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‘Did I?’
‘You did indeed. When I discovered you were gone, I nearly lost my mind with worry! I thought I would never ever get the manuscript back.’
I stiffened in his arms.
The manuscript?
The bloody manuscript?
If only I hadn’t let go of the knife.
‘If you don’t shut up about that manuscript,’ I growled, grabbing him by the collar, ‘I’m going to throw you down on the ground and torture you all through the night!’
‘Indeed?’ His eyes sparked in the darkness. The expression in their swirling depths looked far more like anticipation than fear. He leaned forward and, grasping my chin in one hand, whispered into my ear so low only I could hear: ‘Manuscript!’
What was a girl to do?
Love in the Morning
Even before I woke all the way up next morning, I knew where I was. There was only one way to connect last night to today, to explain the warm body pressed up against me. I smiled, snuggling closer to Mr Ambrose. The hammock was hardly big enough for both of us, but right then and there, I didn’t care. It was enough to feel his warmth beside me, and his strong arms pressing into me. Someone lovingly caressed my cheek, and I felt my body melt. Did he know I could feel it? Did he know I was awake? The same someone bent forward to gently nibble on my ear, and I gave a contented sigh.
Then someone spit in my ear, stuck his finger into it and turned it this way and that.
Suffice it to say that this did not draw a contented sigh from my lips.
‘What the hell do you think you’re-’
I shot upright, my eyes spitting fire - and came to an abrupt halt as the fellow beside me greeted me with a smile entirely too friendly, long-toothed and yellow for Mr Rikkard Ambrose.
‘Oook!’ The monkey said, triumphantly, and proudly held up the finger with which he had kindly cleaned my ear. ‘Oook ooog? Oook!’
‘Ya! Argh! Argl!’
Scrambling backwards, I toppled clean out of the hammock, slamming into the ground with a resounding thud.
The monkey, looking very puzzled that I was not more interested in his ear-cleaning services, climbed down out of the hammock after me and wobbled over to me.
‘Oook?’ he asked, offering me the smeary finger. ‘Oook ok ooog oook!’
Just then, footsteps approached from behind me, and a cool voice enquired: ‘I hope I’m not interrupting something?’
Oh God! No, please! Please, let me die now!
‘Not at all,’ I said without turning around, keeping my voice steady. ‘This gentleman was just leaving.’
However, the monkey seemed disinclined to follow my suggestion. It held up its slobbery finger again with a hopeful face. ‘Oook?’
‘No, I’m not interested!’ I hissed. ‘Shoo! Piss off, you little furry beast!’
I swear to you, the little furball actually looked hurt! It held up its finger one last time, a pleading expression on its hairy little face.
‘Seems he doesn’t want to take no for an answer,’ came Mr Ambrose’s cool voice from behind me. There was no hint of amusement in it, but with Mr Ambrose, that didn’t mean much.
‘He’s probably a male,’ I growled. ‘They all seem to have trouble understanding a certain small two-letter word.
‘Or maybe it’s just you.’ He was closer now, slowly approaching. A hand reached out to gently stroke my cheek, and I quickly glanced at it to make sure it was human this time before relaxing into the touch. ‘Maybe you’re irresistible.’
‘To monkeys?’
