Christmas at Lilac Cottage: (#1 White Cliff Bay) (14 page)

‘So you’ve always been a carpenter?’

‘Yes, making furniture, chairs, tables, chests. I worked in a small furniture shop for a while. I love the process, something that starts out as a little sketch on a piece of paper and with care and hard work it turns into a beautiful chest or a chair. How you finish the piece is crucial as well, whether the piece looks like faded driftwood or polished oak, the handles and hinges, the curves of the furniture. I loved it so much I started making my own stuff. I had a website and sold it online. I did well out of it. The White Cliff Bay Furniture Company approached me.’

‘Wow, they must have been very impressed with what they saw.’

Henry nodded. ‘Edward has one of my chests in his office. I saw it there the other day and I wonder if that was the thing that flagged me up to them. I’m going to keep making some of my own furniture as a little side line. If the job falls flat, I’ll still have my own stuff to fall back on. The thing that worries me working at White Cliff Bay is not having the freedom to be able to design the pieces I want. But maybe I’ll have to forgo that for financial job security.’

Henry turned down a little side road that led to a tiny cove. Penny frowned in confusion. There was nothing down here apart from the cove; there were no shops, toilets and especially not anywhere to eat.

‘I think you might have taken a wrong turn,’ Penny said.

‘What’s this, the outsider knows something the local doesn’t?’ Henry said.

He parked the car along the road near the path that led down to the beach. Surprisingly there were lots of other cars there too.

He got out and took her hand, leading her to the steps that curled down to the sand. It was well lit, with little lanterns sending puddles of light down the stairs and across a small wooden path that led across the beach towards the caves. She carefully picked her way down the stairs in her stupid high heels and onto the wooden path. The tide was in but it didn’t reach all the way to the back of the beach, leaving a good twenty metres of sand untouched.

‘I used to play here when I was a child, in the caves, but I haven’t been down here for years,’ Penny said, still wondering where they were going.

Henry helped her up a few stone steps into the cave and she followed him down a well-lit tunnel, but as she rounded the corner into what had been a large cavern, she stopped in shock. There was a tiny lake in the middle of the cavern and dotted around the edges were about twenty tables lit up by lanterns and candles, the lights sparkling off the water like fireflies.

‘Henry, it’s beautiful, how long has this been here?’

‘About two weeks, according to Anna. She and Steve came here last week.’

One of the waiters came over and Henry gave them his name and they ushered him to a table.

Penny looked around. In the darkness of the cave, the lights looked like orbs of gold, shimmering over the water. There were tall plants dotted between the tables along with outdoor heaters, lending a certain amount of privacy to the diners and giving it a slight Mediterranean feel, too.

‘The menu is limited, a lot of it is barbequed or they have a large pizza oven, but apparently the food is amazing.’

Penny reached across the table and took his hand. ‘Thank you for bringing me here, it’s just wonderful.’

‘I wanted something special for our first date and then I remembered Anna talking about this place.’

Penny smiled at the trouble he had taken to do something nice for her. ‘It feels so secret, like no one knows it’s here.’

‘Secret place, secret meetings, I bet everyone here is having an affair.’

She laughed and looked around. At the next table was a young man in a very expensive suit sitting opposite a blonde with a very short skirt.

‘I think he is a CEO of a big corporate company and that’s his assistant that he is shagging behind his wife’s back,’ Penny said.

Henry glanced over and nodded. ‘And look at that couple, she’s old enough to be his mum. I bet she’s sleeping with her daughter’s husband.’

Penny looked over and laughed. ‘That’s Mary Buttercoombe and her son, Simon. So probably not sleeping together. White Cliff Bay may seem like an odd little town but I don’t think incest is on our list of hobbies.’

‘Ah, OK, what about those two?’

Penny glanced over at a slightly round man, dressed in leather with a long ginger beard and a bald head, sitting opposite a woman in a sweet flowery dress. ‘They met online and this is their first date.’

The waitress came over to them. She was impossibly tall with a long curtain of blonde hair that was flicked over one shoulder. She had inexplicably large breasts. Henry glanced up at her, suppressed a smile and returned to looking at his menu.

