juniper knew better than to let a man tangle her up in knots.

“You’re not coming in,” I threw over my shoulder, digging through my bag for my keys.

Callum clearly had other ideas because one hand found my waist as he stole the keys from my fingers. “Yes I am.”

“Don’t manhandle me.”

“Keep pressing that arse against me and we’ll discover just how much you enjoy my manhandling.” He punctuated the point with a slow caress of my arse.

---