03:00: Saturday. Somewhere between Taunton and Exeter.
Lizzie checked the inter-connecting door between the sleeper compartments and made sure it was locked shut. She had never been on a sleeper train before. The compartment was compact and cosy, with a single bed plus a washbasin with hot and cold running water. A snug looking duvet, fresh, clean sheets and plump pillows looked inviting. Soap, towel and a small bottle of mineral water were provided, though Lizzie had packed everything she needed. Lizzie almost wished that Scott had booked a daytime ticket; she would have been able to marvel at the scenery.
She didn’t want to have to wash her hair on the train, it was too much hassle, and it took ages to dry. She opted for a ponytail to keep it neat if she managed sleep. She’d free it later and hope it would look okay. Settling beneath the light duvet, Lizzie wondered at the change in her since meeting Scott, the tumult of emotions, the unexpectedly intense highs and the depths of despair. Unprepared for the seismic activity caused by her reaction to him, everything about him enthralled her. Even if the odious Green had been telling the truth, it wouldn’t matter, she would still want Scott. Lizzie felt guilty at the hurt and worry she had caused and her bruised heart swelled with love and respect for her family. The slight rocking of the carriage as the train journeyed west seemed to comfort, together with the cocoon of the cabin, Lizzie dropped into the bliss of sleep.
Her dreams rushed her into Scott’s arms, feeling his fingers moving over her skin, brushing delicately as they explored every cell of the surface, sending tingles of ecstasy into her core. A sixth sense seemed to connect them, an affinity, her body effortlessly responding to him, sighing a little in her sleep, dreaming moisture into her molten centre as Scott made his claim, impaling her on his need. Their need, their completion, and even in sleep, Lizzie knew he was all she wanted.
06:30: Saturday. Breakfast in bed.
Lizzie took the tray from the steward who brought her breakfast, chosen the previous evening. Now, only able to manage a coffee, she left everything else to one side and concentrated on getting ready. Folding her nightclothes neatly into her bag, she left her hair tied back, and brushed her teeth, four minutes with a power brush and two kinds of toothpaste. She ran a cleansing wipe over her face before splashing with cold water. Massaging a dollop of moisturiser into her skin, ‘never too young to start’, she recalled Summer passing the cream over one birthday and had been using it ever since. Lizzie tidied the bed, and decided not to open the blind to reveal the day before she was dressed. She enjoyed ritual, and in any case, it would still be dark outside.
She pulled on blue Levis and a black, long sleeved thermal vest, she would usually brave the elements in favour of vanity, but she didn’t want to shiver. A cosy, black, high neck oversize jumper concealed the thermal, and the underwear she chose was perfect, as Scott would discover if he got that far. The thought of Scott peeling off the panties he’d bought her trickled the moisture of lust and longing into them, and Lizzie briefly touched herself through the barrier of the rough seam of her jeans.
Tucking her jeans into flat, black, knee length boots, Lizzie loosened her hair, put Vaseline on her brows, curled her lashes and slicked them with a little Vaseline too, before applying lip gloss and a spritz of perfume, she always wore the same brand. Apparently, the power of scent is an emotional trigger and an evocative aphrodisiac. ‘Well, that’s what Summer says,’ she reassured herself, put her coat and gloves on the bed and pulled up the blind.
Looking out into the waking day, Lizzie turned her thoughts once more to Scott. She would hear him out, give him a second chance. She thought of all the clichés, songs and poems about love lost, found again and false starts. She thought about the play at the theatre and Summer. She thought about her dead parents and their family, now, as strong as ever. She thought about her brother, who knew virtually nothing about recent events. Away at university; he had become a stranger over the past two years. She thought about her first love, realising it wasn’t love at all, the childish longing for the boy in the sixth form she’d dated, paled into a poor replica, insignificant alongside whatever she and Scott had discovered. Now, nothing else existed. Finally, turning her thoughts wholly to her destination, she concentrated her breathing, tried to keep calm and looked into the future.
07:35: Saturday. Hayle.
