Page 33 of The Night Before Christmas
‘Just my pride. And my knee. My knee hurts.’
Felicity wanted to cry. She bit back the tears. She felt mortified.
What an absolute tool. Messed this right up, haven’t you?
James put his arm around her, and they sat for a moment like that, her head hovering just above his shoulder.
‘I can’t believe I did that.’
‘Don’t worry about it, we all fall over.’
‘Do we? Really? I mean, honestly… have you ever fallen over in front of a–?’ She nearly said ‘date’. ‘In front of someone else. Or is it just me? I’m so embarrassed.’
‘Don’t be, honestly.’
‘But have you though?’
‘No, no, I haven’t. But I could. So easily.’
‘I find that hard to believe.’
She shivered with cold, suddenly, and James pulled her closer.
‘Do you want me to take a look at your knee?’
‘No, no, I’ll be fine. Thank you though. It’s just my pride. I’d prefer it if you could somehow turn back time and forget this whole evening.’
‘After the night we’ve had? No way. I never want to forget this evening. Fall included.’
As if on a silent cue, they stood up, and turned towards each other. Felicity ached all over and desperately tried to straighten herself so he wouldn’t guess how much it hurt.
‘Thanks for not laughing your head off,’ said Felicity, looking up at him, knee throbbing, face burning. Oh, the actual mortifying horrendous shame.
James chuckled. ‘Oh, I will later, don’t worry about that. And I’ll be telling everyone I meet. Starting with Andrea.’
‘You total git.’
There was a long pause. She knew she should probably make a sharp exit. The embarrassment was still so raw. Her knee was getting worse by the second. Her face was probably one big grass stain. She could feel blood running down her leg.
Just go. Walk away. You’ve done enough damage for one evening.
‘See you on Monday, then,’ she said, looking into his handsome face.
James was looking down at her, smiling into her eyes. And then he was bending towards her, his lips brushed hers, gently at first, as if he didn’t want to hurt her. He drew back for a moment, and they blinked at each other in the dim orange light, and then they were kissing with an intensity that made Felicity’s entire body light up like a firework.
Well, hello there, Mr Penguin Man.
Finally, finally, her hands were in that tousled blond hair, and as his tongue touched hers she let out an involuntary moan of pleasure and all the trauma of the evening just melted away. James responded instantly, wrapping his strong arms around her, and pulling her close as they kissed more and more urgently. When his hand crept underneath her coat and caressed her back through her dress, lightly and deftly, her nerve endings sparked, boom, boom, boom, in succession. It was all a wonderful, delicious blur and she had the strangest sensation of falling, as if she could just fall right into him somehow.
As if she’d found the place she was always meant to be.
Just as she was about to let herself go completely, she felt him hesitate, and by some instinct she moved away from him, just an inch or two, so she could look right into those eyes. His pupils were huge, his eyes a sparkling blue now.
‘Everything okay?’
James was breathing hard.
‘Sorry. I don’t… I didn’t mean to do that,’ he said, running his hands through his own hair and making it stick out at all kinds of bizarre angles. ‘Watching a woman falling over just really turns me on.’
