Page 43 of Wilder at Heart
‘Okay, Olaf.’ She laughs and pats my knee, but her body relaxes a fraction against mine. ‘Did no one hug you enough when you were younger, you poor little middle child?’
‘On the contrary, I got hugged a lot. I was very cute and huggable.’
Nora tilts her face up towards mine, an amused smile on her lips. ‘Ugh. I can imagine you were, unfortunately. And you need validating hugs from me so you still feel cute and huggable?’
‘Something like that, yeah.’ I pause, enjoying her face from close up. She really is beautiful. Those fucking Disney princess eyes. They get me every time. And there’s something about being out of London, about being here, with her, in this gorgeous place. Like real life is suspended for a moment, and we can just be who we want to be. Do what we want to do. No pretence.
‘Besides,’ I continue. ‘I’d like to relentlessly exploit my fake girlfriend’s gorgeous body for sex. But if I can’t, I’ll relentlessly exploit it for cuddles.’
I use a jokey tone, but I don’t drop eye contact. Don’t let her get away from my gaze while I deliver my passive-aggressive, let’s-throw-it-out-there line. Because I’m serious. I could very easily, very quickly get on board with escalating this thing to a fake-relationship-with-real-benefits level. And it seems stupid not to. Totally wasteful.
Those magical eyes widen in disbelief that I had the nerve to put myself out there like that, but she doesn’t look pissed off with me. On the contrary, her lips widen just a bit, and a tiny crease appears between her eyebrows, like she’s trying to work me the hell out. She collapses her head back against the lounger cushion and her eyes flick to my mouth, then back up to meet me.
‘You shouldn’t say things like that.’ She wiggles in my grip, and the strap of her sundress loses its battle and slips off her shoulder. Her eyes are burning into mine, and I may be a delusional douche, but I could swear that despite her huffy tone, I’ve got her thinking. About how it would be between us. I know, because I’ve spent way too much time recently thinking about how it would be.
And despite, or rather because of, her closed-off, prim and proper, judgmental demeanour, I know it would be hot as hell.
Undoing Nora Wilder would be a challenge.
A privilege.
Unwinding her. Stripping off those layers of guardedness and judgement until she’s a wanton, writhing mess who doesn’t give a flying fuck about what’s proper.
I twist further onto my side to face her properly. Our faces are inches apart, and I would give anything right now to close that gap and suck her full bottom lip into my mouth. To slide my tongue over it. To cup the bare shoulder her strap has vacated, and slip my hand down to yank our hips flush together, so she could feel how quickly our kiss makes me go hard against her.
I tighten my grip around her back and stare at her mouth as my other hand finds the dip of her waist and rests there.
‘I’m not trying to make you feel uncomfortable, sweetheart. Just stating facts. We’d be hot as fuck together.’
At the bottom edge of my peripheral vision, her chest heaves. Her hand has got wedged between us, and she puts a palm against my pecs, lowering her eyes to it and breaking the charged gaze between us. Shit.
‘The only thing you canexploitme for right now, Romeo, is hugs. Okay? Hug away. But no funny business.’
‘Got it.’ I exhale in frustration. ‘And funny business counts as what, exactly?’
She pulls her hand away from my chest. ‘If you have to ask, don’t do it.’
‘Right.’
‘Okay. Hug away.’
And so, poor fuck that I am, I take the family-friendly crumbs she’s offering and pull her to me so we’re leaning into each other, her breath warm through the linen of my shirt. The hand that was on her waist curls around so I have her in my arms, and I allow my head to sink into the cushioned mattress as her arm tentatively encircles my waist.
And we lie there, the warm afternoon breeze coasting over us.
‘This is nice.’ Her voice is muffled.
‘See? Imagine how good sex would be.’
‘Shut up.’ Her giggle makes her body shake slightly against me. I like it.
‘What are you thinking about, sweetheart, lying in my strong, manly arms?’
She sighs. ‘I’m thinking about how much Jonathan would love this place.’
Is she fucking for real?Jesus. I let go of her and roll onto my back. Holmes dumped her, got himself a human blow-up doll, and he’sstillcockblocking me from afar.
‘You’re fucking killing me, Wilder. I thought we were having a moment there, and you have to go and bring up the J-word.’
