Shy Innocent In The Spotlight by Melanie Milburne
CHAPTER FIVE
MACKGAVEONEof the most discreet of his household staff directions on packing up Elodie’s things and transferring them to his car, along with food and drink for an overnight stay. He then tracked down his brother in his suite of rooms. Fraser was pacing the floor and swung to face Mack as he came in.
‘You have to talk to Sabine, Mack. You have to convince her to change her mind. Her father’s threatening to pull the plug on my career. I need to get her to reconsider, otherwise I’m doomed. That crazy Campbell bitch is behind this, I just know it. It’s why she agreed to be bridesmaid.’ He clenched his fists, his expression thunderous. ‘She wanted this to happen. She planned it from the start.’
Mack was having trouble aligning his view of Elodie with that of his brother. It was as if they were talking about two different people. The Elodie he’d spent time with was feisty at times, yes, but underneath that was a warm and sweet person who seemed to care about others more than she did herself.
Two different people...
The thought got a little more traction in his mind. Those alarm bells had rung and rung and rung inside his head until he was almost deaf with the sound of them. Why hadn’t he thought of it before? The answer was so obvious. What if he was dealing with two different people? Was it possible the young woman he had almost kissed in the library yesterday, the young woman he had convinced to go away with him overnight, was not the real Elodie Campbell? He whipped out his phone, pointedly ignoring his brother’s continued ranting, and quickly did a search of press releases about Elodie Campbell’s called-off wedding. His search proved fruitless until he typed in Lincoln Lancaster’s name and then a couple of articles loaded, one with a picture. He stared at the grainy image of three bridesmaids gathered outside the church. One of them had her face slightly turned away but Mack would recognise that profile anywhere. The younger sister of Elodie Campbell was not just a younger sister but a twin. An identical twin.
‘Are you listening to me?’ Fraser said. ‘I said I need you to talk to Sabine. Tell her she’s making a terrible mistake.’
Mack put his phone in his jacket pocket. He decided to keep his new discovery to himself a little bit longer. He wanted to find out the reason for the switch, wanted to understand the motivations behind the decision to stand in for her twin. Wanted to know how far the beautiful little imposter was going to take this charade. ‘I’m inclined to agree with Sabine. If she married you, it would be her making the terrible mistake.’
‘How can you say that? I love her.’
‘You don’t love her. You love how she made you feel. She worshipped you, got her father to give you a great job, told you all the things your male ego wanted to hear. But you don’t love her. If you did, you wouldn’t have betrayed her.’
‘It was Elodie Campbell’s fault. I wouldn’t have looked twice at her but she—’
‘I’m tired of hearing how it’s always everyone else’s fault when you stuff up,’ Mack said. ‘I can’t fix this for you, Fraser. This is your mess and for once I’m not going to untangle it for you.’ He had been doing way too much enabling of his brother, he realised now. Stepping in when he should have stepped back. His fears over Fraser taking the path of their father were real fears but he couldn’t spend his life babysitting his younger brother. The cancelled wedding was a huge wake-up call for Fraser and if Mack tried to intervene, it might lessen the impact. It was time for his brother to grow up and take responsibility for the mess he had made.
Besides, Mack had a little mess of his own to untangle.
While Mack went to see about the transfer of her luggage to his car, Elspeth took the opportunity to call her twin. ‘Elodie? You’ll never guess what happened.’
‘I was about to call you. I just saw it on social media,’ Elodie said. ‘Whatever you do, don’t say anything to the press. God, I don’t need this right now.’
‘But what about me?’ Elspeth said. ‘I’m still pretending to be you. How long do you think I can keep this up?’
‘You can come home any time you like now the wedding’s been called off. But you’ll have to lie low, and, come to think of it, so will I.’
‘Well, here’s the thing—Mack MacDiarmid is insisting I go away with him overnight.’
There was a short silence.
‘And you said yes?’ Elodie’s tone was incredulous.
‘You’re always telling me I need to be more adventurous, so that’s what I’m going to do. Go with the flow.’
‘But you’re going as me, right?’
