Sexy Hart (Sexy Series) (21 page)

“Oh goodness, it’s so late. Oliver…” I say, nudging him, only just realising that his fingers are threaded through mine and I’m wrapped up entirely by him.
Whoops.

“Very
cosy…” Bea whispers with a smirk.

“Oh, um… I…” I stutter, silly, nervous, unsure ‘me’ on display for all to see. I’m so rubbish at thinking on my feet.

“Shh,” she smiles, softly, “try to wake Olly and come out to the car. We’ll see you there.” She steps away and makes her way to the front door as I take a look around us.

Tilly, Luke and Emily aren’t
here, they must have gone to bed. I can’t help but think of them cuddled in bed with their darling baby in her crib next to Tilly, and feel a little twang of envy. How fully content they must be. They have everything. I appreciate that I’ve just gained a husband, but it’s not the same right now, we don’t even live together, we haven’t told anyone, we’re not a ‘proper couple’ and still have so much to discuss before any of that can happen.
If
it happens. I’m really starting to feel unsure about all of this. We haven’t had any time to talk about what happened this morning and it’s affecting me in a very negative way.

Daniel and Alexia have also left the room - they’re probably in the car, so Oliver and I are alone. I take the opportunity to kiss his mouth as he sleeps and I hold the side of his face in my free hand. “Oliver…” I whisper, “…Oliver, wake up.”

He stirs and pulls me tighter into his body, his eyes still closed. “Mmm… love, love…” he mumbles, kissing me where his mouth rests against my head.

“Come on Oliver,” I say, reluctantly wriggling away from him a little, “wake up, we need to go back to the apartment.”

“Hmm?” He opens his eyes with a frown, waking from a clearly very deep, lovely sleep, his voice gravelly and low. “Oh…” He looks around us and sits up, rubbing his face with masculine hands. “Mmm, I was having a lovely dream. About you…” he says, leaning into me and kissing my neck.

“Oh… you’ll have to tell me about it when we get back, I’d love to know what it was about.”

“Yes, you would. I might have to reenact it.”
Ooh… sounds intriguing.
“Where’s everyone else?”

“I think Luke and Tilly have gone to bed, and Bea, Daniel and Alexia are out in the car waiting for us. It was difficult to wake you.”

“Oh… sorry, I was really tired and deep in sleep.”

“Yeah, I know. Get your shoes and let’s get out to the car so we can get back to the apartment and go back to sleep. I’m exhausted.”

“Me too, darling.”

Shortly after, Daniel has dropped us at the ‘W’ and we’re quietly, tiredly making our way to the apartment. I slept the entire way here and my eyes are sore and trying hard to remain open. Oliver takes my hand in his as we walk with our bags, and he smiles down at me, sleepily. “It’s just us.”

I return his smile and rest my head against his arm briefly as we walk. Finally we’re alone and able to indulge in the affection and closeness that we’ve so wanted to experience since our eventful morning, though I’m so super-tired, I don’t think I can fully appreciate it in the way I’d like.

When we enter the apartment, we head straight for my bedroom and drop our bags on the floor, undressing in the least sexual manner imaginable, purely because we’re so tired and just want to crawl into bed.

Once under the covers, he wraps me up tightly, running one hand all over my naked body, and he kisses my neck and jaw over and over. “I need you so badly, Clare, I’ve been needing you since the minute we woke this morning, but you’re tired, I don’t think either of us is even remotely energetic enough to go at it the way we want to.”

I giggle sleepily, my eyes firmly closed already. “Uh huh. In the morning, darling…”

“Can’t wait. I really don’t want to be in my sister’s bed doing this stuff, but I didn’t want you to sleep in the bed that I’ve been in with… you know.”

I nod, understanding, not wanting to talk about or be reminded of her for one more second.

“Sleep, gorgeous girl,” he whispers, continuing with his soft, kissing, “I can’t wait to wake up next to my girl.”