They gave their drinks order and she left.

‘What’s made you laugh?’

‘I was just thinking, if we are creating life stories for all the people in here, I think she is a secret porn star.’

Penny laughed. ‘I must admit you’re not anything like what I first thought, when I met you.’

‘What did you think of me when we first met?’

‘That you were grumpy, moody, inappropriate because you were flirting with me when I thought you were married and sexy as hell.’

He laughed so loudly it echoed around the cavern.

‘And you don’t think I’m sexy as hell now?’

‘Ah, you’re not bad to look at, I suppose.’

He laughed again and Penny loved the sight of him smiling so much.

‘I am grumpy, thankfully not all the time, but when I get in a bad mood, everyone knows about it. I have a hell of a temper, which has only reared its ugly head a few times in my life but it isn’t pretty when it does appear. And I am inappropriate because the thoughts that are currently running through my head about you are completely not acceptable for a first date where I promised to keep everything slow.’

‘Oh.’ Penny couldn’t help but blush.

‘You see, I am inappropriate. I shouldn’t have said anything. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.’

‘No, it’s fine.’ She ran her thumb over the back of his hand. ‘I’m just not used to it, that’s all. Chris never said things like that to me.’

‘He never said how beautiful you were, how much you turned him on?’

‘No. We just didn’t have that kind of relationship. He… wasn’t particularly tactile or loving. It’s fine, different people work in different ways.’

‘You deserve so much better than him. Let me tell you now, you look incredible tonight.’

Penny looked down at her menu.

‘You don’t like compliments,’ Henry said. ‘You’re going to have to get used to them when you’re with me.’

‘I’ll try.’

He smiled at her. ‘You’re also going to have to get used to standing up for yourself. I’m not going to allow people like Jade and Beth to think you are worthless. No one has the right to treat you badly and you need to tell them that. You deserve the best.’

She smiled, not quite sure what to make of this protective streak towards her.

‘Do you want to share a starter?’ he asked.

Penny nodded.

There was a lot she was going to have to get used to around Henry.

H
enry pulled
up outside their house and turned off the engine. They sat in silence for a moment. It had been a wonderful night. He was so easy to talk to and he made her laugh a lot. But now it suddenly felt like the evening was about to change. Even though Henry had promised to keep everything really slow and not to push her for anything more, she was still nervous about what the night would hold. She hadn’t laid in bed with a man for over eight years. Part of her wanted to take that next step with Henry, she trusted him completely, and even though she had only known him a few days, she couldn’t help the feelings that he caused in her.

He got out and came round to open the car door for her, taking her hand and pulling her out.

She looped her arms round his neck. ‘Are you always such a gentleman?’

He smiled sheepishly, wrapping his arms around her tightly. ‘Well, I was raised to have good manners with women, but I don’t think any of my dates have suggested I’m a gentleman before. When I go out on dates there’s pretty much only one thing on my mind.’

‘Do all your first dates end in sex?’

‘Most of them do.’

She sighed softly. Regardless of what he’d said that morning, he must be disappointed it wasn’t going to end that way.

‘It’s different with you,’ he said. ‘I don’t want that with you.’

‘You don’t want to make love to me?’

‘Oh god, of course I do, but it’s about more than that with us. I want it to be special and I’ve never wanted that before. Normally I go back to the girl’s place, we have a quick shag and then the women hate me because as soon as it’s over I get up and come home to my daughter.’

‘Do you ever bring them back to your house?’

‘No, never, that’s not the kind of thing that I want Daisy to see, hear or even know that that’s what I’m doing. Even with the women that things got semi-serious with, I never had them stay over. I’d have them over for dinner so they could spend time with Daisy but then I’d take them back home again. Any sex always took place at the woman’s house. Everything is different with you. It feels right. When you are ready, I want to make love to you in my bed.’

She stared at him, feeling her heart swell with love for him.

‘Hey, look, a shooting star, make a wish,’ Henry said, pointing out over the sea.

Penny watched as a slash of gold ripped open the inky blue night sky. She closed her eyes and wished, really hard.

