He could hear her breathing as they listened, and her body was pressed against his in the cramped space. She smelled of lemons, but he wasn’t sure if it was her shampoo or justher. She shifted, as though trying to put some distance between them but it was impossible. He grinned in the darkness as they followed Fox’s searching from room to room, punctuated with the odd floorboard creak and stifled laughter.
‘Found you!’ Fox suddenly shouted somewhere upstairs, as George’s giggles rang out. A second later the two of them passed the cupboard door again, talking about who they might find next. Isabella wriggled and the floor creaked. Etienne put his hand on her thigh to still her so that they wouldn’t be detected. He heard her sharp intake of breath at his touch but she didn’t remove his hand. As they listened to the seekers disappearing on their mission, he started to move his hand slowly, fingers spread wide, pushing it down her thigh to her knee and back towards the side of her hip, feeling the shape of her leg under the denim. She was strong and slender. He pictured her thighs wrapped around his waist.
‘Found you!’ Fox and George shouted together from a room nearby and Rosie and Wren’s laughter rang out, followed by exclamations and chatter and noises of furniture being moved.
Etienne had played this game hundreds of times with the boys, but the act of hiding had never felt so delicious than standing here, in the dark, with his hand on Isabella’s leg. It was exciting in lots of ways that were nothing to do with children’s games.
‘So, why have you been avoiding me?’ he asked, his voice low, as his hand once again brushed down to her knee and squeezed.
‘I think it’s probably for the best,’ Isabella replied quietly.
‘Because of your sex ban?’ He drew delicate circles on her thigh with his thumb.
‘Because of mypromise,’ she breathed into his ear.
‘Have you at least looked at the photograph?’ he teased and she growled, low in the back of her throat, a sound so sexual that he immediately wanted her to repeat it.
‘I’m taking that as a yes,’ he whispered, moving his hand millimetre by millimetre to her buttock. The seeking troop made a discovery outside in the garden, and there was a round of applause, no doubt for Walker up the tree. His lack of vision seemed to heighten Etienne’s other senses and he swallowed, smelling Isabella’s scent, feeling the tremor in her thigh.
‘Surely we don’t have to avoid each other, though?’ he said. ‘Do we, Isabella?’
‘It’s not that I want to exactly. . .’ Isabella’s voice trailed off and he heard her lick her lips.
His whole hand spread across her bum and squeezed.
‘Whatdoyou want then?’ he asked, thinking he knew exactly what he wanted. Her. Now. In this cupboard if needs be.
He heard the hitch in her breath.
‘This,’ she said, turning towards him, and then her mouth was on his in the black. Momentarily stunned, it took him a split second to respond to her full, parted lips. Her hand on his chest, gripping the front of his polo shirt, pulling him closer, deeper in. But then they crashed together, his hand winding into her hair, her curls tumbling over his arm. His other hand on her tightened and she made a sound into her kiss, a moan. The feel of her body drove him on. Her tongue searching his, he pressed her to him and she met him with every move.
The door opened without warning. As the light streamed in they turned as one, still entwined. Etienne blinked, disorientated. Isabella pressed the back of her hand to her swollen mouth.
The seekers stood as a surprised group in the hallway. Fox and Walker raised their eyebrows and nudged each other like kids. Rosie and Wren put hands over each other’s mouths to stop the other laughing out loud. Reggie, George and Riley stood straight-faced in the doorway.
‘Wrong game, Uncle Et,’ said George, obviously disappointed with his godfather. ‘It’s not kiss chase!’
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Isabella
Girl Gang WhatsApp group
Wren: Code red.
Rosie: Come now. Drinks at The Wayside.
Amber: Can’t. Gotta collect Jayden from street dance in an hour.
Rosie: You won’t want to miss this.
Amber: What happened?
Isabella: I kissed Etienne.
Amber:Be there in ten.
The women were already huddled around a round table in the back bar of The Wayside, all cradling large glasses of dry white wine, when Amber skidded in wearing denim dungarees over a cropped top, hair in two plaits, looking like some sort of sexy children’s entertainer. Wren pointed to the seat beside her and the waiting glass of Coke Zero with a straw. Amber sat.