CHAPTER TEN

THURSDAY 20TH JUNE

The repetitive ringtone of my mobile phone is what wakes me from a wonderful sleep, and I stumble from the bed, shielding my eyes from the bright sunlight streaming in through the gap in the curtains. I really need to learn how to effectively close a curtain. I vaguely notice having to tear myself out of the strong arms embracing me as my search for the phone commences.

Eventually, I find the damned thing in my handbag and immediately hit green to answer.

“Hello?” I shout, half asleep, half overly exerted from the search.

“Hi, doll, are you asleep?” Tilly asks.

“Hmm? Oh… I was yes, but it’s okay…”

“Oh good, because we’re outside darling, didn’t you realise what the time was? I know we’re a little early but we were ready and thought we should leave while Wriggler was happy. You gonna let us in?”

I take the phone from my ear and try to focus on the time. It’s a blurry ten a.m. “Oh, bollocks.”

Tilly giggles, get decent then and open the door, the lovebirds will be here soon, too.”

Shit, shit, shit.
“Oh god, sorry. Okay, two ticks…” I say, looking over at Oliver before hanging up. “Shit. Oliver! Oliver, wake up! Til and Luke are here, you need to get your stuff out of my room! We slept in!”

He groans and sits up slowly. “Hmm? What? Oh mother fucker,” he says, amusingly slowly without expression. “We were… we need to… fuck!” he cries, realising we now have no time for intimacy.

“Please, Oliver, I need to open the door, we need to get your stuff to your room.”

I start collecting his clothes and run naked to his room where I pull back the bed linen and jump on his bed to make it look slept in. They probably won’t even look in the bedrooms but I’m paranoid and need to cover all areas.

“Darling,” he says as he walks through the lounge, naked as the day he was born and absolutely, mind-blowingly gorgeous, “they all know we’ve slept together, I’m certain they think we still are, chill out.”

“No, Oliver! I don’t want them to think something is still going on between us - we need to do this together, outside of prying eyes,” I say in a panic, rushing back to the bedroom to grab a dressing gown.

“Okay, okay,” he says calmly, “we’ll talk about it later. In the meantime, you get the door, I’ll hop in the shower. I am
so
mad at myself for sleeping in. We need to find a way to be alone together before we leave, okay?” he says seriously.

I giggle a little. “Okay. I’ll get the door. Enjoy your shower… wish I could be naked in there with you,” I add, teasingly and his long, loud, desperate growl makes me laugh out loud.

I let Luke, Tilly and Emily inside and as soon as they lower the baby seat to the floor in the lounge area, I kneel down to look at her; sleeping peacefully, as with always.

“I
apologise about how I look, I slept in so I haven’t had a chance to shower or make myself presentable.”

“You’re beautiful, Clare, always,” Luke says, bending to kiss my cheek.

“Smooth talker,” Tilly says with a grin and she follows to do the same, “she looks like shit.”

I laugh out loud. “Thank you!”

“You know I’m kidding, you couldn’t look shit if you dragged yourself from the sewers, so shut up. Do you want to hold her?” she asks, as if she even needs to.

“Of course! But I don’t want to wake her…”

“Clare, she does nothing but sleep, feel free.”

I grin excitedly as she pulls back the handle of the seat to give me easy access to unclip her little seatbelt and pull her out. Feeling her warm little body through her soft outfit is again such a remedy for me. It heals that feeling of need, albeit, temporarily.

“Clare, you need to get yourself a baby, darling. I’ve never seen you look as natural as you do when you’re holding her. You were made to be a mum.”

I smile as I kiss the baby’s head. “There’s nothing I’d like more than to be a mum, like you.”

“You know who’d be a good dad?” she asks with that knowing look that she dons so well, and I roll my eyes knowing exactly what she’s going to say.

“Yes, Til, I do.”

“Olly. He’d be the best. I mean, look at how he looked after me in Aspen when ‘Man’ had a temporary blip. Can you imagine him with his own pregnant girlfriend? And he is so good with kids.”

“Hey!” Luke says, “‘Man’ is right here, you know, Mrs. Summers…”

“Yeah, yeah, you love me, I love you… we’re over it,” she says, blowing him a kiss as he chuckles.

