Free Highland Fling by Shelli Stevens Page A

kinds of drama.”
    “I know. And let me repeat: I’ll not rush you. I’ll leave the ball in your court.” He touched her cheek, lightly, before moving away.
    Just in time, as the customer who’d been playing pool in the next room arrived next to the bar.
    “It’s getting mighty windy out there.” Old Man Cooper, a regular, dropped a twenty on the bar and shook his head. “My wife keeps texting me to come home—she’s a nag, all right. Guess there’s some trees down already. You kids be careful when you get out of here.”
    Delonna gave a small smile. “I love how he always refers to his wife as a nag.”
    “Aye, he does. But it’s all in a bit of fun. She’s a nice lady, who doesn’t come in much. But they’ve been married fifty-five years and are happy as can be.” Aleck gave the bar counter a smack. “Right then. I’ll be in the back if you need me.”
    Delonna watched him disappear into the office portion down the hall near the bathrooms, and pressed a hand to her cheek. He’d only just touched her lightly, and still her body had responded.
    When they finally locked up the pub and left to go back to his place, it became clear the windstorm was no light breeze. The hood of her sweatshirt was thrust off her head from a gust of wind, and it took serious momentum to walk against it and get to his truck.
    Inside, the vehicle shook from the large gusts and she flinched each time it did.
    “Blowy as fook out here,” Aleck muttered, starting the car. “Hope there’re no trees down on the way home.”
    There weren’t any, fortunately, and she knew his house had none directly in its path either. So they were safe from any fear of branches falling once they got there. It was the drive that would be the dangerous part.
    She watched the tall trees bending and waving in the wind, and a shiver of fear slid through her. Windstorms had always been a little terrifying, especially on this part of the island. Oak Harbor wasn’t really protected from the strong winds that could rush in off the straits.
    When they reached his home she could see the waves crashing violently onto the large rocks nearby. They climbed out of the car and made a dash for it.
    Once inside the house, Aleck locked the door behind him and rubbed his hands together.
    “Quite cold out there, aye? Would you like some tea with a bit of whisky in it?”
    “That would be great. But just a splash of whisky, please. I don’t sleep well if I’ve had too much. Which is backwards, I know.”
    “Understood. Go make yourself comfy on the couch, find us a show and I’ll bring it out in a few.”

Chapter Seven
    While waiting for the teapot to boil, Aleck went to turn up the heat a couple degrees to overheat the house a bit. There was a good chance they’d lose power tonight, and it would be better to have a surplus of heat to dwindle from when that happened.
    When he brought the two steaming mugs to the living room minutes later, he found Delonna sitting on the couch, legs curled under her, with a blanket on her lap. She’d turned on some sort of thriller flick it appeared.
    He joined her after handing her the mug. She scooted over slightly and pulled the blanket toward him.
    “Here, have part of this, I’m easy.”
    “Clearly you’re not all that easy,” he drawled, unable to help himself. He was rewarded with her elbow in his ribs and laughed.
    They fell into a comfortable silence, watching the movie and sharing a blanket, but not quite touching. He itched with the need to close those couple inches between them. To feel her hip brush against his.
    It was nice having someone on the same internal clock as him. Not getting off work ’til the wee small hours of the morning meant it took an hour or two to unwind before he fell asleep. Which also meant he slept in longer than most people. All in all it had been a tricky thing when bringing women home. Which was one reason he really hadn’t, and had preferred to go to their place and slip out