His eyes were back on hers. ‘God no, you deserve the best of everything.’
‘I’m coming to agree with you,’ she said, her lips curling, showing the tips of her teeth. It was enough to weaken him completely and, seeing the way his eyes swooned shut, her whole body answered his and she leaned in, almost closing the space between their mouths.
In the danger zone before their lips touched, she asked if this was OK? And before he could finish telling her it was more than OK, they were together. It wasn’t gentle or tentative, but a needy, urgent kiss that turned Ally’s brain blank.
Something breathy escaped Jamie’s lips, halfway between a sigh and a moan. Lips warm, palms now gripping shoulders and arms, drawing each other nearer. She was probably supposed to break away at some point, act cool and demure, lower her eyes, blush or something, but that would have taken more strength than she had, so she kissed him deeper, on and on, as the constellations crept across the sky getting slowly consumed by the horizon.
After untold breathless minutes, Jamie laughed lightly against her mouth, but didn’t pull away. ‘I can’t stop,’ he told her, before trailing his parted lips devastatingly slowly over hers from one corner of her mouth to the other, slowing the whole world right down to just this one sensation.
Blankness, goodness, everything perfect in its rightness.
Jamie must have asked if he could kiss her neck, because she’d definitely said yes to some whispered thing and his lips were pressing all along her cheekbone, then pinching around her ear. Ally’s core softened meltingly.
When he paused, holding his mouth by her earlobe, his breath upon her, the sound of him setting off sparks in every neural and nervous pathway within her, her breath hitched, waiting.
When at last he pulled her lobe between his lips, consuming the spot where the metal bar and butterfly of her earring penetrated her flesh, her inner muscles glowed hot with wanting. This guy knew exactly what he was doing, and it didn’t feel like it was from practice, but from instinct, because together their chemicals were combining and reacting in the best way possible.
If this kiss was an experiment to see if Ally could really like this guy, all her findings so far pointed towards its success. As he kissed into her neck, hard then softer, alternating the pressure, shifting between sucks and soft pillowed kisses, she let herself lean into him, her eyes opening drowsily.
They were making out like teens on the steps of a nightclub while the sleepers dreamed in their beds. She should go home. Soon, the birds would begin their morning song. But as Jamie brought his lips to the soft dip under her jaw, nothing was going to pierce the bubble forming around them.
Except, Ally’s eyes caught movement in the distance. She blinked softly, letting it come into focus. A figure, alone, wrapped in a long coat, arms folded. Jamie drew his lips to the soft pulse of her temple. She could barely see straight, let alone think, but something troubling made its way to her as the woman approached. She was wearing high-heeled boots but had the heels lifted off the pavement, silencing her steps. The woman hadn’t spotted them yet.
Ally tapped both hands at Jamie’s shoulders, waking him from the kiss too. She cleared her throat, finding she had no voice, just a croak.
‘Someone coming?’ Jamie said, dopily, turning his head, his eyes heavy-lidded.
They watched as the woman turned down a passageway between the low-rise blocks of seventies flats set amongst the birch trees, lawns and scattered wheelie bins on the other side of the road. The woman had a black eye.
Ally peered harder before she disappeared from their sight. ‘That was her!’ she hissed.
Jamie was alert again too, rubbing his fingers over his eyelids. ‘Who?’
‘That was her, the woman who brought the stolen jewellery in!’
Jamie sprang to his feet. ‘You’re sure?’
‘Sure I’m sure. Same coat, straggly blonde hair, everything.’
‘Stay here.’ He stepped off the pavement, crossing the road in her direction.
‘What are you doing?’ she hissed back, but he didn’t hear. He was skirting after her, just as quietly as she’d been moving through the dewy dawn light.
Ally sat, just like he’d told her. Hugging her knees, she was suddenly cold. Torn between alarm that Jamie was possibly on his way to apprehend a suspect all by himself, and her sneaking amusement and delight that they’d kissed until morning. A shudder rippled through her as her body remembered the sensations.
Absolute silence descended. She pulled out her phone. No messages, no missed calls, nothing since she’d texted her parents at half eleven to say she’d be staying out late, she was still with Jamie. A thumbs up from her mum with a reply of ‘have fun, stay safe’ sent in acknowledgement that she was the cool one of the parenting pair, or she was at least trying to be.
Ally’s thumb hovered over the keypad.
Should she ring the station? There was no sign of him coming back. He’d told her to stay here, but should she have followed?
Then footsteps, and she dropped her shoulders in relief. He was running back over the street towards her.
‘I lost her. She disappeared somewhere among the flats,’ he was saying, already unlocking his phone screen. ‘You OK?’ he checked, before he dialled and held the phone to his ear.
‘I’m fine. Did you notice she had a black eye?’
He nodded, eyes widening. ‘I did.’ The call went through. ‘Hello? It’s Special Constable Beaton reporting potentially suspicious activity in the Ptarmigan flats area of town.’
