The Reckless Engineer by Jac Wright Read Free Book Online

into her like into a glove two sizes too small. She had cried out in pain, clung to him, and sobbed quietly at the sheer violence of it; but she had returned to him every night he was there, again and again, as if she were mesmerized.
    Only Jack had been allowed in through Caitlin’s barrier of ice reserve and control since her break-up from Gavin, Gillian’s father, more than three years before they had met.
    Caitlin had met Gavin, a technician, when she was 22 while out on an offshore oil rig on a planned demonstration of McAllen’s newest sonic drill. The set-up of the new equipment by her own technicians had failed and Gavin had gallantly walked in and saved the day.
    Gavin was a massive lad over 6’ 4” tall and he had taken off his shirt to set up the equipment, no doubt to impress Caitlin, to reveal giant pecs of steel tattooed in blue. She hadn’t been able to take her eyes off the dragon that had wound around his left upper arm where it had morphed into various striking poses, breathing out red flames as his muscles strained to get the heavy equipment into place. Afterwards, coming back to her boat, he had turned around and lifted Caitlin off the ramp from her waist like a feather and set her down on the stern.
    Back at the port Gavin had taken Caitlin to his favourite pub and made her drink bitter beer, laughing and grimacing at the taste, while her technicians took the McAllen equipment back to the offices. In the evening he had driven her home in his beloved truck, dropping her well out of sight from the main house.
    Caitlin and Gavin had hidden their relationship from her family for as long as they could. When they were eventually found out all hell had broken lose, just as Caitlin had expected. Gavin was a poor, working-class lad, unrefined and uneducated in their eyes. A year younger than Caitlin, he had already accumulated several thousands in gambling debts and a criminal record—eight weeks in prison followed by a community service sentence for assault—Douglas had dug out the dirt. The McAllens had seen him as an out-of-control gold-digger unsuitable for the family and their daughter.
    It was all in the past in his red-blooded youth, Gavin had promised Caitlin. He had fallen into debt one day waging his salary trying to win the money needed to repair their roof before the bitterly cold Aberdeen winter months settled in, more for the sake of his old mother than for himself. He had been trying to pay it back, but the loan sharks had piled on the interest faster than he could keep up, and a fight with them had got him into trouble with the police. He would sell his truck and pay them, Gavin had promised; for her he would give up all that and turn over a new leaf.
    Caitlin would have him give up none of it. She had loved the essence of what he was exactly as he was. Immediately she had paid off Gavin’s debt, not allowing their beloved truck to be sold. He had made her stand on it at the back with Mutt, his trusty Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and had driven it through the beaches at sunset with her arms outstretched and the wind in her hair. He had run naked with her into the icy cold seas at night, and afterwards lit warm fires on the beach by the side of the truck while Mutt shook off cold water and she dried herself. He had roasted chicken wings in the open fire dipped in BBQ sauce and they had had dinners of wings, roasted corn-on-the-cob, roasted marshmallows, and bitter beer.
    But they had not believed in him; they had not given him a chance. Caitlin had stood by her love, but Gavin had folded under pressure. It had been said that Douglas McAllen, after getting Gavin fired from his job, had paid him well over a million pounds to take his old mother and disappear from Aberdeen and never to speak to or contact Caitlin again.
    Douglas McAllen had not liked Gavin Hunter and had not wanted him for his daughter. When Douglas McAllen did not want someone, he spared no expense in getting rid of him, or