Affection is a coal that must be cool’d; else, suffer’d, it will set the heart on fire – Venus and Adonis
The moment Lucy stepped through the sliding doors and into the arrivals hall, she took his breath away. He was leaning on a pillar, trying to answer some emails as he scanned the crowd with half an eye, not giving either his full attention. But then she was there, her blonde hair curling around her shoulders, the New York sun streaming in through the glass wall of the airport, lighting her up like there was nobody else in the room.
And there wasn’t. At least, not for him, and not right then. He wasn’t sure what to do with that feeling, so he pushed it down the same way he pushed himself off the pillar, covering the distance between them in long strides, unable to get that smile off his face. When she spotted him fighting his way through the crowd, her eyes lit up, and the biggest, craziest grin formed on her lips.
He hadn’t realised how tense he’d been until his muscles loosened, the tightness in his shoulders melting away. Hadn’t realised he’d been holding his breath, either, until the air rushed out in one go.
‘You’re a sight for sore eyes,’ he said when he was only a few feet away from her. She opened her mouth to reply, but then someone barged into the back of her, knocking her for six. She tumbled forward, loosening her hold on her suitcase just as it fell to the floor, and Lachlan reached out, catching her a second before her face joined her suitcase on the tiles. He scooped her up into his arms, frowning as he looked around to find the culprit, but there were way too many people, and they were swarming around them like ants.
‘You okay?’ he asked, staring down at her, taking her in. So much prettier than he remembered – if that was even possible.
‘I’m fine.’ She righted herself and grabbed hold of her case, staring up at him with those big, wide eyes. In the melee, her hair had fallen over her brow, and he gently brushed it off with his fingers, tucking the thick golden strands behind her ears. Once he’d touched her, he couldn’t take his hand away. Instead, he ran his thumb across her cheek, her jaw, her full bottom lip. But that wasn’t enough. He wanted to kiss her, taste her, to slide his tongue into her warm, velvet mouth. To do everything he’d thought about in the past two weeks.
As he brushed his lips against hers, she closed her eyes, letting go of her suitcase once again and looping her arms around his neck. Her body was pressed closely into his, enough that it was sending his senses crazy, at the feel of her, her soft fragrance, the way every time their lips parted she took a sharp mouthful of air.
‘Christ, I’ve missed you.’
She opened her eyes, smiling up at him. ‘I’ve missed you, too.’ Her expression matched his – desire tinged with something deeper. Something he wasn’t sure he could name even if he wanted to. Instead, he pressed his lips against hers again, the need for her pulsing through his body.
When they finally stopped kissing, he grabbed her case in one hand and put his other arm around her, not willing to have her pushed over again. They let themselves be carried along by the tide of people, spilling out onto the sidewalk, where the crowd finally dispersed. His car pulled up alongside them within a minute, and the driver climbed out and took her case, Lachlan opening the back door so that Lucy could sit inside.
‘You have a driver?’ she asked him, that cute grin on her face again. ‘I always imagined you zipping around New York in a Ferrari.’
He laughed. ‘It’s impossible to zip around New York at all, whether you’re in a Ferrari or an old wreck. And yeah, I have a driver during the week. It means I can work on my laptop while I’m travelling.’
The driver slowly eased the car into the middle lane, and Lucy looked around the interior of the Lincoln, taking in the cream leather upholstery, the spacious back seats, the monitor fixed to the back of the driver’s seat. She glanced back at Lachlan. ‘It’s like an office away from the office.’
Damn if he didn’t want to kiss her again. But this wasn’t a limo, and the driver was only a breath away from them. And if he was being honest, he didn’t want to embarrass her, knowing her the way he did. She was intensely private – even the kiss in the airport was out of character. He wasn’t planning on pushing his luck.
He’d stretched it far enough already. He couldn’t believe she was actually here with him, even less that she’d removed herself from his case. Her career was everything to her, and the fact she’d told her boss about their relationship had pretty much blown him away.
This thing between them may have started as a fling – or even worse, an itch he’d been desperate to scratch – but now it was so much more than that. Though the thought of something serious developing between him and Lucy scared him, the thought of it not happening scared him more. Just breathing the same air as her made his life so much better.
