Now she understood why there was a helicopter sitting in the field.
‘You must have been pretty confident I’d say yes,’ she said slowly.
His eyes followed hers, and for a moment she expected his mouth to curve up into one of those impossible to resist smiles, but instead he shrugged.
‘You know what they say. Hope for the best; plan for the worst. I was hoping—’ he grimaced ‘—praying, really, that you would say yes.’
‘And if I hadn’t?’
Now he grinned. ‘Kept flying till I reached Moray. There’s a monastery there—Benedictine monks. I was going to turn my back on the world and join their order.’
She burst out laughing. ‘Then you’d better take me to lunch right now, or I might be tempted to see if that’s true.’
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘SO, TELL ME about your plans for Lamington.’
Stretching out his legs, Farlan looked over at Nia, satisfaction beating over his skin.
They had reached Brude House within twenty minutes, and they were lounging in the comfortable bar overlooking the battleship-grey waters of the loch.
‘You want to talk about Lamington?’ she said.
She looked pleased, and with a stab of guilt he wondered why he hadn’t asked her that question before. But as she started speaking about her plans for a cookery school he realised that he knew why.
Lamington had always been his glittering, faceless rival. A threat even before everything else that had happened. A threat he would never be able to defeat because Nia was Lamington.
She didn’t just live and work on the estate, she was its custodian. It was in her careful hands to preserve and pass on to her children so they could then pass it on to their children.
The idea of Nia having children with some unknown man made him want to turn the table over and roar like a stag.
Fortunately the waitress arrived, to tell them that their table was ready.
Lunch was delicious.
Brude House might not be as old or grand as Lamington, Farlan thought, but Lachlan and Holly had done a good job of turning it into a top-flight place to stay and eat.
The decor of the dining room was glamorous, yet casual, but it was the food that impressed.
A pea and curd cheese mousse the colour of young acorns was followed by lamb with broad beans and tiny wild garlic capers that exploded on your tongue like sherbet.
Watching Nia’s eyes widen, he felt a sudden, wild thumping of his heart. There were so many places he wanted to take her. Things he wanted to show her and onl
y her. And he could now.
This was all about having fun.
In bed, and out of it.
Forcing himself to stretch carelessly, he stared across the table, his eyes tracing the curve of her breasts against the smooth fabric.
‘What do you think?’ he asked.
‘It’s amazing.’
The excitement in her smile made something crack open inside him.
‘Getting here was pretty amazing too.’