Page 54 of Gold Digger
She slapped my chest. “Let me go,” she snapped. I sighed and loosened my arms so she could step away. She took a good few rapid steps back, putting some real distance between us, and crossed her arms. I thought this was an opportune time to return her phone. When I pulled it out of my back pocket and held it out to her she snatched it from me with a scowl.
“Let me get this right,” she said in a low, angry voice. “You came into my room and took my phone?”
“Yes, I did, and I’d do it again.”
Her eyebrows were practically in her hairline now. “You are the most high-handed, insufferable jerk on the planet.”
I inclined my head in acknowledgement and started stalking towards her. Her eyes went wide as she took some more steps back, nearly falling over a small hall chair. When she stumbled, I decided that enough was enough. I caught her arm to steady her before she could go down. One of my hands went to her jawline, the other splayed the middle of her back, holding her to me. Her breathing was rapid now, her pupils so dilated there was only a thin ring of warm brown around them.
“I completely agree.”
“W-what?” she breathed, and I smiled down at her.
“Iaminsufferable, but if that means that you actually get some sleep, then I can live with it.” Then, because she wasn’t pulling away, because I could feel her soft body through her ridiculous fluffy dressing gown, because I could count the green flecks in her brown eyes, I had to kiss her. It was a light brush of my lips against hers, but when she shivered in my arms, and her lips parted very slightly on a low moan, I took full advantage, deepening the kiss and sliding my hand into her glorious, soft as silk hair. But just as I was sliding my other hand into the dressing gown, a door slamming across the house caused Lottie to jerk in my arms, her lips wrenching from mine.
“What am I doing?” she whispered, more to herself than me. I rested my forehead on hers, my hands going to either side of her face to tilt it to mine so that I could look into her eyes.
“We’redoing what we should have been doing for the last six months if I hadn’t been such a self-absorbed arsehole and my mother wasn’t a manipulative piece of work.”
She sighed and closed her eyes. “Ollie, you can’t take my phone, you can’t give me a laptop and you can’t take Hayley to school without my permission. And you definitelycan’tkiss me.”
I kissed her again, lightning quick, then leaned back to smile at her.
“I’m sorry I scared you by taking your phone,” I said softly. “But you’re exhausted. You needed to sleep. You’ve been running on fumes for months.” I gave her a squeeze. “You would never have crumbled like that the other day if you weren’t at breaking point. I know that. So, I’m sorry if I scared you, but I’m not sorry that you had an extra couple of hours in bed. And I’m not sorry about giving you a laptop or kissing you.” I thought I’d wait to tell her that I’d actually already enrolled her back in her psychology course and paid for the rest of the year of modules – her head might have exploded.
“Couple of hours?” she said, her face draining of its remaining colour. “Cheese and rice, Vicky!”
“Don’t worry about Vicky. I’ve sorted her out. She knows you need rest. She’s been worried about you as well.” His smile dropped completely then, his voice gentle with concern. “She says you haven’t been eating, darling.”
“I do eat,” Lottie said defensively. “I just… I’m like Hayley, if I’m stressed, I feel a bit sick and…” she shrugged. “I just?—”
“Look, I don’t want to be a dick or anything. God knows I’ve been enough of one already. But you’ve got to look after yourself better. Hayley needs you healthy. Right?”
“Okay, okay,” she nodded, her cheeks heating as she looked away from me.
“Hey, don’t be embarrassed. This is not another thing to beat yourself up about, okay? You just need to start looking after yourself and making yourself a priority for once. Right?”
She bit her lip. “Right,” she said slowly. “But no more kissing.”
“Sure,” I promised with a small smile, before leaning forward and kissing her again.
Chapter 26
Let go of her
Lottie
Hayley squeezed my hand so hard I almost winced. Of course, there was a bloody pool. I should have expected that. Posh people have country houses with pools. That’s just a fact of life. And it was a boiling mid-July day. Two kids streaked past us, chucking t-shirts over their heads in their mad dash to get in the water. Hayley stopped dead in her tracks.
“Everything okay?” Ollie asked when he doubled back after noticing our abrupt stop. “I forgot to tell you to bring your swimmers, but we have plenty of spares for you and Hayley.”
“It’s fine,” I whispered through my fixed smile. “You go on and see everyone. We’ll be there in a bit.” Embarrassment flooded me in waves. It wasn’t just Hayley’s fear of the water that was making me feel so humiliated.Iwasn’t exactly the Little Mermaid either. The fact was that neither Hayley nor I could swim. There simply hadn’t been the opportunities for us that there were for other children. To be honest, Hayley had more experience thanmein water. I’d managed to scrape together the cash for some swimming lessons at the local leisure centre, but it was painfully clear how behind the other kids she was when she was stuck in group lessons with much younger kids. Hayleydidn’t do well in groups anyway, but after she’d swallowed some water and nearly vomited on the side of the pool, she cried if I ever even mentioned swimming again.
“Hey, lovebug,” I said, keeping my voice light as I kneeled in front of her. “You don’t have to go into the water if you don’t want to. Okay?”
She looked down at the floor and kicked the perfectly manicured lawn. Everything about this place was perfectly manicured. There was topiary along the driveway, for cheese’s sake. A driveway that went on and on until an imposing house loomed in the distance like something out of Downton Abbey.
Apparently, Buckingham Manor was the Buckingham “country seat”, and this was their annual summer family party. When Ollie had suggested it, I’d naively thought he meant a picnic with maybe a dozen or so peeps. I did not anticipate it to be fully catered with nearly a hundred people, waiter service, a pool and of course,of course, croquet (they were the British aristocracy, after all). A family party for me and Hayley would be the two of us and some cheese sarnies. The difference was staggering. What must it feel like to have this many people woven into your life? This many people you could call family? My heart ached even thinking about it.
