‘I – ’
‘Look, Libby,’ he interrupted, his jaw clenching for a moment before his hand shot forward to grab hers on the table. ‘I’ve already apologized, but I know that doesn’t make up for the way I treated you. I want you to know that Idorespect how difficult things must have been for you. Idothink you are amazing to achieve what you have, and I’m sorry if my reaction made you think otherwise.’ Libby’s eyes slid to the side, but before she pulled away she allowed him to stroke across the top of her hand with his thumb, and suppressed a shiver in response.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ she muttered to the balsamic dressing as she fiddled with the corner of her napkin. She felt light pressure on her chin and lifted her head when she realized it was his fingers exerting it. When her wide eyes caught his, he let his hand fall away. His eyes were narrowed.
‘You don’t believe me do you?’ he asked, but continued on before she could reply. ‘That’s fine,’ he said bizarrely. ‘You don’t have to believe me yet. I can wait.’
‘Why do you keep touching Mummy?’ a loud, high-pitched voice cut through not only their conversation but every other conversation in the packed restaurant.
‘I think it’s time for the bill,’ Dr Grantham muttered, ruffling Rosie’s hair. The tips of his ears had turned pink again as the majority of the patrons turned in their direction, and, God help her, despite what a grumpy bastard he’d been in the past, Libby couldn’t help herself: she smiled.
Chapter 16
Rhabdomyolysis
Jamie was winning. He could taste victory. But, over the course of the day, the game he’d set out to win had changed. He’d gone from wanting to make it up to Libby for being an insufferable self-righteous prick, to simply wanting Libby. If he were honest with himself that was the real reason he wouldn’t let her get the bus after the death of Brian, her car, a month ago. It had been the real reason he checked on her in A&E, and definitely the real reason behind wanting her on his boat today.
Yes, he was a selfish bastard.
Yes, she was too young for him.
Yes, she was a student.
The familiar weight of responsibility settled over him. As the younger brother to a man who went off the rails spectacularly in puberty, and having seen all the worry and upset it caused their parents, Jamie had always felt huge pressure to be perfect. To somehow make up for Dan’s behaviour; to make it so his mum would stop bursting into tears over the dinner table and his dad would stop shutting himself away in his office. By the time Dan had pulled his head out of his arse after having Will and the drugs behind him, Jamie’s drive for perfection had become ingrained. The last thing he needed was to take any risks, and Libby was a risk.
But after watching her with Rosie and his family all day, listening to her infectious giggle, seeing how easily she took everything that was thrown at her in her stride, witnessing her forgive his total dickhead of a brother, and last but not least, seeing her body in Amy’s slightly-too-small-in-certain-areas wetsuit, he no longer gave a monkey’s. He’d never been this besotted with a woman before in his life. Even his overwrought feelings for his first girlfriend as a desperate teenager paled in comparison.
‘Come on, Beauty,’ Rosie commanded once they arrived back at the small flat. She tugged on Beauty’s collar and the dog practically bowled Libby out of the way of the door to bound in after Rosie. Both dog and little girl had slept the entire hour and a half in the car on the way back and now seemed to have a fresh wave of energy. Libby sighed and Jamie gave her a sheepish grin. Yes, he could have stopped Beauty if he’d wanted to, but if it meant that he wasn’t turned away at the door, then he was prepared to play the untrained-dog card. It was even worth the fact that Beauty had chewed the upholstery of his car to shit whilst they’d been in the restaurant. Something that would normally have made Jamie go apoplectic.
‘I guess … I guess you’d better come in,’ Libby said, her eyes flicking nervously to Rosie’s bedroom door, which had slammed shut behind her and Beauty. ‘Tea?’
‘Thanks,’ Jamie said, flopping down on her small sofa. He looked across the room and something on one of the shelves made him do a double take. ‘Woah!’ he said, powering up to his feet to cover the short distance across the room. He lifted the Millennium Falcon from the shelf with the reverence it deserved, and turned to Libby. ‘This is insane. You’ve got the whole gang in here as well.’
