Sunshine and Sweet Peas in Nightingale Square

by Heidi Swain

  ‘I don’t think . . .’ I stammered.

  ‘Good,’ Luke interrupted, shifting his body closer. ‘Because recently I’ve been doing enough of that for the both of us and tonight I want you to forget all about thinking and logic and asking questions.’

  He put our champagne flutes on the floor, then lifted my chin and softly brushed his lips with mine. My head was telling me I shouldn’t want to ‘feel’ anything other than the desire to get the hell out of there, but my heart and somewhere much further south were forcing me on. Imploring me to embrace the very real physical feelings which were determinedly pushing their way to the surface and battering the defensive dam I had built up during the last few months.

  Whether he realised it or not Luke was bringing my body back to life, even if it was going to be at the expense of his heart.

  ‘I want you, Kate,’ he murmured, running his hands down my arms, along my thighs and under the hem of my dress, ‘I want you in a way I’ve never wanted any other woman in my whole life. And not just for now and for this, but for always.’

  It felt exhilarating to be wanted and my head was swimming, snippets of conversations I’d had with Lisa and Heather about love and second chances were swirling through my brain. I gasped with pleasure as Luke purposefully and thoroughly began to explore every inch of my quivering body.

  ‘I want you too,’ I whispered back, arching towards him.

  My breath caught in my throat as in one swift movement he knelt in front of me and I wrapped my legs around his waist. His fingers fumbled with the buttons on my dress and for the briefest moment our eyes met and then my hands were in his hair and he was lowering his head, showering me with tender kisses in places I had almost forgotten existed.

  I have no recollection of how long we spent wrapped around each other but afterwards my emotions felt as tumbled as my hair. Luke’s words about falling for me, and how through me he was finally beginning to understand his father’s take on love, should have stopped me but instead they had urged me on. I had been flattered and seduced and it wasn’t all down to a pair of sexy glasses.

  Perhaps it was the champagne, or the setting and the romance of the open fire, who knows, but I had never in my wildest dreams imagined I would give myself to another man, especially so wholeheartedly, ever again. My first boyfriend back in college and David made up the brief list of men I had slept with, but neither of them had offered me even half of the pleasure I had experienced with Luke.

  I shifted a little in his embrace as I wondered uncomfortably if I had taken advantage of him and the intense feelings he believed he harboured for me.

  ‘Are you all right?’ he asked, kissing the top of my head as we lay still entwined.

  ‘Yes,’ I whispered. ‘Are you?’

  ‘Of course,’ he said, nuzzling closer, ‘although I didn’t mean for things to go quite as far as that.’

  I stiffened a little in his embrace, hoping he wasn’t regretting it already. Even though I was feeling guilty about my inability to give him my heart, that didn’t alter the fact that I had just experienced the most thrilling sex I had ever had.

  ‘Didn’t you?’ I asked.

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I had this whole thing planned out in my head, you see.’

  ‘Planned out?’ I breathed.

  ‘Yes,’ he told me. ‘I was going to woo you.’

  ‘Woo me,’ I laughed.

  ‘Don’t tease,’ he said seriously. ‘I went away before Easter to think this all through. I’ve never felt like this before, Kate and the plan I came up with was to woo you, then seduce you.’

  ‘Perhaps you’ll have to do it the other way around now,’ I said, looking at him and wondering if there was a way I could kick the fairy tale into touch. Was I capable of change or was I too set in my ways, or as Lisa put it, brainwashed? ‘Unless, now you’ve seduced me you’re thinking there’s no point in bothering with the wooing.’

  Maybe it would be easier to pretend this hadn’t happened.

  ‘This isn’t the sort of person I am, you know,’ I said quietly.

  ‘I’m well aware of that,’ Luke smiled.

  ‘I’ve never done anything as spontaneous as this in my entire life.’

  I was just about to try and backtrack to what he had said about falling for me and work out how I could let him down gently when he started tickling me and making me squirm.

