Page 30 of The Trouble With Love

‘There’s someone else.’ I’d blurted out the words before I’d even thought them. ‘Another man.’

Aiden frowned. This simply drew more attention to his sculpted cheek bones. ‘But you’re here, in bed with me. Where’s he? Nowhere, that’s where.’

‘No, you don’t understand. We’re not sleeping together. But . . . he and I . . . it’s . . .’ And the memory of Kai, intense eyes and long body, came sweeping through. ‘It’s something I can’t describe.’

‘Och, Holly.’ The smile was back. He really was very pretty, Aiden. Pretty and bloody persistent. ‘But I can be indescribable too you know.’ Fingers crept under the covers. ‘And I’m here, you’re horny — let’s see how we go, shall we?’

Okay. So, attempt one to talk him down, epic fail. But . . . oooh, it had its compensations.

We woke next morning to almost clear streets. The ploughs had spent the night keeping the snowfall under control and although the pavements were heaped and cars were quite often blocked in by huge lumps of ice, driving itself wasn’t a problem. My first thought was of Nicholas, and I rang the Old Lodge, the phone being answered by a slightly testy-voiced Cerys.

‘It’s still dark, Holly. I’m only up because I just performed my twenty-third trip to the loo and I’m waiting for my medal. Honest to God, I never knew there was that much liquid in the human body, I should be desiccated to the size of a walnut. And your brother isn’t awake yet, probably won’t be for a few more hours to be honest — when Kai brought him in he was so out of things that he thought I was you. I know drugs are supposed to be bad for you, but anything that makes a nine-month pregnant blonde look like a matchstick-skinny redhead is something I want to start taking as soon as possible.’

‘So Nicholas is still in bed?’

She sighed. ‘Yup. Come round mid-morningish. By then Kai should be up too and I should have passed my entire bodyweight in fluids, so we can chat properly. Okay? I mean, I’d stop and chat now, but I think I might have to go to the loo again.’

Aiden pressed himself against my back and began whispering into my ear, and I barely had time to hang up in a civil way, but at least he made me breakfast when I told him I had stuff to do. He seemed to think it was work — which I suppose meeting up with Vivienne was, in a warped kind of way — and that this was a sign that I was already adapting to his moving in. ‘I’ll get my stuff shipped down,’ he said, pouring fresh coffee from the machine I’d had since I moved in and never unpacked. ‘My furniture can go in storage, until we can find a bigger place.’

I forced my boiled egg down a dry throat and reminded myself that this was Aiden McCullough, the Scottish Spike Jonze, sitting here opposite me. Scourge of many a set, known for his exacting standards and his starlet shafting; at twenty-six still a wild child with a penchant for bondage and walking off set in high dudgeon. And he wanted to marry me? I’d only have been slightly more surprised if Barack Obama had popped up in my living room, told me Michelle was history, and how about a quickie before the next press call.

The freezing air of outside was the sweet air of freedom to me. ‘I’ll wait up for you, if you’re gonna be late back,’ Aiden called, waving me off, wearing only my dressing gown. ‘But don’t be too long, don’t want these to get cold.’ He shook the handcuffs and grinned his old, sexy grin as I fled for the car and starting digging it out with an energy borne of the dread that he might get dressed and try to come with me.

Vivienne looked a bit surprised to see me, which was perfectly understandable, it was only eight thirty. I sat in her living room on the, thankfully well-padded, couch, drank tea and jittered.

‘So, you think the spell should work faster?’ The cup rattled as I put it in the saucer. It had been one hell of a night. ‘I think I might die.’

Vivienne raised her eyebrows. ‘So it’s working for you?’

I thought about Aiden and his sudden declaration. ‘Well, I seem to have rather more excitement than usual, yes. Although some of it is pretty horrible.’

‘Then you should have thought to wish for something a little more specific. I mean, some people’s idea of excitement is a show at the theatre in Scarborough. It’s not really the spell’s fault that it doesn’t know what you find exciting. What were you expecting, torrid sex?’

‘Got that.’ I thought of Aiden and gave a, not completely horrified, shudder.

‘Death?’

Nicholas’s disappearance had certainly made me scared that he was dead. ‘That too.’

‘Oh, I don’t know then. A man who wants to take you away from everything and shower you with gifts?’

‘Yes, and that.’ Although I wasn’t entirely sure it was gifts that Aiden wanted to shower me with. He still seemed to think that we could build a relationship entirely based on never getting out of bed.

Vivienne’s eyes widened until I could see her rather inexpertly applied eyeliner. ‘Well, I suppose it’s only natural that the spell would work best for you. You supplied ingredients from the warlock’s house, after all.’

‘Is there a way to make it stop?’

A big tabby cat was eyeing my lap. I gave in and leaned back, but it sniffed at me in a generally disapproving manner and settled on the back of the sofa. ‘Stop? Why would you want it to stop?’

‘See above.’ I closed my eyes. A night with Aiden rarely contained much sleep and I must have dropped off because the next thing I was aware of was Isobel and Eve arriving together in the Isuzu.

‘Gosh, you must have been up early,’ Isobel came in first and immediately started to sneeze. ‘Damn.’ Her head disappeared into her oversized handbag as she began the frantic search for a tissue. ‘I ought to start keeping them up my sleeves.’

I gave her cardigan, Laura Ashley frock and old-lady ankle boots the once-over. ‘No, don’t,’ I said.

Eve came in, limping. She’d lost a little weight, I thought, and changed her lipstick to a more flattering pale pink. She and Isobel seemed to be on opposite ends of the self-improvement see-saw. ‘This cold plays havoc with the sciatica,’ she said. ‘Horrible.’

‘Ah, Holly, you’re awake.’ Vivienne rattled in with a refreshed tea pot. ‘Did you have a nice snooze?’

---