“Yes, Tilly, I can imagine he’d be a great dad. I am aware of his abilities - looking after children, thank you.”

“Just saying. Maybe you two should have that agreement… you know the one, if you’re not married by 35, you’ll get hitched, have a baby and make it work.”

My face heats up and I stand to move in an attempt to avoid eye contact. “Uh huh.” I say, trying to ignore her.

“I’ll make us a cuppa,” she says and I thank god that she’s changed the subject. “You need to have a few more minutes snuggling and then get yourself ready, Clare, we weren’t that early. You haven’t got long.”

“Yeah, I know, I just need my Wriggler fix first. I’m leaving today, I need her for as long as I can have her.”

Tilly smiles widely looking happy and beautiful. She’s so proud of her little family and I’m so proud of her for creating it so perfectly.

“How are you feeling? You okay being out and about?”

“Yeah!” she cries. “I’m fine, still a little bit sore but nothing that’ll keep me indoors, I’ve had a baby, I’m not ill. And…” she says, excitedly, “my jelly belly is going down really quickly, so hopefully I won’t be fat for long.”

“Oh my god, Tilly, seriously? You are the tiniest little
thing, fat is the farthest thing from what you look right now. It’s hard to believe you’ve just had a baby at all!”

“Yeah, what she said,”
Luke says, his face buried in some sporting magazine as he sits on the sofa with his feet up.

“But my boobs are huge and so, so sore, I feel like I’ve had a couple of grapefruits implanted. I look like a fucking porn star. God knows what yours will look like when you go through this, you’ll have bloody watermelons.”

Luke clears his throat, amusing me, it must be killing the pair of them that they can’t have sex for a few weeks while Tilly’s body heals. Tilly makes no secret of the fact that they can’t get enough of each other. I can quite understand it and right now, I’m feeling particularly sympathetic, I
so
wanted Oliver-sex this morning, having been denied any alone time yesterday.

“Okay, I’m going to have a shower,” I say, walking over to Luke to pass him his daughter, “I’ll be back for some more cuddles very soon.”

“She’ll be waiting for you, Aunt Clare,” he says, taking her into his huge arms.
Uh… Daddies and their babies… gorgeous.

When I had finished showering, Tilly came into the bedroom to chat while I got myself ready, and I thank my lucky stars and paranoid tendencies for my foresight to clear away Oliver’s belongings. That was a close call.

It was so lovely to spend some one on one time with her again, I’ve missed my flatmate so much. Thankfully, she steered clear of the ‘Oliver’ topic and having thought about it, I think that may have been deliberate. She can sometimes push a little too much, but I think, after our short chat in the hallway yesterday and the slight touch on the ‘Daddy’ subject today, she realises how sensitive the matter is for me, though she probably has no idea of the real reason for it.

I pick out a long cotton skirt with a tropical print in pinks, greens and coral, and I team it with a cropped coral top with capped sleeves and my pink ballet shoes. It’ll be comfortable to travel in, as well as to wear whilst spending the morning here in paradise, and once I’m dressed, I check my ponytail, and we head back out into the living area just in time to see Bea and Daniel arrive.

Daniel has to work, as does Alexia - who’s running a little late, so we make a move immediately. I need to pack so I have to get back here pretty soon, too. Luke has kindly offered to take us to LAX for our return flight early this afternoon and though I’m excited to begin figuring things out with Oliver and getting back to my beloved Cakery, I’m dreading leaving this wonderful place, my lovely friends and beautiful niece, rendering this holiday and my special morning with Oliver, simply, a memory.

We enjoy a delicious and filling breakfast together at a restaurant that we have visited previously at ‘The Grove’, and before I’m really ready, I’m having to wish farewell to Daniel and Alexia as they head to the office. I will be seeing Daniel in a few days, no doubt, but I won’t be seeing Alexia for quite some time so this is a proper goodbye.

We hug after she and Oliver say goodbye to one another. “Please, don’t forget that you’re welcome to stay with me if you visit the UK, I’d love to have you.”

“And I would truly love to visit with you, I’m actually looking into a trip already, maybe for Daniel’s birthday in August, or failing that, September.”