Page 84 of Kissing Games
She flapped the bedcovers to release some of the heat. He tried to peek and Bandit barked.
‘I see you’ve got yourself a guard dog.’ He laughed. He gave Bandit a stern look. ‘Mate, I’m gutted, and quite frankly, disappointed. You’re meant to be my wingman, not a cockblocker.’
Bandit barked again and nuzzled Valentina.
‘Traitor!’ cried Charlie as Valentina giggled. He shook his head and walked to the desk by the window where there was a tray of food. ‘You hungry? I’ve got a full English: porridge, smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, cinnamon Danish, coffee, orange juice and hot chocolate.’
Her mouth watered. She hadn’t eaten properly for days.
‘My stomach says it wants everything.’ She sat up and pulled the sheets over her chest.
He brought a tray over.
‘What are we doing today?’ she asked, spearing a sausage with her fork.
Charlie looked at the sausage askance and crossed his legs. She giggled, brought it to her mouth and licked the end.
‘Oh, come on now!’ he cried. ‘Play fair.’
She bit the end of the sausage. He looked in pain.
‘Is this a Scottish or an English sausage?’ she asked.
‘Is it the best sausage you’ve ever tasted?’
She swallowed. ‘Yes, I think so.’
‘Then it’s definitely English.’ He walked stiffly to the window, giving her and Bandit a baleful look. ‘Rory’s doing a photoshoot for a magazine today, which I find absolutely hilarious, so I said I’d take Bandit. He did forewarn me though that if you try another sex ambush—’
She almost choked. ‘What?’
‘Sex ambush. It’s stealthy and one hundred per cent lethal. I think I’m going to tell Tab all about it. It could revolutionise modern warfare.’
She shook her head. ‘Charlie.’
He grinned at her from the window. ‘Yes? I’m waiting for you to add dickhead to the end.’
She took a big bite of the sausage. ‘Huevón,’ she muttered, her mouth full of food.
‘There it is!’
She rolled her eyes.
‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘It’s not raining, so I thought we could take Bandit for a long walk up the mountain after you’ve eaten, then be back this afternoon for when the Americas wake up?’
‘Sounds perfect,’ she replied with a smile.
They walkedhand-in-hand to the glen, Bandit at their side. It seemed like they were the only people left in the world. The sky was grey but the clouds were high, revealing the expanse of the mountains. It was a sea of heather, the pink and purple flowers a smudge of colour against the green, with bare rock rising vertiginously, like islands reaching for the sky.
She breathed in the clean air, settled, safe and secure with Charlie by her side. She didn’t want to think about the future. Whenever she thought about her next film she wanted to vomit. Whenever she thought about what to do now that her family wasn’t moving to LA, she felt she was staring into an endless black void. She knew, logically, that there was a universe of possibilities waiting for her, but right now she was lost and scared. So she didn’t think about anything except for her family, her sister, her new nephew, and the incredible man beside her.
Charlie was so much taller but matched his stride to hers. When he wasn’t making her laugh, he would look at her with his emerald eyes in a way that heated her blood to boiling point. Was it normal to want sex this much? Was it normal for sex to feel so good it was like touching heaven? And after Charlie, how could anyone else ever compare? She looked at his torso, knowing that under his T-shirt, her signature was still dark across his chest. She felt guilty about how much she liked the sight of it.
As if he belonged to her, even if only for now.
They hada late lunch at the castle, then went back to her room. Bandit sat to attention even though she was hoping he would have a nap, and she rang her family for a catch-up as Charlie worked on the embroidery panel for his mother. Her family all wanted to speak to him, which he handled with a smile until Valentina pulled the panel out from under the pillow where he’d hidden it. His cheeks flushed at their reaction, and he mumbled that Bandit needed taking out before fleeing with him out of the room.
After her mother and her grandmothers had reiterated the importance of marrying him, she ended the call, took a deep breath and opened her email. Her inbox always filled her with anxiety. She was perpetually late to reply to people, if she even got to them at all. She was stuck on a treadmill that never stopped or slowed. It just kept going, getting fractionally faster every day.
