Page 88 of Rachel’s Pudding Pantry

‘Tom, I … um, do you have something, you know, protection?’

He nodded, and couldn’t hold back a daft grin. ‘I was a Boy Scout once. Always prepared.’

‘Okay, okay. Just checking.’

She took a slow breath, then undid the buttons of his blue cotton shirt one by one, revealing his leanly muscled torso. He was strong and healthy – a man in his beautiful prime. She traced a fingertip over his ribs, down to his abs, where the muscles tensed then quivered with a sexy shudder. She took off his shirt, tossed it aside, and made a flutter of kisses across his chest.

She paused for a second, there’d be no going back if she stayed any longer. Yet, every nerve end in her body was telling her to stay. Oh damn it, she needed to know this man, all of him. She pulled her own top off. Tom reached around to unhook her bra, which snagged for a second, making them both smile nervously, before its glorious release. Her breasts were full, and he gazed at them with a look of awe before moving in to delicately lick and suck each nipple in turn. A blissful groan escaped her lips. She kissed the top of his head, then began to lose herself to that building pleasure.

They pulled off their jeans in a fumble, just underwear between them now. Another kiss, prolonging the bliss. Then he moved her so that she was lying on her back on the grassy hillside, and slipped her white lacy pants down over her thighs. Oh my, this was really going to happen.

He traced her breasts once more with the lightest of touches, and then trailed a fingertip down over her navel, tracing the line to her thighs, and there, yes there, he lingered rhythmically at the sweetest spot. She felt herself arch towards his touch, and he looked at her with his soulful dark eyes; it was a look that seemed to be full of love. Just the slightest of nods said the biggest of ‘Yes’es. She didn’t want words here now. They had gone beyond words.

And he was there ready with a sexy nudge, and then he was deep within her.

Oh God, yes, Tom.

‘Rachel,’ he whispered, finding himself lost to her, and then to the pulsing rhythm.

The feeling was delicious and sexy and so damned intense. The push and pull into waves of pleasure, until she felt that exquisite release as she pulsed around him.

Oh God, she hadn’t known making love could be like that.

He was in no rush to pull away, just shifted his weight slightly as they smiled at each other. Then, he moved to lie down beside her, cuddling her as she nestled back against his chest. She felt totally blissed out, lying there close to him, rather like the feral cat who would occasionally get a dish of cream down at the farm and stretch out, utterly content, in a patch of sunlight. The air was starting to cool but Tom’s arm was warm and protective around her.

Rachel had a sudden thought, wondering if anyone might be out rambling this evening, or if one of their farmhands was out doing their checks, and might find them there. They’d certainly get more of a view than they’d bargained for, if so. She couldn’t help but giggle.

‘What’s up with you? Surely my performance wasn’t that hilarious.’ Tom tried to sound annoyed, but his voice was laced with laughter too.

‘It certainly was not. Pretty damned good, actually.’ She turned her head to see him give a proud beam, which made her giggle all the more. ‘No, I was just picturing some hikers or one of our farmhands appearing on the quad, or something.’

‘Hah, that’d give them a bit of a shock.’

‘Do you think we should move, then?’ But it was so cosy there, lying together in the afterglow.

‘Nah, not yet.’

They stayed lying close for a while longer, chatting whilst Tom made little circles with his fingertips on her arms, then down over the rise of her naked hip to her outer thigh, but the air began to cool dramatically with the evening drawing in.

‘Rachel, would you come back to mine? Can you stay the night?’ Tom asked hopefully, yet aware that things might not be that easy for her with a young child to consider. Also, they were at such a fragile point in this blossoming relationship, neither really knew the rules.

She took a slow breath, thinking of all the implications, but she knew what she wanted. ‘Yes, I’ll send Mum a text. That’s going to be a bit awkward, I have to admit. It’s pretty obvious what we’re up to. Hah, I’ll feel like I’ve reverted to being seventeen or something.’

Mind you, at seventeen she had so fallen for the wrong guy. Was she sure now this was absolutely right? Wow, it had felt so right, she needed to give it a try at least. After her pep talk with Eve, she needed to be brave, live for the moment, and dive right in with a hopeful eye on the future. She couldn’t lose this chance of happiness now. She couldn’t lose Tom.

She gave a little shiver.

‘Come on, let’s get you back somewhere warm.’

‘I suppose we’d better get our clothes back on then,’ Rachel said wryly, Tom having stood up in his full naked glory at that point.

‘For now, yes,’ he replied, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

She’d never known it could feel like this. So bloody beautiful, giving, sensual. They were lying in Tom’s bed. Making love the second time had been just as good as the first, in fact better as they were learning to know each other’s bodies, to trust each other. There was something so much more than sex going on here. It was like they knew each other, really knew each other, and yet everything was all brand new too. She wanted to explore every centimetre, no, every millimetre, of his body.

Was this what falling in love felt like? Wonderfully, Tom seemed to be feeling it all too. Was this how Mum felt for Dad? In those early falling-for-each-other days? Oh God, poor Mum, losing that, losing him, after all those years together. She suddenly had a glimpse of a different kind of pain. The loss of a partner. She knew all too well the loss of a father. Her emotions were suddenly all over the place as she lay in the dark in Tom’s bedroom. She could hear his steady sleeping breath beside her, and it was wonderful yet a bit surreal.

This evening, tonight. All these crazy, beautiful feelings. It was amazing.

And shit, did it scare her.