‘Well, nearly. I had to sell the limited edition Boba Fett. You know, the one that shoots actual rockets? They only made a few because it was considered too dangerous for kids. Once I found out how much he was worth I couldn’t really justify keeping him,’ Libby said from his side, and he carefully put the ship back up on the shelf. ‘I should probably sell the rest. They wouldn’t go for as much as Boba but it wouldn’t be anything to be sniffed at. But … well …’ She shrugged and grinned up at him.
‘You can’t sell this,’ Jamie said.
‘Yeah,’ Libby said, stroking the side of the first-edition and highly sought afterStar Warstoy lovingly. ‘I don’t think I could bring myself to anyway.’ It was only then that Jamie realized how close they were standing. She smelt of the boat and her shampoo. Her hair had worked its way free of its confinement after her wake boarding efforts and was hanging around her face in wild waves.
Jamie had never encountered such a beautiful woman who seemed not to give a toss about her appearance. The only time he’d ever seen Libby wear make-up was when she was on stage, and her hair seemed a constant source of annoyance to her, rather than the plumage he knew other women would regard it as. He’d overheard her tell Amy that she would hack it off if she could, describing the stunning tresses as ‘a pain in my arse I could do without’.
When his eyes caught hers he sucked in a breath at the intense blue colour that close up. Without any conscious thought, and totally at odds with the gradually-winning-her-over-and-convincing-her-I’m-not-a-total-dick plan he’d come up with on the drive over, his hand came up to her jaw and swept up into her hair at the side of her head. He leaned in until his mouth was a hair’s breadth away from hers and searched her expression. Her pupils dilated and she took a sharp breath in, but she didn’t pull away. He touched his mouth to hers and her eyes slid closed, shredding the last of his control.
The kiss started out soft, but as her hand came up to his waist and a small moan sounded in her throat he deepened it, backing her up until her calves hit the sofa, then pushing her down to lie across it. He hovered over her for a second before his mouth closed over hers again and her hands moved into his T-shirt to feel the muscles of his back. All his restraint was shot to pieces with the feel of her hands on his skin. His mouth left hers to kiss down her face into her neck, inhaling deeply from her hair as he stroked one hand down her arm to entwine her fingers with his. He brought their entwined hands above her head whilst his other hand traced a path down her side until he reached the hem of her T-shirt. But when he was finally touching the soft skin of her stomach a small giggle and a soft woof sounded from the room next door.
Jamie froze before lifting his head from Libby’s neck abruptly. Her glazed eyes looked up at him in confusion and he felt like the biggest kind of lecherous arsehole alive. What the hell happened to asking her respectfully if she would consider dinner with him again? (This time without Rosie, and preferably tomorrow night.) Instead he’d practically jumped her, shoved his tongue down her throat in an all-out snogging session, and tried to cop a feel into the bargain.
He pulled back, lifting her with him, and gently steered her into a sitting position, before he shuffled away from her to the other end of the sofa (which, granted, was not very far considering the minute size of the bloody thing).
*****
Libby blinked and shook her head to clear it. That was her first kiss since she was seventeen years old and it was a blinder. Not that the sperm donor was a hard act to follow – if she remembered correctly there was a fair amount of saliva involved in those teenage kisses, to the extent that she’d taken to having a hand towel at the ready for the aftermath. But this kiss … this kiss was in a different universe. This kiss with soft, dry lips, the slight graze of stubble against her mouth, combined with the feel of the corded muscles of his back moving under the skin against her hand, had sent her a little insane.
Dr Grantham was without doubt the onlymanshe had ever kissed. Sperm Donor may have ruled the school she was at and been a king in that small closed environment, but he was only ever a boy. However, Dr Grantham was rubbing both his hands down his face now and sitting as far away from her as possible. Clearly the kiss hadn’t been up to his high standards. He was probably used to women who’d had more than a few teenage fumbles of experience to draw on. She felt heat rise to her face and stood abruptly from the sofa.
‘I think – ’ She broke off when she realised how shaky her voice sounded, and took a deep breath to steady it. ‘I think you should go.’
Dr Grantham pushed up from the sofa and took a step towards her. When she took one back he stopped and lifted a hand to rub the back of his neck. ‘Look, I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I don’t know what happened there.’
