62
They slept late. Alice had opened the door a crack only, early in the day and seeing them both curled up sound asleep had retracted and gone about her business in another room. A small smile spreading across her face.
He was the first to wake. Planting soft kisses on her face and bringing her round gently. Smiling when she opened her eyes sleepily and looked at him. Momentarily forgetting everything, she smiled back and accepted his soft kiss on her lips as his hand moved across her body suggestively. She knew resistance was pointless and before long that shirt was laying crumpled on the floor beside his discarded clothes from his return home.
Afterwards, she lay in his arms looking at the ceiling. He was twirling her hair absent-mindedly, staring at the same spot above them.
‘She’s going to be kept in for a few weeks.’ He sighed. ‘They managed to patch up most of the damage. She will need more surgery today and she’s got to see the plastic surgeon for the damage to her tendons and to handle the excessive scarring. Mostly though they’re keeping her admitted until a bed in the psychiatric ward opens.’
Rose glanced at him seriously, baulking at the words.
‘Voluntary...She told them she had caused her wounds on purpose.’ He sighed again obviously in turmoil. ‘She’s classed as a suicide threat, so they will keep her in for evaluation and some sessions with a therapist.’ He sighed.
‘How did she seem?’ Rose pushed gently, not sure how to feel about this whole thing but still a smidgen of empathy for the other woman breaking through.
‘Drugged! I only got to see her briefly when they settled her in the ward. She was still not fully out of sedation. Coherent enough to only have a few words before they made me leave.’ Rob stilled his hand, entangled with her hair and brought her temple to his mouth, kissing her softly, almost absentmindedly.
‘Did she say much?’
‘Only that she was sorry, and did I still love her?’ He cursed under his breath. ‘I had no idea where to go with that, so I just told her I would come back and see her in a couple days. After surgery and when she was more lucid,’ He turned, kissing Rose on the temple again, somehow finding some solace in this little act. ‘Then I left!’ He sighed heavily, both silent. Rob mulling over events and Rose processing it.
‘Abby?’ Rose looked up at his perfect profile in afterthought, realising he hadn’t mentioned bringing her home or even how she was. His rested relaxed features and morning dark stubble showing along his jaw gave him a rougher sexy look. He looked better now, earlier he had seemed so uptight. Strained. But making love to her had obviously been the release he had been aching for.
‘I put her in bed. She was practically a zombie. Doubt she will surface much today, she was in a bit of a mess for a few hours. Tears. Exhaustion. I think she may sleep the day away.’ He pulled his arm out from behind her head and made to get up. He seemed restless again and she couldn’t help the feeling of anxiety at him getting up.
‘I need to go see my dad for a bit Rose. Tell him what’s happened. He won’t be happy if he finds out from someone else.’ He leant down, kissing her on the forehead before scooping up his clothes and heading into the bathroom to get ready.
She lay watching the door close softly, feeling numb and quiet. Unable to really process anything right now because it felt like everything was in limbo. Standing on a precipice, looking into a deep cavern. She felt restless too. Glancing at the time she too got up, pulling on clothes and brushing her hair best she could with fingers.
He appeared. Looking her up and down questioningly, a tinge of disappointment on his face.
‘My parents! They leave today, and I really need to go see them. They’re at the cottage!’ She reminded him with a smile.
He looked thoughtful, crossing the room and pulling her into him, touching noses and just looking at each other silently for a moment, before he broke the spell with a kiss. A long lingering, ‘I need you’ sort of a kiss. Then broke the romance of it by slapping her on the butt rather loudly and throwing a cheeky raise of the eyebrows and melting smile her way before heading out the door. He motioned a phone with his hand to his ear and she nodded.
It was only when she walked out the door of the hall that she realised she had walked here. She had no car parked outside.
Dammit.
She was still tired and did not really want to walk home, her body was suffering from days of broken sleep and far too much exertion at Rob’s hands.
Standing in the open front door she pulled out her phone, ready to ask her dad to come get her when she felt him behind her again. His presence always alerting her body in heightened ways.
‘Changed your mind? The lure of my bed a little too much for you?’ His arms moving easily to her waist and around her body.
‘No.’ She laughed, enjoying his breath on her neck. ‘Laziness and calling for Daddy Cab.’ She waved her phone, showing her dad’s name on the screen. He leant down ending the call before it started to ring.
‘I’ll take you home.’ He cut in instead.
‘No. Rob, go see your dad. Honestly, I can get him to come and...’
