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“Who said I can’t dance now?” He held out his hand to her. “Miss Lucie, if you would do me the honour?”
Heat filled her cheeks as she took his hand in hers. Her legs shook as he wrapped his arms around her neck, and she wrapped hers around his waist. Standing under the trees in the holiday village, she was about to dance with a guy. She’d never been to any of the balls the school publicised with the local boy’s college, only the discos when she was twelve. Chris’s body was warm against hers, and at their proximity, she smelt a mixture of his musky scent and Lynx. She breathed him in and melted into his arms as he guided them from side to side.
It was getting harder to swallow as she gazed back at him. Flecks of black swam in the green of his eyes. She couldn’t look away, and she didn’t want to.
“You know,” he whispered into her ear. Goose pimples rose on her arms. “I had a cheesy thought when I saw those people dancing. Maybe I made it up or read it in a book. But I reckon that although life changes us, nothing changes us more than falling in love.”
“I’ve never been in love before.”
“Me neither. Well, I hadn’t.” Did he mean he was in love now? Her dreamer side held tightly onto those words, wishing them to be true. “But no matter what happens in life when you fall in love, your soul keeps that person safe in your hearts, and no matter where you go and what happens, you carry their imprint for the rest of your lives.”
Chris was unlike anyone she’d met before. He played the fool and made her laugh, but when he spoke seriously, he had a way of reaching her heart and making everything okay.
“Whenever we fall in love? Are you sure?” The way her heart raced at the idea of kissing him and the fear of never seeing him again—this was like love, wasn’t it?
Should she try and kiss him now? She was too scared to make the first move, but what if the timer went off and she had to go home for her birthday tea? She had to kiss him now, or she’d be too frightened to try again.
“Well, not if we fall in love with arseholes. They can bugger off. They don’t get a place on our soul.”
The tension from the moment ceased, and a chuckle broke free. But at the same time, relief and shame combined inside her. Why were all her emotions so heightened? She wanted to shout, cry, and belly laugh all at once. Would she always be too scared to kiss him?
“Oh, I forgot, let’s go somewhere quieter,” he said, breaking contact and retrieving his bag. “I have one last thing for your birthday.”
Was it going to be another funny card? Was he unaware of what nearly happened? He was going to give her another jokey thing when the moment was perfect for a kiss. They walked away from the lodges, the elderly couple now forgotten, and into a quieter bit of the forest.
They reached a small open area and stopped. Chris kept his back to her as he knelt on the floor with his bag. She moved to the side, but he hunched down, hiding what he was doing. Then, like a lunchbox opening, a popping sound filled the area, followed by the flick of a lighter. As he turned and stood, delight replaced her confusion.
“A birthday cake with a candle for me?”
“A birthday cupcake. But it’s all yours. You don’t have to share it, although not knowing what your favourite flavour was, I picked mine instead, because who doesn’t love chocolate? But you don’t have to share it if you don’t want to.” He was so earnest in his hunger for the cake that she giggled aloud. He frowned before adding, “You’d best blow it out before the candle melts. And don’t forget to make a wish.”
She closed her eyes, took a breath, and blew out the candle.
I wish to have my first kiss with Chris.
She couldn’t deny him some of the cake, and they took turns taking big bites out of the chocolate sponge. It was gone in a matter of seconds. Buttercream covered his upper lip, and she struggled not to stare as he licked it off. Her belly spun like a washing machine.
“What did you wish for?” he asked.
His eyes transfixed her. Should she say? It might not come true if she did, or was that an old wives’ tale? The ball of fear grew inside her. She had one chance. The timer must be about to go off. This was it. Time to be the exception and make her wishes come true.
She took a deep breath and dived for his lips, banging his head and squishing his nose but never reaching his mouth.
“Ouch,” she exclaimed as he rubbed his head. She waited for him to laugh at her or freak out and tell her they were friends and nothing more.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you all day, but I didn’t know how you felt. That wasn’t how I imagined it,” he joked, sending pearls of excitement flying around her body. “How about this instead?”
He cupped her face with his trembling hands and planted a kiss on her lips. Initially, it was the fumbling kiss of novices. The butterflies in her stomach were doing belly flops. Adrenaline roared through her ears. Where should she be putting her hands? Little tickles crossed her neck, and it was like pins and needles were attacking her legs, and yet, even with all that going on, it was bliss. How could you enjoy something that was like torture? His tongue eased open her mouth. It should have been weird to have someone else’s tongue in her mouth, but it made her fancy him more. The smell of Lynx filled her lungs as his eyelashes fluttered on her skin. He tasted of buttercream and chocolate cake. There was so much going on. She shouted at herself to enjoy the moment. Then, as her thoughts slowly eased, a ringing bell replaced the sound of their kiss.
They pulled back and gasped for breath.
“That was—”
“Amazing,” she finished for him.
“I was going to say the best kiss ever, but I like amazing too!”
Her smile was as broad as his, and she couldn’t stop giggling.
