Chapter 23
‘Good morning.’
Ella opened her eyes to see Roly still on the bed beside her.
They were both fully dressed, lying on top of the duvet.
Light flooded in through the gap in the curtains, and memories of last night came crowding back into her head – mainly memories of kissing.
It had been amazing, but it was probably a good thing that Roly had called a halt and they hadn’t gone any further.
There’d be morning-after regrets and then things would be awkward as fuck between them.
She’d probably end up having to move out.
‘Morning,’ she said.
‘How do you feel?’
She tested her head, shaking it a little. ‘Good,’ she said. ‘No hangover. It probably helps that I ate my own body weight in Mexican food.’
‘You did have plenty of soakage.’
‘Maybe we should go for a run to make up for it,’ she said without enthusiasm.
‘I’d rather stay here and do this.’ He put an arm around her and pulled her closer, then leaned in and kissed her. She couldn’t suppress a gasp of surprise. ‘I mean, if you still want to?’ he asked, pulling back. ‘Last night you said—’
‘That this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my birthday. But you stopped. You said it wasn’t a good idea.’
‘Just because you were a bit pissed. I didn’t want you to do something you might regret.’ His eyes glittered as they dropped to her mouth. ‘But you’re not drunk now.’
‘Neither are you.’
‘I never was.’
‘Oh. Yeah…’ She wondered briefly if that made all his sexual encounters super-charged, never being able to pass it off as a drunken mistake.
Every decision he made was clear-headed and intentional.
There was no fuzziness for him, no blurring of the edges.
Which meant that last night, stone-cold sober he’d wanted to kiss her…
‘So if you still want to do this…’ He edged closer.
‘Do you?’ She couldn’t hide her surprise. Somehow she’d assumed he’d think better of it in the light of day – that they both would, and they’d laugh it off as heat-of-the-moment stupidity and agree never to mention it again.
‘Of course. I wasn’t drunk last night, remember? But if you’ve changed your mind—’
‘No!’ It came out so emphatically, she laughed. ‘I still want to.’ It seemed only fair to meet him halfway, to be as honest and vulnerable as he was.
‘Me too,’ he said, moving in to kiss her again. ‘Really badly.’
He was an amazing kisser, and fireworks burst inside her as his tongue slid into her mouth.
She thought how strange it should be to be kissing Roly Punch after all these years, all the time she’d known him.
If her younger self could have seen this image – the two of them tangled together on his bed, her hand raking through his hair, their mouths locked together in a fierce kiss – she wouldn’t have believed it.
But in this moment it didn’t feel strange. It just felt deeply, gloriously right.
His hands roamed over her body, sending sparks of electricity racing along her veins wherever they touched.
When he tugged down the top of her dress, she arched into him as his hand cupped her breast, stroking the nipple through the lace of her bra.
But as he slid a hand up her bare leg, pushing her dress up with it, she panicked.
Because this was Roly – Roly Punch who slept with women like Pippa, women with flat stomachs and skinny thighs.
No, not just women like Pippa, actual Pippa – an underwear model, as he never ceased to remind her.
‘Maybe we should wait, though,’ she said, stilling his hand and pulling away.
He sighed, moving his hand to her waist. ‘Wait for what?’ He frowned down at her.
‘I dunno. Just until we’re a bit more, um… ready.’
‘If you don’t want to do this, fine,’ he said, tracing her lip with his thumb. ‘But if you mean until we’re thinner or more buff or whatever… Let’s not wait until everything’s perfect – until we’re both perfect. Because who knows when that might be? And I really want to do this now.’
‘Me too.’
‘You sure?’
She nodded vigorously. ‘Yes. God, yes!’
He grinned. ‘Good. Now, where were we?’
Then his mouth was on her again, hot and urgent, parting her lips with his, their tongues tangling together.
Everything seemed to melt inside her, and she relaxed into it, not caring how soft and flabby her stomach might feel or how thick her thighs were.
She didn’t have the headspace to worry about any of it when he was distracting her with his mouth and hands, driving everything out of her mind except him.
‘I’m a bit out of practice,’ she murmured as he nuzzled her neck. ‘Just to warn you.’
