Paul had never been very interested in oral sex — at least not giving it; he hadn’t had any trouble receiving — and she wasn’t used to such intimacy. Gideon didn’t seem to have any qualms. In fact, she’d swear he was enjoying himself if his eager response to her was anything to go by. She’d worried for a second that she’d pushed things too far by suggesting he might be happy there with her, but he’d seemed more than willing to have sex with her again, so who was she to complain? Perhaps he was using the sex to divert her away from talking about such icky things as feelings, but hey, that was fine by her if he continued doing what he was doing right then.
Her body was tight with arousal and she began to peak under his intensive attentions, her head spinning with joy as her body convulsed with sensations, leaving her limp and spent and totally blissed-out.
• • •
After finally dragging himself out of bed, Gideon made his leisurely way down the stairs, leaving Ellie to follow innocently behind five minutes later, so as not to give the game away to Penny and Will.
The kitchen was empty when he got there, so he set about making coffee and grabbing eggs and bacon out of the fridge. He was physically drained from their morning of sex and he was in desperate need of a slap-up breakfast.
Ellie poked her head around the door just as the coffeemaker made its final death rattle.
“All alone?” she asked, her gaze dancing around the room.
“Yup, our secret’s safe,” he said, smiling at her relieved expression. Play-acting that nothing was going on between them was frustrating, and he wished again that Penny and Will weren’t here so he and Ellie could enjoy relaxing together, having lazy sex, and talking crap. He’d never really got into hanging out with girlfriends like that on a Sunday, but the idea of doing it with Ellie appealed to him. She was such easy company.
He poured her a coffee and handed it to her, meeting her eyes as their fingers brushed. She looked so adorable when she blushed.
He set about grilling the bacon and beating the eggs, all the while aware of Ellie watching him.
He felt a pang of guilt at his less than enthusiastic response to her comment about him seeming happy. He wasn’t sure why it had made him feel so uncomfortable. Maybe because he was acutely aware that this thing between them would be over soon and he couldn’t afford to start attaching any emotions to it. It was going to be hard enough as it was to walk away.
When he finally turned to slide plates of bacon and eggs onto the table, she was sitting in one of the chairs with a far-away expression in her eyes.
“Earth to Ellie. Grub’s up,” he said, nodding at the food as he pushed the plate closer to her.
“Thanks,” she said, shaking herself out of her trance. She picked up her fork and held it above the food, sinking back into her thoughts.
“What’s going on in your head?” he asked, amused by her flakiness.
“I was just wondering what Penny sees in Will. I know he’s reasonably good looking, but he’s so bloody surly. She’s such an upbeat person. If she sticks with him, he’ll probably drain all the joy out of her. I don’t think I could stand to see it.”
Her voice had taken on a desperate edge and the fork twitched in her hand.
“You don’t need to worry anymore,” said a deep voice from the doorway, and they both twisted round to see Will standing there, a defiant expression on his face.
“I’m leaving,” he continued before either of them could respond. “Look after Penny for me,” he said, and Gideon could have sworn he saw a look of pain flash across his face, before he turned and walked away.
They sat there in stunned silence for a beat before Ellie stood up, knocking her chair away from her and throwing him a quick look of worry before hurrying out.
Gideon sat and listened to her footsteps ring out in the hall before she mounted the stairs and pounded up them at speed, off to find Penny he supposed.
He finished his breakfast while he waited for the women to appear, knowing they were all in for a tough morning. He was going to need all his strength to deal with the amount of emotion he imagined would be flying around once they came downstairs. He shuddered at the thought. Placating crying women was not his forte, although, he reminded himself, he’d done okay with Ellie only yesterday. Mind you, that had been a totally different proposition, especially as he’d had some benefit out of it, too.
His thoughts flew back to their sex-filled day, and he felt himself get hard again.
With a sinking feeling, he realized there wouldn’t be another opportunity to get Ellie back into bed now. They couldn’t leave Penny to deal with Will leaving on her own.
Sighing, he got up and cleared the plates away, stacking them in the dishwasher and washing the dirty pans in the sink, before going to find the women and offer his tea-making assistance.
• • •
Ellie stood outside Penny’s door for a minute to listen for the sound of crying. Her heart beat in double-quick time at the thought of finding her friend in who-knew-what sort of state.
She was about to knock quietly on the door when it flew open to reveal Penny, her face pale and drawn and her eyes wide with shock.
“I was coming down to find you,” she said, her voice shaking slightly, “You got what you wanted. Will has … ,” she seemed to have trouble swallowing before continuing on and Ellie was aware of a pain, deep in her chest at the sight of her friend trying to be brave.
“He’s gone,” she finally said in a rush. “The wedding’s off; he can’t go through with it.”
Tears now welled in her eyes and she blinked rapidly, trying to force them away.
“Oh Penny, I’m so sorry,” was all Ellie could think to say while her emotions raged internally: relief at her friend being free of a controlling leech warring with guilt at inciting Will to leave and make her so unhappy.
“Are you really, Ellie? Because I got the impression you were doing your damnedest to make him so uncomfortable he felt he had to leave.”