  ‘Good,’ he said, eradicating all sensible and serious thought. ‘I wouldn’t like to think this—’

  ‘What?’ I gasped, ‘you wouldn’t like to think this is what?’

  ‘Did you hear that?’ he said, his seductive tone lost as he looked towards the window. ‘I think there’s someone outside.’

  ‘Oh no,’ I yelped. ‘Are you sure? It’d better not be Lisa.’

  ‘You head upstairs,’ he commanded, jumping up and gathering together my scattered clothes before thrusting them into my arms, ‘and I’ll see who it is.’

  For a second I was transfixed by the sight of his tanned and toned back and biceps, not to mention his . . . but hammering on the back door brought me back to my senses.

  ‘Hurry up,’ he urged. ‘Just go!’

  It was too late. Apparently, whoever was hammering had discovered the kitchen door was unlocked and had taken it upon themselves to just walk in. Without another word Luke and I hastily pulled on our clothes and straightened the cushions before turning on the table lamp and ridding the room of its seductive ambience in one deft flick of a switch.

  ‘Anyone home?’

  It was a man’s voice. Luke looked at me and shrugged and then crossed the room in two strides, before wrenching open the door to face the unwelcome intruder. I noticed he hadn’t had time to pull his socks on and wondered if whoever had turned up unannounced would notice.

  ‘David!’ I gasped.

  ‘Hello, Kate,’ he smiled.

  I felt the ground sway beneath my feet as a woman stepped out from the shadows behind him. She was holding the hand of a little girl who must have been no more than three or four.

  ‘Candice,’ said Luke, looking over his shoulder at me and sounding every bit as shocked.

  ‘Hello Luke,’ she said, ushering the child forward. ‘I thought you might like to spend some of the Easter holidays with your daughter this year.’

  Chapter 24

  The curly-haired little girl surged forward and Luke lifted her into his arms as she buried her head in his neck. Silence descended as we all looked at each other and I could see from the stricken expression on Luke’s face that the shock I was feeling about coming face to face with David in Prosperous Place, of all places, was not all that far removed from the utter bewilderment he was feeling.

  I stole another look at the girl he had called Candice. She was very pretty, very young and a complete contrast to my ex, who was looking what could only be described as smug. She was apparently more than a little put out to find the father of her child enjoying what must have looked like a very cosy night in with another woman. I felt a surge of fiery heat flood through my body as I imagined what they would have witnessed had they turned up just ten minutes earlier.

  Surreal didn’t even come close to describing the scene and my spirits had switched from soaring to sunk in less than a breath. This was the first time I had opened myself up and allowed myself to really feel anything, either mentally or physically, since David’s deception had ripped a ragged hole through my life, and it was definitely going to be the last. Suddenly I found myself wishing that the trio of intruders had arrived sooner, before I had taken that first drink of clothes-loosening champagne, and consequently stopped me making such a mortifying mistake.

  Of course, Luke had told me that he had lived a life his father disapproved of, but I had never for one second entertained the idea that life might have resulted in a child. What a start for the poor little mite, and tethered to a mother who obviously thought nothing of keeping her out of bed and away from home at all hours of the night. But where on
earth had they come from?

  ‘We would have been here hours ago,’ Candice huffed, answering my question as she dumped her holdall on the sofa and took another larger bag which David had carried in, ‘but there were engineering works from just outside London so Jas and I were stuck on the replacement bus service for most of the way.’

  ‘As was I,’ David joined in. He made it sound as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to be travelling to Norfolk late on a bank holiday Sunday. ‘You can imagine what a surprise it was when we started chatting and realised that not only were we headed in the same direction, but also to the same destination!’

  Candice looked at David and smiled. Trust him to seek out the prettiest passenger to strike up a conversation with.

  ‘But at least it meant we could split the taxi fare,’ said Candice, flicking her smooth curtain of dark hair over her shoulder as she unzipped the bag on the sofa.

  She may have been young, but she was very groomed and glamorous. I wondered if she was perhaps one of the models Luke used to work with. She must have been practically a teen-mum when she had her daughter.

