The Cottage on Sunshine Beach: An utterly gorgeous feel-good romantic comedy

by Holly Martin

  He stroked down her back, not wanting to wake her but desperate to be with her again, maybe just touching her would be enough.

  She stirred slightly but she didn’t wake. That was OK, he could wait until morning, but he could kiss her now while she slept.

  He placed a gentle kiss on her shoulder and then one on the tiny freckle at the base of her neck. He moved slowly over her, surrounding her as he placed a kiss on the top of her spine.

  ‘Jamie.’

  His name was no more than a whisper on her lips. She still seemed to be asleep. Maybe dreaming of him. He grinned. Maybe he could give her amazing dreams.

  He trailed his mouth down her spine, giving gentle kisses, stroking and caressing her skin, but when he reached her tail bone, she arched her hips off the bed towards him. He glanced up. Her eyes were awake and alert, a small smile on her lips. She shifted her hips higher and that was the only invitation he needed. He grabbed a condom and was buried inside her a moment later.

  Oh god, she felt so good.

  He leaned over her, kissing her spine, he wrapped his arm around her, stroking her breasts, stroking everywhere, wanting to touch every part of her body at once. He moved his hands greedily across her soft skin. Her breath was already changing as little moans and pants fell from her lips. He started moving faster, needing more, and she arched back against him, taking it all, her pleasure getting louder. God, it was such a turn-on knowing that being with him like this could have such an effect on her. He watched her unravel, gripping the pillow as his name fell from her lips. He leaned over her fully, linking her fingers with his own as he pinned her to the bed, pushing into her deeper, harder, and as she let out a groan that was purely animalistic, he felt every emotion, every feeling for her come thundering out of him. If this was what making love was really like, there was no way he could ever walk away from it.

  19

  Melody stood in the shower letting the hot water pour over her, soothing her aching bones. They had their first puppy training class later that morning and she needed to be more awake for that.

  God, the man was insatiable. He couldn’t keep his hands off her and she loved that.

  She felt so silly to have waited, wanting the perfect moment. There had been no candles or flowers, the music had been hilariously inappropriate, she had embarrassed herself by jumping out on Aidan, stark naked, and she’d still had the most amazing night of her life.

  Klaus was right. Why would anyone want nice sex when you could have passionate, hedonistic, incredible sex? But Klaus was wrong about first-time sex. There had been no faltering, trying to get to know each other’s likes and dislikes. Maybe it was because she knew Jamie and trusted him completely, maybe it was because she loved him, but every touch of his hand, every kiss had been beyond flawless. They fitted together perfectly, two halves of one whole.

  She looked up as he walked into the bathroom, sleepily rubbing his face, his hair dishevelled, looking absolutely adorable. And gloriously, impressively naked. Evidently ready for round four.

  He opened the cubicle door and climbed inside, a big grin on his face. The shower was easily big enough for them both, though that didn’t stop Jamie from moving closer towards her.

  ‘No more sex,’ Melody said, holding out a hand to stop him. She was met with a solid wall of muscle. ‘I haven’t got the energy for any more.’

  ‘I’ve worn you out already? We’ll have to work on your stamina,’ Jamie said, his large hands spanning up her rib cage and then running his thumbs over her nipples.

  ‘My stamina is just fine, thank you,’ Melody squeaked. How could he turn her on so quickly?

  ‘We don’t have to have sex,’ Jamie said. ‘We can do other things?’

  His mouth was mere centimetres away from hers and she was having trouble concentrating on anything but what it would be like to kiss him again.

  ‘Like cuddling?’ she teased.

  His dark look of intent softened. ‘I think I’d very much like to cuddle you right now.’ He wrapped his arms around her and simply held her against him.

  She rested her head against his damp chest and sighed blissfully as he stroked his hands gently up and down her back.

  She had never felt so completely and utterly happy as she did right then.

  ‘You know what I can’t figure out?’ Melody said. ‘Why any girl would ever let you go.’

