Snowflakes on Silver Cove: A festive, feel-good Christmas romance (White Cliff Bay Book 2) (32 page)

He lifted her and she wrapped her legs around him as the kiss continued.

‘Wait,’ Libby giggled, utterly delighted with the way this evening had turned out. ‘I’m still in my wellies. You can’t make love to me in my wellies.’

‘No, I guess not.’ He carried her to the arm of the sofa and sat her down. He grabbed a welly and gave it a huge tug. It stayed resolutely on her foot. He yanked it some more and it came flying off, hitting one of the life-size deer in the face. ‘Oops, sorry Bambi,’ George muttered as he went for the other welly.

‘You called the deer Bambi?’

He nodded.

‘I frigging love you.’

He grinned, pulling the boot off carefully this time, then he slowly peeled down her knickers and tights until she was completely naked. He, frustratingly, was still completely dressed.

George stood back up and stared at her. When his hands returned to her waist they were shaking.

‘How should we do this? We can go in the bedroom where it’s more romantic, I could light some candles, play some music. What position would you like? We could do it against the wall or…’ He trailed off as she caught his face in her hands.

‘None of that stuff matters. I love you and there is not a single thing you could do now to make this more special. Everything about this is right because it’s you.’

She slid his bow tie off his neck and started undoing the buttons of his shirt. He stalled her hand with his own but she gently removed it, placing kisses on his bare chest after she undid each button. She peeled his shirt open and trailed reverential fingers across his chest and stomach.

‘I love you, every single inch of you, I promise you that.’

He stared at her for a moment, then he quickly grabbed her legs and rolled her backwards onto the sofa. She giggled as she landed on the soft cushions and he quickly climbed on top of her with a sudden confidence she had never seen in him before. He kissed her hard and she ran her fingers through his hair at the back of his neck.

He moved his hand between her legs, hitting the exact spot that made her weak with absolute precision. It took no time at all before she was hurtling over the edge, moaning his name against his lips. He didn’t stop though, he kept touching and stroking as she trembled against him again and again.

Finally he knelt up and she was vaguely aware that he was grabbing a condom from the drawers on the nearby table and rolling it on.

He flashed her the biggest grin as he lifted her slightly and slid inside her. She groaned.

‘Ten,’ Libby said.

He frowned slightly and leaned over her, kissing her on the mouth as he moved against her.

‘What?’

‘This date is the most perfect date ever, you get ten out of ten.’

He smiled and kissed her again. With his hand at the small of her back he moved position slightly, hitting that sweet spot inside of her, making a tumble of inarticulate words burst from her throat.

‘Let’s see if we can make it eleven,’ he whispered against her lips.

G
eorge woke
the next day and moved to take his beautiful Libby in his arms, but to his surprise he was alone in his bed.

‘Libby?’ He sat up, but there was silence in his flat.

He looked around in confusion. The night before had been amazing. After they had made love, he had carried her, still clinging to him, through to the bedroom, where they had laid side by side, kissing each other for ages. He had kind of expected her to roll over and go to sleep as Josie used to. But they lay with their arms and legs entwined just kissing, until the moon had disappeared and the very first tinges of early morning light had started to appear. And then as he was stroking her arms, stroking her back, she had asked him to make love to her again. This time, he had made sure it was gentle and tender, without the urgency of the first time; they had taken their time to explore each other properly. He had made sure he kissed every single inch of her body. Making love to her then had been the single most beautiful moment of his life.

And after there had been more kissing, until she had eventually fallen asleep in his arms, with her mouth against his.

But then, in sleep, she had rolled over away from him and when he tried to pull her back into his arms, she had wriggled huffily out of his grasp. He had told himself that she was just dreaming, that she didn’t know it was him, but now, waking up and finding her gone… something wasn’t right.

He got up, pulled on a pair of shorts and padded across to her flat. She was in the bedroom; he could hear her on the phone as he walked in.

‘Yes, it was lovely, Amy, the best sex I’ve ever had…yeah seriously. Look I have to go, I’ll tell you all about it later, but I have to be out of here before he wakes up.’

George peered round the door and watched as Libby hurriedly shoved clothes into a suitcase. She quickly hung up the phone and stuffed a few more t-shirts into an already overflowing holdall.

His heart plummeted. Anger flooding through him, he pushed the door open and she span around guiltily.

‘Go where?’ he said, surprised by how cold his voice was.

‘Oh George, I thought you’d be asleep for hours yet—’

‘I can’t believe you. You’re still leaving, after last night? If you don’t know now that we were made for each other, that this kind of love comes round once in a lifetime, then there’s nothing else I can do. If you leave now, I won’t be here waiting for you to come back. I’ve done everything you asked, the reindeer sleigh, the champagne, the fireworks, the barbershop quartet. Damn it, I even bought you a ring, but it’s not enough, is it?’

‘You bought me a ring?’ Her voice was quiet, hurt.

‘Yes. It was your “one day before Christmas” present that I forgot to give you yesterday.’ He was so angry that he took a step away from her, wanting to shake her so much.

‘Were you planning on getting down on one knee and asking me to marry you, because if you were this is hardly the romantic setting I would hope for. Shouting at the woman you want to marry is not exactly conducive to a romantic engagement.’

‘You’d love that, wouldn’t you, for me to throw myself to my knees now and beg for your hand in marriage. Well you can sod off; I’m not humiliating myself any further for you.’

He turned and stormed out of her flat and back into his own.

Though Libby was hot on his heels.

‘Where’s the ring?’ she demanded.

‘No, you’re not having it. If you want to see how big the diamond is before you make your decision, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. It doesn’t even have a diamond.’

‘Give me the bloody ring.’

