Page 54 of Limits
Five minutes, Pav thought bitterly as he paced the corridor outside the entrance to the club. More like twenty-five. He groaned and took a seat on the bench against the wall, willing his body to come back under his control. When Jamie told him earlier what the girls had planned for Millie, Pav had decided to rush down here and put a stop to it.Jamiemight let his woman perform at that club (okay, well, if Libby ever heard anyone say that Jamielether do anything she’d probably kick them in the nuts with her crazy gymnast moves) but Pav wasn’t about to have Millie made uncomfortable in that place. The last time he’d seen her there had been the night Jamie had hired out the whole bar and transformed it from strip club to theatre for Libby to perform. Millie had been visibly stressed just watching the stage then; Pav didn’t want her put in a situation that made her feel unsafe.
And yes, Jamie said it was ‘just girls’, but who the fuck knew what bastards could be lurking about a place like that? Nobody was watching his woman prance about a pole …Ugh, he thought,when did I become such a bloody caveman?He’d never been over-possessive with a woman in the past. With hindsight he suspected that he might have overreacted a tiny, tiny amount. There were only six of them in there, and definitely no blokes allowed. He felt like a bit of a dick now, truth be known. In fact, he would have slunk away unnoticed, but he … couldn’t; not after he’d seen her up there in that outfit. Not after he’d seen her spinning round that pole, laughing. No way his body was letting him leave without her. It was his small head in control at the moment, and the bastard needed to get a hold of himself, or all those women were going to know what a state he was in. Twenty minutes (okay, more like ten, but time seemed to be moving inordinately slowly) of thinking about his yiayia’s fungal toenails hadn’t seemed to alter his Neanderthal reaction to a scantily clad Millie. He was just glad he was in jeans and not his chinos.
‘Hey,’ Millie’s soft voice drifted from the exit and he took his head out of his hands to smile up at her. Once he swept her body with his eyes, however, his smile dropped from his face.
‘Where are your trousers?’ he asked. His voice was a little choked but honestly there was only so much a man could take.
‘They’re called leggings, Willy Fiddler,’ Kira told him in disgust. ‘Please, get with the twenty-first century.’
Pav swallowed and forced himself to look away from Millie’s legs, which were in what he thought looked like a pair of black tights with neon pink fireworks exploding all over them.
‘I thought we’d be dancing, and El … El sorts all my active-wear out. I … um … she said these were what everyone wore to … be active,’ Millie said, frowning down at her non-trousers.
‘They are not trousers,’ Pav said, and Kira rolled her eyes.
‘Pav, you’ve seen me wear leggings hundreds of times, you weirdo,’ Kira said.
‘Have I?’ He thought he’d remember if women were all randomly walking around without trousers on. Then again, maybe itwasjust because it was Millie.
‘Thanks, girls,’ Millie mumbled, her face a bright shade of red. Pav began to regret his questioning of her trousers’ whereabouts. ‘I’ll just be off now.’
‘Great, yes, me too,’ Pav said, grabbing her hand as she went past and then opening the heavy oak door for her to exit the building. He was aware that he’d made a bit of an arse out of himself, and decided to brazen it out by striding confidently past the others.
‘Bye Millie, bye Weirdo,’ Kira called after them, and Pav shook his head as he let the heavy door shut behind them.
‘Uh, where are we going?’ Millie asked after Pav had tugged her along the pavement about fifty yards. ‘And … and why are we running there?’
‘I’m not …’ Pav slowed his steps when he realized thathemight not be running but Millie, with significantly shorter legs, definitely was. ‘Shit, sorry,’ he mumbled, drawing to a halt and turning to face her.
‘Listen, Millie, I really, really want to take you home,’ he told her. ‘In fact I think I’m trying to drag you home. In all honesty I’m pretty much on automatic pilot since seeing you up on that stage.’ He sighed. ‘Maybe I should take you home … to your home. Let myself calm down a bit.’
Millie cocked her head to the side and her hair fell over one of her shoulders, an adorable little frown of confusion marring her forehead.
‘Calm down? I don’t understand. Why do you need to calm down?’
A group of noisy lads passed by them at that point and Pav pulled Millie to the side of the pavement next to the entrance to Barclays. He took her face in his hands and pressed his lips against hers. She jerked in shock for a moment, and her gasp meant that when he pressed his lips back on hers he could slip his tongue inside. One of his hands went into her hair and the other down to where her non-trousers started. After a moment she seemed to forget where they were and kissed him back, both her arms going up around his neck. When he finally broke away he rested his forehead on hers, their breath mingling between them. Her pupils were so wide that only a rim of light grey iris remained. She looked shell-shocked.
‘Right,’ he muttered, his mouth inches from hers. ‘So that’s what I mean by calm down.’
‘But why –’
‘Millie, I just watched youpole danceinhot pants. And now,nowyou don’t have any trousers on. A man has got his limits, okay?’
‘Oh.’ She flushed red again and then a small smile formed on her lips.
‘That’s why I should take you home … to your home … and leave you there.’
Her smile dropped and she pulled her forehead from his. ‘I …’ She broke eye contact to stare at his throat and he felt the familiar bite of irritation at the loss. But then after squaring her shoulders she looked back up at him and drew in a deep breath. ‘Well, I want to go home toyourhome with you, and … and I don’t want you to … to … I don’t want you to calm down.’
He stared down at her for a moment and she lifted her chin and squared her jaw, making him smile. Before she could change her mind he grabbed her hand again and started back off down the road to his car.
Chapter 25
Yes, I trust you
Millie sat on the bar stool and flicked the hairband she had around her wrist. Anwar thought it might be helpful as an alternative to the pinching she normally did as a reflex to cope with stress. The bite of the band against her wrist worked nearly as well, with less bruising. Soon Millie hoped she would stop even that. But sitting here watching Pav drag the contents of his fridge out onto the kitchen island and stare at it all with his hands on his hips, she was feeling the nerves again.
Since they’d arrived at his house he’d been acting strangely. When they arrived he dragged her inside at a rate of knots and turned her to face him. She was sure he was going to kiss her – then he swore, took a step back, and ran both his hands through his hair until they were linked behind his head and he was looking up at the ceiling. That was when he started his frantic fridge evisceration. On the counter between them sat a sad-looking packet of ham, which was a week out of date, half a cucumber that had seen better days, and a bottle of Lucozade.
