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His body tensed at the word

“Do you want to talk about earlier?” he said softly

“There’s nothing to talk about I got caught in a tug of war between Lake and my parents”

She tried to shrug it off, but she could still hear every painful word frouht

“They don’t deserve you,” he said “Don’t let it get to you You’re your own person, Rainbow”

He yawned loudly and Rainne giggled He wrapped her tight in his arainst him

“This is the way it should be every day,” he told her, his words laced with sleep “Stay here with ”

“I’ anywhere,” she said, and pressed a kiss to his chest to seal her words

“I don’t ht Ito ure things out as we go”

Rainne’s heart beat faster Alastair kissed her forehead softly

“Let me take care of you, Rainne,” he whispered as he fell asleep

Rainne lay in Alastair’s ar became deep with sleep Stay with hione fro what Lake wanted, and now there was Alastair It would be so easy to do what he wanted To let him take care of her and to never have to stand up for herself She wanted it She knew he loved her It ritten in every look and kiss There was no denying the boy was perfect No Not a boy An honourable man

When Rainne was sure that he was sound asleep, she slid out from his embrace and silently pulled on her clothes On the desk, she found a pen and paper I can’t, I have to leave Please understand, was all she wrote before she put the note on the bed beside him With one last look at her beautiful Scottish boy, Rainne slipped through the door and down the stairs She borrowed a coat froht

There was a glow over central Invertary The party was in full swing She turned her back on it and walked down the side streets to the main road out of town She had her wallet in her pocket and nothing else Everything she oas in the flat above Lake’s shop Never her shop Always Lake’s

She stuck out her thumb when a campervan came up the road It slowed to a stop beside her An older couple she’d met in the shop the day before waved out at her