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Taking a deep breath, I dialed Alastair’s number and waited. It rang once. Twice. Three times. Voicemail. I hung up and went to bed.
A frantic, incessant beeping woke me out of a somewhat deep sleep. It was anything but restful anyway, so the interruption wasn’t too unwelcome. I glanced at the time. Two in the morning? Only one person on the planet would have the balls to text me at this hour. Nathan. I cringed, wishing he would leave me alone. The phone beeped again. Grumbling, I grabbed it.
1:58am Hello, Amelia. Sorry I missed your call earlier. Do you always call someone and not leave a message?
Relief swept through me. It wasn’t Nathan. The relief was soon replaced with anticipation. A tiny smile played at the corners of my lips.
2:00am How did you know it was me?
The phone rang in my hand, scaring the hell out of me.
“Hello?”
“I knew it was you because everyone else who has this number knows to leave a message.”
I could almost see his smirk through the phone.
“You’re up late,” I said, stretching.
“I was working. What’s your excuse?”
“Someone texted me at two in the morning.”
He chuckled, low and deep. Lying like this and hearing his voice so intimately close was a turn on. I smiled in spite of myself.
“I don’t want to keep you up. You have a busy day planned tomorrow.”
Don’t say it, don’t say it, don’t say it.
“I’m not going with them.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, grimacing. Eager, much?
“You’re not? What are you doing instead?”
My brain was apparently on hiatus, because my mouth spouted off whatever the hell it wanted.
“You tell me.” I curled up on my side, closing my eyes.
“I’ll call you in the morning,” he paused. “Amelia?”
“Yes?”
“Sleep well.”
* * *
Getting Stephanie out of the hotel while dodging her questions was an exercise in elusiveness at its finest. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to tell her what I was doing for the day, I just didn’t know.
Riding down in the elevator proved to be more nerve-wracking than I had anticipated. I hadn’t been this giddy and nervous to see a guy since, well, never. I reminded myself to play it cool, that it was just a simple afternoon out in the city. Besides, I could fake a stomach cramp if I wanted an easy way out. The elevator doors opened and I strode through the lobby. I could see Alastair standing on the sidewalk, looking hot in a t-shirt and jacket with his hands tucked in the pockets of distressed jeans.
This wasn’t going to be easy.
“Lia.” He slid his emerald eyes over me in his dangerously alluring way. My resolve to resist him weakened by the second. Holding my hand, he traced along the palm with his thumb. The sensation made my vision double.
“I like you with your hair down.”
“Thank you.” I twisted the ends, mentally kicking myself for enjoying his flattery.
“Let’s go somewhere casual and fun. What do you say?”
“Do you even do casual and fun?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Depends. Would you like to go or not?”
I sighed dramatically. “Okay.”
* * *
"The object of this game is quite simple really. You have to score more points than me." Alastair tossed a pale pink ball in his hand, looking smug. I folded my arms across my chest. We were at a pub attempting to play snooker. It didn't sound too difficult. I gathered it was similar to pool, only the balls weren't numbered.
Fifteen red balls were arranged in a triangle. The pink ball that Alastair nonchalantly tossed around needed to be placed at the top of the triangle but couldn’t touch it. There were five other assorted colored balls. Each one had its own value. I grabbed my beer and circled the table.
Alastair grinned and leaned against it as I walked by. "Nervous, Meyers?"
"Not at all, Holden."
“Played a lot of English snooker while growing up in Florida then?”
“I didn’t grow up in Florida,” I corrected him, “I’m from Connecticut originally. And no, I didn’t play it, but I’m a fast learner.”
“While I admire your tenacity, you will lose."
He placed the pink ball on the table and reached for a cue stick. I watched him closely as he chalked it and leaned over the table. The tip of his tongue poked out of his mouth as he concentrated. In one smooth strike he broke the triangle, scattering red balls across the felt. He potted two of them immediately. His next shot wasn’t so great. The white cue ball skated past the yellow one he'd aimed for. I snickered.
"So glad you find me amusing." Alastair handed me the cue stick, motioning toward the table. "I believe it's your turn."
His smile nearly knocked me off my feet. I raised the stick, leaned over and aimed. Just as I was about to strike, he hovered over me.
"You're not going to hit anything with the cue pointed so low."
His warm breath tickled my ear, sending tremors rippling under my skin.
"You're distracting me. That's not fair."
"Just trying to be helpful. Give you a sporting chance and all that."
“Sport yourself over there so I can take my shot.”
The cue stick was difficult to hold thanks to my hands’ obscene levels of clamminess. I blew a wayward piece of hair away from my eyes and bent over the table again. Even though I couldn’t see him, I was keenly aware of Alastair’s eyes roaming slowly down my body.
I aimed, striking the white cue ball. It skirted and snapped against two red ones, spinning them into the corner pocket. Feeling more confident, I took another shot. By some stroke of beginner’s luck, I potted a green one and a brown one.
“Told you I was a fast learner,” I bragged.
