Читать книгу The Little Book Café - Georgia Hill - Страница 18

Tash picked up another cocktail and wandered outside. She left the crowds behind and went to sit on the café’s terrace. Millie had been clever. She’d made the most of the café’s best asset by joining it up with the open space outside the bookshop. Now there was one large terrace lit by pretty fairy lights and fragranced by bedding plants. It would be the perfect spot to idle away a few hours with a good book and a pot of Millie’s famously excellent coffee. Maybe she was right about the bookshop being a success. It had all the right ingredients.

It was a balmy evening – one of those rare English summer nights when it was comfortably warm enough to linger outside. The murmuring sea shifted gently under a fingernail moon and one or two people had drifted onto the beach. Tash could hear shushed giggles and the occasional chink of glasses. She perched on the low wall which separated the terrace from the beach and breathed in the sweet-scented heliotropes. Millie loved her potted plants. She and her husband Jed radiated happiness. Tash had seen him earlier whispering jokes into Millie’s ear when she’d looked a little flustered at the volume of people who had turned up. He was supportive. Her rock. It was lovely seeing Millie blossom in the way she had since marrying Jed. Tash knew she hadn’t had an easy time of it after her parents died. She’d never complained, had made the best with what she had, drove a rusty old car and lived in the flat above the café. She and Jed still lived there. No five-bedroom detached on an executive housing development and a top of the range Porsche for them. They seemed happy without the trappings of the life that she and Adrian had so carefully carved out for themselves. Tash sipped her cocktail. Did it make her happy? She’d thought at one point a big house and a flash car would be all that it took. But she wasn’t so sure lately. The more she grasped at material things the more happiness sidled out of reach.

Tash sighed. Maybe she should leave Adrian. Start over again. But the voice of the chubby, bespectacled teenager, the girl who all the boys overlooked, wheedled in her subconscious. You’ll be on your own again. Adrian is the only man who has ever really loved you. Look how kind and generous he is.

‘That’s a heartfelt sigh.’ It was Kit. ‘I seem to make a habit of coming across you in moments of introspection. I called your name but you were miles away.’

Tash forced a smile. ‘Hi.’

‘May I join you? If you’d like to be on your own I understand.’

She gestured to the space on the wall beside her. ‘Do you know, I’d really like some company. I was in danger of getting maudlin and it’s too beautiful a night for that.’

‘It is.’ Kit straddled the wall and put his beer down in the space in between them. He stared into the night and at the distant lights of West Bay.

Tash took the opportunity to study him in the dim light given off by the fairy lights. Tonight he had forsaken the beanie hat. His hair had been shaved into a buzzcut and, with his collarless shirt straining over hulking shoulders, he looked the sort of man she’d cross the road at night to avoid. But Tash had seen how tenderly he’d treated Merlin, had witnessed his self-deprecating humour. She was beginning to appreciate that, under the muscles, lurked a gentle, caring man. And a very sexy one. A year ago she wouldn’t have looked at him twice. Too scruffy. Too many He-Man muscles. Not slick enough. But now? Now she could sense her skin prickling in his presence, feel the beat of her heart skipping out a little dance. She sighed again. The last complication she needed at the moment was to fall for a man like Kit.

‘Lot of sighing going on,’ he said mildly.

‘Just mulling over a few things.’ She expected him to ask what those things were, but he just lifted a leg onto the wall and rested his arm on his knee. No questions. No interrogation as Adrian would have done. No fussing over her. He simply let her be, in her own space. It was curiously soothing.

They sat in silence for a while enjoying the night and the sounds of the party in the background.

Kit picked up his glass and drained it. It broke the mood.

‘Not tempted by one of Millie’s cocktails?’ she asked. ‘My mojito is good.’

‘Not really a cocktail sort of a bloke. More of a real ale guy.’

‘Figures,’ Tash said and saw one brow rise.

‘And you,’ he pointed with his empty glass. ‘Are very much a mojito sort of a girl.’

‘Guilty as charged, m’Lud. I can’t help it.’

‘Goes with the outfit.’

Tash looked down at her silk jumpsuit. She’d thrown it on at the last minute. It was vividly patterned in oranges and pinks and showed off her black hair and summer tan. Adrian hated it which was probably why she’d worn it. ‘One of my favourites.’ She held up a foot to display the hot pink stilettos. ‘Goes with my fave shoes.’

Kit grinned. ‘So I see. You look very beautiful tonight, Tash.’

If she leaned forward, she could kiss him. Her eyes dropped to his lips. Kit had a generous bottom lip and a moody upper one. How could she have not seen what Emma and the others saw? He was drop dead gorgeous. She found herself inching closer, wondering if his stubble would scratch when their lips locked.

‘Can never fathom how women walk in heels like that.’

The comment threw cold water over her lustful thoughts. Just as well. She was getting a bit carried away there. ‘Practice,’ she said, airily. ‘Lots of practice.’ Tash was vaguely aware of the alcohol seeping into her bloodstream. The evening was getting fuzzy around the edges. Although Adrian had heated up a frozen pizza before they’d left, she’d only had a slice. Too churned up to eat. ‘And they add inches.’ She jumped off the wall and demonstrated with only a very slight wobble. ‘See. Bet I’m nearly as tall as you.’

‘Doubt it.’

‘Stand up then and we’ll see.’ Tash could never resist a challenge.

‘Tash, I’m six foot three.’

‘And these are five-inch heels. Come on, real ale man, show me your credentials.’ She giggled. She hadn’t had this much fun in ages.

Reluctantly, Kit stood up. Placing his beer glass on the wall next to Tash’s cocktail glass, he stood next to her. ‘See? Much taller.’

‘No,’ she complained. ‘We’ve got to do it properly. Stand back to back like you used to do at school.’ She tripped to stand behind him and stood on tiptoe. The movement pressed her back against his and the heat from his hard muscles radiated through her silk jumpsuit. She wiggled a little, enjoying the seductive slip of the thin material against her over-heated body.

‘How do I know you’re not going to cheat?’ Kit laughed, a delightful low rumble beginning from somewhere deep inside. Tash felt the laugh vibrate through him and then through her. It was all becoming incredibly erotic.

She giggled and wheeled round to face him. As she stumbled he caught her by the waist, pulling her against him. She felt his belt buckle push into the soft flesh of her stomach, felt his erection nudge her. The night fell away. All she could feel was Kit’s powerful arms around her waist, all she could see was him.

Again, she realised that if she reached up, she could kiss him. ‘Me cheat?’ she breathed as she gazed up at him. ‘What sort of girl do you think I am?’

‘I don’t know, Natasha. What sort of girl are you?’

It was Adrian.