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Mairi screamed and shot to her feet. Keir grabbed for her, thinking she was falling again. He clutched her hand and yanked her to him, wrapping his arms around her waist to keep her in place.
“What is it?”
“I sat on thistles!” she wailed. “There are thistles sticking out of my bum! You need to get them out.” She dug her fingers into his shoulders until he knew there would be bruising.
“Calm down,” Keir snapped as he tightened his arms around her waist. “Are you sure they didn’t just jab you?”
He didn’t need to see her to know she was glaring at him. “Get the needles out of my backside, Keir.”
“It’s dark, Mairi. I can barely see you, let alone the prickles. Can’t you get them out yourself?”
“I swear, I will kill us both if you don’t get the prickles out of my bum.”
“I’ll have to go by touch.”
“I don’t care if you pull them out with your teeth, just get it done.” Her fingers dug into the soft tissue of his shoulder, making him wince.
“Do you want to ease your hold some?”
“Do you want to drown? Because if you don’t get on with it, I’m launching backward and taking you with me.”
“Tell me again why I proposed to you.” He had to have been insane when it happened.
“I don’t know. I don’t care.” She grabbed his earlobe and yanked it. “Fix this.”
“Bloody hell, woman. Calm down.”
He ran his hand down the curve of her backside, over the soft jeans that molded to her curves, looking for thistles. It didn’t take long to find them. There were several spikes sticking out of her soft, plump flesh. No, don’t think about the flesh. Think about the pain.
Like that was going to help. He pinched one of the prickles and yanked it out. Mairi squealed and held him tighter.
Keir felt his way, pulling out each sharp prickle when he found it. He smoothed his hands over the curve of her behind. “I think that’s all of them. Are there more? Can you feel any more?”
She wiggled her rear against his palms and screeched. “I think some of them snapped off. I’m taking my jeans down. You need to get them out of my bum.”
As much as Keir wanted to get Mairi out of her jeans, this wasn’t the time or the place. “They can’t have snapped off under your jeans. You’re imagining it.”
“No, I’m imagining throwing you over the edge and listening to the satisfying splash you’ll make when you hit the water.” She fumbled for her zipper. “Move back. I need space to get these down.”
“Mairi, think about this. You’re probably just sore from the spikes that were in you. There can’t be anything left in there for me to pull out. Or if there is, it will be too small to get without tweezers.”
Logic was wasted on her. She struggled against his hold and shoved her jeans and underwear down to her knees.
When she straightened back up, Keir’s lips were almost level with paradise. All of the blood that he needed in his brain rushed south, leaving him dizzy, frustrated and very, very horny.
“Get the prickles,” Mairi ordered him.
There was nothing to do but sacrifice his good sense to the cause. With smooth, gentle strokes, he traced the curve of Mairi’s backside.
“Do you feel anything?” She tightened her hold on his shoulders, and Keir found he was beyond caring that there would be bruises.
Her backside was a thing of fantasy. It was round, full and perfectly heart-shaped. And he had his hands on it.
“Keir.” She shook him. “Are you listening to me? Do you feel anything?”
“Perfection,” he said. “I feel perfection.”
She stilled. “Are you looking for prickles or copping a feel?”
He looked up at her but saw only shadow and an outline of wild, sexy hair. “Mairi, I have my hands on your backside. Of course I’m copping a feel. But I haven’t touched any prickles. I think you’re just sore from the spikes we got out.”
“My backside is going to be covered in red lumps and sore for days. This isn’t the first time I’ve had a run-in with our national flower. It hates me.”
“Poor baby.” Keir soothed her abused skin.
Mairi relaxed into him. “That feels good.” Then she stilled. “Uh, Keir? You want to get your hands off my bum now?”
“Not really.” Keir thought it was best to be honest. “But even I know that getting frisky on this ledge is nothing more than a death wish.”
He gave her backside one last squeeze, making her gasp, before he moved his hands to the much safer area of her hips and kept a hand on her while she fastened her jeans. At last, Mairi was ready to sit. Only she didn’t.
“My bum hurts. I can’t sit on the hard ground.”
“Come here.” Keir sat back against the cliff, took her hand and pulled her into his lap.
He widened his legs, so she sat with her knees over one of his thighs and part of her backside supported on the other. Under the rest of her sore rear, there was air. “Better?” he said.
“Thanks.” She put her head on his shoulder and cuddled into his embrace.
If they hadn’t been trapped in such a precarious situation, it would have felt amazing.
“You’re hard work,” he told her.
“I know. It’s one of the reasons I’m never getting married. I’d eventually drive them nuts.”
Keir’s heart clenched. “Some men like to be driven nuts.”
“Yeah, right.”
As Keir held Mairi close, he wondered how long it would take before they were rescued. This evening was not going the way Keir had envisioned. He’d hoped for more kissing and that he’d be able to talk Mairi into pushing the twin beds in her bedroom together, so he could hold her while she slept. Hell, he wasn’t even talking about sex. He’d just wanted to spend the night with her. Instead, he was precariously perched halfway down a cliff, on a ledge that was barely big enough to hold them both.
Overhead, they heard cars pull up on the grassy embankment and stop. The boyfriends had arrived and would, hopefully, be able to rescue them. Mairi sucked in a deep breath and shouted, but the noise was drowned out by the waves. She tried again, but the same thing happened.
“I’ll shout,” Keir said.
But before he could make a sound, music blasted out, and then one of the men started singing.
“Oh no,” Mairi groaned. “They’re going to serenade me while I die.”
“Nobody’s going to die. We just have to wait for a break in the singing, then we’ll both shout.” He held her close, enjoying having her in his arms, no matter what had caused her to be there.
“Keir?” Mairi said.
“Mmm?”
“I need to go to the bathroom.”