Real Men Wear Plaid!. Rhonda Nelson

eyes sparkling with delight and enough uncertainty to stroke his ego.

      “I suspect our motives are the same,” she said. “Goodnight, Ewan.”

      Yes, Ewan thought, dazed and ablaze. Yes, it was a good night.

      And if he was reading her correctly—and he was relatively certain that he was—he’d make damned sure tomorrow night ended even better.

      5

      OH, SWEET merciful hell, Gemma thought as she wobbled shakily up the stairs to her room. That kiss…

      Wow. Just wow.

      She let herself into her room, then stripped down and moved immediately to the shower. Actually, knowing that she desperately needed to bathe and remove the hair from her thorny legs was the only thing that had prevented her from taking that kiss a whole helluva lot further. She was all in favor of dirty sex, but preferred to be clean while she was doing it. She adjusted the tap. Cave people must have had a keener sex drive to compensate for the odor, Gemma thought absently, otherwise she didn’t see how the human race would have survived. She lathered up with her scented soap and sighed. She would have been a terrible cave woman.

      But that didn’t keep her from having Neanderthal fantasies about Ewan MacKinnon. Actually, the idea of dragging him into her bedroom held an infinite amount of appeal. She’d light a candle—her hat-tip to fire—and have her wicked way with him. Repeatedly.

      And she knew he’d let her.

      That was probably as intoxicating as the idea itself.

      He wanted her and, despite his excuse about not enjoying his own company as much as he thought he would, she knew that he was every bit as enthralled with her as she was with him. And given the state of her hormones—the ones he’d kept at fever pitch for the past several days—she had every intention of letting this play out. There was more at work here than mere physical attraction—something almost destined, for lack of a better description. She’d felt it since the first instant she’d clapped eyes on him and the feeling had only intensified the longer she was in his presence—or even near his presence, for that matter.

      Yes, she was supposed to be here to make some decisions about her life—what to do with it, specifically—and, other than knowing that she wanted to do something worthwhile, something that would make a difference, she was no closer to that goal than she’d been when she first started off in Milngavie. Regardless, she knew one thing she wanted to do and at the moment, that was him.

      She could think of a thousand different reasons why she shouldn’t do this—she barely knew him, for starters—but Gemma also knew she’d ignore them all. Her sex drive was strangling any reasoning or good sense and, though she knew it was fanciful thinking, there was a part of her that believed that this was supposed to happen. That she was supposed to be here, to meet him, specifically. That he was part of her path. Or maybe she was part of his.

      Either way, there was something magical—fated even—in the way things had happened and, continual hum of sexual tension aside, she felt oddly relaxed when she was with him. As though a hidden part of her which was always wound tight…suddenly gave way. It was as frightening as it was wonderful.

      And she could quite easily become addicted to the sensation.

      Or more accurately, addicted to him.

      How intriguing that they were both seeking the same sort of answer.

      “YOU’D BETTER GIVE me a time limit or you’ll never get me out of here,” Gemma warned him. Here being The Green Welly in Tyndrum, a fantastic shop which featured everything from its own whiskey store to outdoor wear and all items in between. Gemma had already spied the heather jewelry and cashmere scarves. Her eyes had simultaneously glazed over and lit up.

      Ewan consulted his watch. Despite the Ben More section, it had only taken them a couple of hours to reach Tyndrum, but if they were going to make Kingshouse by dark, then they really couldn’t afford to linger here long.

      “Twenty minutes,” Ewan told her, which seemed completely fair to him.

      They were there for an hour, during which she bought heather earrings, a cashmere scarf, a floppy hat, whiskey for her father, scone mix and clotted cream and jam for her mother and countless other items for various members of her family back in the States. Thankfully, rather than lug it around for the rest of the trip, she had it all conveniently shipped directly to her door.

      Since she’d spent what should have been their time allotted for lunch in the store, they’d bought take-away sandwiches, crisps and Mars Bar Krispies, and picnicked in a shady little glen next to the River Orchy. The water rushed over the ancient stones, lending its own music. Various birds flitted among the branches above their heads and the scent of thistle and heather perfumed the dewy air.

      He had no complaints.

      The food was excellent and the company… The company kicked ass.

      He’d learned a lot about his little damsel in distress this morning. She greeted the day with more enthusiasm than he was accustomed to, for starters. Ewan preferred to slide gently into the day. Gemma grabbed it by the balls and tugged it along in her wake. She liked extra sugar in her tea, was delighted over Nutella—something she’d never tried before—and occasionally hummed when she walked.

      Still, there was so much more he wanted to know about her and he’d just thought of a clever way to make that happen. It was a camp game, but it would have the same effect.

      “I’ve got an idea,” he said.

      She stopped chewing and her guarded gaze found his. A half-smile turned her lips. “Why does that instill my heart with a bit of panic?”

      He laughed, struck anew at how easy it was to be with her, how right the world felt when they were breathing the same air. “I don’t know, but it’s completely unwarranted, I can assure you.”

      She relaxed once more. “Then what’s this idea of yours?”

      “I want you to show me five things in that backpack.”

      She blinked. “What?”

      “You heard me. Five things from your backpack. It’s an icebreaker of sorts. You can tell a lot about a person by what they carry with them on a journey such as this.”

      Her gaze turned speculative. “And you’re going to do the same? Show me five things in yours?”

      “Of course.”

      She nodded succinctly. “Okay, I’m game. Do I take them out or do you? Draw at random or select?”

      “We’ll do yours first, and I draw at random.”

      Gemma reached over and grabbed her bag, then opened the larger compartment. “You’re probably going to pull out a pair of my underwear,” she said, blushing slightly.

      He hoped that he’d actually have her out of her underwear this evening. “Possibly.” He reached in and withdrew the first thing that his fingers touched, a dog-eared tome of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.

      Ewan quirked a brow.

      She dimpled. “I can read it over and over again and never tire of it.”

      Fair enough. He could do the same thing with his Louis L’Amour collection, but he kept that little tidbit to himself. Her choice was a literary classic—his was pure fun.

      He reached in again and this time found a digital camera. “May I?” he asked.

      She nodded and he powered on the device and flipped through her pictures. There were various snaps of her in front of Scottish landmarks, of those Highland cows she found so fascinating, blooming thistle, lots of sheep and the occasional ruin, but beyond that he found a few she’d taken somewhere else, presumably at home. “Who’s this?”

      She leaned forward, bringing her scent with her. Something light and flowery, like bottled