‘Well, yes, because I can’t exactly tell him I’m not you now, can I?’ Elspeth couldn’t imagine how she could ever reveal her true identity to Mack. Not after all the lies she had told. No, she would go away with Mack and enjoy the little adventure for what it was—a chance to live a little before she went back to her normal quiet life.
‘No, I guess not but it’s kind of tricky...’ Elodie’s tone contained a note of something Elspeth hadn’t heard in it before.
‘Tricky in what way?’
‘What if the press see you together? I mean, while you’re pretending to be me?’
Elspeth frowned. ‘Hello? You’re the one who insisted I stand in for you at a society wedding, remember? Heaps of photos have been taken all weekend, so—’
‘Yes, but if you’re having a one-night stand with Mack MacDiarmid, then—’
‘I’m not having any such thing with him. He’s just keen to keep me away from the press.’
‘But you’re seriously tempted.’ Her twin stated it rather than posed it as a question.
Elspeth tried to ignore the little flutter of excitement in her belly. ‘He’s a very attractive man and, besides, you’re always telling me I need to get out more. This is my chance to live a little.’
‘But I can’t be seen to be cavorting with Mack MacDiarmid right now,’ Elodie insisted.
‘Who’s going to see you, I mean me?’
‘Anyone with a camera phone, that’s who. The media pay enormous sums for those photos these days and they often go viral. It could be very compromising for me.’
‘Because of your financial backer?’
‘That and...other things.’
‘What other things?’
‘Never mind. Just keep a low profile. And whatever you do, don’t tell Mack who you really are. He might not take too kindly to having been hoodwinked by you.’
Elspeth quailed at the thought of revealing her true identity to Mack. While she sensed he had a good sense of humour, somehow she didn’t think he would find her switching places with her twin all that amusing. Especially as it had brought about the cancellation of his brother’s wedding, an event Mack had been determined would go ahead no matter what. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t.’
A short time later, Mack helped Elspeth into a four-wheel-drive vehicle, and then drove, not out through the castle gates, as she was expecting, but deeper into the estate.
She glanced at him in confusion. ‘Where are we going? Is there a back exit to the estate?’
Mack sent her an unreadable look. ‘Not unless we climb over the Highlands on foot. There’s an old crofter’s hut up in the hills. We can hide out there overnight until the press leave. They won’t find us there.’
‘An old crofter’s hut. Wow. That sounds kind of rustic.’
‘It is.’ He sent her another sideways glance. ‘You won’t find the lack of five-star accommodation off-putting?’
‘No, it’ll be like stepping back in time.’ Not to mention right out of her comfort zone. But not because of the lack of creature comforts. Elspeth could barely believe she was agreeing to this—being spirited away to a secluded spot on the estate to be alone with Mack. To draw the attention away from her fluttering nerves she redirected the conversation. ‘Did you speak to your brother? How’s he handling things?’
He let out a deep sigh and adjusted the gears to drive over a deep pothole on the gravel road. She couldn’t stop staring at his hands, so strong and competent on the gear stick and steering wheel as he negotiated the rough passage. No doubt they were just as competent moving over a woman’s body. She suppressed a little shiver at the thought of his hands on her body. ‘He’s blaming you for everything.’
Elspeth bit down on her lower lip and glanced at the deep green forest on the left side of the car. ‘And what about you? Do you blame me too?’
‘Not at all.’ There was something in his tone that made her glance at him but his expression was masklike.
‘You’re not angry the wedding didn’t go ahead? I mean, it must have cost a bomb to host it and all...’
His mouth twisted in a rueful manner. ‘The money isn’t the issue. I’m inclined to agree with you now that I’ve thought about it. Fraser isn’t the right person for Sabine. He’s not the right person for anyone and won’t be until he does some serious work on himself.’ He shifted the gears again and the car rocked from side to side as it went over another deep ridge. ‘And he won’t do the work if I keep stepping in and making things too easy for him.’
‘I’m sure you’ve always done what you thought is best for your brother.’
Mack sent her a grim look. ‘You’re being way too generous. No, I’ve made plenty of mistakes with Fraser.’ His knuckles turned white on the steering wheel and his jaw tightened. ‘I sometimes wonder if our father hadn’t died the way he did, would Fraser have turned out differently?’ A shadow passed across his face like the scudding clouds across the sky.
