Page 35 of All Summer Long

Alice appreciated his honesty more than he could know.

‘It’s not crazy, Robinson. You’re not crazy. Or at least, if you are, then I am too,’ she said softly. ‘I’m lonely. You’re lonely. We both know that neither of us is available emotionally, but when you touch me … it makes me forget all the bad stuff for a while.’

He wrapped a strand of her hair around his finger, moving closer. ‘I don’t want you thinking about the bad stuff.’

‘So make me forget it,’ she said, and surprised them both by putting her bottle down and leaning in to kiss him. He kissed her back, slow and sexy, and then he broke away a little, just enough to speak.

‘Alice …’

She reached up and put her finger over his lips, her head and her emotions all over the place.

’Ssh. My turn now.’

She leaned into his arm around her shoulders, and smoothed her hand over his thigh.

‘If you could look inside my head you’d see it’s every bit as screwed up as yours is. I’m scared of a million things all of the time, Robinson. Of losing the house, of never being happy again, of getting divorced from the man I thought I’d be with for ever. The last six months have been one long hell of heartache and press intrusion, of being dragged publicly through the mud because Brad is considered public property. We had the press camped out here for weeks. I had to see him in compromising positions with her on the front of every newspaper every time I went to buy milk. It was awful, and a lot of the time, it still is.’

He listened, watching her eyes, playing with her hair.

‘And then there’s you. You scare me, Robinson, because you’re famous too. Much more so. One whiff of you being here and the press would descend again, that whole circus would start up and I don’t think I can face it all a second time.’

‘I’ll go,’ he said, cutting in. ‘If me being here makes it harder for you, I’ll go.’

‘I don’t want you to go. For as long as no one knows you’re here, I want you to stay.’

‘I don’t want anyone to know I’m here, either,’ he said. ‘I feel like I’m on holiday from my own life, and I like it.’

Alice slid her arm around his back and he lowered his head and kissed the crook of her neck. ‘We both know that you’re going to have to go home,’ she said, closing her eyes briefly because the sensation of his mouth on her skin demanded it.

‘But I’m here now,’ he said, his mouth close to her ear.

‘We both are,’ she whispered. ‘I’ve been thinking about last night all day.’

‘Me too,’ he said, bringing her hand to his face and kissing her fingers. ‘Be my holiday fling, Goldilocks?’

Alice had never had a holiday romance, or a one night stand, or a relationship where you lay your cards on the table so patently before falling into it head first. In that exact moment his honest, open, hurt no one attitude made complete and utter sense. And then he kissed her again, on her mouth, hot in her mouth, and pulled her so close against the hard heat of his chest that any attempt at thinking sensibly left her head for the summer.

‘Making each other feel this good can’t be wrong,’ he said, still kissing her, stroking her back and moulding her into him.

‘I’ve been the talk of the village before. I don’t want that again.’

‘And I’ve been the talk of Nashville for all the wrong reasons, baby,’ he said, resting his forehead against hers. ‘Let’s make this, whateverthisis, just for us. No one else needs to know. Being lonely together sure beats the hell out of being lonely alone.’

‘Secret lovers?’ she said, and found the idea turned her on madly.

‘The best darn secret I’ve ever kept,’ he said, sliding his hand inside her sweater. ‘Come inside?’

She stalled, opening her eyes and looking at the manor.

‘Not in there?’ he said, perceptive.

‘I don’t think I can.’

‘Then God bless the all-American Airstream.’ He smiled that sexy half smile that melted her brain.

‘You don’t think I’m being stupid?’ She looked doubtfully back at the manor with its plethora of bedrooms. God knew she and Brad hadn’t used them all.

‘I think you’re crazy beautiful and I don’t care where we go as long as I get to take your clothes off,’ he said, holding his hand out.

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