Читать книгу Cold Feet at Christmas - Debbie Johnson, Debbie Johnson - Страница 9

His dark thoughts were scattered as Leah bustled back in from the kitchen, holding a hot plate with the edge of a cloth. The red tinsel had glued itself to the side of her cheek, skin flushed with the heat of the kitchen.

“It’s only a steak,” she said, sounding nervous and happy and excited all at the same time. “I found it in the freezer. Just a little sauce to go with it, peppercorns; some nutmeg, cream and—”

“Brandy,” he added as he took his first bite. “Because we’ve not had enough booze so far today, right? Leah, it’s delicious.”

And it was. Simple, luscious and full of flavour. He knew this wasn’t a well-stocked gourmet kitchen, despite her claims. Leah had taken the absolute basics and conjured up something wonderful. The woman had talent. And passion – he could tell that from the way she hovered, waiting for his reaction. This was something she loved doing. He wondered, even though it was none of his business, what she’d do with all that passion now, if she couldn’t go back to the bistro she’d mentioned.

He looked up and smiled. Leah felt her heart do a little flip for no good reason. She was always cheered when people enjoyed her cooking, and when the satisfied customer came with the face of a Renaissance god, the body of an athlete and the tongue of a sinner. Well, she thought, that was what you called a good tip. She’d quite like to heat him up with some brandy and cream and serve him as pudding.

She sat down to eat, realising how much she’d miss that first-bite reaction. How much she’d miss the bistro. Scouring the farmers’ markets for the freshest produce. Creating new dishes; giving them silly names and chalking them up on the specials board. She’s miss the hustle and bustle of restaurant life. The staff she worked with; their regulars, the blokes who ran the bar over the road, the homeless guys she saved leftovers for. She’d miss all of it, so much. It had been her reality for years – nice, fun, safe – and now it was all gone.

Now, though, she reminded herself, was not a time for moping. Reality sucked, and therefore it could wait. If she crashed now, he’d go with her – and they’d spend the rest of Christmas Day sobbing into their wine glasses.

Rob’s plate was soon clear. He didn’t lick it, but she could tell he wanted to. The ultimate compliment. It lifted her spirits straight away – if she achieved nothing else this Christmas, she’d fed a delicious meal to a delicious man. Even if he wasn’t hers for keeps.

“Just wait ’til you taste dessert,” she said, raising her eyebrows in an exaggerated leer. Before he could respond, she disappeared off into the kitchen again, carrying off their used plates. She gave her bottom an extra wiggle as she went. Or the red wine did, at least.

Rob smiled as she wiggled her ass at him. He sat still, leaning his elbows on the table. His belly was full of fine food, glass full of fine wine, his mind full of a fine woman…and he needed to ease up on all three. He was enjoying himself way too much. Way more than he deserved.

He could hear Leah singing in the kitchen, murdering one of the carols being broadcast on the radio. Oh Come All Ye Faithful. He shook his head in amazement at her resilience. After seeing their fiancé doing the dirty with someone else, most girls would be snivelling in a corner, desperate to win him back or stab him in the eye with a stiletto heel. Instead, here she was. No sign of a nervous breakdown, or at the very least a firm grip on when she was going to allow it to happen. Distracting herself with cooking and singing and making him laugh. Not to mention kissing and wriggling and touching. God. He was getting hard again, even thinking about that action-packed little body of hers.

As he once again plundered his brain cells for anti-aphrodisiac thoughts, all the lights went out, and the cottage was plunged into total darkness.

Shit, he thought, blinking against the night until his eyes adjusted. The generator must have failed. Again. Happened at least once every year. One of the many joys of rural isolation.

He heard a shriek from the kitchen and the sound of a plate falling to the floor, smashing on the cold stone flags. Rob scraped back his chair, felt his familiar way to the drawers and pulled them open. Once he’d managed to find the candles in their usual place, he dashed through to the kitchen.

“Sorry!” Leah said, voice high and nervy. “I just got a shock when it all went dark! Hope it wasn’t priceless porcelain or anything.”

She was squatting down in the darkness, trying to pick up the broken shards of pottery; hands shaking, feet bare.

“Shush, it’s fine,” said Rob, offering a hand to pull her back up. “Leave that until we have light, I don’t want you to cut yourself.”