Bringing his face to her cheek from behind as he leant forward, she heard the jingle of keys as he slid his hand from his back pocket. Holding them in front of her face suggestively.
‘So, take my car and come get me when I’m done.’ She paused, staring at the small bunch of keys, the shining expensive logo on the keyring and hesitated. Sparkling in the morning sun like an expensive trinket.
‘I can’t! It’s too much. It costs a bomb. It’s your pride and joy.’ She rattled off apprehensively, suddenly extremely nervous.
‘Planning on writing it off, are you?’ He kept the keys in front of her face, waiting for her to take them. Both standing motionless as they sparkled in the sunlight.
‘No. It’s just it’s really fast. I’m used to my mini and it’s...Well it’s a sports car! She knew she was panicking.
‘You CAN drive them like any other car you know?’ He was being persistent, her arguments pointless as she reluctantly took the keys from him.
’Don’t you have a Range Rover laying around. You know like normal Lairds and highland people have?’
He shook the keys suggestively in her hands as though motioning that this was what she was getting, and he wasn’t listening to arguments.
‘Fine! But if I damage it, scratch it or break it, you just remember you pushed me into driving it.’ She mused, her hands trembling a little at being trusted with his prized possession.
He turned her slowly and placed a long kiss on her mouth, fingers trailing down her throat and back up again to her jawline seductively.
‘It’s only a car, and yeah I left my Range Rover packed up with my tartan pants and bagpipes... I’m expecting some sort of scratching or breaking Penelope as I’ve seen you drive, remember!’ He laughed at her as she moved back in mock anger, a comical frown on her face and batted him in the stomach. Pulling her back into a headlock and planting a kiss on her head, he turned her, moving her forward out the door with a gentle shove.
‘Besides, there are ways in which you can make up for any damage that I would be highly open to.’ He grinned after her as she waved him away and shook her head. Exasperated with his one-track mind yet secretly pleased that by lending her his car he was showing that the relationship between them was not going to be a secret anymore. Anyone out on the road knew his car and everyone knew he never loaned it to anyone.
The car made her nervous as soon as she slid into the driver’s seat.
The smooth soft leather and moulded shape holding her strangely; she adjusted the seat and mirrors, glancing to make sure he had gone back inside, not wanting to be watched. She was already nervous enough in the sleek black cockpit of the car. The sea of buttons and gadgets illuminated in the gloom under the deeply tinted windows. It felt like being inside a very modern spaceship. A highly expensive modern spaceship. The hum and power of the engine caused her nerves to start, she could tell from even the feel beneath her hands and feet that this was more car than she had ever driven and lost her nerve. Her stomach lurching.
A small shake and internal pep talk had her reversing slowly and carefully, afraid to put her foot down and moved gently into position to then head down the drive. She kept telling herself the cottage was not far and out loud to her reflection in the mirror that she would never drive this beast again. On the straight road she relaxed a little; this wasn’t so bad once you got used to it. The smooth purring drive, the roar, anytime you accelerated. Rose realised how sensitive the pedals were and trod gently, trying to ignore the huge price tag on the car. Keeping below the speed limit, she felt relief at the sight of her turn in and indicated. He could keep his car to himself in future, her hands were clammy with the effort of not killing herself.
Parking the sleek car easily behind her parent’s and making sure to lock it up carefully, she slid the keys into her jeans. Her feet back on the real ground felt surreal after the purring vibration of power. Welcoming. She didn’t know what men’s obsession with cars like that was all about. She felt a nervous wreck. Somewhat awed at his lack of fear and his ability to drive it around casually.
Muffin greeted her ecstatically as soon as she entered the front door. It felt like she had been gone for days. The warmth and cosy sight of her cottage instantly relaxing her. Her parents were in the kitchen making breakfast and called out their greetings at the sound of her. It did not take long to bring them up to speed on Morag.
‘Has he gone back to the hospital then? her mother enquired. A look of interest and accusation on her face. Unsure how to take it.
‘No. He’s gone to tell his father what’s gone on. He doesn’t live in the manor anymore but in one of the fishing crofts nearby.’ Her mother of course intrigued by that tit bit of information then had to drag out the details of why the father had left his own home. Nodding understandingly when she told them that the tragic death of their mother had a devastating effect on the man.
‘Still likes a good shindig, though!’ Her father chimed in, rubbing his still recovering belly. He still looked a bit peaky from the day before.
