Page 44 of Kissing Games
‘Just leave. I’ve had enough humiliation for one night.’ Her shoulders shook with her tears.
‘Do you think I rejected you back there?’
She nodded.
‘Dickhead,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘Valentina, listen to me. I want you so badly it hurts. Whatever blood is needed for my limited intellect is permanently rerouted to my dick when you’re around. But I don’t want you doing anythingyoudon’t want to do, anythingyouregret. I’m not in your league, Valentina. I’ll never be. And I don’t want to take advantage of you when you’re drunk.’
She lifted a hand and he gave her the toilet paper. She wiped her face and blew her nose. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.
‘For what? You’ve ticked off more teenager boxes than I intended tonight. You’re on fire.’
She smiled, despite herself.
He pulled out her phone. ‘Want me to take a picture to show Isabella? You left this on the table when you ran, so I picked it up.’
Valentina nodded. ‘She’ll love this. She is always telling me I’m too well behaved.’ She unlocked it and passed it to him.
He stepped out of the cubicle and snapped some photos of her sitting on the floor looking sorry for herself.
‘Charlie?’
‘Yes, love?’
‘I feel terrible.’
‘You going to be sick again?’
‘I don’t think so, but my head is being crushed by a rock.’
He handed her the glass of water. ‘Drink this, then we’ll walk home. When we get back, have two paracetamol and a pint of water. Then bed.’
‘I need to settle the bill. My purse. It’s in my jacket pocket.’
He took her purse out of his pocket. ‘I picked it up with your phone. The bill’s sorted.’
‘Charlie, no,’ she moaned. ‘I was going to pay.’
‘No way, José.’
‘How much was it?’ She took her purse and opened it.
He took it and put it back in his pocket. ‘We’re not going to have our first argument in a public toilet. You can pay me back in kisses.’
She looked up at him and tried to frown but it turned into a smile.
He grinned back. ‘Your half of the bill came to eleventy trillion pounds. You can start repayments tomorrow.’
She groaned. ‘I feel like death.’
He stood and held out his hands. ‘Come on, you’ll feel better in the morning. I promise.’
15
Valentina wasn’t at breakfast, so at nine o’clock Charlie knocked on her door, figuring she’d need an hour to prepare herself for starting work at ten. She opened it a crack and looked at him through a curtain of hair.
‘How are you doing?’ he asked.
She groaned in response and opened the door for him, then stumbled back to the bed and flopped on it, face down.
