Page 12 of The Allotment on Willow Tree Lane

It had been nice, though.

Wonderful, actually, even if it had been totally unexpected.

Damon’s breathing was as ragged as her own as he stared deeply into her eyes. Ceri tried to read his expression, but apart from his obvious arousal, he was giving nothing away. He might be seriously regretting it, for all she knew.

‘I’d… um… better be off,’ she stammered, stepping back to put some distance between them.

‘Let me walk you—’

‘No.It’s OK. I’ll be fine. Thanks, anyway.’ She took another step, half of her praying that he wouldn’t stop her, the other half hoping that he would. She turned on her heel, calling over her shoulder. ‘It was nice meeting you, Damon.’

‘Are you sure you—?’

‘Bye!’ She darted away, the grass swishing at her bare legs as she headed for home before she said or did something she would regret.

Mind-blowing. It wasn’t a phrase Damon often used, but it was utterly apt for what had just happened, he thought, as he sauntered back to the house.

Actually, whathadjust happened?

He wasn’t sure, but he knew he’d enjoyed it. Right up to the part where she’d bade him a breezy goodbye and had left him standing in the field watching her walk away into the night. He hadn’t taken his eyes off her until she disappeared from view.

The urge to run after her was strong but held firmly in check by knowing he didn’t need any more complications right now. Even if she was up for more than a kiss, he wasn’t the type of man to hop into bed with a woman without it meaning something. That had been Aiden’s forte. Luke had his fair share of one-night stands, too – and those nights had sometimes stretched into a couple of days if the timing had been right and the band hadn’t needed to dash off to the next gig.

Damon had been the more reserved of the three. Aiden had called him boring, but Damon hadn’t risen to the friendly teasing. He’d tried casual sex a few times, but it had always left him dissatisfied and restless. He’d also tried having a steady girlfriend, but that hadn’t worked out either. Unable to decide whether it was his lifestyle that was the cause, or whether it was he who had been to blame for his failed relationships, Damon had knocked romance on the head and concentrated on his music.

Then Aiden had been killed and Damon had the awful feeling that he would never be able to concentrate on anything ever again.

The loss hit him anew. For a while this evening, he’d managed to forget, and guilt coursed through him. All it had taken was for a beautiful woman to kiss him, and the funeral and everything that had gone before had flown out of his mind. From the moment he’d seen Ceri dancing in the meadow, he hadn’t thought about Aiden once.

Disgusted with himself, he wondered how he could have allowed such a thing to happen. Then abruptly he understood…

For the first time in far too long, he had felt like a normal guy. Ceri clearly hadn’t recognised him. She hadn’t had any idea who he was, and he relished the anonymity.

Yet, less than twelve hours since Aiden had been laid to rest, Damon had kissed a woman. His reaction to her had taken him totally by surprise, and the only excuse he could find was that the heavy emotions of the day had clouded his sense of right and wrong.

But ithadbeen right, a part of him argued. Some fleeting stolen moments with a beautiful stranger who appeared to want nothing from their brief encounter, had given him a modicum of peace for the short amount of time he’d been with her.

The kiss had taken him by surprise, but it had felt so good, so natural, and he believed she had enjoyed it as much as he had.

However, fresh guilt pricked at him. He had no right to enjoy himself when Aiden lay cold in the ground.

Taking his phone out of his pocket, he thumbed Luke’s number, but it rang and rang, until it eventually cut off.

Sadie, then. She was the only other person who he could talk to about this, who might understand.

‘It’s Damon,’ he announced when she answered.

‘Where are you? Are you OK?’

‘I’m at Gran’s house in Foxmore.’

‘Are you OK?’ she repeated.

‘Not really. You?’

‘Not really.’

‘I didn’t think you were,’ he replied softly. Despite her bravado earlier, he could tell how badly she was hurting.

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