Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
OLIVER
The tiny bit of light creeping over the top of the curtains is enough to define Lexi’s sleeping features and pick out the caramel tones in her dark hair that I can spot even from where I’m standing at the foot of the bed.
Last night was the greatest night of my life.
I’ve run that sentence through my head several times and tried to work out whether it’s an overstatement. It isn’t.
The only imperfection was, as always, me—when I came in my pants. Well, in her hand in my pants. That was a bit fucking embarrassing. But hopefully she saw it as the compliment it was, that it took only the slightest touch from her to make me shoot my load.
I woke up twice in the night with a raging stiffy and was tempted to wake her, but that didn’t seem fair. The first time, I rolled over and concentrated on going back to sleep. The second time I was so hard the discomfort was too much, and I had to go to the bathroom to knock one out.
I walk slowly toward Lexi and ease myself down to sit on the edge of the bed.
The shift of the mattress rouses her, and she rolls onto her back with a sleepy sigh.
“Good morning, gorgeous,” I whisper, stroking the soft skin of her bare shoulder.
Her eyes open slowly, like the lids are so heavy it’s a struggle to lift them. But when she does, her gaze holds mine and the corners of her mouth curve slowly into the sexiest smile on the planet.
She pulls a hand from under the covers and runs her fingers down the side of my face. “You’re dressed. Have you been up long?”
I lean down and brush my lips over her forehead. She smells like American sweet iced tea mixed with sex sweat and a tiny bit of me.
“A little while. And you need to get dressed too.” I drag my hand down over the covers to the curve of her hip. “Because we’re going out.”
“Out?” She rests a hand on my thigh and, oh my God, it might as well be right on my dick for the effect it’s having. “I didn’t think there were any events or wedding things on the schedule for today. Thought we were going to finally have time to get in some solid work.”
“Later.” I pick up her hand from my leg, lest it render our entire schedule for the day as being naked in bed, and kiss the back of it. “First, we need to go out. Get ready, like jeans and sneakers ready, and meet me in the kitchen.”
“The kitchen?”
“Yup. My parents will never bump into us there.”
She chuckles. “Okay. But we really do have to work.”
“And we shall.” Getting myself and my raging hard-on off this bed and moving toward the door is possibly the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life. “Just meet me downstairs as quickly as you can.”
“What the hell are you doing?” Lexi asks as I climb into the boot of the car.
“You’re smuggling me out of—ow!” I rub my knee where I banged it on the latch. “Out of here.”
“In the trunk of this car?”
“Yes. It’s Flora’s. She’s lent it to us for the day.”
I curl up on my side, careful not to kick the box of food and drink by my feet. Despite the blanket I’d put down first, it’s even less comfortable in here than I’d anticipated.
“This is ridiculous. You might die from the fumes. Can’t you lie on the back seat instead?”
“There are two photographers outside the gate. So no.”
“You could hide under the blanket.”
“They snap pictures no matter who’s coming or going, so they’d notice a person shape under a blanket when they look at them afterward, and you’d be the evil murdering girlfriend off to bury a body in the woods.”
“I’ve never driven on the other side of the road before.” A flash of worry furrows her brow.
“When you’re sitting on the other side of the car, it will make sense.
That’s how it feels to me in the US, anyway.
Now, shut me in, and when you get out of the gates, turn left.
Half a mile down there’s a little clearing off to the left behind some trees.
Stop there, and I’ll get out and hop into the back seat.
Once we’re clear of the reporters, it’ll be safe for me to hide there then. ”
She rests her hand on the lid of the boot. “I feel terrible. Shutting you in here feels wrong.”
“It’ll be okay. Just don’t slam the brakes on if there’s someone close up behind you or you might find yourself with an actual body to bury.”
“You are ridiculous,” she says with a smirk.
“And you are the hottest, most amazing person I’ve ever met. Now shut the goddamn lid.”
The slam makes me jump.
“Okay?” she shouts.
“Fine.” Not sure I am, to be honest. This is a lot more claustrophobia-inducing than I’d anticipated. But it’s only until we reach the clearing, so it’ll be fine.
Lexi’s feet crunch on the gravel around the car, stop, then circle back.
