Here With Me: An Adair Family Novel, стр. 49
His lips finally left mine, and they stung with the release, swollen by his fervent kisses. My eyes flew open, a sense of reality on the verge of returning—
Until I felt his tongue on my neck.
Oh God.
I arched into him as he scored a fiery trail of kisses down my neck while one of his hands pushed beneath my shirt. My back bowed, envisioning him ripping the neckline of my shirt so he could cover my breasts in kisses too. I gasped at the thought, my fingers pushing into his hair to pull him down. “Lachlan,” I panted, wanting him everywhere at once.
He tensed, freezing against the rise of my breasts.
Heart racing, I held still as that moment allowed reality to hit home.
Oh my God.
Adair exploded back from me.
There was no other word for it.
One minute he’d been sucking on my cleavage while caressing my stomach, and the next he was across the small space, standing at the trailer door, chest heaving.
Oh my God.
I’d just made out with Lachlan Adair. Like … really, really made out.
We glowered at each other like enemies on a battlefield.
“That shouldn’t have happened,” Adair bit out.
Rejection burned.
Refusing to let him see it, I lifted my chin. “You kissed me first.”
It was childish. I knew it even as I said it.
His eyes narrowed. “You didn’t exactly push me away.”
“Call it a moment of deep insanity.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “Visit your bloody father,” he demanded and then spun and pushed out of the trailer, seemingly taking all the air with him.
I sucked in a breath, my hand resting against my racing heart.
My skin was on fire.
Dissatisfaction was a bitter sting. The bastard aroused me to inflammatory levels within seconds, and now my body was a tightly wound coil.
“Wanker,” I bit out as I strode into the small bedroom at the back of the trailer.
Forced to take care of the tension by myself, I tried to block Adair out of my thoughts.
But I could still feel his hard kiss, his hot lips, his beard tickling my skin in a way that was surprisingly stimulating. I cried out in climax, the sound an empty echo around the small bedroom. As I tried to catch my breath, I felt strangely vulnerable.
Why him?
I didn’t even like him.
“That shouldn’t have happened.”
Then why did it?
Squeezing my eyes closed, I tried not to think about the next time I’d see him.
16
Lachlan
Ardnoch Castle and Estate ran like a well-oiled machine. The management team was beyond competent and dealt with the daily running of the place so that Lachlan had the freedom to put his energy elsewhere. Like securing famous musicians to play at the castle throughout the summer period and installing Michelin Star guest chefs for special weekend dining events.
That one bothered Arrochar’s boyfriend somewhat. Guy Lewis had been an Australian culinary star working as a sous chef in a two-hatted restaurant in Melbourne when he and Lachlan met. Lachlan offered him more money than he could refuse, and he was one of the best investments Lachlan had made for Ardnoch in recent years. The members loved the food.
However, it was always smart to shake things up a little by bringing in chefs from the world’s top fifty list to add some excitement. It pricked Guy’s pride, but Lachlan was a businessman and couldn’t afford to pander to a chef’s ego. Especially one dating his little sister. Guy worked long hours and was obsessive about food. Lachlan didn’t understand how he could possibly give Arrochar the attention and focus she deserved.
As a big brother, he was particularly protective of his youngest sibling. He constantly had to remind himself she was thirty-one years old and perfectly capable of handling her own life. But that didn’t mean he had to like any of her boyfriends.
Mac flashed to his mind.
Guilt quickly followed the thought.
Fuck. He could still taste Robyn in his mouth.
Groaning, he sat back in his chair in his real office as he felt his body tighten with the memory of yesterday in her caravan. Seeing her in that run-down piece of shit of Gordon’s had irritated him to no end, reminding him that as Mac’s daughter, Lachlan should have offered Robyn a room or a cabin on the estate. Rent-free. Agitated at her living quarters, irritated with himself, and bothered constantly by her, he’d lost his goddamn mind.
There she’d been, yelling at him, and the only way he could think to stop her was to kiss her.
“Great plan,” he muttered, throwing his pen across his desk.
She’d lit up under his hands.
He tasted her fire on his tongue and, goddamn, it ignited something inside him.
It made no sense.
She was Mac’s daughter.
She’d given Lachlan nothing but hell since she’d arrived and treated him with disdain.
“Tell that to my dick.”
The sound of bagpipes pierced the room, jolting him. “Jesus!” He glared over his shoulder, out the small window where he could see the sway of Malcolm’s dark green, black, red, and white kilt. He wore Sutherland tartan; they all did if an event called for traditional attire.
“Every time.” Lachlan pushed back from the desk, needing distance from the pipes and a chance to clear his head. Wanting to escape the castle without bumping into any members, he took the side entrance off the staff quarters and walked toward the path that led to the beach. It was around a thirty-minute walk, past Loch Ardnoch and the second loch near the coast, Loch Evelyn, named after his great-great-grandmother.
He’d only just passed the footpath that forked toward Loch Ardnoch and Eredine’s studio when he heard someone calling his name over the bagpipes. Trying not to be irritated by