Page 122 of Somewhere Only We Know

‘You remember!’ My eyes sparkled at him.

‘Of course I do,’ he murmured. ‘I thought you were the most beautiful girl I’d ever met. And you’re even more beautiful now.’

I braced myself against the taut muscles in his arms to prevent his chest from touching mine. If there was someone else in his life, I’d back away now. I’d be devastated, but I didn’t want to put temptation in his way. That wasn’t my style.

But being so close to him was torture. I didn’t know how much longer I was going to be able to keep my distance. I wanted to wrap my arms around his neck, press my body against his, kiss him … I had to know. I had to know now.

‘Are you—’

‘Do you—’

We both spoke at once and laughed.

‘You go first,’ he said.

‘Okay.’ I let go of his arms and floated away to put some space between us.

‘Actually, no,’ he said, swimming after me and catching my hand again. ‘I’ve gotta go first, this is killing me.’

He pulled me to him, his eyes flashing with longing, and I grabbed hold of his shoulders to steady myself.

‘Maggie, do you have a partner waiting back home for you? Because now that you’ve walked into my life again, I don’t want to let you go. And if there’s any chance, any tiny chance at all of kissing those delicious lips of yours, I want to take it.’

Was this really happening? It felt like a dream. ‘I’m single. Are you?’ I rasped. ‘Is that what you’re saying?’

He gave a slow nod and that was all it took. Our bodies collided, hands cupping faces, fingers tangled in hair, lips on lips, my legs wrapped around his hips as he crushed my chest against his.

The taste of his mouth made me weak with longing and only the sound of nearby giggling forced us to pull apart.

‘You’ve done it to me again, Maggie,’ he whispered soft against my lips. ‘Twenty-four hours in your company and I’m a lost cause.’

‘Count yourself lucky,’ I retorted, barely able to contain my joy. ‘I’ve been a lost cause for twenty-four years.’

‘I’ve dreamed about you so many times over the years,’ he murmured. ‘Wondering where you were, what sort of life you’ve had. Who you loved after me. Those weeks we had together were so perfect that whenever I met someone new, I couldn’t help but compare them to you.’

‘Jackson.’ I touched his face, his shoulders, his chest. Now that I knew he felt the same, I couldn’t get enough of him. ‘That was how it was for me. I couldn’t bear to bring anyone else into our little family of two because I knew he would never be you.’

‘Why didn’t we try harder to stay in touch, Maggie?’ he groaned.

‘Because we were young?’ I said. ‘Because we didn’t realise then how special what we had was? Who knows.’

He gave me a wicked smile. ‘You became a sort of fantasy woman to me.’

‘Me?’ I forced myself not to ruin the moment by saying something self-deprecating. The girl he met all those years ago would never have done that. She’d have met his eye, letting him know how good it felt to be desired. ‘Tell me more,’ I said.

‘As crazy as it sounds, whenever I thought about my dream woman, an image of you, in your bikini on the beach, would appear. You were hard to get over, Mags. I guess I never did.’

‘It doesn’t sound crazy at all. Because I’ve never got over you either.’

‘When Utt called to tell me you were in Bali, I was in such a rush to get to you that I struggled to get the key in the ignition of the jeep. On the drive from Canggu, I told myself I had to play it cool, you’d probably be here with your partner. And even if you weren’t, would you even want to see me?’

‘I did want to see you, Jackson, I’ve never stopped wanting that.’

‘Oh Maggie.’

I watched his face as he spoke, his lips forming my name, his eyes burning into mine as if I was the only person in the world. ‘I’ve fantasised about you too. But fantasy can only take you so far. The reality is so, so much better.’

A plaintive woof from the bank made us turn back to Scout and we both laughed.