He sidled up close, leaving me eye level with his mouth. An extremely persistent pounding noise filled my ears. Alastair bowed his head and looked down at me over the bridge of his straight nose. “Then I’ll have to teach you another game.”
I clasped the cue stick close to my legs. He cupped his hand around my hip and squeezed. Staggering backwards, I knocked into the table. It wobbled violently. Both of our pint glasses crashed to the floor, scattering shards around our feet. Several people stopped what they were doing and stared at us.
“Sorry about that,” Alastair called out. “We have a rather impassioned snooker player over here.”
Completely horrified, I apologized to Alastair and anybody else within earshot. This wasn’t normal behavior for me. But of course, being around him turned me into a nervous, twitchy mess. He pointed me to a nearby chair to sit while someone swept up the broken glass.
Un-freaking-believable.
"Are you alright?" he asked, bemused.
"I'm fine, thanks for your concern,” I grumbled. “Don’t think this is an excuse to get out of losing the game.”
When the broken glass was cleared away, I grabbed the cue stick and prepared for another shot. Alastair never had a chance. I beat him swiftly and succinctly. We negotiated a bet for the next game. Loser buys the winner a drink of their choice. The competitive juices started flowing. I wasn’t about to lose to this guy.
Four games and three pints later, it was clear I was out of my league against him. Apparently my beginner’s luck had run its course. Alastair didn’t seem to mind at all. He methodically made perfect shot after perfect shot.
“I didn’t mean to scare you off last night,” he said, leaning against the table. His statement was so out of the blue I stared at him in shock. Scare me off? I gripped my pint glass.
“You didn’t. I meant what I said.”
He clenched his jaw and rolled the cue stick between his hands. I couldn’t tell if he was annoyed or not. Pushing himself away from the table, he stood in front of me, dominating my line of sight. The pub became a vacuum.
“I find you very intriguing,” he stated.
“You do?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Do I need to have a specific reason?”
Caught in the emerald glow of his eyes, I parted my lips to allow more oxygen. Another foggy haze messed with my logic.
“I was, um, just curious. I’m pretty boring,” I stammered.
“I highly doubt that.”
“You probably say—”
He hovered his lips over mine, stopping me in mid-thought. I could practically taste him. And my God, he smelled delicious. Not of cologne but shampoo and body wash and…him. It made me dizzy. He curled his hand around my waist, pulling me closer. I put my hands on his toned abdomen to steady myself.
“Come with me.”
It wasn’t a request. Those three words sent a shudder through me. The intensity of his stare was enough to get me to move. He laced his fingers through mine, leading me out to the curb. We hopped in a cab and went back to the hotel. My heart was beating a furious tattoo. As we walked through the lobby toward the elevators a daunting scenario took shape. What if Stephanie had already returned? Then you sit in the living room like a normal functioning adult, you moron.
When the elevator arrived, I stood as far away from him as the space would allow. It wasn’t easy. That crazy gravitational pull he had was drawing me toward him, one cell at a time. Electricity buzzed between us so quickly we could have powered the building.
We both let out audible sighs walking into the hall. I was relieved to see an empty suite when I opened the door. Stephanie must have Darren running laps with all the shopping she had planned.
“What are you smiling about?” Alastair looked at me curiously.
“Oh, I was just picturing Darren trying to keep up with Stephanie and her shopping marathon through Edinburgh.”
“I haven’t known Darren very long, but he always speaks very fondly of his American friend."
“How long have you known each other?”
“His agency does the marketing campaigns for my grandfather’s company. I know a few people who work there and ended up bumping into him at an event last year.”
He moved toward me in calculated, controlled strides. That intense, undeniable pull ignited again.
“I had a lovely time with you today.” He leaned so close to me I could feel his breath on my neck. Gasping, my eyelids fluttered closed. He was beyond dangerous. He was downright lethal. “Are you always so easily led back to a hotel with a stranger?”
“Do you always invite yourself into a strange woman’s hotel room?”
“Cheeky.”
“I have a feeling people need to be on their toes when they’re around you,” I grinned.
“Some might say that. But you’re not the type to ever let your guard down, are you?”
My smile faltered a bit. Those luminous eyes of his were very observant. Too observant for my liking. He laced his fingers through mine.
“I made the mistake of letting my guard down too much once. I’ve been paying for it ever since.” I swallowed back an acrid lump.
“Don’t let the ghosts of your past haunt your future,” he whispered. The look in his eyes betrayed the little pearl of wisdom he just dispensed. It was almost as though he said it more to convince himself than me.
“Your eyes are like butterscotch.”
“What?”
“The color,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Oh. Yeah. Amber, or something like that. I always thought they were just, you know, regular brown.”
“There is nothing regular about them. Or you.” He lightly fingered my hair, tucking a strand behind my ear.
“Does this charm thing that you’ve got going for you work often?”
“Charm thing?” The corners of his mouth curled up. “I’ve had some success with it.”