Elspeth placed a gentle hand on his thigh, compelled to offer her support and comfort. ‘You’re a wonderful older brother, Mack. Anyone can see that. And don’t forget you were only young yourself when your father died. And you lost your mother so soon after that. Sometimes people are the way they are, not so much because of circumstances but because of how they deal with the circumstances. And maybe that has more to do with personality than anything else.’
Mack placed his hand over the top of hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. Tingles raced up her arm like lightning, sending a wave of heat to her core. ‘You’re nothing like the press make you out to be. I was expecting a spoilt prima donna.’
Elspeth pulled her hand out from under his and laid it in her lap before she was tempted to let it explore further along his muscled thigh. ‘I—I’ve encouraged a certain view of myself,’ she said, recalling a conversation with her twin about building Elodie’s brand. Smart, sassy, sophisticated, sexy—four words that certainly applied to her twin but not to her. ‘But it’s a public persona, it’s not the real me.’
‘As I’ve found out.’ There was a cryptic quality to his tone that sent a shiver cartwheeling down her spine. She chanced a glance at him but his expression was difficult to read, although she did happen to notice a twinkling light in his eyes.
They travelled a little way further before they came to a fast-running stream coursing across rocks. ‘Hold on,’ Mack said, shifting the gears again.
Elspeth gripped the edges of her seat and held her breath as Mack expertly guided the vehicle across the stream. ‘You’re really making sure no one can follow us, aren’t you?’
He gave her a heart-stopping grin and gunned the engine up the steep slope on the other side. ‘That’s the idea, m’eudail.’
A few minutes later, Mack pulled up outside an old crofter’s hut that was situated at the top of the rise with views across a deep valley. Elspeth was out of the vehicle before he could get to her door. She stood, taking in the spectacular view, the crisp cool air so fresh she could almost taste it. A wedge-tailed eagle freewheeled on the air currents above, the eerie sound of his call echoing across the valley. A stag deer raised its head in the distance, his giant antlers looking too heavy for him to carry. He returned to cropping the grass as if used to seeing Mack show up.
‘Oh, my goodness, it’s so beautiful...’ Elspeth gasped in wonder. ‘It’s a wonder you can bear to live anywhere else...’
Mack stood behind her, his hands going to the tops of her shoulders in a touch as light as the air she was breathing but it still sent a delicious shock wave through her body. Just knowing his tall frame was so close to her made her heart race and her pulse pound.
He quoted in a broad Scots brogue. ‘“My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here; My heart’s in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer. Chasing the wild-deer, and following the roe. My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.”’
Elspeth turned to look up at him with a smile. ‘Robert Burns says it so well.’ But inside, she was thinking of another Robert Burns quote that reminded her of the fine line she was walking. ‘The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men Gang aft agley. An’lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain. For promis’d joy.’
He gave an answering smile that made her heart flutter. ‘I’m glad you like it here.’ His voice was low and deep and rough.
‘How could I not? It’s the most stunning place I’ve ever been to.’ Eek! Elspeth suddenly remembered all the stunning locations her twin had been to. Photos of Elodie were all over the Internet, posing beside spectacular views of mountains, beaches, rainforests—you name it, Elodie had been there. Would he pick up on her slip?
Mack’s hands went to her hips, holding her within a hair’s breadth from his powerful male body. ‘But you’ve been to so many exotic locations for your work, have you not? This must hardly compare.’ His gaze was unwavering and it made her heart beat all the harder and she could feel her cheeks heating up in spite of the cool Highland breeze.
‘This is the sort of place I love the most,’ Elspeth said, conscious of heat crawling over her face. ‘It’s so peaceful and timeless. If you look out there—’ she pointed to the view across the valley ‘—there’s nothing to anchor you to this century. We could be from any time in the past. Don’t you find that amazing?’
Mack framed her face in his large hands, his gaze dipping to her mouth. ‘What I find amazing is how I’ve resisted kissing you until now. Would you mind?’
Elspeth licked her lips with a nervous flick of her tongue. ‘No... I mean yes, I want you to kiss me.’
