tucked up in bed. The first time she’d done it, she’d been sure she would be caught, then grounded for the rest of her life. Then again, since most of her life had felt like a grounding anyway, the risk had been worth it.
She hadn’t gotten caught, to her knowledge. Perhaps her father had known and figured there was nothing worse he could do to her than was already being done by the circumstances she had found herself in.
“Thinking?”
She glanced briefly at Derrick. It was still a little odd to be sitting on the wrong side of the car, but that had taken less time to get used to than driving on the wrong side of the road. Fortunately, they hadn’t had to go back through the village to get to the road that led toward the shore. There was something to be said about driving an obscenely expensive car on an open road.
“No,” she managed. “I’m fine.”
“I’ll trade you, if you like.”
“Are you kidding?” she asked. “Not a chance. I have the keys.”
“I think your epiphany is rapidly approaching.”
She looked at him quickly.
“Eyes on the road.”
She did as he suggested and managed to avoid drifting into a pasture. “I can pull over, if you’re getting nervous.”
“I want you to tell me to go to hell.”
She laughed a little, uneasily. “I’ve done that before.”
“Aye, but not with much conviction. I want you to try it again.”
She blinked, then she smiled. “Why?”
“Because I don’t want you to get pushed around anymore.”
“I don’t get pushed around.”
“Then pull over right now and let me drive.”
She had to take a deep breath. “No.”
“And?”
She refused to look at him. “You’re letting me drive your Vanquish. I’m not going to tell you to go to hell. Maybe later, if you hack into my email.”
“All right,” he said, sounding as if he were smiling. “Just keep going. The road winds around to the right. I’ll tell you where to turn once we hit the village.”
“I hope you’re using hit in a metaphorical sense.”
He laughed a little. “Aye, I was. Carry on, lass.”
She had to admit she liked it when he called her that. Very Scottish. Very charming.
Very dangerous.
She was actually quite grateful when he stopped talking and she could concentrate on the road. It was one thing to be out in the open with nothing to look out for but the occasional cluster of sheep, it was another thing entirely to head through a village—and a village with very tight walls, at that.
She only had to back up once to let a lorry go past her, and she managed not to scrape Derrick’s car on any of the stone. She couldn’t deny, though, that she breathed a sigh of relief when he told her to turn to her left. The road narrowed, if possible, through another handful of houses, then seemed to leave the village behind. There were a couple more houses that sat on very large pieces of land. And then houses disappeared, but the road didn’t disappear along with them. She was actually a little surprised at how well maintained it was. The weather on the coast had to have been a constant strain on it, but it was smooth and pothole-free.
And then she realized that the road was ending.
And at the end of that road was a cottage.
It was something out of a period movie, two-story, whitewashed, weathered, sitting on a bluff that overlooked a cove. The sand was fine by the water, then the beach became progressively rockier the farther up the bluff it went.
She slowed to a stop, then turned the car off. It was beyond her to do anything but put her hands on the wheel and gape.
“What do you think?”
“I think,” she managed, “that I’ve gone back in time hundreds of years.” She stared a bit longer, then realized what should have probably bothered her from the start. “We must be trespassing. Should we go?”
He shook his head. “We’re fine.”
“Who owns this?”
He looked out at the sea for a moment or two, then at her. “I do.”
She sat back and sighed. “I shouldn’t hate you for this, but I’m almost beside myself with envy.”
He smiled. “Let’s go look inside. You might feel differently then.”
“I don’t know how that’s possible,” she said, reaching for the door.
“Wait.”
She stopped. “Why?”
“Because I’ll get the door.”
Well, if he was going to put it that way, she supposed she would let him have his way. She handed him his keys, then watched him get out of