This was the closest they’d been in weeks and Lydia wanted to savour it.
‘Do we really need to go out tonight?’ he asked. ‘I could think of much better things I’d rather be doing.’
In a bold move, although nervous given the last few months they’d had, she stroked her fingers down his chest, almost ready to give in to the suggestion; but as the back of her hand traced his stomach and she felt his muscles flicker beneath her touch she told him, ‘You’ll keep till later.’ The anticipation would keep them both going, she knew.
He groaned and buttoned up his shirt as she grabbed her keys and handbag, checked the back door was locked and hurried them out of the door.
They had the best night in a long time, out with friends, nothing to think about other than a good time and a good laugh and they stumbled home in a cloud of happiness. Inside the front door, Theo lifted her up and carried her upstairs, telling her she was his tonight, telling her how sexy she was in the little black dress that had always driven him wild, he’d looked into her eyes and said how beautiful she was.
But it happened again.
They’d ripped one another’s clothes off in the heat of the moment, a current of passion running through them, and then nothing. Theo hadn’t been able to perform and it had left him devastated. And this time he took it worse. He was one of the lads and this sort of thing didn’t happen to Theo Morgan, once a rugby player and always the strong, virile man who’d stolen her heart. Back in his younger days he’d had more girlfriends than she cared to ask about and probably enough notches on his bedpost to reach the top, before he’d settled down with Lydia. This situation, to Theo, was unthinkable.
Theo retreated into his shell from that day and Lydia had no idea what to do about it. They barely spoke over the next few weeks and Theo threw himself back into work. He hadn’t got the promotion but another was up for grabs and this time he was determined it was his. Lydia backed off completely and spent more hours in the dance studio than ever and told herself this was a blip. They’d been through worse and they’d get through this.
In July Theo headed off to San Francisco with work. He’d been asked to speak at a conference and Lydia knew how many hours he’d put into it. It paid off too, when finally, in October, Theo got his promotion.
‘I’m sorry I’ve been so distant,’ he told her the night he came home with his news. ‘The promotion wasn’t everything but I let it be and I shouldn’t have.’
Lydia knew she’d been just as guilty when it came to throwing yourself into something else because when she wasn’t freelancing she’d been at the dance studio, putting in the hours, escaping reality and she’d been just as bad when it came to neglecting her home life. She supposed they’d both simply found it easier that way.
From then on, Theo perked up, he was energetic and enthusiastic, and they both began to spend more time with each other whenever they could. They both worked hard still, but at the end of a day they made sure they shared meals and talked, and by early December she knew they were going to make it. They’d finally had success in the bedroom and they were getting on better than ever before. They’d driven out to a Christmas tree farm and chosen a tree together, laughed and joked away as though they were a brand new couple.
Lydia felt sure, then, that nothing would ever come between them.