  ‘I don’t know, boredom, I guess,’ Jamie said.

  She looked up at him. ‘How could anyone get bored of being treated like this? Of being held in your arms like I’m something precious and adored. I could stand in your arms forever and never want anything more.’

  His eyes flickered with something, though she didn’t know what. Was it too soon to be talking like that? They were supposed to be taking things slowly.

  She opened her mouth to try to backpedal, but he cupped her face and kissed her softly.

  ‘I adore you Melody Rosewood, right from the top of your head down to your sparkly blue toes.’

  She smiled and leaned up and kissed him.

  ‘I wonder if any woman has regretted finishing with you. I once dated a guy who dumped me and then got upset when I didn’t beg him to reconsider.’

  Jamie laughed. ‘What an idiot. He finished with you as some kind of test?’

  ‘Yes, I guess so. I wasn’t really that bothered when he ended things with me, so I certainly wasn’t going to try to persuade him otherwise.’

  ‘I think that’s the crux of it. I suppose if it’s someone you really love, you’d fight tooth and nail for them,’ Jamie said.

  ‘Have you ever fought for someone?’ Melody asked.

  He shook his head. ‘I’m not into playing games like that. If someone finishes with me, I’m not going to humiliate myself even more by begging them to change their mind. If I argue with a girl and we finish then I don’t think there’s any coming back from that. If I loved someone, I would never let them go in the first place.’

  She looked up at him and vowed that she was never letting this man go. Something in his eyes said he felt the same way. Something unspoken passed between them, a mutual determination to make this work because it was important.

  He bent his head and kissed her.

  She let out a sigh of need as she wrapped her arms round his neck and kissed him back. One kiss led to another, his lips against hers like an addictive drug, his tongue touching hers, tasting her, enjoying her. It was so hot. He moved his arms around her, holding her tight against him. Despite her previous protests and the fact that she ached in parts she had never ached in before, she wanted him now with a sudden desperation that she had never felt with her previous boyfriends.

  She hooked one leg around his hip and reached around for the condoms she had placed on the shelf the night before. She pressed one into his greedy hands as they explored her body.

  He pulled back slightly from the kiss, tearing at the wrapper with his teeth and then sliding it on.

  ‘I thought you said no sex,’ Jamie said, lifting her. She wrapped her legs around him.

  ‘I changed my mind.’

  ‘I’m so glad,’ he said, pinning her to the wall as he slid deep inside her.

  She gasped against his lips as he shifted his hands to her hips, holding her in place as he moved against her. His kisses were relentless, his tongue searching, tasting, exploring. It was so much deeper like this, so much more intense as he moved inside her harder and faster.

  She pulled back slightly from his mouth, barely able to catch her breath, and stared into his eyes as that feeling started to build inside her.

  ‘Jamie… this is…’

  ‘I know.’

  Did he know? Did he realise how incredibly special this connection was between them? Did he understand this was way more than just great sex?

  ‘I love you,’ she whispered.

  His mouth closed over hers a split second later and she wasn’t sure he’d heard over the sound of the water or whether she’d even said th
e words out loud. She felt his movements get more urgent as he raced towards his release, his hold on her getting tighter, and she said the words again in her head, let the words dance in her heart as her orgasm thundered through her, and as he groaned against her lips she felt him tumble over the edge too.

  ‘OK, let the puppies just get to know each other. For many of them, this might be the first time socialising with other dogs,’ Felicity the dog trainer said.

  Felicity was very zen, Melody decided. Wearing a long pink flowing skirt, a pouffy flowery top and standing barefoot in the village hall, she didn’t look like she could be fazed by anything. Although her peaceful mindset didn’t fill Melody with any hope that these puppies would finish the six-week course any more disciplined than they were now. Melody had been hoping for some ex-army major to be taking the class in the hope that Rocky could learn some manners.