He snatched up his trousers, grabbed the box from the pocket and passed it to her. ‘Here take it, sell it for all I care.’

‘George, you are the biggest idiot I have ever met. Do you honestly think after you made love to me so beautifully last night I could seriously go anywhere else but here? I was packing to come here. You said we would move in here. I wanted to move in whilst you slept, so that when you woke up my clothes would already be hanging next to yours in the wardrobe. Now, since you have no intention of going on one knee to ask me to marry you, I suppose it’s down to me.’

To his great surprise, Libby dropped down on one knee and opened the box towards him.

‘George, I love you, I will always love you, no matter how much of an idiot you are. Now… will you do me the extraordinary honour of marrying me?’

He quickly dropped to his knees in front of her. ‘I thought that…’

‘Yeah, well, you thought wrong,’ she snapped, grabbing the ring from the box and forcing it onto his ring finger. ‘There, we’re engaged, and we’re not having a long engagement either, I want to be married to you by the end of the year.’

He looked down at the gold ring, curved in gentle waves studded with tiny coloured stones in different shades of green, as it rested halfway up his finger.

‘I think it might look better on you, Lib. Can I?’

She nodded reluctantly and he took it off. He took her hand, kissed it and then slid the ring gently onto her finger.

‘When we tell the story of how we became engaged to our friends and family, maybe we could miss out the part where I was a stupid idiot.’

‘Maybe,’ Libby sniffed, trying to suppress the smile as she stared at the ring. ‘Maybe when we got back yesterday from the ball, you dropped to your knees amongst the candles and flowers and asked me to marry you then, which of course I said yes to.’

George kissed her forehead. ‘That sounds much better.’

He stood up and pulled her to her feet, though she couldn’t take her eyes off the ring, which he took to be a good sign.

‘It’s beautiful, George,’ she said quietly.

‘Twenty shades of green,’ he murmured.

‘Even sprout?’

He smiled. ‘Do you forgive me?’

She half scowled. ‘Not yet. I might have to punish you, no sex for a month.’

He smirked. ‘Happy Christmas, baby.’

She looked down at the ring box in her hand, and frowned. His heart leapt when he realised she’d seen the bit of paper stuck into the lid. She tucked her finger into the edge and prised it out.

Still scared that their engagement was built on quite shaky ground, he tried to take it off her.

‘That’s nothing, don’t worry about it.’

She held the paper out of his reach. ‘What is it?’

‘It’s silly, just… I did some rules for a perfect marriage, don’t look at it now.’

Libby, stubborn as ever, unfolded the piece of paper with evident interest. He put his hand on the paper, covering the words. ‘We can discuss terms, come up with an agreed set of rules between us, compromise on some, but rules one, four and ten are non-negotiable.’

She arched an eyebrow and he took his hand off so she could read it. He moved round behind her, holding her in his arms and reading it over her shoulder.

L
ibby stopped reading
at this one. ‘No way, I’m not leaving Silver Cove beach; if you want a big house we’ll have to buy one down here.’

‘It’s just that they rarely come up for sale down here, I thought we’d be more likely to get one in the main town.’

‘We’ll just have to wait until they do, I’m not moving, that’s non-negotiable.’

He smiled. ‘OK, keep reading.’

She returned her gaze to the list.

‘
I
prefer Bangers and Mash
.’

‘Fine, we’re not going to argue over the intricacies, but Bangers is going to be a St Bernard or a Newfoundland.’

‘Fine,’ she said, shortly, though she leaned back into him as she looked back at the list.

‘
G
et me a pen
,’ she ordered and, keeping one arm round her waist, he leaned back and grabbed one from the shelf. He passed it to her and he watched her scrawl a side note in her messy handwriting next to number 8. ‘
Practical jokes that scare the other person so much they knock themselves out are strictly prohibited.
’

‘
G
ood point
.’

9
.
I will dance
with you on our wedding day.

H
e saw her swallow
.

1
0
. I promise to hold you in sleep, keep you safe from harm whilst you dream. When you need to walk, in dreams or when you’re awake, I will walk by your side. I promise that I will tell you I love you every day, wake you each morning kissing you from head to toe. I will support you, encourage you and laugh with you. And I will make it my mission in life to make you as completely and utterly happy as you make me.

L
ibby folded
the piece of paper, her hands shaking. She turned round in his arms and he was surprised to see tears in her eyes. ‘I do love you.’

‘I know. I’ve always loved you, Lib, always will.’

She smiled at him, and leaned up to kiss him. The kiss continued for some time, her hands in his hair, round his neck, stroking his bare back. And he was very surprised when he felt her undo his shorts and push them off his hips.

He pulled away. ‘What about your terms, no sex for a month?’

‘I’ve changed my mind, woman’s prerogative.’

‘Of course.’ He quickly yanked her top off her and made quick work of the rest of her clothes, and she laughed at his impatience. ‘Just in case you change it back again.’

She smiled as she took his hand and led him towards the bedroom.

‘Now listen, when we made love, was it really the best sex you’ve ever had?’ he asked.

She giggled with embarrassment. ‘You heard that?’

He nodded.

‘Yes it was, George, it was amazing.’

‘The first time or the second time?’

‘Both, absolutely both.’

He smiled, but then his smile fell. ‘That’s a shame, because that gives me a lot to live up to.’

She stopped next to the bed and rested her head on his chest. She looked up at him, as he pulled her tighter against him. ‘It’s only going to get better from here on in.’

‘Maybe I should brush up on the Kama Sutra before we go any further.’

‘If you think there’s time,’ she shrugged. ‘But we’re both already naked, what would you suggest I do with myself whilst you’re doing your homework?’