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Moving a bit closer to me, he slides a hand to the back of my neck in a possessive move that sends a thrill through me. “You set me alight,” he murmurs, which is so sweet and so sexy that my heart threatens to leap out of my chest and bounce along the ground like a space hopper.
Then he lowers his head and kisses me again.
His lips press across mine with soft butterfly kisses. His thumb strokes my neck, right by the nape. It makes me shiver again, and he obviously feels it, because he tilts his head to the side, changing the angle of the kiss. He slants his lips across mine, and then I feel his tongue brush across my bottom lip. As electricity zaps through me, I open my mouth, and he slides his tongue inside. I inhale, joy flooding through me, and I rise up onto my tiptoes so I can lift my arms around his neck while he lowers his around me.
The fiery kiss fills me with delicious heat. He rests his hands on my waist, then slides them around my back, holding me tightly as I press up against him. Oh man. Alexander the Great kisses like a god. I should have guessed.
Conscious that we’re on the school playing field and there might be kids around, I eventually move back before I do the whole pushing him on the grass and doing him there and then thing. Luckily, we’re around the back of the tent, and nobody’s seen us, except for Zelda, who’s lying with her head on her paws, watching us.
“Mmm,” I say as Alex lowers his arms.
His eyes are intense. “That was worth waiting for.”
“Merry Christmas,” I whisper, and his lips curve up.
“Merry Christmas, Missie.” He gives me a final kiss, just touching his lips to mine. “I’m in Wellington until the twentieth,” he says. “So the next time I’ll see you will be at the party.”
I nod and move back. I’m disappointed, but at least I’ll have something to dream about over the next week. “Thank you again for helping out today,” I murmur. “I really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome.” We smile at each other, and then we walk around to the front of the tent.
“Wow,” Carly says, obviously spotting his soaked tee, “that’s a lot of sweat.”
“It’s thirty degrees and I’ve been wearing a fur coat,” he points out, clipping Zelda’s leash to her collar.
“Nothing to do with the steamy snog you’ve just had, then?”
He gives a short laugh and exchanges an amused look with me as I blush. “See you on the twenty-first,” he says.
“Bye, Alex.”
“Bye,” he says, and I watch him go, my heart floating with the bubbles all the way up to the sky.
*
At first I assume the next week is going to go by at a snail’s pace, but the days pass quickly, especially once school finishes. December is always an emotional time because the following year I have a whole new class of students, and it always humbles me to think back over the year and see how far the children have come since their first day in my classroom.
Also, it’s Finn’s last day at primary school as he’s starting high school in February, and his graduation is an emotional one for me, as he’s my only child, and I’m not sure I’ll have any more kids. He’s excited to be moving forward, though, especially as his physio is going well, and he’s able to move about a lot more on his own with crutches.
There’s Christmas shopping to do, and wrapping presents, dressing the tree, buying food, and baking, as well as continuing to take Finn for his physio three times a week, and sometimes taking him to friends’ houses. We also travel up to Blenheim for a couple of days to see my aunt and uncle so we can deliver their Christmas presents.
The weather is changeable—warmer than it has been, but with some rainy days that leave the tarmac steaming when the sun comes out. Alex texts me, telling me it’s hot in Wellington. I reply that’s because he’s there. He comes back with a laughing emoji. And that’s it—from then on we text continually. Just short messages talking about our day, nothing too intimate, but my heart leaps every time I feel my phone buzz in my pocket.
I feel odd—restless and emotional and scared and excited all rolled into one. It’s not surprising, I guess. The memories of last December are still fresh in my mind, even though a whole year has passed.
A whole year. I can hardly believe it. Back in March, when I first met Alex, I knew I wouldn’t be ready to start a relationship for a long, long time. I needed to get over the grief and guilt and trauma of Finn’s accident, and even though it might seem like an arbitrary number in many ways, it was important to me for Finn’s sake, if nobody else’s, that I wait until a year passed before I started seeing another man.
And now it’s the twenty-first of December, and tonight’s the night of the Kia Kaha Christmas party.
Which is why Carly and her husband, Sean, arrive an hour before I’m due to leave, complete with an armful of outfits, a dozen pieces of jewelry, hair curlers and tongs, and a box of makeup, as if we’re sixteen years old getting ready for the school ball.
Sean gets stuck into LEGO Star Wars on the PlayStation with Finn, while Carly comes into my bedroom with me.
“You’re not wearing that,” she states when I show her the black shirt and skinny jeans I’d hung up ready.
“What’s wrong with it?” I protest.
“It’sbleugh.”
