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‘No?’
‘No,’ he confirms, his eyes so hot and intense that heat crawls up my back and neck. I hope to hell he can’t see it in the dark. To hide, I resort to being flippant. ‘Say hello to the world’s first ever dick warmer,’ I croak.
He drags his thumb over my lower lip. ‘Your lips are the color of ripe peaches, Savage.’
I lick my lips self-consciously. ‘You’re full of shit, Eden.’
He laughs. ‘And your skin shimmers in the dark … like pearls.’
‘OK, now you’re really taking the piss.’
He smiles. There is a new softness and a languor to his face that makes him so damn foxy I want to eat him with a spoon, but I don’t. The earlier cold shoulder from him still kinda hurts.
Still, it’s not too long before he has me on my hands and knees. Gripping my buttocks hard he plunges into me all over again.
I drive into her like a man possessed. The room loses its solidity, and drifts away like a cloud. There is only her and me suspended in nothing. My mind spins and old magic circles around us. I lose all sense of time as her essence rushes through me, merging with me and revitalizing everything dead and diseased in my body.
Freezing cold waves still crash around me, but I do not feel the pain. I tighten my hold on her hips and roar like a beast. I know the pain will come back—its retreat is momentary—but the scale of the relief I experience is impossible to describe.
ELEVEN
You can forget so many evenings of sadness
For a morning of tenderness.
—Je sais, Jean Gabin
I wake up on my back with my cheek pressed against Dom’s chest, his big palm resting on my belly, my feet entangled with his, a raging thirst, bursting for a pee, and a twenty-four carat bitch of a headache. My head is pounding so hard it hurts to ev
en breathe.
Never again, I swear.
Gingerly, I lift his hand and, easing myself away from his heavy, warm bulk, I sit up at the edge of the bed. Separated from his body I immediately feel cold and hollow. Just the air conditioning turned up too high, I tell myself. I swing my legs to the cold ground. Ouch, my head. In the blue glow of the night light I make my way to the bathroom. Ohhhh … Peeing hurts, too. With a long sigh I go into the kitchen in search of a glass of water. On the island top I see a black napkin with two painkillers neatly laid out next to a glass of water.
For a second I stare blankly at the sight.
He put it out for me!
I scratch my head. Ouch. I shuffle over to the napkin, pop the pills, down the water, and head back to bed. Very, very gently, because my head has now started throbbing hard enough to break, I slide back under the covers. A powerful arm circles my waist and a sleepy, warm voice murmurs in my hair, ‘Sleep, sweet Ella. You’ll feel better in the morning.’
Unable to speak, I close my eyes, and after a while I fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.
A sound wakes me up. I open my eyes, and Dom is sitting freshly showered and fully dressed by the bedside. His hair is still damp, and I am suddenly reminded of the first time I saw him. It feels like our first encounter happened a lifetime ago. Another era. He has become so much a part of my life.
‘How are you feeling?’ he asks.
I push hair out of my face and blink a few times. My eyes feel heavy and my mouth feels wooly. At least the headache is gone, though. ‘I’ll survive,’ I mutter.
‘Look, I have to go out, but stay as long as you like. Make yourself some breakfast. How about I take you out to lunch when I get back?’
‘Uh, no, I can’t stay. I’ve got to go to my mum’s and then I’m meeting my best friend for lunch.’
‘Right.’ He takes his phone out of his pocket ‘What’s your mum’s number?’
I stare at him, surprised. ‘Why?’
He looks up from his phone. ‘I’m a paranoid motherfucker. I always need next of kin information.’
