Page 49 of Forbid It

“For me?”

“No.” I turn the wheel and pull out. “I just wanted my car to smell like hot pastry.”

“I’ve always wanted to try one of these,” Cassie beams, wiggling slightly in her seat as she pulls the roll out of the wrapper.

I can’t help but chuckle as I pull onto the motorway at her excitement over a sausage roll from Greggs but almost crash the car when she lets out a low moan as she takes her first bite.

Jesus.

I clear my throat. “Nice?”

“Mhmm,” she replies around her mouthful, and I shift in my seat as my cock starts to come to life at the sound.

If I’d have known a bloody sausage roll would be an aphrodisiac, I would have never picked it up. Or maybe I should have imported one over sooner.

“Do you want to try?” She holds it up to me and I shake my head, unable to open my mouth to speak. I open the window to try cool the blood rushing to my head.

“That was so good,” she says when she’s finished, crunching the bag in her hands. “I love trying cultural dishes.”

I laugh, resting my head against my headrest. “I don’t think you can count a sausage roll as a cultural delicacy, Cass.” I consider it. “Or maybe you can.”

“Is it a Welsh thing?”

“Sausage rolls are a nationwide delicacy,” I tell her. “We have Welsh cakes, I guess.”

“I like the sound of a Welsh cake. Is it like a muffin?”

“It’s been so long since I’ve had one, I can hardly remember,” I say. “All I remember is my Nanna used to bake them, and they’d be as hard as rocks. My older brother and I used to pick the raisins out and fling them at each other.”

Cassie laughs. “Did you get into a lot of food fights as a kid?

“Only with Iwan. We were young. Like six and eight I think?” I lean my elbow on the door. “Yeah, it would have been before I got scouted.”

“You were scouted at seven?”

I nod. “Moved to the Academy pretty soon afterwards and spent like ten months of the year there.”

“How far away was the Academy?”

“Other side of London, so I didn’t really get home much.”

“You were so young.”

“Yeah.” The word hangs in the silence of the car. “My dad came with me for the first few years, and we lived in this flat near the grounds, but then he had some health scares and had to come home to the doctors, and I moved in with my friend Tom and his mum. Lived with them till I was about seventeen and then I got the call up.”

“Is your dad okay now?”

I glance over at her to find all her attention is fixed on me.

“Yeah, he’s fine. He’s a spleen down, but otherwise as healthy as a horse.”

“That must have been hard on your family,” Cassie says. “For you to move out as a kid.”

“Those first few years were hard, I guess, but I was happy. Spent all my time playing the game, so I barely had a second to be homesick.” The next part spills out of my mouth before I can stop it. “Apart from late at night when I’d hear Tom and his mother laughing in the other room, and all I’d want was for mine to come in and kiss me goodnight.”

My cheeks heat at the admission I wasn’t supposed to confess. If I hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t be where I am today. I wouldn’t have been able to pay for the renovations to my parents house and help Gwen and Iwan with their house deposit. I wouldn’t have been able to buy tickets for the whole family to take the kids to Disneyland and see the pictures of their trip whilst I was prepping for my forty-fifth game of the season.

“That must have been hard,” she says softly and I shrug, keeping my eyes firmly fixed on the road so I don’t have to see pity shining in hers.