  ‘You must let me pay my half, David,’ she insisted.

  ‘Not at all,’ David chivalrously cut in, as he puffed out his chest which, I noticed, was looking a little more paunch than pecs these days. ‘I wouldn’t dream of it. It was my pleasure to be able to help you keep little Jasmine amused.’

  I looked at the girl, Jasmine, still in Luke’s arms. She looked exhausted and try as I might I couldn’t shake off the image of David happily playing I Spy with the youngest passenger on the bus. In the past, before the arrival of his much-loved godson, he had always moaned if there were children travelling on any form of transport he was using, even if they were impeccably behaved. The irony that he was now determined to demonstrate what a model parent he could be after he had tried to lure me back to marital bliss with the promise of a baby of our own was not lost on me.

  ‘But what are you doing here, David?’ I demanded.

  I was surprised that my voice was completely unaffected by events even though my stomach was churning and I was hoping I would wake up in the morning to discover this uncomfortable end to the day had actually been nothing more than a bad dream. Hopefully my real day would have ended after the party when I had gone home to Lisa and John’s to play Monopoly along with everyone else.

  ‘Do you mean this is David, as in your husband?’ Luke asked incredulously.

  Finally he had found his voice, but he sounded nothing like the man who had been whispering sweet and seductive nothings in my ear. His eyes snapped back to my former beau and he looked him over, mentally appraising every inch.

  ‘Ex-husband,’ I quickly corrected.

  ‘Almost ex-husband,’ said David, sounding hurt.

  He stepped forward and held out his hand for Luke to shake. Which, to my annoyance and amazement, he did.

  ‘I’m here because of the missing portrait,’ David said smoothly.

  ‘Charlie told you,’ I seethed. ‘I don’t believe it.’

  ‘I don’t know why you didn’t come straight to me, Kate,’ he said shaking his head.

  The deluded fool still didn’t get it.

  ‘Or at least pass on my details to Luke here, so he could get in touch with me himself. You know I’m the best in the business, next to Charlie of course.’

  Oh, the arrogance of him; but actually, that wouldn’t have been the worst idea. If Luke had been the one to get in touch, on the pretence of a random recommendation, the connection to me wouldn’t have come up at all.

  ‘I’m more than happy to be working with Charlie,’ I told David peevishly. ‘Or I was.’

  I couldn’t believe my cigar-smoking friend had gone back on his promise. There was no way I was sending him the thank-you box of Cubans I had been poised to seek out now. Was there no one left from my former life that I could trust? I threw another glance at Luke and little Jasmine and wondered if the folk populating the new life I was trying to build for myself were any better.

  ‘Well, there’s no harm done,’ David smiled, ‘and I’ve come because I have news.’

  ‘Do you?’ asked Luke.

  I bit my lip, furious that he was interested in anything David had to say, but then I reminded myself he knew none of the darker details as to why our marriage had disintegrated, only that it had. Perhaps his reaction to my estranged other half showing up unannounced would have been very different if he knew the whole sordid story behind our separation. At least I hoped his reaction would have been different.

  ‘So why didn’t you just call?’ I snapped. ‘This is hardly the done thing, is it? Turning up unannounced on the doorstep of someone you don’t know.’

  ‘I did leave a voicemail message on your phone,’ David quickly replied, ‘and I sent a text. Did you not get them?’

  Yes, of course I had got them, but they were both sitting unread and unheard on my mobile. If only I’d checked them I could have avoided this whole farce.

  ‘And besides, I like to offer a personal service,’ he enraged me by adding.

  ‘Oh, now that is true,’ I said, raising my voice, and unfortunately making Jasmine flinch. ‘I’m going home.’

  Luke looked at me for a second and I hoped he was able to interpret at least some of the meaning behind my loaded remark. I bent to pick up the bag which held the tins of letters, but then changed my mind and stacked them on the table. I didn’t actually want them any more. I didn’t want anything to do with Prosperous Place now David had turned up and tainted it and I didn’t think I wanted anything else to do with Luke for that matter.

