Chapter Nine
Darcy
“Good morning, sunshine,” Milo said, grinning at me from his spot by the building’s front door, where he was lounging against the wall like a very smug Cheshire Cat, complete with a bright pink and purple shirt which looked as if it had been ripped straight out of the eighties.
I groaned and put my hand over my face, wishing the ground would open and swallow me up. I’d told Owen I didn’t care if Milo heard us, but that was before—when I was desperate and horny and not thinking about the consequences—and now I really did care.
Fuck, I couldn’t believe I’d been so loud Milo hadn’t only heard us, he’d bought us supplies.
I mean, I was very grateful, but I was never going to be allowed to live this down.
And I was really glad Owen had left in the early hours so I didn’t have to face Milo with him. Because I knew Milo would have asked a dozen inappropriate questions before we even got out of the door.
I screwed up my face as I realised he was probably going to do that anyway.
“Morning,” I said, my eyes firmly fixed on the door and not him.
“Aww come on, don’t be embarrassed,” Milo said, poking me gently in the ribs. “You got epically laid last night; you don’t have any reason to be a sourpuss.”
“I’m not being sour. I’m just…” I sighed and pushed my hair back out of my face. “Please tell me you at least put your headphones in? Or on? Just please tell me you used them.”
“Why? Are you worried I’m going to judge you or something?
I’ve always known you were a noisy bottom—remember that time we went to Ibiza and you brought that guy back and I sat with Alfie in his room so you could have ours to yourself?
We heard everything.” He shrugged and clapped me on the shoulder.
“It’s not a big deal. Frankly I’m just happy you’re getting off with someone who clearly knows what he’s doing and wants to make you scream.
I mean, with everything going on you deserve to get dicked down on a regular basis. It’s good for you.”
I chuckled and reached for the door handle. “That’s what Owen said: orgasms are good for stress relief.”
“See! If you don’t listen to me, at least listen to him.”
“I never listen to you,” I said teasingly as we stepped out into the street.
The sky was overcast again, but it was also hot and humid, the air so thick it felt like it was clinging to our skin.
Seagulls wheeled overhead, screeching and cawing as they flocked towards the centre of town and the moors beyond.
I didn’t think we were due a storm, or even any rain, but it was suddenly all I wished for.
Anything to break the soupy stickiness of the air.
“Ouch, you didn’t have to say it like that,” Milo said, taking a deep breath.
“Fuck me, we need some rain. It’s worse than Satan’s sweaty arse crack out here.
” He turned to me and grinned wickedly. It was not an expression I liked.
“You should go down to the beach—it would be a great way to cool off.”
“Maybe later.”
“Or you could go now and see if your very generous top is out swimming again. Don’t you want to see him all wet and sexy?”
“First of all, his name is Owen and that is all you should be calling him, especially because he’s—”
“Our employee?”
“Yes.” I shook my head quickly, trying to stop my thoughts from screeching to a halt. “And secondly, he’s a human being, Milo, and a nice person, show some basic respect.”
“Got it, Sexy Owen it is then,” he said with a wink as he began to walk down the street.
“No, that’s not what I meant and you know it.”
“I won’t call him that to his face.”
“You’re being a dick,” I said as I followed him at speed.
“Nope, just being me.” We turned out of our road and began to head towards Lick It!
, the streets already starting to fill with Saturday morning foot traffic.
“Also, don’t think I didn’t notice the way you glossed over the fact he’s our employee.
I’m not going to make it into a big deal, because I’m pretty sure you’ve already done that yourself, but just be careful, okay?
I know he’s only here for the summer but that doesn’t mean it can’t get messy.
And this shop is your dream, so don’t let anyone take it away from you. ”
“I’m not going to. And you’re right, I’ve already given this a lot of thought. Probably more than necessary.”
“Wouldn’t have expected anything less,” Milo interjected and I chuckled.
“But we’re both adults, we both want this, and we’ve both agreed it’s nothing serious.
It’s nothing more than a fun form of stress relief.
And, I don’t know, maybe it’s a bad idea and maybe I’m only thinking with my dick, but I kind of want to choose myself for once.
Do something for me. Yes, I probably should’ve found someone else, but I like Owen, we get on well, and I don’t have to do any of that awkward introductory shit—or find someone who won’t care I work odd hours and will still be down to fuck at random times. Owen already gets it.”
“That’s true. And he figured out what you need just by looking at you.”
“I mean, he did ask me some questions,” I said quietly, hoping I wasn’t blushing and giving my embarrassment away.
It was only sex and Milo already knew everything, I didn’t have a reason to be embarrassed.
Especially not if this was simply a casual hook-up where the entire point was really good sex.
But I’d always struggled to be open about my personal life.
Hence the invention of the UTI.
“Good. Because nobody I love should be having shit sex. I won’t let you be subjected to that.”
I chuckled softly. “Thanks for looking out for me. And, er, thanks for the, um, supplies. They were very useful.”
“No worries. I figured you wouldn’t have any, and if you did, they probably all went out of date a while ago.”
“Thank you for that very damning statement on my sex life,” I said dryly.
“Eh, I think we’re all in the same boat with work and all. Except for Alfie, he’s definitely getting laid.” He said it so casually it took me a moment to figure out what he’d said. I frowned as we rounded a corner.
Milo was so bright and brash, it hadn’t occurred to me he might also be suffering from a lack of physical connection. I’d always assumed he was hitting up tourists and leaving a string of satisfied men behind him, with the odd broken heart thrown in for good measure.