Not knowing how to answer that, she pulled Penny toward her, needing to hold her close, hoping to show her how loved, how cared for she was, but Penny resisted, holding herself stiffly away.
“Don’t,” she whispered, her voice strangled by sadness. “I don’t want you to touch me right now. If I start crying I don’t think I’ll ever stop.” She drew back and Ellie saw that her face was rigid with the effort of stopping the tears.
“Okay,” Ellie said, totally at a loss now for how to help her friend. It was for the best, she reminded herself, but after seeing Penny so distraught, she didn’t feel so confident any more.
“I need a cup of tea,” Penny said with what sounded like false confidence.
“Good idea. Let’s go down to the kitchen,” Ellie said, backing up so Penny could leave the room. They walked down the staircase in silence, Ellie in the lead, her legs slightly shaky. If she was feeling so messed up, God knew how Penny was feeling.
Gideon was standing at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at them as they descended. Ellie gave him an infinitesimal nod as they drew closer and he seemed to get what she meant because he turned and headed back to the kitchen. He was taking some mugs down from the cupboard when they walked in and he gave Penny a supportive smile.
“Hey Penny,” he said, his bright green eyes heavy with sympathy.
“Will’s gone,” Penny said to him, her voice cracking with the effort.
Gideon stopped what he was doing at the counter and came over to give her a hug.
Ellie felt a twang of jealousy to see that Penny allowed him to hold her without pulling away. Perhaps a bit of male attention was what she needed right now, she told herself to squash the discomfort.
“You want to talk about it over a cup of tea?” he asked her, pulling back to look her in the eyes.
“You read my mind,” she answered, giving him a small smile.
Gideon gestured toward a chair at the table, “Take a seat, and I’ll bring it over when it’s
ready.”
Penny did as she was told, slumping down onto one of the seats with a defeated sigh. Ellie took the seat next to her and put her hand gently over her friend’s, totally stunned when Penny moved hers away from her touch. What was going on? It wasn’t supposed to go like this.
“I’m so sorry for ruining your weekend, Gideon,” Penny said, staring down at the table as she spoke. “Will didn’t want to come, and it took me a while to persuade him. That’s why we were so late. We didn’t have other friends to meet on Friday.”
A prickle of unease began at the base of Ellie’s spine as Penny continued to give her the cold shoulder. Surely she could see getting rid of Will was for her own good? The guy had been downright rude to them all and had clearly buckled under the pressure of being questioned about his motives for being with Penny.
“I was hoping that once he met you guys, he’d see how excited you were for me to be with someone who made me happy,” Penny went on, still not looking at her. “That he’d realize you wanted me to be happy, and you trusted me to make my own decisions.”
She turned to face Ellie now and the anger in her expression sent a burning heat up Ellie’s neck to her face, while a low, dark drag of shame traveled quickly downward, making her suddenly nauseous.
“My parents were their usually sniffy selves,” Penny continued, totally unaware of the chaos of feeling that rooted Ellie to the spot, “and it really knocked his confidence when he saw how unimpressed they were with him as my choice of husband. He doesn’t know them well enough to know that no one I chose would have passed their test. I tried to tell him, but it didn’t make any difference.”
“What was it they didn’t like about him?” Gideon asked gently, bringing three cups of tea over to the table and sitting down opposite them.
“The fact he doesn’t have any money. They clearly can’t understand why someone as gorgeous as Will would want to be with someone as plain and boring as me.”
“Don’t say that … ,” Ellie began, but Penny ignored her.
“They were angry we were planning to go to America to get married quickly. I think they’d expected to put on some great show to impress their friends once someone was finally fool enough to take me on. Or maybe just to prove they hadn’t totally failed with me after all.”
“I can see why they’d be suspicious, Penny,” Ellie said trying to keep the nervous shake out of her voice. “Why did you agree to go to the States to get married so soon anyway? I thought you’d always wanted a big, grand wedding.”
“I’m pregnant,” Penny said, and Ellie felt as if all the air had been sucked out of the room and the ceiling was pressing in on her.
“What?” She could barely speak for the sudden constricting pain in her throat.
“It was an accident,” Penny said, her face pale with tension. “When we found out, we hadn’t been seeing each other long and I think Will only asked me to marry him out of a sense of duty. It was important to me that my child would have security and two parents to care about him. I guess I jumped at the proposal, imagining it was real for the sake of my sanity, when I should have given the whole thing more thought and time. I was scared. I couldn’t stand the thought of bringing up a child on my own and there was no way in hell I was getting rid of him.” Her expression now reflected the depth of her misery and Ellie thought she’d never felt so wretched in her entire life.
“I would probably have done exactly the same thing, Pen,” she said, desperately trying to hide how affected she was by it all.
“I do love him though,” Penny said and she dropped her gaze and stared at the floor while Ellie sat there like a lump of stone, feeling like the worst friend in the entire world.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she asked, but she knew why.
Penny looked at her sadly. “I didn’t want to burden you with it. You were going through so much crap after Paul left, I didn’t feel like I could ask you to take on any more problems.”
