Fire Maidens Scotland (Billionaires & Bodyguards #6) - Anna Lowe Page 0,21
fallen over his features again, and he was all business. He furrowed his brow, probably working out how many minutes had been lost from his schedule.
Holly tugged a scarf over her hair and closed her eyes. A hell of a day this was turning into. But maybe it hadn’t been that close a call. After all, her mind was blurry from barely getting a wink of sleep the previous night.
Jet lag, she told herself.
Lachlan, her dragon corrected.
She took a deep breath, forcing herself to play one of her favorite childhood games — sniffing out every tiny scent in the air.
Nice, her dragon rumbled, flaring its nostrils.
The scent of heather wafted off the hills, and a peaty smell drifted up from the rich soil. Then she caught a hint of wild mountain thyme and smiled. The fragrance, as always, brought the song to her mind. Before she knew it, she was humming quietly to settle herself down.
“Beg your pardon?” Lachlan asked.
She snapped her eyes open and blushed. “Just humming.” Then she caught herself. She wasn’t the head-over-heels-in-love girl who’d fallen for Lachlan so long ago. Why not hum if she wanted to hum?
So she continued, and when she got to the second refrain, she quietly sang the words. To her surprise, Lachlan let his low, gravelly voice join hers a moment later.
For a moment, it was pure magic — like a dream she’d never allowed herself to imagine. Her and Lachlan, taking a road trip across Scotland, singing together. Smiling, enjoying each other’s company. Shifting and swooping through the sky together, too. Remembering everything about each other they’d fallen in love with and forgetting whatever it was that had forced them apart.
Then they got to the part about building my love a bower, and they both trailed off.
Nice dream while it lasted, she sighed to herself.
Doesn’t have to be a dream, her dragon murmured. He still loves us as much as we love him. You’ll see.
Would she?
She glanced in Lachlan’s direction just as he glanced in hers. Was he thinking the same thing?
Just in case, she covered up. “Trevor taught us that song. That and ‘Highland Cathedral.’ We would sing them around a bonfire back home.” A lump formed in her throat, because they’d sung both the night before Trevor died. The fire had been crackling merrily, and fireflies had blinked in the fields. The stars had shone overhead, and everyone had been so happy.
She bit her lip. It was hard to believe Trevor was really gone.
Lachlan flashed a thin smile, then went back to checking the surrounding traffic, daring anyone to come close. Wound up all over again, in other words.
Without thinking, she patted his hand. “You know what Trevor would say?”
Lachlan cocked his head.
“All the more reason to enjoy our next whisky.” She mimicked Trevor’s thick brogue.
Lachlan laughed. A sound so rare, she wanted to bottle it.
Her inner dragon nodded. Bottle it, bring it to his grumpy father, and teach him what happiness sounds like.
Not long after, Lachlan pointed, indicating the next exit. A mile later, he exited the motorway for a quiet country road.
“How long to Burgess?” she asked.
“Twenty-eight minutes.”
She shot him a look, then ran her hands over the box containing Trevor’s instructions. Lachlan glanced over as she withdrew the letter numbered One and labeled To be read under the yew in Burgess.
When Lachlan crooked an eyebrow, her body heated. Did the man even know how hot he looked when he did that?
“Just a preview,” she explained, sniffing the envelope.
“Why the yew in Burgess?”
She shrugged. “I guess we’ll find out.”
They drove over a stone bridge and past lush fields laced with crooked stone walls. Holly looked right and left, taking in the tidy houses and patchwork landscape. Overhead, the sky grew darker. They would have to put the top up soon, for sure.
Eventually, Lachlan slowed down and turned into a gravel lot beside a tiny church.
Holly arched an eyebrow. “Twenty-eight minutes?”
He gave his watch a satisfied tap. “Twenty-seven.”
Holly sighed. If that didn’t go to show that she and Lachlan weren’t meant for each other, what would? The man sought perfection and control. She took things as they came, because you could never tell. Every day — no, every minute — was a lottery, and a girl had to roll with the punches.
Still, she couldn’t stop loving him. A decade apart hadn’t changed that. Every time their eyes met, her hopes rose. Every time he murmured her name, her soul sang. And every time they touched, her blood