His mouth came down to press against hers in a feather-light touchdown. He lifted his lips off hers and came down again, a little firmer this time as if driven by a pounding need for closer contact. The same pounding need that was barrelling through her own body. She gave a soft little whimper and linked her arms around his neck, opening her lips to the commanding probe of his tongue. Heat exploded inside her, molten heat that travelled to the centre of her womanhood, moistening and swelling tender tissues as primal need took over.
Mack groaned and angled his head for deeper access, one of his hands sliding into the thickness of her hair. ‘I’ve wanted to do this from the moment I met you.’ He growled against her lips.
Elspeth planted a series of short hot kisses to his lips. ‘What took you so long?’
He smiled against her lips. ‘You have no idea how much I wanted to kiss you in the library.’
She leaned against his masculine frame, her insides coiling with lust as she came into contact with the hardened ridge of his erection. ‘What stopped you?’
Mack lifted his head a fraction and stroked a lazy finger across her lower lip. ‘I wanted to get to know you better first.’
You don’t know me at all.
Elspeth wished she could tell him the truth about her identity. It seemed wrong that he thought she was Elodie. That he thought he was kissing Elodie. But the risks of confessing her true identity were too great. It would create an even bigger scandal, even more hurt for Sabine, who would feel betrayed all over again.
Elspeth traced a line around his sculptured lips. ‘How well do you think you know me?’ She couldn’t get her voice above a thready whisper.
He took the end of her finger into his mouth, sucking on it gently, his gaze holding hers. A hot shiver raced like greased lightning down her back, heat smouldering in her core at the erotic intention in the caress. ‘Well enough to know you want me as much as I want you.’
Elspeth suppressed a frisson of delight, her gaze locked on his by a force as old as time. ‘I’ve never wanted anyone like I want you.’
He smiled a slow smile and cradled one side of her face in his hand. ‘Same. So, what are we going to do about it?’
She licked her lips again, tasting the sexy salt of him, wanting him with an ache that throbbed like pain. ‘I guess we could kiss again and see what happens.’
‘Sounds like a good plan.’ His mouth came back down to hers in a blistering kiss that made the hairs on her head stand up on tiptoe. His tongue entered her mouth in a brazen thrust that sent a hot dart of need to her feminine core. Her pulse picked up its pace, her blood thrumming with primal want, her mouth feeding off his as if it were her only lifeline.
He made a guttural sound and deepened the kiss, his tongue tangling with hers in a sexy tango that fuelled her desire even more. One of his hands went to the small of her back, pressing her closer to the potent heat of his male form. A delicious shudder went through her at the erotic contact, her body secretly preparing itself for his possession. Aching for his possession as if it had been waiting all these years for this exact moment.
Mack raised his head after a few breathless moments, his eyes glazed with lust. ‘Let’s take this indoors. I want our first time to be without mosquitoes and prickling heather.’
Our first time...
My first time...
Elspeth disguised a gulping swallow. ‘Right...’
He captured her chin between his finger and thumb, his gaze suddenly searching. ‘Is something wrong?’
How could she tell him it would be her first time without revealing her deception? If she confessed, he might pull the plug on their sensual encounter. How could she sabotage something she wanted so much? She was aching for him from head to foot, need pulsing inside every cell of her body. The need for him. Only him. He had awakened something in her and she couldn’t bear to deny her body the satisfaction it craved. She schooled her features into a mask of confidence while inside her nerves were fluttering like frenzied moths. ‘Nothing. It’s just been a while since I... I got with a guy...’ Her burning cheeks could have started a grass fire.
‘You mean not since my brother?’
‘Erm...can we not talk about that?’
‘Sure.’ Mack stroked a finger down the curve of her hot cheek. ‘You don’t need to be nervous. I’m nothing like my brother.’
And I’m nothing like my sister.
‘I—I’m not nervous...’
He brushed her lips with his in a light as air kiss, his taste delighting her all over again. ‘I’m not going to rush you. We’ll get unpacked and have a drink to relax first. It’s been quite a day.’
Elspeth didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed. She didn’t need a drink—she needed him. Badly. ‘Yes, it has.’
