Jamie always made fun of me, he always said I should just hire a driver because it’d be cheaper. Whatever. What did he know?
“It’s a bit cold for you to be sat outside.”
I jumped at the sound of his voice. I exhaled my drag so fast that it almost made me choke.
My heart started that hammering thing it always did when he was around.
“Is it? Feels nice to me.” I just about managed to reply through the crisscrossing rails.
“I heard you were worried about me.”
“I hate your sisters.”
“Yeah, feeling’s mutual.” He laughed. “Are you going to let me in?”
“What are you the Big Bad Wolf?”
“Have you been drinking?”
“No. Yes.” I took one last long puff and stubbed my cigarette out in the ashtray I kept on the outside ledge before I pulled myself up using the railing. “Why?”
“The Big Bad Wolf? Really?”
I walked back over to the coffee table and put the now cold mug down before I picked up my keys.
“Let yourself in.” I dropped the loaded keyring to the side of the black railing and he caught it in his open palm.
“Are you flirting with me?”
My cheeks heated and my breath quickened. By the time I looked back at where he was standing, he was gone, and I realised that I was wearing my Mickey Mouse Christmas pyjamas. Nice.
I pulled my hair out of its ponytail and combed it back into a fresh one with my fingers before I shut the window. My cheeks warmed as my blood rushed colour onto them.
I turned around and froze as he stood there looking at me like he’d never seen me before. I felt myself warm and pool in places I shouldn’t have as I drank him in from head to toe.
His tousled dark hair that looked like it’d been pulled to within an inch of its life and his scruffy, stubbly beard that should make him look like he was a mess, but it just made him even more beautiful.
That was the only way I could describe him. Beautiful.
He’d probably laugh if I said that, but it was true. He was handsome and gorgeous and beautiful.
God, I needed to pull myself together and maybe not look at him like I was imagining everything underneath. Except, he was looking at me exactly the same way. Me. He was looking at me like he had so many times before, but at the same time in a completely new way. Like there was no barrier of restraint.
His chest was rising and falling as fast as mine. And then he licked his lips.
Fuuuuuuuck!
“Hi.” His voice was dark and husky. Like nothing I’d ever heard before.
I smiled as I breathed out a soft, “Hi.”
“You’re over a month early.” He chuckled as he took a couple of steps toward me.
“I know.” I cringed. “They’re Pippa’s favourite and I know it’s silly, but it makes me feel closer to her when she’s not here.”
“Wait till you see mine and Molly’s matching onesies.”
“That’s just sad.”