“Milo, are you… you’re… you’re getting laid, right?”
He shrugged. “Not for a while. But it’s fine.”
“Is it work? Because I know our work-life balance has been pretty shocking recently, but I don’t want you to suffer. If you need to take some time off… go out, get away, we’ll manage.”
“Nah, I’ll be fine.” He waved his hand. “I’ll just go down the pub this weekend, or open Grindr or something. This isn’t about me anyway.”
“We can make it about you.” We were nearly at Lick It!
now, and I could see the front of the shop.
The front door was open, and Alfie was already putting out the brightly coloured metal tables and chairs we had for customers.
The sight sent a flutter of worry through my chest because, if he was doing that, it was so much later than I’d thought. How had I not noticed the time?
Likely because I’d been so blissed out, with muscles that felt like jelly, that getting up this morning had been a very slow, leisurely process.
“No thanks,” Milo said. “By the way, I won’t tell Alfie what’s going on. That’s something you should do. I know it’s your sex life, but it could affect the business too so don’t let him be the last to know.”
“Mm, yeah, I suppose,” I said half-heartedly. I didn’t really want everyone at the shop knowing what Owen and I were doing, but I’d hate Alfie to think I was trying to deceive him. It wasn’t about him. It was about me and my personal life.
Although, I guessed I didn’t really have a leg to stand on since I’d decided to combine professional and personal.
Goddammit, maybe this thing with Owen wasn’t going to be as straightforward as I wanted. And I had nobody to blame but myself.
I should have been thinking about immediately ending things with Owen, telling him it had been fun but could never happen again, but I didn’t want to. He’d made me feel so fucking alive last night, and I didn’t want to give that feeling up.
I deserved to have fun.
I deserved to get fucked so hard I couldn’t breathe.
The consequences could wait until tomorrow.
“Morning,” Milo called with a casual wave. “Sorry we’re late, somebody overslept.”
“Sorry,” I said apologetically as Alfie put the last of the chairs down and looked at us.
“That’s okay, as long as you’re all right. I was starting to get a bit worried,” he said.
A pang of guilt gnawed at my stomach, but I ignored it and plastered on a smile. “I’m fine, just slept through my alarm. I think I need to start going to bed earlier.”
“And stop staying late,” Alfie said, but considering he was smiling, it wasn’t a firm rebuke.
“We weren’t actually here too late,” I said.
“But we’ve got some good ideas to test.” I wasn’t going to mention they were still only concepts because Owen and I had gotten sidetracked well before we’d managed to make anything.
Hopefully we could sneak a coffee custard on at some point today in case anyone asked for a taste test. “We’re going to start with the tiramisu flavour, but I also want to revisit the strawberry and basil cheesecake because I think it’s all there, it just needs tweaking. ”
“It was really good,” Alfie said with a nod and a slightly wistful smile, as if he was wishing some would magically appear in front of him.
“And I like the idea of only developing one or two at a time. It’ll give us a chance to see how long they take to make, feasibility, costs etc. I know that’s boring, but—”
“No, it’s good to be realistic,” I said.
“You know what you could do?” Milo said, as the three of us walked into the shop.
“No! I am not doing you banana and custard.”
“Oh come on! It would be so good!” Milo threw up his hands. “What the fuck do you have against bananas?”
“They are disgusting!”
“Just because you hate them doesn’t mean everyone else does. And I think flavours should be a group decision.”
“But I have to develop them.” And I was not touching bananas. Not if I didn’t have to. I loathed their texture, their taste, even their smell, especially if they were overripe. If I had my way, bananas and anything banana flavoured would be banished to the middle of the nearest black hole.
“So? You don’t have to eat it,” Milo said. “Stop enforcing your banana-hating ways on us! This should be a democracy, not a dictatorship.”
I sighed and rolled my eyes and Alfie chuckled, refusing, as always, to get involved in this debate. “Are you done?”
“No. I am fully prepared to start polling people. I’ll get a petition and everything.”
I rubbed my face and squeezed the edges of my eyes, where it felt like a headache might be starting to build up. The more Milo argued about his fucking banana and custard idea, the less I wanted to give in, but he was really starting to wear my patience down. And that annoyed me more.
“What about something with banana but not banana and custard?” The three of us turned to see Owen standing by the kitchen door with a smile on his face. He was just wearing his customary T-shirt and shorts, but he’d never looked better.
Except for last night when he’d been naked.
He looked fucking spectacular in the buff.
“I’m listening,” Milo said. “What’ve you got?”
“How about banoffee? Banana pieces, thick, Dulce de Leche caramel swirls, a clotted cream base, maybe a little bit of chocolate in there too,” Owen said.
“Fucking sold!”
“That does sound really good,” Alfie said, although he did have the decency to shoot me a slightly sheepish smile as penance for breaking his neutrality.
But I couldn’t bring myself to be upset with him because I was too busy staring at Owen and remembering the way he’d kissed me…
and how good his cock had felt inside me.
And those memories made me forget why I’d been so resistant to Milo’s pleas in the first place.
“And, since Darcy hates bananas, I’m happy to make and test it so he doesn’t have to,” Owen added with a smile that made my mouth go dry.
“Okay,” I said hoarsely. “Fine. You can try it.”
“Yes!” Milo did a ridiculous fist pump before running up to high-five Owen and then attempting to pick him up in a crushing hug.
I just smiled and chuckled, not caring that I’d given in. I was too busy wondering how long it would be before I’d be able to get Owen alone again.