Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
L eo lounged on the picnic blanket, near the firepit that Jan had lit using kindling from fallen branches and the logs stacked outside the chata. He listened to the two women chatting about ideas and improvements to the building as Jan went down to the water’s edge to pluck several more bottles of beer from the crate he’d lodged in the reservoir to keep it cold. This was definitely Leo’s idea of a good weekend, being outdoors in the fresh air, albeit with a good thick jumper on, with nothing to do but kick back and enjoy the fresh air and the company.
‘Here you go,’ said Jan, deliberately dripping cold water on Leo’s face. Anna and Michaela, who had swapped to white wine, both laughed as Leo shot up in shock and yelled his surprise. Jan simply grinned, flipped the crown caps of the bottles and handed him one. ‘ Na zdraví ,’ he said, tapping his bottle against Leo’s.
‘Want to help me with the grill? We have klobása and chicken and some vegetables to cook.’
‘Sure,’ said Leo. ‘If you tell me what klobása is… It’s not sheep’s intestines or anything?’ He pulled a childish face.
‘You’re thinking of haggis,’ said Anna, rolling her eyes toward Michaela.
‘It’s a pork sausage made with paprika, herbs and garlic.’
‘Ah, count me in, then,’ said Leo.
‘Can I do anything to help?’ asked Anna.
‘Yes, come slice up the vegetables while Jan gets the barbecue lit.’ She lowered her voice but still spoke loudly enough for both men to hear. ‘We have to let them play with the fire.’
Jan lunged towards Michaela in retaliation, making her giggle, and the two of them wrestled until it ended in a kiss. Leo felt a sharp pang, decided it was uncharitable envy and deliberately avoided looking at Anna. Did she remember them being playful together like this? It felt like such a loss. Pain twisted in his heart, sharp and fast like a dagger thrust.
‘Get a room, you guys,’ he said.
‘Cooking time,’ said Michaela and dragged Anna off to the kitchen, while Jan took him to the shed, where they unearthed an ancient grill and a sack of charcoal.
They ate the marinated chicken thighs and spicy koblása , with slices of grilled courgette, red peppers, onions and plump juicy tomatoes, and hunks of fresh bread that were invaluable for soaking up the juices, as they sat around the dancing flames of the firepit with a bottle of south Moravian wine, which Leo had to admit was pretty damn good.
By the time the light was long gone, warm lethargy had invaded his limbs, and when Michaela suggested they all turn in, the thought of bed was more than inviting.
He’d already spotted Anna’s stricken expression earlier in the day when they’d inspected where they were sleeping and he knew she was worrying about the logistics. It was such an Anna thing to worry about.
‘Why don’t you go in first,’ he suggested. ‘Get ready.’
‘Thanks,’ she said with a grateful smile, the little worry lines around her mouth receding immediately.
When he came into the room, a solitary candle stood on top of the wood burner and Anna was tucked into her bed, motionless as a corpse on the opposite side of the room. Although it was tempting to wish her a cheery goodnight while she played dead, he thought better of it, blew out the candle and undressed quickly, leaving his boxers on. It didn’t take him long to settle his body into a comfortable position but his brain lit up like fireflies in the dark with thoughts of Anna. The memory of when he’d first got to know her decided to repeat on loop and he snorted quietly to himself, remembering how, while working behind the bar, he’d had to coax her out of her shell like a suspicious tortoise. From day one, her no-nonsense, don’t-take-any-crap demeanour had fascinated and intrigued him. So different from other women he’d met. Despite, in his opinion, being a stunner, Anna was not only uninterested in her looks but dismissed any comments about them. Compliments were treated with scepticism, flattering remarks with a flat refusal to listen, let alone accept them.
His eyes grew accustomed to the gloom and through the window he could see the shapes of the trees against the sky, which was alive with tiny pinpricks of light. Gradually his eyes began to droop and he felt himself sliding into sleep.
He surfaced from the dream trying to hang onto the wisps of its cosy warmth – sunshine, a beach, kissing, kissing Anna. Yeah, kissing Anna, holding her soft body – which had poofed away leaving disappointment and the remnants of a hard-on that was unlikely to get release any time soon. As he lay there he heard a soft sigh and the whisper of bedclothes and realised that Anna was awake. She turned again and this time uttered a huff of annoyance. Closing his eyes, he tried to go back to sleep, but his whole body, still humming from the kiss in his dreams, was acutely aware of Anna on the other side of the room. There it was again. Another sigh, this time accompanied by a louder huff and then a protracted rearrangement of her feather duvet, which rustled like soft plastic.
It was impossible to ignore, and tension tightened his muscles, making it even harder to ignore her presence on the other side of the room.
‘Anna,’ he eventually said into the dark. ‘What’s wrong?’
The lengthy silence irritated him even more and he knew that it was his own frustration that made him terse.
She huffed out another sigh. ‘My mattress is deflating.’
‘What?’
‘It’s going down. I think I’ve got a slow puncture. Do you think Jan has a repair kit?’