“Pen, you should have come to me. To hell with my pathetic wallowing, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
Penny sighed. “It’s okay, Ellie, I don’t even know what I would have said to you to be honest. I never thought for a second anything would actually develop with Will. I hoped … but he never seemed that interested in a relationship. When we finally got together I was thrilled, then I found out about the extent of his money problems and I felt — I dunno … worried that I was being used. He promised me that wasn’t the case and I believed him. He proved it to me. Every second we were together. I know he loves me.”
She took a deep shuddering breath and a quick sip of her tea. “I’m sorry I was so evasive about coming out to meet you alone. It was at a really tricky time with Will, and I didn’t feel I could leave him on his own. He became so depressed about his debt situation, I was terrified he’d do something stupid while I was out. I couldn’t break his confidence by telling you that. He would have been so humiliated. He’s never felt as though he deserves to be happy, you see.”
Ellie put her hand on her friend’s arm and looked her directly in the eyes, despite the sudden urge to run and hide. “Oh God, Penny, I’m so sorry. I’ve been such a selfish cow. I sincerely believed I was doing this to help you out, but I think I’ve been so screwed up for so long, things got a bit … muddled. I was jealous of you. I wanted to be the one getting married. At least I thought I did at the time. I was so terrified I’d never find anyone to love me again and I took it out on you.”
As Ellie said the words, she knew they were absolutely true. She’d been lying to herself all this time and look what had happened — she’d been instrumental in ruining her friend’s happiness. She was so ashamed of herself.
Penny shook her head and blew out a deep sigh. “It wasn’t your fault. I think this would have happened even if we hadn’t come here. He’s been acting strangely for days, kind of withdrawn and angry and it all came to a head last night.”
“Still, I shouldn’t have provoked him like that,” Ellie said.
“It doesn’t matter now, anyway. He’s gone and he’s not coming back.”
“Oh, Pen, are you sure? Maybe he just needs a bit of space to think.”
“No, I’m sure,” she whispered, the devastation on her face making Ellie’s chest tighten painfully. “Gideon,” she said, turning to him now, “I know this is a lot to ask, but can you take me back to Bristol? Will took our hire-car, and I don’t know if I could manage a train journey home without breaking down in front of a carriage full of people.”
Ellie’s heart dropped to her knees as the consequences of Penny’s request hit home. This was it then, the end of the weekend. It had come about much too soon for her liking, but maybe she deserved to be deprived of the rest of her fling with Gideon after the way she’d acted. She looked up at him and saw a flash of something she couldn’t read pass over his face for a second — but only a second — before he nodded and smiled at Penny.
“Of course I will, if that’s what you want. Are you sure you don’t want to relax here for the rest of the day? We can look after you.” His gaze skimmed to Ellie’s, perhaps asking for her to wade in and help her persuade Penny to stay, but before Ellie had a chance to interject, Penny spoke again.
“That’s so kind,” she smiled at him, her eyes watery with tears, “but I just want to go home.” Her voice broke on the last word and Ellie found herself welling up in empathy.
“I’ll ring Gareth and Ali and tell them not to come,” Gideon said, putting a gentle hand on her arm. “We can catch up with them another time,” he concluded when he clocked the look of embarrassment on Penny’s face.
• • •
Gideon found Ellie straightening out her bedroom ten minutes later. She glanced up as he came in and gave him a sheepish frown.
“I’ve let Gareth and Ali know what’s happened,” he said, watching her turn and sit on the bed, before looking up at him.
“You didn’t tell them it was my fault, did you?” she
asked anxiously.
“I said Penny and Will were having problems and not to bother coming up.” He moved further into the room and sat on the bed next to her, keeping enough room between them so they didn’t touch each other. Getting sexually worked up right now would definitely not help the situation.
“Oh God, Gideon, what have I done?” she asked, her voice breaking.
He’d known she’d react like this as soon as Penny told them she was pregnant, and instinctively he lifted his hand to push a lock of hair away from her face before withdrawing it again. Not a good idea, based on recent events.
“It doesn’t sound like any of this is down to you. From what she said, they’ve been having issues for a while.”
“But my stupid, thoughtless comments were the last straw,” she whispered and his heart went out to her.
“You don’t know that,” he said, shaking his head, desperate to reassure her now. He hated to see her so down again after she’d begun to pick herself up. “You were worried about your friend, and let’s face it, if everything had been rock solid between them, even your pathetic attempts at shaming him into admitting to his villainous ways wouldn’t have had any effect.”
She gave him a weak smile at his joke and his worry lifted a little.
“Give yourself a break, Ellie, and concentrate on being a solid friend for Penny, okay? She needs you to be one hundred percent upbeat for her.”
Ellie nodded confidently now. “You’re right. Yes. I need to look after her now.”
“Good.” He slapped his hands onto his knees, suddenly awkward with the emotional intensity of the conversation. This was exactly the type of thing he usually kept well away from, but he was actually pleased he’d been here this time to help smooth things over. “I’ll go and load the car. See you downstairs in a minute.”
“Okay,” she said, nodding again.
He turned back to her and searched for something else to say, to try to successfully close what they’d started here, but not a single thing came to him. Instead he gave her a curt nod and walked away, a strange feeling of disappointment twisting in his gut.
Her New Worst Enemy Page 11