Chapter 23 Arran
ARRAN
Ihopped over the fence between Thane’s and Lachlan’s back gardens, the rain pelting my skin like it was comprised of stones instead of water.
The roar of the crashing North Sea bellowed from below as the waves pounded the cliff’s edge.
Heavy clouds hung above, so dark you might mistake it for late evening rather than midday.
Hurrying up the back deck of Lachlan’s house, I was already soaked by the time the overhang offered protection.
Fucking great.
I peered into the house and saw Lachlan sitting at his dining table, frowning at the laptop in front of him. “Lachlan!” I hammered on the bifold door.
His head jerked up, surprise lighting his face before he hurried from the table to cross the room. A few seconds later, I was inside, dripping all over his wood floors.
“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded. “Wait there and I’ll get a towel.”
My clothes were stuck to me, and I shivered as I waited for him to return from the bathroom. Chucking the towel at me as he approached, I scrubbed it over my head and face. “Where’s Robyn?”
“In her darkroom. Probably waiting out the rain like a sane person. You want to tell me what was so important that you couldn’t wait a couple hours until dinner?”
My first week with Ery as an official couple had been rocky.
She’d been distant, and I was less than loquacious because I was worried about the bloody emails.
That she was on her period meant we couldn’t even connect physically, and I was more than a wee bit panicked that we were circling the drain before we’d really even started.
One thing I had made my mind up about, though, was the emails.
I couldn’t have them hanging over my head.
It wasn’t just about my safety anymore. Involving myself in Ery’s life meant I was responsible for her well-being too.
“What I’m about to tell you … I need it to stay between us.”
Lachlan’s brows pinched. “Should I be worried?”
“First, I need you to promise.”
“Of course. I promise.”
I sighed. “I’ve been getting these emails. They come from different addresses every few months.”
Concern strained my brother’s features. “What kind of emails?”
“Strange emails. Usually just one or two lines. I thought they were from some random arsehole pranking my email address, but then I got another one this week, and with Ery …”
“What do the emails say?”
“All along the similar line. That this person hasn’t forgotten me. But there’s … it’s hard to explain, but there’s a threatening edge to them. I don’t know. I’ve stupidly been deleting them, but I kept the one I got this week.”
My brother nodded. “Okay, I’ll have my team trace it. They’ll need access to your email.”
I stared at him, gratitude filling me. He didn’t even question if I was overreacting. He trusted my gut. “All right.”
His eyes narrowed. “Do you have any idea who might be behind them?”
“None at all.”
Lachlan scrubbed a hand over his face. “We’ve already had one copycat of Lucy’s case. I hope we’re not dealing with someone who’s become obsessed with us and that whole thing.”
Lucy’s obsession with my brother may have kicked into high gear two years ago, but the high-profile trial was only last year. While talk and speculation still circulated about it, it hadn’t affected Brodan’s career in Hollywood.
“Fuck.” Lachlan sighed. “And I just got word from one of the club members that there’s a script circulating about Lucy’s life, including her stalking me.”
Disgust filled me. “Someone wants to make a movie about one of the worst things that’s ever happened to you?”
“Looks like.” He seemed suddenly exhausted. “Everything’s fodder in Hollywood. No one’s safe from it.”
“I’m sorry.” I clamped a hand on his shoulder. “I wish they’d just let you move on.”
“Och, it could be worse. We live here. We can still have a life, normality here. That’s something.”
I nodded, because it was true. Ardnoch was a strange beast. It didn’t offer complete privacy, but it offered more than most places. Its remoteness and the security on the estate are what drew members in the first place.
“It doesn’t feel like the emails are related to Lucy. I think if they were, the sender would’ve alluded to it, you know?”
“Can I see the one you have?”
I pulled my phone out of the wet back pocket of my jeans and found the email for him.
He bent his head to look, his jaw muscles ticking with anger. “Fuck.” He looked up at me, annoyed. “I really wish you hadn’t deleted the others.”
I shrugged. “I thought it was just someone being a prick. But if any more come in, I’ll keep them. And like I said, this is just between us.”
“Aye, agreed. No use worrying everybody about something that might mean nothing.”
“We do seem to be danger magnets.”
