Page 92 of Oz
He takes a deep breath and suddenly his face is illuminated with the widest smile I’ve ever seen. “Okay,” he breathes. “Are we doing this?”
I nod and smile tenderly. “Yes, we are.” I pause. “Together.”
He grins, and I gasp as he grabs my face and pulls me towards him, dropping a gentle kiss on my lips. He pulls back and walks us over to the table.
“Here he is,” he says happily. “Everyone, I’d like you to meet my boyfriend, Oz Gallagher.”
Later that night I strip my clothes off and step into the shower with a sigh of relief. It had got hot and sticky later on in the marquee when the dancing had started. I look at the shower and smile. Out of everywhere in the house, this is one of my favourite places. It’s a huge cubicle tiled with pale blue subway tiles and with plenty of room for two.
“That’s a happy sigh.”
I look up and smile at the sight of Silas through the shower door leaning against the sink. He’s down to his trousers and shirt but the shirt is open and showing off that wonderful hairy chest.
“It’s lovely. It was so hot in the tent.”
“I was very proud of you tonight.” His quiet voice cuts through the noise of the water and I rub my hand down my wet face, staring at him through the glass.
“Why?”
“I was proud to have you by my side. You’re so funny and irreverent. You won so many people over.”
“Not everyone.”
He shrugs. “Of course not. But we can’t please them all. That’s not something I’m ever going to try to do. As long as the people I love are happy, nothing else matters.”
“Your mother won’t come round, will she?”
She’d vanished after the meal, taking a drunk Martin with her and returning back to their home. I can’t say I’ll miss her, but she is his mother.
He looks at me intently. “I can’t bring myself to be bothered. I think a tiny part of me will always care about her because she’s my mother, but I don’t like her, and her opinion doesn’t matter to me.” He pauses with a wild-looking expression on his face. “I won’t let her come between us.”
“She won’t,” I say loudly, cutting through. “I’ve learnt my lesson tonight. I know my priorities.” I shrug. “It’s quite a small list.”
“How many items?”
I smile tenderly at him. “Just one, really. It’s you, if you’re interested.”
He smiles and his tension melts away. “That’s one of the reasons I’m so proud of you. That fierceness of yours. It’s comforting and almost familiar.”
“Is the other reason my vanishing act tonight? Are you banking on me becoming a magician?”
He smiles. “That is an idea for sure. If the electricity bill is as big as I think it’s going to be, we might have to start sawing people in half and wearing top hats.”
I laugh but then sober. “And we’ll do that together.” He looks at me and gives a glorious smile. I look around the door and beckon him. “Come in here with me,” I say in a low voice.
He straightens, looking at me intently, and the atmosphere thickens. I watch as he removes his clothing piece by slow piece and then step back so he can get into the shower enclosure. He brushes past me, my wet skin sliding on his, and I groan as I feel the hairs on his chest rub against my sensitive nipples.
He stands under the spray, letting the water cascade down over him until his hair turns jet black and water beads on his eyelashes like tiny diamonds. He opens his arms and I moveinstantly into them, lifting my head for the kiss he gives me, opening my mouth and sighing as his tongue rubs against mine.
We kiss for a long while as the water pours down on us, and when he pulls back his lips are swollen and red and his eyes at half-mast.
“I love you,” he whispers. “I’m sorry but I can’t stop it and I don’t want to. I know it’s not what you want to hear at the moment, but I can’t keep it in anymore.”
I put my hand over his mouth and the low impassioned words stop. For a second his eyes register apprehension, which I cannot stand to see there. Not about me.
“I love you too.”
The words seem to twine around us like the steam, and for a long second he’s silent apart from a gasp.
