Page 40 of The Wedding Cake
The group gathered at 4:45 in the garden, taking their snack boxes and water bottles from the guide and exchanging pleasantries. Freya found herself with a Dutch couple, two Japanese girlfriends and an older, grey bun-toting female who made it abundantly clear she preferred the old-fashioned ways, map at the ready, compass around her neck. She’d have loved the fricking green order book Freya had ceremonially burned last week – ensuring she’d gone through the remaining orders with a fine tooth comb first and adding them to a spreadsheet with Hannah and Ricky at her side, of course.
“We’re waiting for a final person,” announced Salvador, the guide. “Aha, the Englishman has arrived!”
Everybody turned to watch a coach pull into the driveway.How many Englishmen were they expecting?The sun was too dazzling to gawk and Freya looked away. No doubt they’d soon be joined by an uber-enthusiastic twit who thought he was the next Bear Grylls. But it wasn’t a TV adventurer who dumped his backpack at the reception, shouting “thanks, Hayley” over his shoulder, before scooting over to the group to make his intro to the others. It was a thirty-something male with the kind of side-swept blonde hair that just begged to have your fingers running through it, and ever downwards…
Tim.Tim!
Now Freya wasn’t seeing spots but stars before her eyes. She thought she would die. Her heart was in her mouth. And her mouth was as dry as that awful Rioja that Lars had tried to ply her with. How was she supposed to compose herself? This was so unfair. What the eff was going on? Clearly Piper would be along any minute. Great! No doubt she had a separate stretch limo to bring herself and all her paraphernalia. But hang on. Why would Tim’s bride agree to something as rural and unglamorous as this on day one of her honeymoon?
Tim’s smile of an answer said it all as he panned the group and then stopped at Freya. He couldn’t take his eyes off her. And now Freya wanted to dig a hole and hide.
“How did you know I was here?” she mouthed, body tensed.
But there was no time for Tim to answer so he teased her with a shrug and another knowing smile instead. He’d already made the group late and Salvador was keen to get going. Sensing the chemistry between Freya and Tim, their guide annoyingly asked Tim and Granny Bun to step out in front with him to set the pace as they went off down the dirt track which sloped into the forest. Now Freya couldn’t even enjoy the peace and serenity of a simple hike, wondering what on earth Tim’s game was.
She had so many questions. And none of them could be answered here with this group surrounding them. It was agony! The view of his extremely fit buttocks should have helped, but it only made things a million times worse because she couldn’t stop imagining them freed from their layers of fabric. He’d come here for her. There was no doubt about it. She didn’t want to get ahead of herself but evidently, somehow, some way, he really had called the wedding off with Piper. Just like Hannah had tried to tell her.
Tim glanced behind him every so often, throwing her deliriously heated looks that made her insides melt. He was like a sexy big bad wolf and Freya wanted nothing more than to let him snare her, carrying her deep into the forest where she’d be only too ecstatic to have him devour every inch of her. As the afternoon turned into early evening and the guide stopped them at the halfway point for snacks, careful to ensure Freya and Tim were once again not remotely within touching distance, a wicked thought formed in Freya’s head. As much as she loved chatting with Asami, Sakura, Marit and Dirk about their travels around Europe, and as much as she could tell Tim was trying to be equally polite in Granny Bun’s presence, an infatuated woman could only take so much before she self-combusted. Freya tried to chew back the grin as the thoroughly naughty scene unfolded in her head. She had no guarantee it would work, but she also had nothing to lose.
As the group packed up to hike back up the hilly track to the accommodation, and Tim and Freya locked eyes for a tantalising appraisal of one another’s physiques, Freya unbuttoned her khaki shirt a little lower than was necessary, shooting Tim one final lust-filled glance and biting her lip. Which was a little like a scene straight out of a porn movie but how the frick else was she meant to hint that she was up to something and that he should stay alert? Salvador insisted on the same regimented formation as everybody made their way back along the path through the forest and Freya bided her time, desperate for an awkward-looking obstacle to cross her path. Eventually her patience paid off and she let out a giant scream as she ‘tumbled’ over a small rock.
Effing hell!Actually, it really hurt.