Even out of season the station busily welcomed the sleeper train from Paddington, which although not full, disgorged small groups of passengers onto the platform at Hayle; having made a number of stops during the night; final destination Penzance, a little further down the line.
‘Thank you.’ Lizzie smiled distractedly as her bag was placed on the ground beside her, eagerly scanning for Scott, hardly aware of the attendant, melting back into the train.
She didn’t hear the doors slamming, or notice the other passengers bundled in their warm clothes, greeting each other. She only had eyes for one figure, standing uncertainly at the other end of the platform. Steeling herself, Lizzie resisted the urge to run to him, and remained rooted to the spot as she watched him walk slowly in her direction.
‘Oh, my God, too slow, too slow, shall I walk towards him?’ Her mind battled as if a pair of warriors scattered her wits, but she held her nerve. And… suddenly, there he was, standing hesitantly at hurting distance; she hurled herself into his arms, at last spread open to receive her.
‘From now on, I promise that I shall make sure I’m honest with you. I feel a strong connection to you. I want you to belong to me…. Is that wrong? Please don’t say it is. I want to belong to you. I missed you so much these last weeks. I thought of you. I wanted to get in touch; I still have a million things to ask you. I want to know you. Lizzie, I want you to marry me, I want to marry you, I want us to get married, Lizzie. Please say you will. I want to hear you say, “I will”, I don’t care what sort of wedding you want. I’ll marry you wherever you want, whenever you want. Only make it soon, please say yes. Even though you are all grown up, I know how you feel about your sister and I will beg Sara and Phil for their blessing. They won’t say no, once they see how much I love you, how much I want to care for you. I have never felt this way before, Lizzie.’
He dropped to his knees and took her hands in his. Her eyes brightened with moisture before a pair of perfect pearls slowly dripped and splashed onto his face. He allowed them to trickle, and in the endless silence that followed, he moved his tongue to capture her salty taste and rolled it around in his mouth as if her tears could banish the acrid desert that had replaced the tissues of his cheeks and lips.
Chapter Nineteen
Reclining on the bed, Scott looked around the room in wonder. Was it only a few short hours ago that, unable to sleep, he paced this very space? He had left a voicemail with the agent, asking him to cancel the cleaning staff, and didn’t bother to mention his guest, nobody else’s business. Watching in awe as Lizzie unpacked her bag, solemnly hanging her clothes in the wardrobe alongside his, Scott felt his heart quicken at the brief glimpse of his shirt on a hanger next to her blouse before she closed the doors. Barefoot, she walked to the bathroom and he slyly watched her reflection setting out the creams and lotions.
‘Why does someone as young and flawless as you need all that stuff?’
‘A girl is never too young to take care of her skin,’ replied Lizzie, quoting Summer. Her cheeks flushed in reaction to his intense scrutiny.
‘Are you nearly done yet? I can’t wait much longer.’
‘We need to talk properly, Scott; we can’t just settle everything with sex.’
‘Can’t we?’ muttered Scott.
‘Pardon?’
‘Okay,’ he corrected, with a smile. ‘Come here then, just for a minute, we’ll go and get breakfast and sit in front of the fire. It’s laid and just needs a naked flame. Hmmm… naked, I like that word.’
Lizzie arrived at the bedside, looking down at him, a small smile playing, a slight tease, and the tip of her pink tongue a peek of promise between he
r lips. Without warning, he grabbed her and pulling his newly minted fiancée into his arms, kissed her, drinking as if he were a man dying of thirst. He gorged on each drop of her moisture. The life-saving kiss. The clinging tissues of their mouth-to-mouth contact resuscitating him, renewing him, and he knew that he never wanted to be without her again. His victim’s wriggles and struggles excited him, her twisty tongue had made its way into his mouth, playing with his, driving him to the edge of reason and Scott thought he would come in his pants.
He rolled her over onto her back, and half-sitting, looked down at her, he couldn’t stop staring, could hardly believe she was there. Fascinated, watching as her face turned from soft to wanton within a beat of his heart. Before he knew what hit him, she laced her hands into his hair and pulled him down onto her mouth.
