Page 33 of The Day After Christmas
Until that moment, Felicity hadn’t known how much it did bother her. But at his words, an invisible weight lifted from her shoulders. He was right. Erika’s shadow was all over the house. The stark, minimalist kitchen, the Japanese wall art, the aesthetically pleasing but ultimately super-uncomfortable furniture. The only thing James had chosen in the whole place was this huge snuggly sofa they were now curled up on. It was incidentally also the only thing in the house that Felicity really liked.
‘I think so too.’
James’s mouth lifted in delight at her words and he leant in to kiss her hungrily, taking the breath from her body.
‘Hold on, hold on,’ she said, after a few lingering moments.
He chuckled against her lips. A low, rumbling sound that made her shiver with delight. ‘Sorry, I just love kissing you.’
She put a hand on his Disney prince chest, muscles taut beneath, and leant back.
‘Believe me, not as much as I love you kissing me.’ He leant towards her again at that, eyes twinkling, but she pushed against him. ‘But aren’t you forgetting something?’
‘What?’
‘Well, how about the fact that I work for an animal charity and have no money whatsoever?’
‘What about your flat?’
She had almost forgotten about her flat. Tiny, bijou, cosy. How she had loved living in that place.
‘It was rented, remember? I didn’t even get my deposit back because they said I’d, ahem, left it in a worse state than when I found it. Which, frankly, I find very insulting because I even scrubbed the oven for a whole half an hour.’
James laughed. ‘Yes, but your idea of scrubbing an oven…’
‘What is that supposed to mean?’
He just stared at her, eyebrows raised, until she had to admit, he was absolutely right. ‘I hate housework,’ she said with a shrug. ‘You know this.’
‘Me too,’ he replied.
‘So…? How are we gonna buy a house together with no money? And make sure we can still get a cleaner in sometimes?’
He waved a hand around. ‘Because this place is going to raise quite enough for what we need.’
Felicity followed his gaze. It was an amazing house, a converted Victorian pile right in the middle of the most expensive area to live in the whole of Derbyshire, Chancery Downs. Or Chelsea Downs as the locals liked to call it because of the abundance of Range Rovers in the area.
‘I can’t ask you to do that,’ she said softly.
‘I want to,’ he said.
‘Doesn’t Erika…?’ Her voice died on her lips, the sentence unfinished.
James shook his head. ‘I bought out her share when she… left. It wasn’t much. She did all the furnishings and I paid for it all. That was pretty standard.’
‘So she just wanted you for your cheque book?’
‘Something like that.’
‘Stupid girl didn’t know what she had.’ Felicity smiled, leaning in to kiss him. A haunted look passed across his face just for a second, and then he smiled and brushed her lips lightly with his.
‘And I suppose you do?’
She nodded vigorously. She’d mercifully only come across Erika once in the flesh but she knew all she needed to know. Beautiful Erika was an idiot to let this incredible man go. Pure and simple. ‘Hell, yeah I do.’
‘Then let’s go house-hunting, Miss Brooks.’
Goose bumps prickled down her spine.