She looked down at her grazed ankle and decided it presented enough evidence to suggest she might have sprained or even broken it. Thankfully, though, she’d used her hands to take the pressure off her foot as it had hit the earth, when she’d then dragged her outer left ankle along the gravel to achieve the grazed effect. It seemed everybody else shared her concern. Especially Tim and Salvador, who were both by her side within moments, assessing the damage, gently manipulating her foot as Freya faked being in far greater pain than she was.
“It could be broken. I have no way of telling until we can call a doctor out. We’ll walk slowly, one on either side of her, and take her back to the B&B,” said Salvador decisively.
“Noooo!” Freya cried. “I really don’t think I can!”
“I don’t think so either,” Tim begged to differ and Freya’s heart fluttered. “Luckily, I’m a first aider, fitness instructorandan experienced orienteer with a gold Duke of Edinburgh award. I can stay here with our patient while you go get a stretcher. She shouldn’t hobble such a long distance without any support for the ankle and we have plenty of daylight until you get back. I’ve got extra snacks and water in my backpack, too.”
“Me importa un pepinoabout your qualifications! I am in charge and I shouldn’t take my eye off the group.” Salvador threw a massive spanner in the works. Unimpressed by Tim’s CV, he literally couldn’t give a cucumber about his credentials.
“This could be extremely serious and this lady could sue you,” Tim insisted. “Go, now! Every minute we spend debating is costing us precious time.”
With a heavy and reluctant sigh, Salvador eventually agreed. “But only if you are happy about this, Freya?”
“I-I think it might be for the best.” Freya had zero problem surrendering to her fate.
“Okay. We’ll walk as fast as we can.” Salvador returned to the group, who were all nodding their heads in agreement. “Freya’s in your hands now, Tim. I am trusting you to look after her.”
“That will be my absolute pleasure,” Tim whispered in Freya’s ear as everybody pivoted flash-mob style and marched ahead. “Damn, you should be an actor.” He grinned seductively. “I take it that’s what all the body language was about earlier? You aren’t seriously hurt, are you?” Freya shook her head and giggled. “Oh, my God, Freya. I want you more than you will ever know. I don’t even know where to start and I hope you’re not mad at me for following you here when you needed to get away. I just had to be with you. There’s so much I want to explain. I…”
Freya clenched her fist around Tim’s T-shirt and pulled him close to her, relishing the immediate hit of aftershave and masculine sweat. She’d pined for this man since the moment he’d stepped into her cakery. The words could come later. With a devilish smile, she pinned him with her hungry gaze, liking the look she saw reflected back at her, loving the groan that escaped his irresistible lips, where she now found her own mouth drawn with an unbreakable magnetic force as his sweet kiss sealed her expectations, exceeding every pent-up desire, and now she was completely drowning in lust. The skies could have erupted in Mediterranean forked lightning, they could have been in the middle of a wild boar migration, or they could have been lost in a pea-souper of a Saharan dust cloud. All of those things at once, but now they had found each other, nothing could tear them apart.
“We haven’t got much time and there isno wayI can contain myself until we get back to the accommodation. I know that makes me sound like a right slapper, but I’ve waited too long to care since falling into your lap that fateful day.” Freya pulled away briefly, reluctantly, giddily happy to see Tim’s eyes drugged on the tenderness of that kiss. “So, outdoor fitness instructor and orienteering expert, what are your cosy camp suggestions as you take in the immediate surroundings? I’m thinking somewhere we can get very intimate and be very naughty in a very short space of time.”
“You are incorrigible.” Tim tucked a strand of Freya’s hair behind her ear, letting his thumb run enticingly across her jaw. “I should have locked you up in that kitchen when I had the chance. It’s been torture thinkingwhat ifI’d played things differently for all these months. Why did Hannah have to come back when she did? The roleplay ideas involving you and that icing...”
The pair of them laughed as Tim scooped Freya up in his arms and carried her off the track and into the woods. It didn’t take them long to find a clearing that opened onto a meadow of botanical jewels; its carpet of pink and yellow flowers taking her breath away.
Tim lay Freya down and ducked in for a tender kiss before standing to pan the horizon, making pretend binoculars with his hands.
“I think we’re all right. I mean the birds and the bees might get inspired by our actions but other than that, we’re completely alone. And, oh, my God, Freya… I am going to let you know it.”
“Good!” Freya grinned, feeling thoroughly aroused and ridiculously rebellious. “Now where were we?”
“Right about here?”