‘It’ll all come back to you. It’s like falling off a bike.’
‘Ouch!’ She giggled. ‘That’s not encouraging.’
He frowned, smiling crookedly. ‘Log! I meant falling off a log! I can’t think straight when you’re being all hot like this. I’m mixing up my metaphors.’
‘Similes.’
‘Whatever. It’s like riding a bike.’ She shivered as his teeth tugged gently on her earlobe. ‘Or falling off a log.’
‘Why is that even a saying?’ she asked as his hand slid up her leg. This time she didn’t stop him. ‘I mean, who falls off a log?’
‘Me. I fell off a log once.’ The skirt of her dress was bunched up around her waist now, and he bent to press kisses to her stomach.
‘You did?’
‘Yeah, on a school trip to Clara Lara Funpark. You know that log that you walk on across the pond? I lost my balance and fell in. I got soaked. It was freezing.’ He tapped her hip. ‘Sit up,’ he murmured.
When she did, he tugged at her dress and she helped him pull it off over her head.
‘That sounds really uncomfortable.’ She lay back against the pillows.
‘Yeah, I had to spend the rest of the day shivering in my wet clothes. It was easy, though. I’ll give it that.’
‘Didn’t you bring a change?’
‘I’d already got them soaked on the water slide.’ As he spoke, his fingers trailed lightly over her skin, brushing down her arm and across her breasts, her nipples stiffening in response.
‘Roly?’ She shivered as he sucked on one nipple through her bra. Christ, that was delicious!
He lifted his head, and she wished she hadn’t said anything. ‘Ella?’
‘Are we really going to do this? In the broad light of day?’
He nodded slowly, a grin spreading across his face, as he slid a hand between her legs. ‘No better time.’ He slipped a finger inside her knickers and stroked her slowly, his eyes glittering as he looked down at her, watching her face.
‘Stone-cold sober?’ She gasped as he pressed against her most sensitive spot, her voice coming out as a strangulated moan.
He pulled back and gave her a stern look. ‘Do you want to talk or kiss?’ His fingers were still teasing her sensitive flesh, making it difficult to formulate a response.
‘Kiss,’ she gasped.
‘Shut up, then.’ He leaned in and kissed her again, and Ella forgot all her questions and doubts as his tongue slid into her mouth.
* * *
Ella had worried that sex would take too much out of her, but instead it seemed to give her more energy, and she felt invigorated in a way that she hadn’t in a long time.
‘Bella Ella,’ Roly murmured, stroking damp tendrils of hair away from her face as they collapsed on the bed beside each other. ‘Am I breaking some kind of landlord code of ethics by sleeping with my tenant?’
‘Landlords don’t have any ethics, remember? They’re evil bastards.’
‘Oh yeah. That’s okay, then.’
‘But maybe I’m just seducing you so you’ll let me off paying my rent. I bet you never thought of that.’
‘Ooh, kinky! Wanna role-play that?’ He sat up on one elbow.
‘Okay. You start.’
‘Um… okay.’ He rubbed his hair and shook his head a few times as if getting into character. ‘Hello,’ he said in a weird deep voice. ‘I’ve come to collect the rent.’
‘Uh… you shouldn’t really start off in bed with me. Go out of the room and come back in.’
‘Oh, right, yeah.’ He leapt out of bed and went out, appearing again seconds later in the doorway.
‘Hello, Ella,’ he said again in his gruff voice. ‘I’m here to collect the rent.’
‘Oh, Mr Punch!’ she gasped in a high, breathy tone. ‘You’ve caught me unawares.’ She scrabbled under the duvet, pulling it up to her chin. ‘But… why are you naked?’ She giggled. ‘Did you drive over here like that?’
He frowned, trying to look severe and suppress his laughter. ‘Of course not. As you well know, I live upstairs. And… I’m a nudist!’
‘Oh yes, I forgot!’
‘Yes, I’m ready for action at all times. So… pay up, little lady and I’ll be out of your hair.’
‘Oh no! I’m afraid I’m a little short.’
‘Don’t give me that!’ He crossed the room and pulled back the duvet. ‘I’d say you’re five foot six if you’re an inch.’
