Page 37 of Best Summer Ever

‘And I’m going too,’ said George, looking around for Skipper. ‘I need my beauty sleep if I’m going to be performing music as well as telling terrifying tempest-tossed tales.’

I laughed when he said that.

‘That’s right, isn’t it?’ he twinkled.

‘It was definitely something like that.’ I smiled, gathering up my bag with my discarded shoes in it.

‘I didn’t get the chance to say earlier,’ Josh said, as I joined him on the other side of the bar, ‘but you look really pretty tonight, Daisy.’

I wondered how much of my make-up was left. Probably not a lot, given my earlier teary moment, so I most likely looked less pretty than I had.

‘Thank you,’ I nonetheless graciously said.

‘I’ll walk you back to your car,’ he then offered. ‘Unless, you’d like me to walk back with you, George?’

‘No, no, dear boy,’ George said, waving the suggestion away. ‘You carry on.’

I had a feeling Josh and I weren’t going to make it as far as my car.

Chapter 9

‘Would you like to come in?’ Josh asked, when we reached the cottage gate.

I didn’t have to think about my answer.

‘I would,’ I said, looking straight at him, ‘but only for a quick breather before I have to drive home.’

I held his gaze long enough to communicate that might not be strictly true and that I was only saying it for the benefit of everyone else who had left the pub at the same time as us and were also walking along the lane.

‘Perfect,’ he said and grinned as he ushered me down the short path to the door. ‘The cottage is the ideal place to cool off in before your drive.’

Neither of us said another word as he turned the key in the lock. We crossed the threshold, Josh slammed the door behind us, drew the curtains and then we fell into each other’s arms.

‘Josh,’ I gasped, as his mouth urgently sought out mine.

The feel of his lips on my neck, the heat of his hands as they ran their way over the thin fabric of my dress and the urgency with which I started to tug at his shirt buttons, expressed a mutual intensity of desire that I had never experienced before.

My body took over and I gave in to its craving completely. The first time on the tiny sitting-room sofa and the second, more tenderly upstairs in the brass-framed bed and then again, in the roll-top bath that was barely big enough for two, but we laughingly managed to squeeze into it anyway.

It was hardly surprising that we then fell into the bed and a deep sleep after such monumental exertion. It wasn’t quite dawn when I woke, my muscles pleasantly aching, and I found I had absolutely no desire to leave. I hoped Mum and Dad hadn’t already noted my absence, but I decided to err on the side of caution, albeit a little belatedly.

I tiptoed down the stairs, smiling at the puddles of abandoned clothes littering my path and sought out my phone. There were no panicky missed calls, so I sent Mum a text explaining that I’d stayed over in the village. With any luck, she’d assume I was with Penny. I then crept back up the stairs, took a moment to admire Josh’s beautiful body, then snuggled up close to him and drifted back into a dreamless sleep.

‘Good morning, sleepyhead,’ were the words that I eventually resurfaced to, and they were accompanied by the delicious aroma of fresh coffee and warm pastries. ‘Do you intend to sleep through the entire day?’

I inched myself up higher in the bed and rearranged the pillows behind my head as Josh set the tray down on the kicked- back duvet. He was naked from the waist up – a total treat for a Sunday morning. Assuming it was still morning…

‘I don’t much want to get out of bed,’ I told him, with a smile, ‘but that doesn’t necessarily mean that I want to sleep.’

He looked delighted about that.

‘In that case,’ he said, ‘let’s get some carbs and coffee into us and see where the day takes us, shall we?’

‘Sounds good to me,’ I agreed.

A lot more than half of the day had gone by the time we made it downstairs.

‘Everything okay?’ Josh asked, as I checked my phone.

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