  ‘These dogs have never met each other before so they have to sniff each other to get to know the other dogs,’ Felicity was saying. Clearly no one had told her that three-quarters of this class had come from the same litter. Although Melody would have thought that was obvious: they were all large and black with curly hair.

  The puppies were gambolling and jumping over each other, tugging each other’s ears, chewing each other’s tails, and the hall was filled with lots of delighted yapping as Beauty and Beast’s offspring were reunited again. Rocky and Sirius were chasing each other around the room. Agatha’s puppy, Summer, who had a pink bow over the top of her head, was being humped by Luke, Isla’s puppy, who obviously wasn’t worried about a little bit of incest. Spike, Aidan and Tori’s puppy, was chewing on a ball and apparently not worried by anything going on in the room, and Emily’s puppy Leia was sleeping through the whole thing. There were two other puppies in the room that were not from that batch of reprobates, a spaniel and a chocolate lab and they were running around chasing the other dogs too, plainly having the time of their lives. This had been going on for ten minutes or more and the lesson was only supposed to be an hour long. So far, Felicity’s methods left a lot to be desired.

  ‘OK, now call your puppies back to you,’ Felicity said and Melody nearly laughed that she thought it was going to be that simple.

  The room was filled with twenty-odd voices all at once – many people had brought their whole family to the class to help learn the puppy training skills. Names were called out, people tapping the floor to get the attention of the wayward puppies, squeaking toys, whistling and the puppies paid not a bit of notice to any of it. Except Summer who seemed to be so traumatised by all the sudden noise she peed on the floor.

  Agatha scooped up Summer, hugging her to her ample chest, and placed a hanky over the pee zone, before going back to her place.

  ‘OK, maybe call your puppies one at a time,’ Felicity said, her zen slipping ever so slightly. ‘Jamie, why don’t you try calling yours?’

  Jamie chuckled, probably at Felicity’s optimism.

  ‘Sirius, Sirius Black,’ Jamie called. To his credit, Sirius actually looked over in Jamie’s direction, but then so did Rocky, Leia and the chocolate lab puppy too. Sirius wagged his tail at Jamie and then continued trying to chew on the spaniel’s ear.

  ‘Let me show you how a pro does it,’ Leo said, trying to outdo his brother again. It was a common theme between the Jackson brothers. He let out an ear-piercing whistle and every dog in the room looked over in his direction and then tore over to him in a kind of non-scary puppy stampede. Leo shrugged and somehow managed to grab Luke between all the waggy tails, scooping him up and passing him to Elliot to hold onto. ‘It worked, didn’t it?’

  One by one they all tried various methods to recall their puppies, with various degrees of success, but not one puppy returned to their owner straight away. Many of the owners had to physically stand up and go and retrieve their puppies from the other side of the room.

  ‘So that’s the first thing you need to practise at home, calling your puppy and when it comes you reward it with a treat. Start off small, just a few feet away, and see if you can get it to come to you, then slowly start increasing the distance.’

  ‘What if you can’t get it to even look at you when you’re calling its name?’ the owner of the spaniel puppy asked. This was clearly a man exhausted with his puppy already. Melody didn’t know a lot about different breeds, but she did know that if you’d never had a dog before, then starting off with a spaniel puppy was a big mistake. They were like hyperactive chimpanzees on speed.

  ‘Then your puppy doesn’t know its name. You need to teach it.’

  ‘How do I do that? Write her bloody name on a piece of paper and make her read it?’ the man said.

  Felicity just ignored this question and addressed the group again.

  ‘High value treats are the way to encourage your puppy to come to you.’

  ‘I’ve taken a piece of steak out with me on walks,’ Spaniel Man said. ‘She couldn’t give a shit.’

  ‘We’re going to play a little game,’ Felicity said loudly, obviously deciding that the best way to deal with difficult clients was to ignore them. ‘This is a game of control. You put some treats on the floor and every time your puppy goes to eat the treats, you place your hand over the top of it. The puppy will soon learn that they have to wait patiently in order to get the treats. This skill can then be applied to other areas of training too.’

