Page 75 of Milo
“What’s so funny?” he asks from the doorway, and I turn to smile at him.
“Nothing,” I say quickly. “Come back to bed. I’m getting my second wind.”
“Milo, I swear you’ve got a problem. You get your wind up quicker than a kite.”
I laugh as he slides into bed, pulling the covers over us and lifting one arm so I can take my now customary position curled into his side, my head tucked into his shoulder and his hand pushing my hair back because he complains that it goes up his nose.
We lie silent for a long second until he stirs, shifting his legs about. When he does it again, I look up at him curiously. “You alright?”
“I’m fine, why?”
I raise my eyebrow at the slightly defensive note in his voice. “Nothing. It’s just that after sex you normally pass out quicker than Oliver Reed after a dinner party.”
He huffs but doesn’t dispute it, which is good because he can’t.
Finally, he speaks. “I was just thinking that maybe we should go out for a meal or something rather than just have sex.”
I pull away and come up on one elbow so I can see him properly. “Like on adate?” I ask incredulously and watch as his face flushes. I bite my lip to stop myself kissing him because I love him when he’s unsure. It touches me deeply.
“Not exactly a date,” he says quickly. “Maybe look on it as two people just taking a breather before someone’s cock gets inserted into an orifice.” He pauses. “And maybe the two people should eat dinner at a restaurant because it refuels them and they could talk while they’re doing that.”
He falters, and I grin at him. “That’s a date, Niall,” I say with a smirk. “I realise that in your legions of meaningless sexual encounters that you might not have come across this concept before, but here in this realm we think that the times when a couple come together to eat, drink, and talk are called dates.”
“Fuck off,” he mutters, pulling the pillow over his eyes. I’m so charmed by this, I can’t say. I pull the pillow away and look down at him, loving every sulky line of his face.
“Why?” I ask.
He tosses the pillow to one side and bites his lip, looking unsure. “I just want to do something that doesn’t involve come for a bit.” He looks at me and adds hastily, “Not for long obviously, because that’s amazing. But I just want to get to know each other.”
I smile calmly down at him. If it were anyone else I’d let them off the hook for being so adorable, but it’s Niall, who once rubbed gravy on the bottom of my jeans to the avid delight of the dogs, so I won’t.
“I do know you,” I say calmly. “I know that you take your tea so sugared that the spoon practically stands up in the cup and that you have atrocious taste in music. That you won’t see a foreign film because the subtitles are too much work and make your eyes hurt. I know that your bedroom is so cold that even Scott of the Antarctic would have asked for a hot water bottle. That you spend loads of money on clothes online but won’t take the time from your day to go off the estate to go shopping. Which is also, incidentally, why you insist on cutting your own hair.”
“I sound like a prize. I’m not sure why you’re even sleeping with me,” he says coolly and I swoop down and kiss his nose affectionately, making him give a sound of disgust.
“Beats me,” I say cheerfully. “I must be a sucker for hopeless causes.” He glares at me and I wink. “However, I also know that when Barb’s husband was made redundant you actually told her that employment laws were forcing you to give her a pay rise. I know that when Phil hurt his back and Silas couldn’t afford another worker, you did your own and Phil’s job so he didn’t feel guilty. I also know that you worked for free for years. Silas may have given you this house, but it was derelict when you took it on and you then felt honour bound to renovate it because otherwise, he’d feel like you didn’t value the gesture and then it wouldn’t make it right and equal between the two of you.”
“How do you know this?” he asks darkly.
I sit up and come over him, straddling him and smiling down into his face. “Your staff are very fond of you even with all your faults, more faults, and even more faults.” He glares and I smile placidly. “Given any opportunity, they’ll wax lyrical about you and it’s why you have very little turnover of staff, in case you’re wondering.”
“I wasn’t,” he says sulkily and I kiss him, loving the way he chases my mouth when I sit back.
“You’re a good friend and a wonderful man, Niall,” I say calmly. “So, that’s why I’d love to go on a date with you.”
For a second he looks confused and almost embarrassed. Then he comes up on his elbows. “You werealwaysgoing on a date with me?” he says accusingly.
I shrug. “Of course.”
“Then what was all that about?”
I smile evilly at him. “Do you remember the gravy and how I had to lock myself in the bathroom to get away from Chewwy and Boris?”
He considers it and sighs. “You have a very long memory.”
“I’m hung like an elephant,” I say modestly. “But perhaps you’d be better off concentrating on the fact that I have a memory like one.”
He shakes his head. “Lo, there’s more than a touch of the minx about you.”