‘Are you tired?’ he asked, looking at her with soft eyes. ‘Or hungry? We can stop off and get some food on the way back to the apartment if you like.’
‘Don’t you need to get back to work?’ she asked, checking her watch. ‘It’s only the afternoon, I assumed you’d want to go straight to the office.’
‘I was planning on taking you straight home,’ he told her. And his tone didn’t leave any space for guessing what he meant. Just because he could restrain himself while his driver was only a few feet away from them, didn’t mean he didn’t want to tear her clothes off and touch her all over.
‘Oh.’ She glanced at the driver from the corner of her eye. Lachlan mentally patted himself on the back for anticipating her response. He was getting to understand the way she thought – so different to him, and yet so very entrancing.
‘And then tomorrow night I want to introduce you to some friends of mine,’ he carried on. ‘Though if you’d rather do some sightseeing, we can arrange that too.’
‘I’ve already been to New York,’ she told him, ‘I don’t need to go sightseeing. I came to see you.’
Christ, she knew exactly what to say to make his dried-up little heart beat faster.
‘You’ll definitely be seeing a lot of me,’ he said, his voice low. She smiled, then bit on the corner of her lip, glancing down at her lap. She was driving him crazy with the coyness, the same way she drove him crazy no matter what she did. Would he ever get enough of her?
‘That’s the plan,’ she said softly.
Nope. He could never get enough.
‘You still want to take the bridge, Mr MacLeish?’ the driver asked, flipping up the indicator to take the right exit. Lucy looked out of the window at the view ahead. The evening was creeping in, an orange glow cast across the island of Manhattan. The skyline rose and fell in geometric splendour, the tall buildings dark against the sky. It was breathtaking – a perfect blend of man and nature – so different to the ancient beauty of Edinburgh.
‘This was my first ever view of Manhattan,’ Lachlan said, leaning across her to point out the window. ‘I was eight years old. My father was supposed to be arranging for me to be picked up from the airport, but when I walked into the arrivals hall, nobody was there.
Lucy turned to look at him. ‘They left you at the airport alone? In a strange city?’
He nodded, but he didn’t look as upset as she felt. Lucy found herself taking his hand, wrapping her fingers around his palm as if she could save him.
‘I found a payphone and called his office. He told me to jump in a cab and he’d pay for it at the other end.’ He gave her a wry grin. ‘None of them would take me, and in the end he had to send his driver out to collect me. I still don’t know whether my father told him to take his time, or if he just felt sorry for me, but he took a slower route, just to let me see the sights. Told me the best view of Manhattan was from the Queensboro Bridge.’
‘This bridge?’ she asked, looking out at the old cantilevered construction. Set proudly on tall stone towers that rose out of the water, its iron trusses rose and fell in perfect symmetry.
‘Yeah. He pulled up for a few minutes, ignored all the cars honking their horns behind him, and told me to take a good look. Told me that once upon a time there’d been nothing here, save for fields and rivers and animals. Said that somebody had stood here – the way we were stopped then – and decided they were going to build a city.’ Lachlan smiled, his eyes misted with memories. ‘That if man could make New York, then we could achieve anything. We just had to dream big enough.’
‘He sounds nothing like any driver I’ve had in New York.’
Lachlan laughed, and the sound warmed her. ‘He definitely was one of a kind. Though Frank,’ he nodded his head at the driver, ‘is pretty close.’
‘I’m not stopping on the bridge,’ Frank said, having clearly listened in. ‘Not even for you, sir.’
Lachlan squeezed Lucy’s hand tightly, amusement written on his face. His moment of vulnerability was gone, replaced by the easy confidence she was used to. She filed the memory away – another glimpse into the man beneath the hard skin and the cute smile. A reminder of what pulled her to him every time they spoke. They’d both had hard childhoods – in one way or another – and they were both the products of always wanting more than they could have. The need to succeed flowed in his veins the same way it flowed through hers. A way to prove to the world they mattered.
They were two people made from the same tough material, and it only made her want to know him more.