Leo burst out laughing. Only Anna would consider repairing a bed in the middle of the night.
‘He probably has but I’m not sure he’d be too happy to be woken in the middle of the night. And repairing a hole by candlelight could be quite a challenge.’
‘Not helping, Leo,’ she said, tossing again.
‘Sorry.’
Her response was yet another huff.
After a minute’s silence, he said, aware of his heart banging in his chest, ‘Do you want to come in here?’
It took her a moment to reply. ‘No, I’m fine. I’ve arranged my duvet so I can lie on some of it.’
There was more rustling as she tried to get comfortable. He turned over, sleep not so much evading him as getting up and leaving the country. His inward curses each time she tossed and turned brought him to a fever pitch of irritation, as much with himself as with her. After ten interminable minutes, he spoke through gritted teeth.
‘Just get in here, for God’s sake.’
‘I’m fine.’
‘You’re not fine and you’re keeping me awake.’
‘Well, I’m sorry about that.’ Her sarcastic voice rang out. ‘I do apologise for disturbing your beauty sleep but I’m basically sleeping on a wooden floor, your highness.’
‘For fuck’s sake, Anna. We’ve shared a bed before. One more time is not going to kill you. You can thank me in the morning when you’re feeling rested.’
‘Hmph,’ said Anna ungraciously but he heard her kicking off her covers. He moved to the far side of the mattress and turned down the duvet to accommodate her. ‘You need to talk to me, I can’t see.’
Suddenly there was a whompf as Anna tripped on the edge of the mattress and fell on top of him, her head narrowly missing his crown jewels.
‘Steady on,’ he grunted, startled by the narrow miss. She lay there with her head burrowed between his legs, her soft breath whistling along the hairs on his thighs. Suddenly he wasn’t feeling quite so alarmed, something altogether different.
‘Er, Anna. Do you think you could er … erm, move.’
She lifted her head, her hair brushing his skin. He had to clench his fists to stop himself reaching to stroke her head.
‘Yes. Sorry.’ She moved again, trying to gain purchase on the mattress, and one hand grazed his stomach. He sucked in a quick breath.
‘Anna get into bed, will you.’
‘Sorry, did I hurt you?’
‘No,’ he said tersely, horribly conscious of the sudden rush of blood down below.
‘I didn’t mean to headbutt your nuts. Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine,’ he said through gritted teeth. Surely she must know what she was doing to him. ‘You missed.’
‘Phew. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for damaging your manhood and depriving the world of future Knight babies.’
‘For which I’m very grateful.’ Every part of him was now on high alert. Shit, this had been a very bad idea. ‘Now get in and go to sleep.’ He hoped she would put the snap in his tone down to disturbed sleep and not to the chaos triggered in him by her closeness and the familiarity of her warm body.
Anna edged her way under the duvet and settled in on the far side of the mattress. The fire had died down and was nothing more than a dull glow in the stove. Cold air seeped in where the duvet stretched across the divide between them. He lay on his back, staring out of the curtainless window at the myriad stars spread like fine lace across the sky, millions of incalculably huge numbers of years away, but much as he focused on them, he was horribly aware of Anna. His mind crackled with memories: her skin, the scent of her hair, the way she slept, one leg crooked, the little noises she made in her sleep.
She fidgeted on her side of the bed, almost falling out, in what he assumed was her earnest desire to keep as much distance as possible between them. Every time she moved, it was a reminder of how close and yet how far from him she was. This was next to torture. He reached out and put a hand on her waist to roll her over. ‘Anna, you’re not going to spontaneously combust if we accidentally touch.’
‘I didn’t want to disturb you.’
‘You’re disturbing me more by treating me like I’m a wet squid that got in the bath with you.’ Exasperated, he slid an arm beneath her shoulder and pulled her to him, so her head rested on his shoulder. ‘Now go to sleep. It can’t get any worse than this, can it?’
She let out a snuffly laugh, her breath tickling his skin. ‘That’s your solution?’
‘Yes. It’s the worst that can happen and now it has.’
‘Not the worst,’ countered Anna.
‘The worst of your imaginings. Now we’ve got that out the way, we can go to sleep.’
She was still a little stiff but he could feel her gradually relaxing against him.
‘Better?’ he asked.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘It’s more comfortable. Don’t get any ideas.’
‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’ He breathed deeply, inhaling the scent of her, her hair soft beneath his chin. He could do this. Remain immune. They were friends. They’d reached a good place. They could share a bed and it could be platonic.
With a small smile he dropped a silent kiss on her hair and her hand tightened on his waist.
‘Thank you, Leo.’
‘For what?’ he asked, his body starting to soften with sleep.
‘For being you.’
In the dark he smiled. It feel good to be valued for himself and not compared to anyone else, like his brother for instance. Now that she was nestled next to him, the warmth of her body relaxing against him, all was good. He closed his eyes. Anna. Here. All was good. As the fuzziness of sleep enfolded him, he was vaguely aware that perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea … but it felt so good.