‘Five foot five, actually.’
‘Well, that’s no excuse. I want my money.’
‘Please don’t throw me out! I have nowhere else to go.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t want to put a pretty little thing like you out on the street.’ He sat down on the bed. ‘If you haven’t got the money, maybe we could come to some arrangement.’
She gasped. ‘You mean…’ She put the back of her hand to her forehead in a dramatic gesture of despair.
He put a hand around her neck, then slowly slid it down to cup her breast, his thumb flicking across her nipple. ‘If you don’t have the money, you’ll have to pay me some other way.’
‘You don’t mean… sex?’ She widened her eyes innocently.
‘Yes. I’ll have my wicked way with you. And a landlord’s ways are wickeder than most.’
‘I’ve heard,’ Ella said, swallowing a laugh.
‘I don’t do this for all my tenants, you know.’
‘I should hope not. You’d go out of business fast!’
‘But I like you, so I’ll make an exception.’ His hands were stroking her breasts, driving her wild. ‘So what do you say? Sex or the street?’
Ella had always found sex talk cringey and a total turn-off. But someone making her laugh was a whole other story.
‘Oh, go on, then,’ she said, flinging her arms wide. ‘Ravish me!’
They were both shrieking with laughter as Roly flipped her onto her back and straddled her.
* * *
‘Well, that beats a run any day,’ Ella said later. They were lying close together, facing each other.
‘Do you think we’ve worked off the Mexican yet?’
‘I dunno. Does sex really work as exercise?’
‘We’ll have to Google it.’
‘This is weird, isn’t it – us, like this?’
‘I dunno. I think I’ve wanted to do that since that night at the Westbury.’
‘What?’ She raised her eyebrows. ‘No, you haven’t.’
‘Maybe I did, on some level. You know, subconsciously.’
‘You wanted to shag me subconsciously?’
‘Yeah. I feel like it was always out there, hanging over us.’
‘Like homework?’
‘Like… unfinished business, you know?’
‘Right. So now that’s done and we can move on?’
‘No, that’s not what I mean.’
‘So why did you never act on it?’
He frowned. ‘I guess I always felt like if something happened with you it’d be… serious. Like that’d be it. Permanent. There’d be no going back.’
‘No escape.’
‘Yeah.’
‘Like prison.’
He laughed. ‘No.’
‘Trapped with no way out.’ She widened her eyes dramatically.
‘No, I just meant we’d have ended up with a house and kids and everything, and I wasn’t ready for all that.’
‘You weren’t the only one!’
‘It was like if I’d been with you, that’d be it. My life would be over.’
‘Gosh! Thanks very much.’
‘Not my whole life, obviously. But that part of it. I wouldn’t have been able to shag around any more, because then I’d lose you.’
There were so many questions running through Ella’s head, she struggled to take it all in. ‘I can’t believe you even thought about me in that way at all. Before last night.’
‘Seriously?’
‘All that time we were friends… I mean, we hardly even saw each other.’
‘Come on! I mean, you were a girl. I was a horny teenager. You honestly think I never thought about getting naked with you?’
‘No. This is a total revelation to me.’
‘Didn’t you ever think about me… like that?’
‘Maybe sometimes… subconsciously.’ She smiled teasingly.
‘You didn’t fancy me, even a little bit?’
‘Of course I fancied you. Everyone fancied you.’
He smiled smugly.
‘But I never thought anything would happen between us.’
‘Why not?’
She didn’t want to say he’d been out of her league because that would only make him more smug. Besides, she didn’t believe that any more. ‘We were just… so different,’ she said instead.
‘Yeah, but you know what they say – opposites attract.’
She took his hand, playing with his fingers. ‘So, do you still feel the same way?’ she asked. ‘Is it like your life’s over? Do we have to get married now, buy a house and have some kids?’
‘Well, maybe not right away.’ A slow smile spread across his face. ‘I mean, I have some stuff to do today. But how are you fixed for next week?’
‘I’m pretty free next week.’
‘And in the meantime,’ he said, pulling her in for a kiss, ‘I think we should keep doing lots of this.’