Page 5 of A London Little's Bunny

“Well lots of people can get stuffed,” she said. “If you started asking me personal questions about my…” she paused, casting around for a phrase, “my princess parts, then I’d slap you down so damn hard and I’d be right to. You deserve the same respect.”

He smiled at her fierceness. “You’re really very adorable.”

“And don’t I know it.”

They sat there for a few moments, quietly comfortable in each other’s company.

“I think I’d like you to kiss me,” said Essie. “If that’s something you’d like to do.”

“Very much,” said Ben, “but maybe when we’ve left my workplace?”

The laughter that burst from Essie felt sunshiney. “Yes, let’s go and grab some food, and maybe a kiss or two.”

“You only ate a few hours ago,” he pointed out, as they made their way down to the exit. “So how about we go do some truly tourist-y things before we grab food. Proper London date stuff.”

“So this is officially a date?” Essie asked.

Ben stopped and looked at her seriously. “I’d like it to be, truly.”

“Okay, date it is.” She beamed, the warmth of this connection between the two of them sinking into her soul. “Where’d you consider to be proper London date stuff then.”

They ended up choosing Covent Garden, more for the people watching than anything else; as it was the beginning of summer, the flea market was still open, and then Ben found them a table in one of the terraced bars overlooking the square, and they sipped lemonade and marvelled at the incredulity of tourists.

The sunshine was a surprise though—good weather never a guarantee, especially in May—and Essie basked in it, twirling her straw between her fingers and tapping out rhythms on the bar table.

“This isn’t too bad then?” asked Ben. “The noise?”

“We’re outside,” she said, “and not too overcrowded, so the sound kind of dissipates. It never quite does that when you’re in an enclosed space.”

He looked thoughtful. “Most of the places around here might be a bit noisy for dinner then. I’ll see if maybe I can find something a bit quieter.”

Essie watched him, earnestly searching through Google Maps to try and find an alternative venue. He really was too sweet, even with his grumpy gruffness at times. She reached out for his hand and squeezed it. “Would you like to come back to mine?”

Ben’s surprise showed on his face.

“Look, I’m not saying that we’re going to sleep together,” though she wasn’t saying that they wouldn’t, “but I’ll be more comfortable in my own space. And I have a flatmate, so it’s not like I’ll be in imminent danger.”

“Good,” he said, “because as a” —he dropped his voice to an intimate whisper—“Daddy Dom, I’d be concerned about you inviting strangers back to your flat without a safety plan in place.”

Laughing, Essie took a sip of her drink. “Oh, trust me; Charlie is more than capable of staving off the most ferocious of suitors.” She didn’t think it was necessary to share the time that Charlie had threatened to brain one of her ‘useless exes’ with a wooden spoon, but Essie knew that he had her back. The thought counted. “And we could cook dinner together. Get one of those fancy supermarket meal deals and eat and chat and chill. Get to know each other better.”

“I’d like that,” said Ben. “A lot.” Raising his hand to brush a curl from her cheek, he paused and then moved close enough that when he spoke next, she could feel his breath against her lips. “I’d love that kiss you asked for earlier, if you’d still like to.”

Essie nodded eagerly, and found herself waiting, instead of impetuously diving in. “Yes please.”

His hand caressed her cheek for a moment, and when he looked into her eyes she felt something inside her melt, as if she’d been ice and his touch was the flame she needed to bring down her walls.

Then slowly, so slowly it almost felt torturous, his lips moved towards hers until they brushed against her so softly Essie wasn’t sure that she’d imagined it.

Oh.

She wasn’t sure whether she thought that or breathed it before he was kissing her again, making her pulse raise and her pussy clench and everything tighten up to the point that when he moved back, she was almost panting with desire.

And when Essie looked in Ben’s eyes, she saw her own desire mirrored there.

Chapter Four

By the time they’d reached Essie and Charlie’s flat, the two of them had been stealing touches the whole way home. Fingers grazing accidentally on purpose against wrists, kisses pressed to cheeks and jawlines and almost to throats. They were so wrapped up in each other that when they stumbled into the kitchen and saw Charlie standing there, they froze.

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