Lachlan’s focus drifted by me to the grim day beyond his windowpanes. “Sometimes I think there’s some grand fate out there obsessed with the balance of things.”
“How do you mean?”
He looked at me. “Our mother dies before her time, then Aunt Imogen, our father, then Thane’s wife.
But we’re blessed with wealth and some fame …
more than that, someone sent me Robyn.” A depth of emotion I was only beginning to understand burned in Lachlan’s eyes.
“I’d live in hell if it was the only place I could be with her.
And Thane feels the same about Regan, Arro for Mac …
maybe one day you for …” A small smile played on his lips.
“It’s an anomaly. To have a family where so many of us are lucky to have found that one person who gives life meaning. Maybe that’s why bad things keep happening to us because we have more than our fair share of bounty. Balance.” He shrugged.
I contemplated his words and asked quietly, “Do you really believe that?”
“I’d rather believe that than what I used to believe.”
Understanding dawned. “That the Adair men are cursed to lose the women they love.”
A bleakness filled my brother’s expression for a second before determination replaced it. “I refuse to go back to that fear. It infects everything. If I let it, it would take me from Robyn, anyway.”
“We’re not cursed, Lachlan,” I assured him.
“And I don’t know if I believe in some grander fate and balance …
Bad things happen to people every day, and some people never get a fighting chance.
Life is shit from the moment they’re born, and it doesn’t let up until they die.
That hasn’t been the way for us. We’ve had bad times, but so much good too. I think that’s normal.”
My brother snorted. “You think stalkers, murderers, and psychotic exes are normal?”
I chuckled. “So we attract some crazies.”
“Aye, that’s an understatement.” He exhaled slowly. “I’ll be in touch about my team looking into the email, but we’ll keep it between us and hope it’s nothing. Now get back and get dried before you catch a chill, or you’ll be useless to your new girlfriend.”
Reaching for the door, I glanced over my shoulder. “Is a woman your girlfriend when you’re in your thirties?”
“I don’t know. I proposed to Robyn before we really had that conversation, and she was my fiancée from that point on.”
“You wasted no time there.” I pulled open the door, the sound of the storm crashing inside. “See you in a bit!”
“Arran!” he called out as I hurried onto the deck.
I looked back at him. “Aye?”
“When you know, you know. And there is no point wasting time,” he offered, his expression serious. “Trust that feeling.”
EREDINE
The dreary day mirrored my mood perfectly.
As I approached Caelmore, the dark clouds finally moved on, and light, golden rays streamed through breaks in the gray puffs left behind.
For days, I’d had my own personal storm hanging over me, but the nearer I drew to Arran and the chance to figure things out, the better I felt.
I wanted to talk to Arran alone as soon as I got there, so I’d texted him before I left for Sunday lunch with the Adairs to ask him to meet me in the annex.
He must have heard my car pull up—he stood waiting in the guest house’s front doorway. His brow furrowed, and he looked a little tense.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
I gave him a small smile as I brushed past, my skin tingling where our arms touched.
We hadn’t had sex in a week because I was on my period, but it ended last night, so I was looking forward to reconnecting.
What was more important at this point was to make sure we were okay.
I’d been a little in my head after I realized how much I was jeopardizing if this didn’t work out, and it had taken me the rest of the week to conclude that my fears were irrational.
Not because this might not work out with Arran.
Of course, it might not. But because I knew neither Lachlan nor Arro would let me fall outside the family fold, no matter what.
And once I realized that, I was unnerved that Arran had also been very distant this week.
I wanted to know why.
Usually, I let people be. If they had a problem and wanted to talk about it, I was happy to be a soft shoulder or a listening ear. Rarely did I coax problems out of people, because that would be hypocritical.
Today I was going to be a hypocrite.
I turned near the foot of his bed as Arran closed the door behind us. “You’ve been quiet all week. I know I’ve been quiet, too, but it was because I was in my own head about everyone knowing we’re dating. So I’m sorry, but why were you in your head?”
Arran’s lips twitched at my rambling, and he approached slowly. His eyes roamed my face in a manner that made me feel more beautiful than I’d ever felt in my life. He looked at me like I was the best thing he’d ever seen. It was overwhelming and thrilling.