  We may have just shared bodily fluids, but that was as far as the relationship was going to go. Yes, he had told me he had fallen for me and yes, for one mad minute I had been flattered, but that was before I knew he was lugging around a whole heap of baggage and a child he had never seen fit to mention. Cutting all ties, ripping off the sticking plaster was the only way to go. He barely knew me really, so I cruelly assumed he wouldn’t be heartbroken for long.

  ‘Do you live nearby, Kate?’ David asked.

  The cheek of him, what business was it of his?

  ‘I was wondering if I could beg a bed for the night. Or even a sofa.’

  ‘I’m miles away,’ I said, pulling on my jacket and slipping my feet into my shoes. ‘Not that that makes any difference. I wouldn’t spend another night under the same roof as you if you paid me.’

  ‘Don’t be like that,’ he pouted. ‘I’m trying to make amends. Keep things on friendly terms, like you originally said you wanted when we were acting like grown-ups, remember?’

  ‘I do remember,’ I snapped, ‘but I’ve changed my mind.’

  ‘Kate,’ Luke began but I cut him off.

  ‘I don’t want you to be my friend, David, or make amends!’ I shouted, making for the door. ‘I don’t want you to even try. I just want you to disappear out of my life and never come back!’

  I couldn’t believe I’d lost my temper. Yet again David had managed to bring out the worst in me, and this time in front of Luke, someone I had for a moment thought I could perhaps care about in ways I thought would never be possible again. Not that any of that mattered now.

  ‘I thought you said she’d be pleased to see you,’ I heard Candice mutter as I rushed out.

  ‘Kate!’ Luke shouted, as Jasmine began to cry. ‘Come back!’

  I didn’t go back, I didn’t even look back. I rushed out into the crisp spring night air and ran all the way home.

  There were myriad messages and texts waiting for me on my mobile when I finally got around to switching it on the next morning. Some were from Luke, but the majority were from David telling me that he had spent the night at Prosperous Place and that he had no intention of going anywhere until he’d seen me again and told me what he’d managed to turn up about the painting. I cursed myself for not having the sense to have changed my mobile number.

  I didn’t for one se
cond believe that he had turned up anything. Charlie had been adamant that he had explored all avenues, unless of course he had been lying to give David a chance to wheedle his way back in to my affections. Knowing what I knew now I wouldn’t have put it past him.

  ‘Are you going out?’ Lisa asked, as we collided on the doorstep. ‘I was hoping for a coffee and a catch-up. I want to hear all about your evening’s entertainment.’

  I was in no mood for her saucy innuendos, even though I knew that she was just being her usual bubbly self.

  ‘Kate, are you all right?’

  ‘No,’ I said, reaching for my umbrella as I realised just how hard it was raining. ‘Not really.’

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘Into the city,’ I told her. ‘I have an appointment.’

  ‘On a bank holiday Monday?’ She frowned.

  ‘Yes,’ I said, biting back my tears as I bent to ostensibly check the zip on my boots. ‘I won’t be long. I’ll come over to yours when I get back.’

  ‘Let John run you,’ she said. ‘It’s pouring. You’ll get soaked.’

  I stepped around her, slamming the door and jamming the key in the lock.

  ‘I’ll be fine,’ I smiled as brightly as I could manage. ‘It’s only a shower. I’ll see you later.’

  I hadn’t got far out of the Square before John drew up alongside me in his works van. He flicked on his hazards and the bank holiday traffic immediately began honking in response.

  ‘You’d better get in,’ he called through the passenger window. ‘Otherwise I’m going to get lynched.’

  ‘I’m not going to tell you,’ I began to say as I shook out the brolly and climbed in.

  ‘And I don’t want to know,’ he interrupted as he rejoined the traffic and the horn tooting subsided. ‘Because if you tell me then I’ll be forced to tell her indoors.’

  I sniffed and nodded.

  ‘I just didn’t like to think of you catching cold, that’s all.’