“We don’t really do roughing it.” I flicked on various lights as I moved through the space. “We’ve been coming here for the past few summers. It’s nice.”
“It’s not summer now.” Dom rubbed his arms. “Please tell me this place is heated.”
“It’s Scotland, not Victorian times,” I said, rolling my eyes. “There’s central heating, and a fire.”
Dom’s eyes lit up when he located it. “Should I be jealous that you’ve been sharing such a romantic spot with my dad?”
“Be serious.” I moved past him with a scowl to fetch our luggage from the car. “It’s yourdad.”
I waited until I was well beyond his reach to say, “Besides, it’s not like we could light a fire in July. We were more likely to walk around half-dressed than anything else.”
“That’s not funny,” Dom muttered as he joined me at the boot. “I go kind of crazy when I think about the two of you spending time together.”
“Why?” I shot him a curious look. “It’s not like there was anything weird going on. He’s your dad, for fuck’s sake. That’s just wrong.”
“Not like that,” Dom said, hefting a bag out of the boot. I huffed as I realised this was why Frank had insisted he put my luggage in himself. His battered suitcase was nowhere to be seen. “Just that he got to be a part of your life, that’s all.”
“No one was forcing you not to be part of it,” I said curtly, grabbing my own bags. “You made that decision.”
I felt Dom’s eyes burning into the back of my neck as we returned to the cabin. “That’s not true. As I remember it, you’re the one who told me not to contact you. You’re the one who ended it.”
It was right there on the tip of my tongue; the confession about what had followed. How I’d walked through the night and realised my error. The way I’d run home, ready to work things out with him.
Only to find he’d already left.
With Max.
“Here’s your room,” I said instead, opening the door to the one Frank usually crashed in. Dom pouted at the neatly made bed. Weirdly, it had the tension in me unravelling, my lips twitching at the fact that such a burly, built man could fuckingpoutlike that. “What?”
“Thought we’d be sharing,” Dom muttered, chucking his bag on the floor. “An only-one-bed situation.”
“This isn’t a rom-com.” No, it really wasn’t.
Our story was a tragedy. I had to remember that.
“Maybe the heat will go out.” Dom waggled his brows at me. “We might have to…snuggle.”
“I’d rather freeze to death,” I said drily.
Dom leaned against the doorframe, crossing his arms over his chest. My throat bobbed as I fought the urge to let my eyes dip down to his biceps.
“You’ll soon change your tune.”
“Whatever.” I took a step back, trying to calm my racing heart. “We’d better get everything sorted if we want to get some fishing in before dark.”
Dom stepped out into the corridor, uncertainty crossing his face. “Wait, we’re actually going to fish?”
I tilted my head. “What did you think we’d be doing?”
His eyes ran slowly over me as he raised his thumb to his mouth. I watched, hungrily, as he stroked his lower lip. “Not fishing, that’s for sure.”
My breathing hitched as our eyes met. It was like there was a physical rope going from Dom’s chest to mine, pulling me closer.
I stumbled back until I hit the wall.
Dom smirked arrogantly.
“We’re fishing,” I said, wincing internally at the hoarseness of my voice. “Just fishing, Dom.”