Reaching out, he slid his arms around my waist and pulled me to him until our chests touched, my mouth inches from his. “I was in my head because you were in your head. I was worried you were having second thoughts.”
That was what I’d assumed, and I hated it.
“I’m sorry. You know … you’re the one Adair who bulldozed into my life and pushed me to be social with you.
Everyone else tiptoed around on eggshells, afraid to push me.
I like that you push me, challenge me. Don’t stop now that we’re in a relationship.
I hate to tell you this,” I said wryly, “but sometimes your girl needs a giant shove.”
Arran grinned, his arm squeezing me in reflex. “My girl?”
My cheeks heated. “Well, I am. Right?”
“Oh, aye,” he replied hoarsely and dipped his head to touch his lips to mine.
What started out as a shivery brush of mouth against mouth turned hungry in an instant, and Arran shuffled us back toward the bed.
I broke the kiss on a gasp. “Dinner,” I reminded him.
“Is your period finished?” he asked, staring at my mouth like a starving man.
“Yes.”
“Then dinner can wait.” He threw us on the bed, and my laughter was soon swallowed by his kisses.
“So, is this how it’s going to be from now on?” Regan asked quietly at my side as I helped her in the kitchen.
The rest of the family was already around the dining table. “Huh?”
She grinned at me, flashing her adorable dimples. “Thane saw you pull up to the house when he was in the office. You went to Arran’s, and both of you arrived not only just barely in time for dinner, but you have a sex glow.”
I almost dropped the wine bottle in my hand. “What?”
Regan chuckled evilly. “You have a sex glow. Your skin is glowing and you’re all dreamy.”
I gaped at her, horrified. “Do you think anyone else knows?”
“Pretty much all the adults.” She shrugged casually and picked up the carved roasted chicken to take over to the table.
Oh, Lord. Now I really was one of them. I couldn’t count how many times the others had been teased for disappearing at a party or turning up late to an event and all of us knowing why … because of the sex glow.
Now I was in that club.
While embarrassment heated my cheeks, I also felt a thrill of belonging. And not just belonging, but … like life was finally happening to me instead of around me.
Once all the food was on the table, I took my seat next to Arran who reflexively leaned in to give me a quick kiss on the lips.
“Uncle Arran!”
Everyone turned toward the squeal to find Eilidh gaping at us from across the table.
Her brother sat next to her, his mouth hanging open.
“You kissed Ery!” Eilidh’s eyes were so big, they were beyond comical.
“Eils, lower your voice, please,” Thane said beside her, though amusement curled his lips.
“I’m sorry,” she said, deliberately softer and slower. “But Uncle Arran just kissed Aunty Eredine.”
My heart lurched in my chest.
She’d never called me aunty before.
I melted in my seat, blinking back tears. Happy tears.
“Well …” Arran cleared his throat as he slid an arm around my shoulders. “Eilidh, Lewis, Aunty Eredine and I are dating. Do you understand what that means?”
“Of course, we’re not five.” Eilidh rolled her very grown-up seven-year-old eyes.
I struggled not to laugh.
“Are you getting married too?” Lewis wrinkled his nose.
Arran almost choked. “Um … we’re not quite there yet, pal.”
There yet? Wow. Okay.
“Good.” Lewis shot his soon-to-be stepmom a weary look. “Weddings are boring.”
Regan met Thane’s gaze. “I guess I’ve been talking about the wedding too much.”
Her fiancé grinned.
“Weddings are not boring,” Eilidh disagreed, throwing her brother a scowl. “I get to wear a pretty dress.”
“So do I,” Lewis huffed.
“A kilt is not a dress,” Thane, Lachlan, Mac, and Arran said in unison.
I snorted with laughter as Lewis made a face and replied, “Aw right, keep your hair on.”
And just like that, Arran and I were forgotten, the kids accepting our relationship without another word.
I didn’t know what I’d expected at dinner as an outed couple—perhaps constant questioning looks or to feel Lachlan’s concerned gaze on me? But there was none of that. Our friends seemed to have processed and accepted us too.
Eventually, I relaxed and just enjoyed the wonderful, warm banter of the Adairs who, in losing so much, had learned that nothing mattered more than family.
I was proud to be counted among them.