‘What did you wish for?’

‘I can’t tell you that, it won’t come true.’

Henry took her hand and led her round the back of the house. He let them into his kitchen and undid her coat, not taking his eyes off hers for a second.

He stared down at her, as if he was trying to work her out. Whatever he saw made him smile. He kissed her, softly, sweetly but, as with every time he had kissed her before, desire ripped through her at the slightest of touches.

‘I want to spend the rest of the night kissing you in my bed,’ he mumbled against her lips. ‘Come on, let’s go to bed.’

Henry started pulling her up the stairs.

‘Wait,’ Penny laughed at his urgency. ‘I haven’t got any pyjamas.’

‘You can sleep in one of my t-shirts.’

He led her into his bedroom and she watched as he started undressing. She slipped off her shoes, and undid the plait, combing through her hair with her fingers as she watched his shirt and then his trousers come off so he was left only in his tight black boxers. He was watching her too and she felt suddenly shy about undressing in front of him.

He grabbed a t-shirt and put it on the bed in front of her.

‘Why don’t I leave you to get changed?’ Henry said, softly.

‘Wait, can you unzip my dress at the back?’

Henry moved behind her and the touch of his hands was like fire at the top of her neck. He unzipped the dress slowly, his hand caressing her back with the softest of touches.

‘Oh,’ Henry said, his hands parting the dress at the back. ‘You wore the snowflake lingerie.’

‘Well yes, you seemed to like it so…’ She trailed off as he moved his hands back to her shoulders and slid the straps down her arms. The dress slithered off her body into a puddle on the floor. At least the black satin camisole top and tiny shorts seemed to cover her body more than the skimpy bra and thong sets she had been forced to buy earlier.

He cupped her waist and pressed his mouth to her neck, sending desire and need hurtling through her as his hands wandered around to stroke across her satin-clad stomach.

‘Do me a favour.’ His voice was coarse. ‘Just wear this tonight, forget the t-shirt.’

She tossed the t-shirt over the chair and climbed into bed. He was quick to follow, immediately pulling her to him and kissing her.

Where before the kisses had been slow and tender, now they were laced with an urgency and hunger. He moved slowly on top of her, pinning her with his weight as the kiss continued.

She could feel how turned on he was getting.

‘Sorry, just ignore it,’ he mumbled against her mouth and she giggled.

Knowing how his body had reacted to her just from a kiss made her heart soar and all thoughts of being slow and cautious went straight out the window.

‘I don’t want to ignore it,’ she whispered.

He carried on kissing her for a few moments before he stopped. ‘What?’

Flushing, Penny stroked his face. ‘I want you to make love to me.’

He stared at her, not blinking. ‘Now?’

She nodded.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Do I need to beg?’

‘No, Christ no.’ He immediately pulled her top off, and trailed reverential kisses across her shoulder down to her breast. His hands caressed her skin, moving slowly down to her hips and sliding her shorts down her legs. She ran her hands down his back, feeling the warm, soft velvet over a wall of muscle as he peppered kisses over every inch of her body, taking his time to touch, stroke, caress and adore her until her whole body was thrumming with need, responding to the slightest of touches.

Finally he knelt up and grabbed a condom from the nearby bulging bag. She giggled as he tried to find one he liked but he quickly did, and a few frustrating moments later he settled himself between her legs, carefully lowering his weight onto her. He kissed her deeply as he slid slowly inside her, capturing her moans with his mouth, he let out a deep guttural moan too.

He pulled back slightly to look at her as she ran her hands round the back of his neck and she was thrown by the look of pure love and adoration in his eyes. She was falling for this man and there was no way back now. Any hope of trying to protect her heart from the devastating pain she had felt eight years before was gone. It didn’t make sense to fall this hard, this fast, and as he frowned slightly, she could see he was thinking it too.

‘Do you know what I wished for?’

She shook her head.

‘I wished that I can make all your wishes come true.’

He started moving, slowly, tenderly, without taking his eyes off hers, but with every breath, every movement, she knew she was falling deeper in love and deeper in trouble.