“Formally request?” he said through a laugh. “Do you want to submit it in writing?”
I felt myself blush again and bit my lip. Maybe I’d revealed a bit too much.
“I–er, well, that’s if there are further opportunities. I–er, don’t want to presume that you want to…” I trailed off and closed my eyes in frustration. Why was it that my words could flow so effortlessly when I was writing, but I became a tongue-tied imbecile so often in real life, especially around Felix? He gathered me close and kissed my lips again, this time soft and unbearably sweet.
“You better believe that there’ll be ‘further kitchen exploits’, gorgeous,” he said against my mouth. “Formal request or no.” I relaxed into him, feeling some of my nervous energy drain away. At least it seemed that Felix wasn’t thinking that this was just a one-off.
“Now,” he said in a playful tone. “Make me my eggs, woman.” He pushed me towards the Aga and lightly smacked my bottom as I went. Even that small action made me want to turn around and rip his jeans off again. I was turning into a full sex maniac!
We ate the eggs at his kitchen island. Felix ate his with one hand, the other resting on my thigh under his shirt. He closed his eyes with the first bite and hummed his approval, an action that also turned me on an unreasonable amount. “Oh my God. This is just like Hetty’s. I haven’t had eggs this good in over a decade.”
“Mum’s good at eggs.”
“Your mum’s the best at most things,” Felix muttered, turning back to his eggs with a pensive expression, his handnow moving to rub the back of his neck, leaving my thigh cold in its absence. “I owe your mum a lot, Luce.”
“I know you love Mum, Felix,” I said softly. He was frowning now and had stopped eating altogether. “Listen, I’m not going to go all bunny-boiler on you if you want to er… well,whenyou don’t want to carry on…” I was stumped. What did I say? Carry on shagging like rabbits? It wasn’t like we were dating. We hadn’t even gone on a single date. The party at Felix’s house didn’t count – there were hundreds of people there, and I only saw him briefly before he left me to my own devices to embarrass myself and then hide. “Er… carry on sleeping together? Being fuck buddies?”
“Lucy,” Felix snapped, putting his fork down to glare at me. “We are not fuck buddies!”
“Okay, chill,” I tried to reassure him. “I mean, I’m not that up on the terminology. But we’re not exactly dating, more… doing the horizontal stuff. Oh well, actually, some of it wasn’t altogether horizontal, was it? Impressive, by the way – demonstrated lots of upper body strength.”
Felix groaned and buried his face in his hands with his elbows on the granite in front of him. “Your mother is going to kill me.”
“Look, don’t get so stressed out. Let’s go back to before the eggs. Back when you were shagging me on the kitchen counter and smacking my arse.”
“No,” Felix said with determination. “We’re not doing any more of that.” My heart sank, and I tried to swallow down my disappointment along with the eggs that were now sticking in my throat. “Not until I take you out on a proper date. We’ve done this all the wrong way around. Christ, your brother! Mike’s going to have my guts for garters.”
“A date?” I spun on my stool to look at Felix. My eyebrows went up in surprise. “We’re going to go on a proper date? Likewe’re dating?” I tried, I really did, but I did not think I was successful in keeping the excitement out of my voice. The whole bouncing on my chair may rather have given me away as well.
Felix turned his frowning face to my excited one. “Lucy, of course we’ll date. Did you think we’d just befuck buddiesas you put it? What the hell?”
I slid off my stool and walked into the space between Felix’s legs. He immediately enclosed his warm arms around me as I pressed my hands against his chest and looked up at his handsome face.
“I’m just happy to be with you,” I said softly through a smile. “I don’t care how it’s labelled. Every hour with you is more than I could have ever hoped for.”
“Oh God, Lucy,” he groaned. “You’re killing me.” He leaned down and kissed me softly first, then, as seemed to be the way with us, the kiss went deeper, his hands smoothed up the back of his shirt, warm on my skin. My hands went up to the back of his neck and into his hair. A small moan escaped the back of my throat before he wrenched away. “Bloody hell,” he breathed into my hair at the top of my head as he pulled me into his chest. “Right, no more fuck buddy stuff until we have aproper date.”
“For the record. I think that’s a stupid rule.” My voice was muffled by his chest, but I knew that he heard me because he started laughing softly.
“Finish your eggs,” he said, setting me away from him and lifting me back onto my own stool, turning it firmly towards the plate and away from him.
“We better be going on a date in the next hour,” I said in a grumpy voice at my eggs. As much as I wanted to go out with Felix, I wasn’t that keen to wait for more fuck buddy stuff.That seemed grossly unfair just becausehewas worried about my mum and brother.
“I’ll take you out tonight,” he said. “How’s that, FB?”
I rolled my eyes. “Only if you’ll promise to put out.”
He laughed again and kissed the side of my head. But then his phone buzzed, and he picked it up with a frown.
“Shit,” he muttered. “I forgot, I’m meeting Ollie and Vicky tonight. Trying to smooth everything over after that shitshow of a meeting with York.”
“Oh.”
“Come with us. We can eat before, then we’ll meet them.”
I bit my lip. “Nowhere fancy is it? I’m not so comfortable in those places. Takes bloody ages to get served and they don’t have any proper cider.”
“I’m meeting them in a pub in Soho. Don’t worry, you’ll get your cider.” He was still smiling. “You can even wear your Uggs.”
