Chapter 34
When Miles lets us into the penthouse, Bea streaks across to the door of his room.
‘Come here, Saoirse! We have a surprise for you!’ She’s jumping up and down like a ping-pong ball. Keeley definitely fed her too much chocolate while Miles and I were upstairs.
‘Another surprise?’ I raise my eyebrows at Miles, who grins at me.
‘The surprises will keep on coming, baby. Ho ho ho.’
‘You’re so creepy.’ I kiss him lightly on the cheek and bounce over to Bea. ‘Show me my surprise!’
Bea opens the door with a flourish. Inside, Miles’ bed is neatly made and turned back on both sides. And on both sets of pillows lies a pair of red tartan pyjamas. At the end of the bed are two red felt stockings.
I put my hand on my heart. This little tableau says as much about the seriousness of Miles’ intentions as his words did.
‘Are those for me?’
‘Yep.’ Bea jumps over and grabs a set of pyjamas. ‘We buyed these for you. Cos Daddy said if you let him be your boyfriend, you can have a sleepover with him tonight.’
Miles comes up behind me, slides his arms around my waist, and rests his chin on my shoulder. Kisses my neck.
‘I’m counting on it,’ he whispers.
That melting, warming feeling in my chest is back. I look down at beautiful Bea, her little face earnest, and take the pyjamas.
‘Well, I would love to have a sleepover with your daddy.’
‘I got some, too. Daddy said we can all get into our PJs when we get home and watch TV together on the sofa. You can get changed in the barf-room.’ She points. ‘So we don’t see your bum-bum.’ She giggles her beautiful, silver-bell-peal and clamps her hand over her mouth.
‘It would be dreadful to see Saoirse’s bum-bum,’ Miles drawls behind me. ‘Better get in there.’
‘How did you guys pull this off? This is, like, the best ambush ever.’
‘We went to M&S.’ Bea skips on the spot in delight.
‘For the PJs. And the concierge may have got Harrods involved for the stocking. We don’t want you missing out when Father Christmas turns up later.’
‘Thank you both. So much. This is—wonderful. I’m so excited to spend Christmas with you two. And I’m excited for my sleepover.’ I squeeze Miles’ hand.
We watch Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street in our pyjamas with Bea wedged between us. Miles has hardly let go of me since we left my flat. He has an arm around me now, on the sofa.
‘You have no idea how happy I am to be here, with you two,’ I whisper. ‘I’m so glad you rescued me.’
He squeezes my shoulder more tightly. ‘Don’t think for a second that we rescued you, okay?’ His voice is gruff. ‘You rescued us. Otherwise Bea would have been stuck spending Christmas with the Grinch.’
‘Grooge.’
‘Exactly. We’re so glad you’re here. Aren’t we, Beadle?’
‘Huh?’ The poor kid is just trying to watch the movie.
‘Aren’t we glad Saoirse’s here?’
‘Yes.’ Bea high-fives him. ‘Can we have a selfie?’
Miles groans. ‘It’s horrifying that you know that word, but yes.’
I hold up my phone, snap the three of us in our tartan PJs, grinning like lunatics. I send it to Miles, and then to Clodagh.
Christmas Day is looking up x
My sister writes back immediately.
YESSSS. Want full details. So happy for you xxx
After we tuck Bea up in bed, we pass the time while waiting for her to fall asleep by snuggling and making out on the sofa. Kissing Miles on his sofa like a teenager is an exceptionally pleasant way to while away half an hour.
‘Father Christmas has a boner,’ he groans as he staggers upright.
‘Father Christmas has some festive chores to do before he gets lucky.’
‘I’m already lucky.’ He pulls me to him.
It’s my first time playing Santa, and it’s pretty lush. We put the generous assortment of wrapped American Girl doll paraphernalia under the tree and proceed to fill Bea’s stocking with all the goodies I found on Oxford Street.
I stuff some bath bombs in. ‘I fancied you so much when you took me for those drinks at Claridge’s. I was in pieces.’