‘You’re right, we do need to talk. I need to tell you things. Things that I’ve never needed to say before, stuff that’s more important than sex.’ He crushed her to him before breaking free, rolled her off, and pulled her close, resting her head in the crook of his arm, he stroked and soothed.
‘Lizzie. Listen. I’ve never felt like this about anyone before. I don’t know what you’ve done to me. It’s as if you’re the only person in the world, nobody exists but you and me, and we are the only two people left on this planet. I never want to be without you again. I mean it, Lizzie, never. I won’t lose you. This morning, I woke up at five, I thought of you, hoping you were on your way. I listened to the wind howling and the sound of the sea. Every hour with you, my mind makes plans for our future.’
‘Oh, Scott. I love you... I think I have loved you from that first day. I know I’m a lot younger than you, but I feel as if there were no distance between us. I was so hurt before, I have never felt anything as awful as that. I don’t want to feel that way again. I wouldn’t be able to bear it.’
‘We’ll marry, and I promise to love you forever. I will never give you reason to doubt my love. I will never give you reason to regret coming back to me. I will love, protect and honour you for the rest of my life until I die and I will never let you down again.’
Moving over her, covering her, taking his weight on his elbows, Scott sealed his promises with a series of kisses.
‘Come on, I’ll make breakfast. Let’s sit in front of the fire, I want to get naked with you, and fuck your brains out.’
‘What happened to romance?’
‘I never said that I wouldn’t want to fuck your brains out, Miss Fyne. I shall need to fuck you, in every one of your warm, inviting soft places. My promises, made most sincerely, my love, do not include forgoing access to your delightful body. After breakfast, I intend to show you exactly what I mean. Come on, jump up, or I’ll have to put you across my knee and spank you.’
‘More promises.’ She rolled off the bed, lightly getting to her feet and dancing out of his clutches, poked out her tongue and fled to the kitchen.
‘You’ve no place to hide, miss,’ he threatened, following, and noting the trail of discarded clothing, shed his own as quickly as possible.
His prize, the girl who had kicked the playboy into touch was half lying, half sitting on the rug in front of the fire, naked. Her skin gleamed.
‘Light the fire…’
His cocked twitched and swayed, ‘I’m permanently hard in your company, madam.’
‘Boasting or complaining?’ she giggled.
Striking a match, Scott held the flame to the paper, wood and coal in the fireplace, and blew ignition. The fire gradually took hold, flames licked and searched, not yet fierce enough to provide heat, but pretty and inviting. ‘Almost as warm and inviting as you.’
‘Show me.’
Pressing his body alongside hers, Scott stroked her face, neck and breasts. He could see her heart moving the skin a beat at a time, undulating beneath her jutting ribs.
‘You’ve lost so much weight,’ he said. ‘I’m so sorry. I’ll have to fatten you up.’
‘Later,’ she sighed. ‘We’ll have breakfast later, for now, just fuck me. I need you now. Please…’
Stunned that he didn’t suffer the usual softening when a woman begged a fuck, Scott marvelled that his cock stayed iron-hard. Moving between her legs, he kissed her, and at her moist, slick entrance, Scott nudged the tip of his cock against perfection. ‘You’re perfect, perfect.’ He sighed as she rose up to meet him.
‘Scott, Scott, I love you, oh I love you,’ she cried as he pushed home, deep, deep into her. He filled up her tight space, sheathing himself, the silken folds of her walls, rhythmically grasping him and he stared down at her in wonder as he moved in and out of her.
‘Lizzie, I don’t know what you’ve done to me.’
Sealing his words with a kiss, they moved together, slowly, so slowly, until gradually increasing pace. Somewhere in his head a beat played out, the movement of her hips told him she heard it too. ‘Lizzie… Marry me… I love you… make me the happiest man on earth.’ Their bodies melded and he dissolved into her. Sleeping, wrapped in each other’s arms, they dreamed dreams no longer haunted by the absence of the other and souls began to heal.