She ignored his outstretched hand, and carried on scrabbling for the broken pieces, skimming her hands across the stone to find them.

“ Leah. Listen to me, for Christ’s sake. Stand up in case you get hurt, there’s pieces of plate all over the damn floor and you have nothing on your feet.”

“No, no, it’s okay. I can’t leave a mess like this,” she said, her pale skin luminous in the dark, toes missing the sharpened slivers of porcelain by inches as she scooted around the floor. With an exasperated sigh, Rob leaned down, scooped her up into his arms, and deposited her with a small thud on top of the work surface.

“Oh!” she said, perched on the edge of the counter on her bottom, feet waving from side to side because her legs weren’t long enough to reach the floor. “You picked me up! And I’m huge!”

“Yep. Just like a baby elephant, but not as cute. Now sit still there while I look for the matches. They’re behind you.”

Rob leaned past her, his body crushing against hers, as he stretched his arms up to reach a shelf above Leah’s head. He could feel the warmth of her breath against his chest, smell the sweet fragrance of her shampoo, and knew that if he looked down into those amber eyes – even for a split second – he’d be lost. All resolve would be gone. And as Leah seemed decidedly tipsy, hers had probably already run for the hills.

“Erm, Rob,” she said, the ever-present sound of laughter in her voice, “is that a candle you’re holding or are you just pleased to see me?”

He could feel her body shaking against his as she giggled; could see the downright playful expression on her face even without electric lighting. She was asking for trouble and, frankly, he was desperate to give it to her.

He slammed the candle down on the counter. Vision could wait, he decided. There were more pressing senses to be dealt with.

She squeaked slightly as he shoved his way between her dangling legs, took her face in both his hands and held it firmly inches from his. Now he had her – what was he going to do with her?

Leah was wondering exactly the same, and it felt delicious. Even in the darkness she could see the blazing intensity of those gold-brown eyes; the twist of his mouth, the flare of his nostrils. Oops. Maybe that had been one flirt too far, she thought, already swamped by the warmth of his breath on her face; the knowledge that all she had to do was lean in to those luscious lips for a kiss. She knew she shouldn’t. She knew she might have had a bit too much to drink. She knew she was in no emotional state to be jumping into bed with someone new. She knew it was Christmas. She leaned.

The heat was immediate as their lips met. Rob’s fingers caressed her cheekbones and jaw as he kissed her, then plunged into her hair, pulling it back from her face, holding her steady as the kiss intensified. The feel of his hard-planed body thrusting up against hers was exquisite; he wanted her as much as she wanted him, she could feel it in the urgency of his kiss, the push of his body. She instinctively hooked her legs around his waist and tugged him in tighter, rubbing herself up against him. He made a low growling sound and responded in kind. We’re so, so close, she thought, we’d be having sex, if it wasn’t for those pesky layers of clothing.

He used the hands tangled in her hair and pulled her head to one side, leaning in to nuzzle the soft skin of her neck. The touch was barely there; a trace of tiny kisses and nibbles under her ears, across her throat, spreading to her shoulders, finding the tiny dips and hollows in her flesh that drove her wild. She’d expected brutal and hard: instead he gave her slow and sensual, and every inch of her body was begging for his mouth.

“Rob, please…”

““For once, be quiet,” he muttered. “I’m busy.”

He pulled back, lifting his face to hers, their eyes meeting in the glow of the moonlight flooding in through the window.

Never once breaking eye contact, Rob slid his hands beneath her T-shirt, and a shudder ripped through her as he placed them on the bare flesh of her waist. His fingers softly skimmed upwards, inch by slow, torturous inch; all the time the feel of his arousal pressing into her through the flimsy fabric of her leggings. She scooted her bottom forward even more until she was almost resting on him, getting as close as she could and still wanting more.

His breathing was low and jagged as his hands moved upwards. And Leah, she was barely breathing at all, lost in the power of his eyes, the sensation of long fingers stroking their way up her body, over her stomach, her ribs, edging ever nearer to the place she needed them to be. Her nipples had tightened into hard, explosive buds of excitement, and her breasts had taken on a life of their own, pushing themselves forward to meet his searching touch.

Rob stroked the underside, the curve that jutted upwards; the delicate flesh of her areola puckering under his touch. He paused, felt the weight of her breasts in his hands, then captured one desperate nipple between finger and thumb, rolling and rubbing, sending an edge of delicious pain shooting through her body.

