Page 49

“I didn’t know you did wild swimming?” she said, eyeing me in a funny way that made me think she might be imagining me in my swim gear.

“Yeah. Been doing it for years. Bit of a veteran, actually.”

“I see.” She nodded, continuing to appraise me with an intrigued air. “I’ve never done it. But I’d be interested to try. I’ve heard how good it is for your mental well-​being.”

I nodded. “Figured you could probably do with a soothing for the psyche right now.”

She let out a laugh, briefly throwing her head back. I loved how expressive she was. “You’re not wrong there, Murdoch.”

I raised my eyebrows. “So, is that a yes?”

She nodded, smiling. “It’s a yes.”

*

“Just breathe, Nisa.”

“I can’t! It’s too bloody cold!”

I suppressed a smile. “Come on. I’ll do it with you, just like we practiced.” I took a breath in through my nose and out through my mouth, gesturing for her to do the same. After glaring at me for a moment in a manner that I found impossibly sexy, she joined me. I was waist-​deep in the cold waters of Loch Auchness in my swim shorts, gloves, boots, and hat, and she was standing in front of me in the wet suit I convinced her to wear over her swimming costume, also in water gloves and boots plus a woolly hat. She’d fought me on the wet suit, stubborn thing that she was, saying that if I was only wearing swimmers then she was too. But as I had been doing this for years and it was her first time, I’d managed, in the end, to convince her.

After a couple of minutes, she stepped farther in, having thus far been only up to mid-​calf. Another breath, and another step. As the water reached her mid-​thigh, she bent to scoop some in her hands and rub it over her arms, attempting to accustom the rest of her body before submersion. Another couple of steps and she was waist-​level in front of me. I took hold of her gloved hands and she opened her eyes. “Okay?” I asked her.

She nodded, looking a little less like she wanted to kill me. Though that changed when I took a step backward and led her with me, the freezing water seeping up to mid-​torso. “Oh my God, Kerr. I hate you for this.”

I chuckled. “We can turn back if you want.”

Her eyes flashed with determination. “No way. I can’t have you lording this over me.”

I shrugged, still smiling. “Fine. Let’s keep going.”

Breathing together, we continued. I turned round and just kept hold of one of her hands so I could face the right way and ease into my steps. We got to shoulder depth, mid-​shoulder for me and the top of the shoulders for her, and I gestured for us to strike out in a swim. She nodded, and we pushed out into a breaststroke.

The loch was situated north of Auchness, and we had parked up at the edge of its shores where there was a stretch of coarse sand rather than pebbles. There I had set up a small pop-up beach tent for Nisa to change in, while I just stripped off outside. I’d talked her through a safety briefing and the technique to enter the water. I’d caught her gaze straying from my face down to my bare chest a couple of times during the briefing, and I’d gotten the feeling from the way she’d bitten her lower lip that she had liked what she’d seen. I knew she’d still taken the information in because I’d gotten her to relay it back to me. So I didn’t mind her looking. In fact, I’d liked it. More than liked it. I wanted her to look at me in that way—​like she was hungry to touch what her eyes were drinking in. I wanted to be the only person she looked at like that.

The air was still, chilled and calm, the glassy surface of the water rippling out from our strokes across the loch to the opposite shoreline, which was lined with trees. It was early, and the orange hue of the sunrise rose at the top, easterly end of the loch, tendrils of pink streaking through it.

“You were right,” Nisa told me. I liked the sound of her saying that, because it was not something she admitted very often in our somewhat checkered relationship. “This is very good for the soul.”

“Right?” I said, pausing to tread water.

“Yes. I like it. But I think I’m going to have to head back in now.”

She’d done well to last a few minutes in water this cold on her first try. “Of course. Let’s head.”

“You can stay in a bit longer?”

“Nah. I’ll head back with you, get your dry robe ready.”

We swam back, our feet hitting the shallows and walking the rest of the way out.

“Shit, and I thought I was cold before,” she said, teeth chattering.

I ushered her into the tent with a towel. “Go get your wet stuff off and your warm clothes on,” I told her.

There was no one else around, so once she was inside the tent and had zipped it up, I just stripped off my shorts and rubbed at myself with my towel on the beach. I was holding the towel at crotch level when she suddenly unzipped the tent and stuck her head out. “I don’t suppose you could—​oh shit, sorry.” She ducked her head away. “I didn’t realize you were naked!”

Amusement bubbled up in my chest. “What did you think I was doing out here?”