“Went to the wrong side,” she calls out.
I chuckle to myself as the car rocks when she gets in and shuts the door.
“Can you hear me?” she shouts from the driver’s seat.
“Yup. How about you?”
“You’re muffled, but yes.” She turns on the engine, and the car chugs to life. “Shit.”
“What’s up?” I ask.
“Stick shift.”
Oh, fuck, yeah. I’d totally forgotten most American cars are automatic. “Can you drive one?”
“I could last time I tried.”
“Great.”
“Which was about fourteen years ago. And only once.”
“I’m sure it’ll come back.” I try to sound positive.
“Here goes.”
I wince as she crunches the gears.
The car lurches forward, then judders before there’s another crunch and we make a couple of hops that jolt me so hard my head bangs against the wheel hub. “Fuck.”
“You okay?”
“Fine.” I rub the side of my head. “Just focus on driving. And maybe try lifting the clutch a little slower.”
“Okay, okay. No need to be a backseat driver. Or trunk driver.”
The car eventually moves forward in the more usual, smoother manner.
“See,” she shouts. “I’m getting the hang of it.”
We make the turn onto the long driveway, and the engine roars before she slams it into third gear.
“Ignore the photographers. Don’t even look at them,” I call out after we’ve chugged our way to the gates and she stops to wait for them to open.
When the car lurches forward and the gears crunch again, one of the photographers laughs.
“It’s only the American,” he says.
Lexi turns us onto the road, and that’s it—we’re out.
After Lexi’s pulled over in the clearing and freed me from the boot, everything is considerably more comfortable.
The air is definitely a lot fresher lying on the back seat. And there’s the bonus of being able to enjoy Lexi’s profile as she concentrates as hard on driving as a teenager on their first lesson.
After a little while, I lift my head and shoulders enough to peer over the bottom of the window. “See that gravel road leading off on the right?”
“Yup.” She puts on the indicator.
“That’s where we’re going.” I sit up, finally sure no one’s around. “I think you go down here a bit, then park by that sign that says public bridleway.”
“If we’re getting on horses, I’m done. I got thrown from one when I was a kid.
My mom felt severely inferior to all the other parents at my school whose daughters took riding lessons.
Or had their own horses. And she thought I should learn too.
Well, first day, the damn thing threw me and I refused to go back. My mom was furious.”
“I bet. They should put you on a nice docile horse on your first day.”
“Oh, she wasn’t furious with the horse. She was pissed off with me. For refusing to go back. She said people would think I wasn’t going because we couldn’t afford it. And we probably couldn’t.”
“And you think my parents are unreasonable.”
She snorts. “Whatever. I’m not getting on a horse.”
“A bridleway is just what you would call a trail. Horses are not compulsory.”
She lights up as she brings the car to a stop and yanks on the hand brake.
“Oh, I know where this is.” She looks over her shoulder at me with a bright smile. “It’s the path to the waterfall, right?”
I slump a little. “Well, that takes the edge off how excited I was to surprise you.”
I should have known she was too smart for this.
“Oh God. I’m sorry.” She reaches between the seats and strokes my knee. “I should have kept my clumsy mouth shut.”
I lace my fingers with hers. “I think we established last night that your mouth is anything but clumsy.”
She looks down and giggles a little.
“And I guess it’s pretty obvious what this place is since I told you about it last night.
But it’s such a freakishly warm and beautiful day that I couldn’t risk waiting to bring you here.
I want the person responsible for making me feel as good and as happy as I did last night—and as I still do right now—to see what gave me that happy day I had when I was a kid. ”
“Great idea.” She picks up her bag from the passenger seat. “I’ll take some photos. They’ll be good for social media promo posts for the book.”
My heart sinks and hits the pit of my stomach with a crash. Her instinctive reaction is to see this as a way to gather publicity material for the job she’s doing, rather than as a way to share something important to me.
“Sure, yeah. We can do that.” I get out and go around to the boot to take out the blanket, as well as the food that Flora’s prepared for us.
Was Chase right that I should remember that, at heart, Lexi is a journalist always looking for a story and to be careful not to let down my guard?