Leah tangled her fingers into the midnight of his hair, pulled his lips to hers, drinking in the passion and sensuality of his mouth.

“I need this,” she muttered. “Please. Don’t think about it. Just do it.”

He nodded. Tugged the T-shirt over her head. And thought he might come there and then when he saw those magnificent bosoms in all their glory; full and round and topped with perfect, hard nipples. He leaned forward, lifted one breast, and took the nipple into his mouth, tracing its contours with his tongue before sucking, gently at first, then harder, knowing from her quivering body, the feel of her fingers in his hair, that she was loving it. He moved to the other, all the while her quiet moaning begging him not to stop. As if. He couldn’t stop if he wanted to.

He lifted her slightly, pulled the leggings down, moved his hand to her parted thighs. God, the heat was amazing. She was on fire. He glanced at her face: eyes glazed, mouth open, tiny whispers urging him on.

He slid one long finger inside her, was instantly engulfed with moist heat as she started to thrust. He used his thumb to circle the swollen bud of her clitoris, all the time probing her with a steady rhythm her body was matching.

She clung on to him, hands gripping and ungripping the fabric of his T-shirt, hair wild around her face as the pleasure mounted. She realised that she was losing all grip on reality; everything was now dominated by the feel of his fingers on her and in her, on the exquisite edge of sensation that was building up in waves, bigger and nearer and closer and…Oh! Everything exploded. Everything. For what felt like minutes, the orgasm ripped through her body with such ferocity she thought she might black out.

Her face collapsed forward, buried in his chest, as he stroked her hair and kissed her and murmured her name. Eventually she took a deep breath, looked up at him. At this virtual stranger; at this man who’d just shown her everything she thought she knew about sex was wrong. That everything she’d believed to be good in the past was just a pale imitation of what it could be. This was what sex could be, should be, like.

It was a revelation.

Rob’s pupils were enormous, and she could still feel his huge erection through his jeans. He’d waited. Held off. Accepted her need, and given her what she wanted. And it must, she thought, sliding from the counter and on to her wobbly legs, be killing him.

She dropped down to her knees, unbuckled his belt and released him. Jesus. What a monster. Hard and happy and ready to go.

“You don’t have to—” he started.

“Shush. I want to. I really want to. And I think you,” she said, leaning in to run her tongue all the way along his shaft, “want me to as well.”

She took him into her mouth, licking and lapping and exploring, finding ways to pleasure him despite his size, her tongue flickering everywhere, her hands stroking and rubbing and building up in a rhythm that was clearly right for him. She reached round, gripped that improbably perfect backside of his, and urged him on even further; lifted her breasts so their soft flesh cushioned him; sucked him until he could take no more. He gasped and shuddered and finally came.

“Jesus, Leah!” he said, pulling her to her feet. “Were you trained in a bloody bordello?”

“Same could be said for you,” she replied, wrapping her arms around his waist and snuggling into his chest. “Except, you know, a bordello for boys. Happy Christmas, Rob.”

He laughed; he knew they shouldn’t have done it, but frankly he didn’t care. Sometimes the body wants what the body wants. And the brain can go to hell.

“Happy Christmas, Leah.”

She held on to him like she was drowning.

“Sorry,” she said, face still crushed against his chest, “but my legs are wobbly. I think I might need a lie down.”

“Um. Not a problem,” he said, feeling himself hardening again already. Waiting for sanity to return and realising he might be waiting a while; having Leah’s bare breasts rubbing up against wasn’t exactly a passion-killer.

He held her hand and led her towards the bedroom in the darkness. It was only when she sat down with a small ‘ouch’ that he realised she’d been limping all along.

“What is it?” he asked, hoping he hadn’t done something to unintentionally hurt her. Surely he hadn’t…Not yet, at least.

“Plate. In foot. Sorry. Got distracted earlier. Concentrating on other body parts. Probably could’ve amputated one of my toes and I wouldn’t have noticed.”

“Idiot,” he said affectionately, getting up to fetch the long-forgotten candle, along with a small bowl of warm water and a cloth. It gave him a minute to cool down. In all sorts of ways.

