‘Make love?’
He gave a short laugh. ‘Not here in the snow. When was the last time you made a snowman?’
‘Years and years.’
‘Shall we?’
Aerin smiled. ‘I’d love to.’
Within minutes they had built a rather impressive-looking snowman with black stones for eyes and twigs for arms. Aerin stood back to look at their handiwork. ‘We need a carrot for his nose.’
‘Hold that thought.’ Drake went back to the house and came out soon after with a carrot. ‘Here you go. One carrot as requested.’
Aerin placed the carrot on the snowman and stood back. ‘I wonder how long before he melts?’
‘Who knows?’ There was a strange quality to Drake’s voice, and when she glanced up at him he was looking at the snowman with a frown carved deep in his forehead.
Maybe he was thinking about his own frozen state. His locked-away heart that he refused to open to love. What would it take to melt the armour around him?
And was she the one to do it?
The sunshine did its job, so when Aerin and Drake woke the next morning, the roads were clear enough for travelling back to Edinburgh. Aerin was determined not to be teary or clingy when it came time to say goodbye. Within a few hours, they had landed back in London and Drake drove her to her flat. He had been silent for most of the journey, as had she.
Drake carried her luggage up to her flat and set it inside the door. He straightened and smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes, which were shadowed and shuttered. ‘I guess I’d better get going.’
‘Would you like a cup of tea or something?’ She could have bitten her tongue off for sounding so eager to keep him with her a little longer.
A flicker of something passed over his face. ‘I’d better be on my way.’ He hesitated for a long moment and then reached for her, holding her in a tight hug against his tall frame. ‘Take care of yourself, Goldilocks.’ His voice was so husky it sounded as if he had swallowed a handful of gravel.
A choking lump formed in her throat. ‘I will.’
Drake slowly released her and looked at her upturned face for another beat or two. ‘Keep sending those clients my way, okay?’
Aerin forced a smile to her lips. ‘I will.’
And then he was gone.
Drake let out a breath he had been holding for what felt like years. So, that was it. Goodbye and thanks for the memories. But it was different somehow. Different because he would be seeing her again, either at her parents’ or brother’s house or through their work connections. He would have to put the memories of their time together in Scotland to one side. He must not think about her in that way. He must not recall the gentle touch of her hands, the sweet but explosive heat of her mouth. The warm silky welcome of her body and the earth-shattering release that powered through them both.
He shuddered and strode to his car, hunching his shoulders against the icy rain that had started. He had never once broken his vow of sobriety. Never once had he craved the taste of alcohol to numb his senses, to blank out his mind. But right then, he wished he could find a way to numb himself from the pain of saying goodbye.
‘So, how was your trip?’ Cathleen, his secretary, asked the following morning.
‘Fine.’
She leaned back in her chair and surveyed him with an assessing look. ‘First holiday you’ve taken in years.’
‘It wasn’t a holiday.’
‘What was it, then?’
It was the best time I’ve had in for ever. I feel like a different man. I feel freer than I’ve felt in years.
Disturbed by his torrent of thoughts, Drake masked his features and leafed through the sheaf of papers she had prepared for him on her desk. ‘I was doing a favour for a friend.’
‘Aerin Drysdale, right?’
He flicked faster through the paperwork, trying not to picture Aerin’s naked body in bed beside him. Trying not to remember how it felt to hold her in his arms while she came apart in pleasure. Trying to remind himself that it was dumb of him to be thinking about her at all. Their fling was over. It had to be. ‘I need to catch up on a bit of work for the next couple of days. I don’t want to be interrupted unless it’s an emergency.’