Page 18 of Heartbreaker

“I do not,” I defend, as she grabs my hand and pulls me down. I lose my balance and fall into her, making my beer spill on her leg.

I sit and laugh as we both look at her leg.

“Maybe you should lick my flower after all,” she giggles and despite the fact I know she is joking at my expense, I laugh too. I laugh until my sides hurt. Eventually I lie down beside her, and our faces are close together.

“Maybe I should,” I murmur as our eyes meet. The intensity changes and all of a sudden the air is charged with sexual energy.

“Maybe you should,” she whispers in a throaty voice. I start to lean forward and so does she.

Just as our lips are about to touch, I’m jolted by a body landing next to mine.

“Hey Ash, this your hunky gay stud?” her friend asks from beside me. I sit up and so does Tinkerbell.

“Taylor,” Ashley hisses and a blush stains her cheeks. It’s almost worth the gay dig to see that pretty face blush. I wonder if the rest of her blushes as prettily.

“What! Jackson knows I’m joking, don’t you Jackson?” she says.

“Yeah, it’s fine Ashley,” I say giving her a smile. “Anyway I’m concentrating on the hunk part of the sentence.”

Taylor laughs. “I like this guy Ash,” she says and then proceeds to introduce me to her other half, who has been rolling his eyes at her antics.

“Corey, nice to meet you,” he says.

I shake his hand. “You too mate,” I say.

He turns to Taylor. “Come on woman, you promised me a Currywurst.”

“God, men! Always thinking with your stomach or your…” she doesn’t get a chance to finish because Corey wraps a hand around her mouth.

“Excuse us,” he says dragging a grumbling and then giggling Taylor away.

We watch them go. Ashley looks at me. “Sorry about that, she is a nut.”

I nod and smile. “All the best people are,” I say and laugh.

“Do you want to go for a wander?” she asks.

“Sure,” I say standing up, pulling her up with me. We head off in the opposite direction of her crazy friend and she slips her hand into mine. It feels nice and familiar, and yet exciting. I can feel tingles all the way up my arm and down the side of my body where she is leaning into me. We chat about music and films realising we have very similar tastes. We both like action films and comedies.

Ashley loves to read too, and her favourites are romances. I laugh at that and she digs me in the ribs which allows me to slip my arm around her shoulders and pull her into me. We stop beside a tent that is doing henna tattoos and she starts looking.

“Do you have any tattoo’s?” she asks.

I shake my head, no. “No, nothing will convince me to mark myself and endure pain for something I’ll regret one day,” I say.

“So, you don’t like them?” she asks with a tilt of her head. I run my eyes slowly over her exposed skin and see her shiver. I suppress the smile that is fighting to tip the corners of my mouth up.

“I’m finding I like them on others very much,” I say pulling her into me, so that our bodies touch.

“So, if I asked you to get a henna one, would you?” she asks softly, and I feel her breath on my face.

I look at the woman who is doing the tattoos and swallow. I’m not sure if I want to do this. The real reason I’ve never got one is because I’m terrified of needles. Do I relent and have one, it’s only henna after all and no needles in sight?

I look back and see her eyes are smoky and sexy and decide if it mpresses Tinkerbell then I’ll do it.

“Pick something manly then,” I say and watch as huge smile suffuses her face.

She looks through and after ten minutes picks one. I undo the buttons on my polo but there isn’t enough room to get to my arm, so I lean forward and slip my shirt over my head.