AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I don’t have your number.”
He reached into his pocket for his wallet—Charlotte couldn’t contain the rush of heat as she remembered the condoms he’d removed the night before. This time, he pulled out a business card—snowy white cardboard with silver lettering. His name and a mobile phone number, nothing more.
She took it, running her fingers over the edges. “I’ll message you later.”
He nodded but still didn’t move and she wondered if he was finding it as annoying as she that they couldn’t spend more of the day together.
But then, he let go, stepped back and opened the door.
“Oh, Alessio?” She said, when he’d crossed the threshold. “There’s one more thing.”
He lifted a brow enquiringly.
“No one can know about this,” she said, breathily. “Not your family,” she clarified, eyes not quite meeting his. “And definitely not Dash. Custody is complicated and things with Caleb…”
“Are also complicated,” he surmised, his voice holding none of the warmth she’d come to admire in it.
Charlotte couldn’t deny his characterisation. Things with Calebwerecomplicated.While technically they were just friends, there was no getting away from the fact Caleb wanted more, and she’d been carefully, gently rebuffing him for well over a year. If he knew Alessio had come to town and managed to seduce Charlotte within forty-eight hours…well, it wouldn’t be great for anyone’s relationship.
“It’s better this way.”
“I have no issues with privacy,cara.In fact, it’s my preference also.” He leaned forward and pressed another kiss to her forehead but this time, he kept his lips there and Charlotte tilted her face upwards, so they kissed properly.
It was supposed to be a kiss of farewell, but his hands caught at her back, and he drew her against his hard, strong frame, until she was weak at the knees and every cell in her body wanted so much more than just a kiss.
“Tonight,” he growled against her mouth before stepping backwards, and she carried that promise close to her chest, all the rest of the day.
Chapter6
SOMETIMES HE THOUGHT HE tolerated his mother and Caleb, other times he thought he downright hated them. And sometimes, he felt something else altogether, particularly for his mother. Something a little like pity, or vulnerability, something that made him uncomfortably aware of his feelings and emotions and the desire he had tonotto feel anything, at least, not for them.
Watching his mother fuss with a flower arrangement was one of those moments. She wasn’t aware he was here—quite by accident, he’d parked and walked towards the property without her noticing. She must have been too wrapped up in her thoughts. Despite the cool day, she had the windows to the garden room open, and he caught a perfect glimpse of her persevering with several wayward branches from a holly bush, frowning as she pushed them into place, studying them, then moving them again. Her face was pale, with more lines than he remembered, and she looked…concerned. Worried. Sad.
He’d told himself he’d stopped caring about her a long time ago, but it wasn’t possible to switch off completely. For a moment, he looked at her and tried to see her as she was in his mind—the younger woman who’d left him behind. The mother who’d read to him, who’d hugged him so tight, who’d wiped his hair from his brow when he’d been running and was wet with sweat, the woman who’d taught him to swim in the sparkling Aegean, who’d held his hand as they’d jumped off the end of the jetty, who’d stood at his side and shown him how to cook, and to clean, and instead of warmth flooding him, there was something else now, a bitterness that invaded his entire body.
Because those great memories were all tarnished by her desertion. He couldn’t look back and love what she’d once been to him, because she’d chosen to be that to someone elseinsteadof him.
All he wanted, suddenly, was to be back at the pub—ironically, his mother’s pub—but it wasn’t his mother he was thinking of, so much as Charlotte, and the night they’d spent together, the promise they’d given one another for tonight.
She was a balm to the necessary evil of this ‘holiday’, a relief from the time he was spending with his mother, of the promise he’d made his father.
Just a few more nights and he could be done with this. And if Charlotte was a part of those nights, then so much the better.
“Alex! You’re here!” Winona’s voice dragged him from his imaginings, right back to the present.
Stiffening unconsciously, he looked towards her, unable to dredge up even the hint of a smile.
“Yes. We had an appointment, didn’t we?”
She crinkled her nose. “A lunch, in fact. Come in, darling.”
He didn’t like it when his mother used terms of endearment, and he felt as though he’d made that abundantly clear, yet she still did it, from time to time, despite the fact he was a man in his thirties and definitely not her ‘darling’.
“I hope you haven’t gone to too much trouble. I can’t stay long.” He hadn’t planned to say the words—he had nothing else on for the afternoon except catching up on emails—but the moment her face tensed, he realised he’d done it halfway hoping to hurt her. It was a childish instinct. When was he going to get over the past? They didn’t have to be close, or friendly, but why bother treating her this way?
“No trouble.” Her voice was a little softened by his rebuke, but she rallied quickly. “Caleb can’t join us—he’s at the pub, placing orders. It’s such a busy time of year, and after a disastrous Christmas five years ago, when we ran clear out of ale between Christmas and New Year, we’ve learned to always have an excess of things on hand.”
We.Mother and son, a team. He nodded curtly and his mother sighed.