The crofter’s hut was built on one level and made of local stone. While a little larger than some she had seen in books, it still had a quaint and timeless atmosphere. It was tastefully and respectfully renovated inside with a fireplace in the kitchen-cum-living-area as well as in the bedroom. And to her very great relief, there was even a small bathroom off the bedroom.
‘Do you come up here often?’ Elspeth asked, wondering how many women he had brought here for a private tryst.
Mack placed her bag on the floor near the bed. ‘As often as I can when I’m home. It’s my thinking space. I started to come up here after my father died. Like everything else on the estate, it was pretty run-down back then but over time I was able to fix things up.’
She perched on the edge of the bed, her hands clasped in her lap—a combination of nerves and an attempt at fighting the temptation to reach for him. ‘You were named after him, weren’t you? Sabine mentioned it when we were getting our hair and make-up done. But you don’t get called Robert.’
‘No.’ He flicked a bit of imaginary dust off a side table. ‘I was Robbie when I was a young child but everyone started calling me Mack during my early teens. It was assumed I’d go back to my father’s name after his death but it never appealed to me. I stuck with Mack.’
‘You wanted to distance yourself from him?’
He gave her a grim look. ‘You don’t get any more distant than death but that was his choice.’
Elspeth chewed her lower lip, wondering if he had ever dealt with the grief of losing his father in such a sudden and tragic way. He had had to step up and deal with the fallout from his father’s death. He wouldn’t have had time to process his own feelings, especially with his younger brother acting out and his mother needing so much emotional support. ‘Maybe he didn’t feel he had a choice at that point in his life. Things can seem so hopeless for a moment in time but even seconds later, things can look completely different. People talk about looking for the light at the end of the tunnel but life is not always a straight tunnel but more like a winding one. You can’t see around the next bend but you have to hope that something good is waiting there for you. And if the good thing isn’t around that bend, then you hope the next or the next will have it.’
Mack blew out a long sigh, his expression darkly shadowed. ‘He lied to my face so many times. Blatant lies that I’ve gone over in my head ever since, wondering why he couldn’t be honest. He ruined so many lives—my mother’s, his lover’s and their child’s. Not to mention Fraser’s. I can’t help wondering if Fraser would have turned to drink and drugs if our father had just ended his marriage instead of his life. It was so unnecessary. We would have got over his affair, even my mother would have handled that, but it was the years and years of lies that hurt the most. And then his death. The finality of it, the fallout from it.’ He shook his head, his eyes scrunched up as if in acute pain. ‘Mum was never the same. I often wonder if my father thought of that when he...’ He swallowed and continued in a ragged tone. ‘I guess I have to be thankful it wasn’t Fraser who found him, or Daisy, his little daughter.’
Elspeth’s conscience was in agony, griping with agonising pain and guilt at all the lies she had told. How could she ever tell Mack who she really was? Lies had ruined his family, torn it apart in the most brutal way. He was still dealing with the fallout of his father’s death by trying to keep his brother on the right path. He had lost both his parents within the space of a few short years and yet he had carried on stoically, doing all he could to save his ancestral home from being sold. But at what price to himself? Was that why he was a love-them-and-leave-them playboy? He didn’t allow anyone under his guard. He didn’t fall in love, in fact, believed himself incapable of it.
‘Oh, Mack...’ Elspeth rose from where she was perched on the end of the bed and went over to him, touching him on the forearm. ‘I’m so sorry you had to deal with such dreadful heartache. But I admire you so much for staying strong for everyone else. For taking control when things were flung so wildly out of control.’
Mack lifted her chin with a gentle finger, his expression rueful. ‘You’re wasting yourself as a lingerie model, you know. You should be a counsellor.’
Elspeth shifted her gaze to study his firm chin where pinpricks of dark stubble were sprouting. ‘Yes, well, it’s amazing what skills you learn on the catwalk.’ She painted a stiff smile on her face. ‘You said something about a drink?’
‘I’ll bring in the supplies from the car. Make yourself comfortable.’
Elspeth let out a long breath once the door shut behind him. How could she ever be comfortable pretending to be someone else? She wanted to be with Mack as herself, not as her twin.
But how could she tell him she had lied to him from the moment she met him?