He kneeled down before her, lifting her foot in the candlelight to examine it, gently wiping and stroking until the tiny sliver that was wedged in her flesh came free. As he washed the small wound, face intense in concentration, Leah felt something shift in her heart.

His face was so focused; his touch so soft and tender as he worked, so careful not to hurt her. Minutes earlier he’d been an animal – all heat and need and hard sex. Now he was kind. Kind. Yep. That was the word – and that was what was her undoing. Kindness. She didn’t realise how starved of it she’d been until now, she thought, as tears sprung to her eyes. Her and Doug…they’d rubbed along okay. He’d not been cruel, not until their wedding day at least. But they’d not been close either, not cherished each other enough.

Rob looked up. He saw her crying. Saw big, round tears spilling from the corners of her amber eyes, trailing over the peach of her skin and pooling in her neck. He felt a constriction somewhere tender in his chest; in a place he thought he’d shuttered up forever.

“What is it?” he asked. “Am I hurting you?”

“No; no you’re not. It’s just…It’s been a weird couple of days. The wedding. The running away from the wedding. And now this. It’s all been quite a lot to take in. ”

“Of course it has,” he said, keeping his face neutral. If she started sobbing about how much she still loved her ex right now, he wasn’t sure his ego could take it. Most women, after kitchen lust with Rob Cavelli, only had eyes for him. Still. There was always a first time.

“It’s not him,” she said, as if reading his mind, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “Not Doug. It’s everything. The fact I lived with him. That I agreed to marry him, when all the time, I never even really loved him, I know now! I just needed the security, I think. My parents died when I was 18, and I was on my own until I met him. It wasn’t Doug I fell for – it was the idea of Doug, and everything he could offer me. A home, a family, our business, all binding me to another human being. Being part of something, not being alone any more. It wasn’t fair to either of us. And now, after what happened, I wonder if he knew that too, deep down. I’m glad I found out before it was too late. It was an awful way to get a wake-up call, but maybe I needed one. It was the best thing for both of us. I need a fresh start. I need a new life. I need—”

“Leah,” he said, sitting next to her and holding her wet hand in his. “Stop. I have to tell you, before you go on, that I’m not the man to give you what you need. Despite what just happened. Please don’t ask it of me. I’m not capable. I’m broken. Parts of me don’t work any more, and I don’t think anyone can fix them. I like you, Leah. And, well, wow to the sex part. But more than that? I don’t have it in me to give, and I don’t want to lie to you. Not now, when you’re hurting so bad; not ever. You deserve better than Doug. And you damn well deserve better than me.”

Leah squeezed his hand, gazed up at him from tear-wet lashes. Oh, she thought, he was so completely beautiful. As beautiful as a man could ever be. She lifted her hand, traced the hard outline of his jaw, and smiled. He might not be God, but he was definitely a gift from Him. A Christmas gift to give her hope, and friendship, and possibly multiple orgasms.

Tomorrow, or the next day, or the one after that, she knew she had to face her new reality. But right here, this was all she needed: the perfect distraction, and a salve for her pain. It wouldn’t last, but then again, what did? Life, she had to accept, was a fragile beast: you could do your best to control it, but it was a wild thing, with a will of its own. There was no security, no certainty. People died. People betrayed you. So for now at least, she’d live in the moment.

“You don’t know what I was going to say, Rob. And don’t worry, one quick fumble in the kitchen doesn’t mean I’ve fallen for you. But thank you, for your kindness, and your honesty. I don’t expect anything of you, Rob. We don’t even really know each other, and I certainly don’t think you’re my knight in shining armour. But we landed here, together, at this time, and well…call me an old hippy, but I think it was fate. That right here, right now, we can help each other. I don’t need a boyfriend. Or a husband. Or a family – I need to learn to be me, without anybody else. Does that make sense?”

Rob nodded, gesturing for her to go on. He wanted to hear what she said – with Leah, he’d already learned to expect the unexpected.

“And as for parts of you not working,” she said, “ well, other parts of you definitely do work, so perhaps…” her hand trailed down to the lean muscle of his thigh, fingers stroking upwards, “we should concentrate on those. Let’s have this one Christmas together. No expectations. No promises. We don’t have a past, we don’t have a future. We have the present. Just a lot of laughter, and some truly phenomenal sex. What do you say?”

“I say that sounds like the best Christmas I’ve had in years,” he replied.