Ash stood firm. ‘I’m happy,’ he lied. ‘Anyway, what can I do for you, Wilf?’
‘You’re here. That’s all I need.’
‘Okay.’
Standing together in companionable silence, Ash forced a polite smile to his lips as each new arrival came up to Wilf. Rosie had a good send-off. He wasn’t surprised. She’d been an incredible woman.
It felt like an eternity before the two men had to take their own seats. But, just as they were about to move, Wilf placed a hand on Ash’s arm, his grip surprisingly strong and his eyes suddenly sharp.
‘Did you bring anything with you?’ he demanded urgently.
Sheepishly, as if he were fourteen again, Ash reached into his pocket and took out a handful of popcorn kernels.
The grin split Wilf’s face in two even as a tear tipped over and rolled down his cheek.
‘Me too. I already threw mine in,’ he chuckled. ‘We’ll send our Rosie off with the bang she always wanted.’
* * *
‘Ash?’
When Fliss opened her front door at such an ungodly hour, he was the last person she expected to see.
Ever since she’d awoken in that hotel room alone, she hadn’t been able to shake the hope that she might see him again. It wasn’t just about the sex, but if that was all he was offering then, so help her, she’d take it.
He was exhausted and devastated, and looking dishevelled in his service dress. Her heart vaulted around her chest, questions piling in on her. But, before she could ask a single one, he stepped through the door, tugged apart the tie of her dressing gown and scooped her up, encouraging her to wrap her legs around his hips as he pinned her against the hallway wall. Fliss was vaguely aware of the front door slamming behind him.
‘Bedroom?’ he ground out hoarsely, abandoning her mouth for a brief moment.
She was barely able to think straight, let alone speak.
‘Left, right, right,’ she managed.
It never crossed her mind to stop him. But she wanted him too much. Wanted this too much. They’d have to deal with the fallout later.
He laid her on the bed, stripping her down so that she felt the cool morning air on her body, sending goosebumps skittering over her skin and hardening her nipples. Ash noticed too, studying her whole body reverently before covering each breast with a large hand and taking both brown peaks between a finger and his thumbs so that sparks shot through her body.
But he wasn’t here at this hour for foreplay. Moments later, they were both naked and he was covering her pliant body with his own solid one, holding himself above her, his eyes locked with hers, not a word more spoken. Neither of them needed words. And then Ash claimed her as his, quickly bringing her to orgasm moments before he exploded inside her.
It was only when their shudders had subsided that he slipped out of her, still caressing her spine as he would a lover, until finally his breathing slowed and he drifted into the first sleep Fliss suspected he’d had since leaving the hotel the other day.
When she woke several hours later the bed was cold, like some pathetic déjà-vu. Only this time, she realised, something felt different. Throwing on an old T-shirt and yoga pants, she padded along the corridor, following the scent of coffee and warm bread. He was dressed in gym gear that she imagined he’d retrieved from a gym bag he kept in the boot of his car, just as she did.
Then her eyes widened in surprise. ‘Homemade bread?’
‘Rosie taught me,’ he answered simply.
She took it for the hedged invitation that it was. Moving gingerly into the room, she slid onto a barstool across the kitchen worktop, as though any sudden moves might startle him.
He watched her, his gaze unwavering. ‘I’m sorry about this morning. That wasn’t what I intended when I drove here.’
‘It wasn’t?’ She attempted to tease him in an effort to conceal her nerves, but she knew it sounded a little stiff, a little awkward.
The truth was that she didn’t want to hear the words. She didn’t want him to say it had been a mistake.
Instead, he offered a wry smile. ‘Okay, it was. But not like that. I wanted to talk first.’
Something pulled in her chest but she schooled her features, scared to give too much away.