AllFreeNovel
Share Us
We were quiet for a moment. What I wanted to do was bury my hands in his hair, tug his face down to mine, press our bodies together, together, together. What I wanted to say was,touch me, kiss me, take me, be with me. “Adam,” I blurted out, “Adam, I’m sorry.”
His eyes widened. “You caused the flood?”
I appreciated the effort, but the joke fell flat regardless. “I meant f-for yesterday.”
“Oh, yeah. Look, petal, don’t you werrit. I came on too strong, and you’re too close to your break up, and—”
“No.” It felt oddly good—powerful, even—to interrupt someone,not in callous disregard, but with urgency and need. “You were just right and…and…oh God…it’s been long enough since Marius. I don’t w-want to be with him.” I looked up. Those wet soil eyes of his so full of warmth and life and the shine of all his thoughts. “I want you. I want to be with you.”
The silence felt like drowning.
“Well,” he said, at last. “That’s the best news I’ve had all day.”
“Is that…that’s yes, right?”
“Of course it’s yes, you daft ha’porth. Should I have hummed and hawed a bit more?”
“No, of course not,” I snapped. And then I realised: it wasyes. My mind went blank with shock, relief, happiness. And suddenly there were no words left in the best possible way. “Gosh.”
He gave a throaty chuckle, sending heat racing wildly all over my skin. “Gosh indeed.”
I smiled at him, wondering if it was acceptable practice in suburban Oxford to climb a man like rampant honeysuckle. There must have been something quite expressive in my look because a flush smothered the freckles on his cheeks, and he cleared his throat. “Uh, I have to…I was going to check the fields… Do you want to come?”
“Yes.”
I fell into step beside him, and we walked together through the churchyard, which was a gauntlet of waterlogged gravel and puddles. At first, I went carefully, afraid of splashing, but when I realised my feet were still dry and toasty warm in the wellies, I grew bolder. Even when I was a child I hadn’t been inclined tosplosh about. Seen, not heard, hungry for my parents’ love, and always on my best behaviour, it would simply not have occurred to me that it was the sort of thing you could take pleasure in. But on this cold, grey-white, sun-glinting day? With a man at my side? It was joy itself to jump among the puddles in a shower of sparkling droplets.
“Edwin.” Adam’s low growl cut through the still air. “Get back here.”
“Why?”
“Because I need to kiss you right the fuck now.”
I got back there, and he kissed me right the fuck then, and it was sweet and rough and so needy, and all for me. Afterwards, he let his forehead fall against mine, his unsteady breath harsh upon my lips.
“Sorry,” he said.
“F-for kissing me?”
“God, no. But I didn’t mean to come at you like a wild man. I’ve been imagining that from pretty much the first moment I saw you, and none of my scenarios involved vigorously molesting you in a churchyard.”
I stared at his mouth with unabashed hunger, remembering how it felt, already desperate to taste him again. “There w-were scenarios?”
“I’m an engineer. There arealwaysscenarios.”
“I think I could s-stand to hear some of them.”
“You’ll get a full briefing later. I promise.” Then he leaned in and faffed a little with my collar, untucking it and folding it downneatly, the simple intimacy of the gesture leaving me as breathless as his kiss. “You know, with the wellies and the duffel coat, you look like Paddington Bear.”
“C-careful,” I warned him, a little sourly. “Dirty talk like that could turn a boy’s head. But if looking like a cartoon bear makes you want to kiss me, I’m not complaining.”
He grinned. “I want to do far more than kiss you, Edwin.”
I was drowning blissfully in the heat of his gaze. “W-what…what do you want to do with me?”
“I want to…drink tea with you again. Take you out to dinner somewhere and hold your hand over the table. I want to watch you with your books. I want to listen to you talk. I want you to make some more of that amazing bread. I want to know who you are.”
“I want that,” I gasped. “I want everything.”