‘Oh, yeah?’
‘Yeah. All I wanted to do was curl up on your lap and undress you, right there in the bar.’
The look he shoots me is nothing short of triumphant. ‘You were pretty squirmy that evening. And I seem to remember you telling me I should make better use of you, while I had you.’
I’m a bit mortified by this reminder until he adds, ‘I couldn’t take my eyes off you that night, baby. You were magnificent—all big eyes and heaving tits. You’re lucky I had the self-control to keep things professional.’
‘That didn’t last long, did it? How’s that self-control working out for you now?’ My voice sounds breathy to my own ears.
‘Pretty fucking badly.’ He leans across the pile of presents and cups my face, kissing me. ‘I’ve never seen anyone look hotter in a pair of pyjamas. I give them about three minutes before I take you up on your offer to make good use of you.’
Brushing teeth together seems like a sweet, couply thing to do until Miles stands behind me and presses his hardness against me, watching me in the mirror as we brush. His fingers slip inside my pyjama top and graze the top of my waistband. When I bend to spit, he groans.
‘Bed,’ he mumbles through a mouthful of toothpaste.
He’s waiting in bed for me when I’m done taking off my makeup, and it’s right up there with the best sights I’ve ever seen.
Miles Montague, arms crossed lazily behind that fine head, his eyes on me as I join him in his bed.
This is too much. He hooks an arm around my waist and pulls me right in towards him, and we stare at each other from inches away.
‘I love you.’ His fingers hover at the spot where my lapel meets my top button. ‘Now, for the love of God, can I please take these off?’
And I giggle and allow him to roll me onto my back as he straddles me and unbuttons my pyjama top.
‘There they are.’ His voice is as reverent as the expression on his face. ‘So beautiful. Thank you for saying yes to us, darling. The idea of being here tonight without you is unimaginable.’
‘I love you,’ I tell him as he bends and gently puts one nipple in his mouth.
‘There’s nowhere else on earth I want to be, apart from here with you.
’ I run my hands down the sides of his top and tug it over his head, separating him briefly from my boob.
‘Lie on me. I want your weight on me. I want you all around me.’
He lowers himself down on top of me, and I wrap myself around him as tightly as I can.
My Miles.
The light tickle of his chest hair against my skin. The soft, wet slide of his mouth against my neck. The hardness of him between my legs. Apart from the slight difficulty breathing with a mass of muscle bearing down on my lungs, this is heaven.
‘Am I all around you enough?’
‘Nearly.’ My hand journeys down the satiny skin of his back and slips inside his pyjama bottoms, grabbing at the gorgeous curve of his ass. ‘I need you to fill me up, too.’
‘Whatever you say, gorgeous.’ He raises his hips so he can drag down both our pyjama bottoms and makes for the drawer of the bedside table door. I put an arm out to stop him.
‘You don’t need to. I’m on the pill, if you’re happy with that solution.’
‘I am very happy with that solution.’
Braced on one forearm, he guides himself to my entrance. Wet against wet. Brushes his tip up to where I’m most sensitive. My eyes close in bliss.
‘Look at you,’ he whispers. He pushes smoothly inside me as I widen my legs, and I get a fabulous double handful of his ass and guide him in as deep as I can.
This is what I need.
The best possible kind of overwhelm radiates through my chest at the sensation of fullness further down my body.
I open my eyes and find his beautiful mouth as he begins to move, his fingers squeezing between us so he can take me over the edge with him. I come in the best way possible: cocooned in Miles’ arms, his mouth on mine, his weight on me, filling me up inside.
I never want to leave this bubble.
And afterwards, when he’s cleaned us both up, and kissed me as if he can’t drag his mouth away, and helped me back on with my pyjamas in anticipation of an early morning visitor, he wraps me up in the cradle of his body.
‘Merry Christmas, baby,’ he says as I drift off to sleep. And this time, it feels like a promise.
A beginning.