Among the Heather (The Highlands, #2)

I still worked longer hours than most during the week, but those extra hours created a guilt-free zone for me to leave early on Fridays to catch a flight to London. They’d just moved locations, though, so last night I’d arrived back in Inverness from visiting him in Berlin. We didn’t always get a lot of time together on those weekends, but I was used to hanging around a film set, having worked as my father’s PA when I was in college. So I was cool to watch North do his thing until I could get him all to myself. The days they didn’t need him—when they filmed elaborate stunts with the stuntmen—were my favorite.

We’d spent some glorious hours in bed. And in the shower. And up against the wall. Over a dining table … My skin heated just thinking about it.

“I think we’re ready to go at the end of the month. Do you think we’re ready?”

Realizing Sloane had directed a question to me, I blinked out of my aroused stupor. “Ready?”

We sat in Flora’s, a café on Castle Street, with Monroe having lunch. Brodan was taking care of their baby boy, Lennox, this afternoon so Roe could catch up with me and Sloane. Sloane was friends with both of us and that friendship had brought us together. Thankfully, Monroe had a sincerity and kindness I felt I could trust. North was teaching me to lower my barriers again to let good people in. It helped that I hadn’t had any more weekly reminders from Caitlyn that friends like her existed. Things had grown quiet on that front, and it was bliss.

“My bakery.” Sloane smirked at me. “Where were you just now?”

“Nowhere.” I took a quick sip of tea, not meeting her eyes.

She snorted. “Yeah, I’ve been to nowhere. Walker’s usually in nowhere. Naked.”

I rolled my eyes. “What were you asking me about the bakery?”

“That it should be ready to open by the end of the month.”

Considering she was so organized she was ready to go now, I thought it sounded more than doable and said so.

“Oh, I’m so nervous thinking about it.”

“People will flood to it, Sloane,” Monroe assured her. “And opening it for only a few days a week is so smart.”

“Yeah, I hope so.” Sloane eyed me suddenly. “Enough about me. Let’s talk about you and nowhere. How was Berlin?”

My decision to date North was an enormous step for me, so we’d agreed to contain our relationship to just our friends and family. Obviously, I was on North’s set every weekend, so they all were aware, but the crew also knew better than to gossip about the cast. At least in any way that could reach the public. So I’d told my family (Allegra was happy for us, my dad was worried and wary, and Mamma kept badgering me about when she would meet North), and Sloane, Monroe, and the Adairs, but no one else officially knew. Well, North had told Theo Cavendish. I still wasn’t sure about that guy, but North fully explained what happened with Preston in London, and I was glad Theo had the presence of mind to get North out of there. And he’d said nice things about me. So maybe there was a beating heart in the aristocrat’s chest, after all.

“It was great.” I bit my lip against a secret smile. “We saw little of the city, but it was great.”

“Oh, I know what great means.” Sloane wiggled her eyebrows comically. “So, is it getting serious?”

At her words, I heard North’s deep voice in my head.

I love you.

Inwardly, I flinched and lowered my eyes so my friends couldn’t see my panic. I’d read it in his journal before I flew to London, so I knew that’s how he felt. Having him say it while we made love was one of the most beautiful things that had ever happened to me.

But for some stupid reason, I could not say the words back.

He hadn’t said it since … until last night. He’d gotten a cab to the airport with me and after we kissed for an inordinately long time at the drop-off point, he’d said he loved me.

My anxiety had clenched a fist around my throat and I couldn’t get the words out. Couldn’t reciprocate them.

Even though I felt them.

So I kissed him again. I’d poured everything I felt into that kiss and hoped it was enough for now.

But I noticed the glimmer of sadness in the back of his eyes when I walked away, and my chest had ached ever since. The thought of hurting him shredded me.

“It’s serious,” I replied quietly. “But I still have some issues to work through.” Clearly.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Monroe’s phone vibrated on the café table and she threw us an apologetic look. “It’s Brodan. One second.” She lifted the phone, tapping the screen a few times, and then her expression tightened.

“You okay?” Sloane asked.

But it was me Monroe looked at. Something about her wary, sympathetic countenance filled me with dread. “Brodan just sent me a link to a newspaper article.”

Oh, God.

I nodded nervously, and Roe handed her phone over. Taking it, I scrolled, and as I did, my hands shook.

The tabloid article headline was SCOTS ACTOR FINDS LOVE WITH HOLLYWOOD PRINCESS.

“Shit,” I murmured, my gut roiling.

There were photos of me and North in Berlin. Holding hands walking down the street. Kissing passionately at the airport.

I stopped at one picture. North was holding my face in his hands and staring at me with such adoration it made me want to cry. Until that moment, I didn’t think I’d ever fully processed the way he looked at me. Like a man in love.

Now everyone knew it.

Those feelings no longer belonged to just us.

The article said an anonymous source close to the couple told the Daily Mail that we were very much in love and had been dating for several months since meeting at Ardnoch Estate. They also said North had spent time in LA with my family, and we were all very close and talking about moving to LA together.

It was just lies pulled from speculation and guesswork.

Someone on the set had betrayed us for cash, of that I was certain. Everyone else who knew about us, I trusted.

I really did.

But now North and I were out there. My chest tightened and I felt a little dizzy as I dropped Monroe’s phone on the table. When North left me … the world would find out. I’d be humiliated all over again.

Sloane’s hand covered mine, and she asked me if I was okay. I nodded, unseeing, reeling from the violation of my privacy.

“I’ve been there, Aria,” Monroe said quietly. “The paps came after me and Brodan when he retired from acting. If you need to talk, I’m here.”

My cell rang in my purse, and I knew it was him before I even pulled it out to look at the screen.

“It’s North,” I murmured.

“You should answer. He’s probably worried,” Sloane insisted.

Part of me didn’t want to answer. I wanted to run away and hide and not deal with any of it. However, I knew that would hurt him, and I think I’d hurt North enough already.

“Hey.” The word sounded croaky to my ears as I answered.

“Gorgeous.” North sounded out of breath and panicked. “Did you see the news?”

“I did. Just this second.”

“Are you okay?”

My heart hurt that the first thing he’d thought to do was check in on me. “It’s not ideal.”