‘Wake up, sleepyhead.’ Scott kissed the tip of Lizzie’s nose, each eyelid and finally her mouth. Instantly open, like a little bird in the nest waiting to be fed, she took the worm of his tongue inside and sucked. Untangling himself, Scott lifted up, resting above her, palms planted at each side of her head.
‘You’ll need to phone home, let them know everything’s okay.’
‘I know, and I want to phone Summer too, she’s been worried.’
‘I’m not surprised. You look as if you might waste away.’
‘I could eat now.’ Her laughter blipped in his heart, sent signals to his nerve endings and threatened another hard-on.
He jumped up. ‘You make your calls. Use the landline in the bedroom. I’ll sort us out some food.’
In spite of the temptation to listen in, Scott dragged on his jeans and went about stoking up the fire. In the kitchen, he prepared omelette while he waited, nerves tweaking his cells. He hoped she’d be okay, her sister had turned out to be less of a challenge than expected, but they’d hate the idea of having him in the family and he couldn’t blame them. Goodness knows how he’d feel if he had a kid sister. Seeing Lizzie framed in the doorway, his heart missed a beat and seemed to fill his throat and mouth. Her solemn face petrified him.
‘Is everything okay?’ He didn’t recognise his own voice.
Although Lizzie tried hard to look glum, a sudden smile lit her up. ‘Yes,’ she said at last, her tongue making a sexy circuit of her lips. ‘They’re happy, if I’m happy, but they’ll want a proper talk when we get back.’
‘I’m so relieved. I love you so much. I hope they’ll eventually forgive me for everything that’s happened.’
‘They’ll come around,’ she said. ‘What are you making?’
‘Omelette, do you like omelette? I didn’t think to ask…’ Scott’s downcast expression triggered Lizzie’s laughter.
‘Yummy. Yes, please.’
‘I love it when you wear my clothes. Go through to the lounge, the fire’s roaring.’ He watched her retreat; the tails of his white shirt covering her roundy bum, impossibly long legs caused him to stir uncomfortably. Without pants, his cock strained against the harsh fabric of his jeans.
Side by side on the sofa, the future beckoned; hardly noticing their food, Scott’s eyes seemed glued to Lizzie. ‘After we’re married, I want to take you home, to my home in Australia, for a long, honeymoon. You decide where we live, but I want you to see my hometown before you make your choice. I can make my home anywhere, as long as you’re there. You go, we go.’
‘I can’t imagine living anywhere except London, but I haven’t travelled, hardly at all. I was hoping to go to university. Now everything is weird, strange and changed…’
Scott took their plates out to the kitchen and fetched a bottle of wine.
‘If you want to go to university, Lizzie, yo
u shall. You may prefer England, let’s wait and see. Cheers.’ They clinked glasses. ‘Tell you what, Bath is on our way back up to town, we’ll stop off, and you can have a look at the city. If you like it, and I guarantee you will, you may want to apply to Bath University. We can check to see if they offer a suitable course. Bath is a brilliant city, my work is flexible, it doesn’t matter where I’m based, and in any case, I’m on sabbatical. I’ll sort something out, and work from whatever university town you choose. Oomph! Lizzie, Christ! You’ll break my ribs.’
Lizzie’s hug spilled their wine and threatened suffocation. Ignoring the sticky mess, he took her glass from her, placed both onto the table and pulled her closer. Taking his time, reassuring her that Charlie Green’s accusations were nothing, nothing but lies driven by jealousy, envy and hate, Scott’s words were lost somewhere, amid her kisses and their damp embrace.
Chapter Twenty
If love at first sight exists, it happened twice in Lizzie’s life, the second time, at the moment she set eyes on the gown she wore. Summer, Lizzie’s sole bridesmaid, followed, her quirky looks in striking contrast to her best friend’s traditional, dark beauty. The winter wedding ice queen bore all the hallmarks of Narnia. Lizzie’s beauty shone from without and within, her dress moved in liquidity beneath a white velvet cloak with fur-lined hood. Her hair was dotted with sweet pea, matching her posy. The fragrance of the blossoms filled the small chapel.
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