  ‘This should be interesting,’ Jamie mumbled. Other families or couples started doing as they were told. Jamie poured some treats into a small pile in front of Sirius but before Jamie had a chance to put his hand over it, Sirius had snaffled it up.

  Melody laughed. ‘Why don’t we work together? I’ll pour out the treats, you hold your hand over it to stop Sirius from eating it.’

  Jamie nodded. She held onto Rocky, who was straining at his collar to eat Sirius’s treats too as she poured out a small pile on the floor. Sirius went for them straight away and this time Jamie managed to get his hand over the pile. Sirius licked Jamie’s hand, trying to get at the treats through his fingers, and when he realised he couldn’t get them he went to run off. Melody reached out to grab him, accidentally letting Rocky go in the process. Rocky bounded across the room, distracting Luke from staring at his treats, before crashing into Ted the Labrador puppy, who yelped and ran across the room, skidding in the pee that Summer had left on the floor and slamming into the fire exit door which then set off the alarm. This sent all the puppies into a tizzy and Felicity’s zen visibly slipped another notch as she flounced over to the fire alarm panel and spent several minutes trying to figure out how to turn it off.

  Melody quickly got up to retrieve Rocky, but the puppy clearly saw this as a game and went zooming across the room, bounding away every time she came anywhere near him. He spotted her bag where she’d left it in the corner and raced up to it, emptying its contents all over the floor before she could get to him and stop him. Spike obviously thought this was a great game as he came over too. To Melody’s horror, he grabbed a box of condoms and gave it a good shake, tossing condoms all over the floor in front of everyone.

  Melody felt her skin burn red as she quickly tried to gather all the condoms up, but other puppies were now attacking the condoms too, some tossing them around, some chewing on them and releasing the condoms from their foil packets. Summer got one stuck over her nose and was running around trying to get it off. Luke and the spaniel puppy, Delilah, started playing tug of war with one, stretching it to proportions Melody didn’t even think were possible. Elliot picked up one of the packets and Melody could hear him asking Isla what it was, which caused Leo to laugh hard. Melody grabbed a few and shoved them in her pockets then tried to get a few back from the dogs, but they were enjoying their new toys way too much.

  The alarm finally fell silent, but the carnage was still continuing. Melody glanced over at Jamie and saw he was laughing so much he could hardly breathe.

  ‘You could help,’ she hissed at him, though she was starting to laugh too.
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  ‘I’m having way too much fun for that; besides, why did you bring condoms to a puppy training class? Did you think we would be able to slip off for a quickie while people were teaching their dogs to sit?’

  Melody grabbed Rocky and sat down next to Jamie, giving up on the condom retrieval as other owners managed to wrestle their dogs back under control.

  ‘Agatha bought me three boxes. She had high hopes for last night.’

  Jamie laughed. ‘That woman will never cease to surprise me.’

  They looked across the room at Jamie’s aunt as she removed a condom from Summer’s nose and then quickly straightened the puppy’s bow. Melody smirked at her priorities.

  ‘OK, the next thing we are going to learn is the command “Sit”, and once we have mastered that we will extend that to a “Sit and Stay”,’ Felicity shouted above the noise, obviously thinking that the previous activities had been so successful and undeterred by the chaos that was ensuing so far.

  Melody felt a little smug at this next part. Rocky had already learned how to sit. Everyone stood up and started encouraging their dogs to sit by holding their treats up to their chests. But Rocky had realised that the fire exit door had been left open after Ted had crashed into it the first time. After speeding over to it, he shoved the door open the rest of the way with a little nudge of his paw before Melody could stop him and ran outside onto the village green. Every single puppy followed, and now there were new distractions to contend with: cars, bunting, flowers, birds, butterflies, a marmalade cat sunning itself on the grass who let out a wail and darted up a tree. Melody hurried outside after Rocky, as did the other owners, and a big game of chase started.