by Lovell, Dani
"Sweet, I didn't know you were in town, dude, you didn't call?"
"We only just got here, I haven't been out yet. I'm just taking this beautiful lady to lunch; Matt, this is Tilly," he says as he wraps his arm around me, pulling me into his side. I can't help but smile shyly at his introduction.
"Sweet... jampiece," he says, nodding at Luke with a downward smile, in approval. What the hell is jampiece? "Hey Tilly, great to meet you."
"You too," I say with a smile, shaking his hand.
"Anyway, enjoy Sundeck, good day for it. Text me or whatever, there's sick fresh powder out, we'll shred the gnar."
"Not today, bro, but yeah, we'll do it."
"Cool, here, hop in..." Matt says, guiding us to the front of the queue and gesturing towards a bright red gondola, "this one's done," he says to the other guy controlling the queue, kindly letting us ride up alone. He smacks the side of the gondola with his hand and gives Luke a thumbs up as the gondola moves towards the exit.
"Sweet," Luke says and returns the thumbs up as our doors close, and we start our ascent.
"I have no idea what you two were just talking about," I say as I sit back in the seat while Luke takes an iPod from his pocket and places it in the allocated slot in the gondola. "Wow, a docking station?"
"Yep, as this is your first time up here, I thought you could use a little light background music," he says as he finishes fiddling and sits back, putting an arm around my shoulders. He rests his feet up on the bench opposite and crosses his ankles, smiling confidently.
Just as I begin to frown in question, a very familiar song starts to play; Winter Wonderland by Ray Charles.
"Oh! I love Christmas music!" I cry enthusiastically. How perfect, listening to a real Christmas classic whilst journeying up a beautiful snowy mountain with the most fun and thoughtful man I think I've ever been with.
"Well, good; so do I."
I look out at the incredible view; pure white slopes, pine trees topped with powdery snow, skiers gliding elegantly down to the base, and to make everything even more perfect, the sky is the most perfect blue, the sun beaming.
"Luke, I love this, I didn't think I'd see any of this as I'm not skiing. Thank you."
"Don't thank me, Princess, I want to be here, too," he says as he sits up to join me, looking out through the glass. He tugs my scarf down and kisses my neck, wrapping his arms around me from behind, before resting his chin on my shoulder, gazing out at the spectacular view.
A snowboarder on the slope below takes an impressive tumble - almost burying himself in the snow, making Luke chuckle, "Whoa, that kid blasted a dookie!" he says in amusement.
I turn to look at his face, laughing, "What the hell does that mean? I am definitely new to this slope lingo."
He shows off his dimples as he replies, "That just means he fell real hard."
"Okay, and what about jampiece?"
He laughs out loud and kisses my cheek, "A jampiece, my hot, sweet, baby girl - is what you are. You are a total jampiece."
"And by definition?"
"By definition; something that is excessively cool, beautiful and/or fun. You are all of those things, but Matt was referring to your beauty."
"Ah..." I say with a smirk, raising my eyebrow and nodding, "so I'm a jampiece... I like this."
"I like this, too," he responds, "a whole lot." He kisses my neck again, but this time, he doesn't stop. His lips softly caressing my skin, his tongue gently stroking with each small touch. My eyes close and I smile, listening to the jolly Christmas music, feeling totally relaxed in the company of the man that I'm falling for, more and more with each hour that passes.
Even when we were apart, I felt more for him every day. That feeling of wanting something so much, knowing it won't happen, just like Bea went through. And it's not just him I've been wanting, I've been wanting the father for my child, I've been wanting the domesticity of a normal family. Jesus, if I could go back six months and hear myself now, I'd think I was having some sort of hallucinogenic episode. Who the fuck am I, and where has fun-loving Tilly gone?
"I think you should suck my big dick," Luke says with a smile against my neck, making me remember that a little bit of 'fun-loving' Tilly is still in there. I laugh loudly and bring my hand up to the back of his neck as he continues to kiss me. I press his head into me, loving his closeness.
"I would love to suck on your big dick, bad-boy, but as our little pod is almost entirely made of glass, and we pass another every few moments - just a few metres away, I think we'd get caught."
"Would that be so bad? I really want you."
I giggle again, "Really? So if I sank to my knees right now and took you out of your trousers, you wouldn't bat an eyelid?"
He pauses, breathing against my neck for a moment as he weighs it up. "Okay, okay. Not here. But later, I want to do something naughty." He proceeds to run the tip of his tongue from the base of my neck up to my jaw, and I shiver with excitement.
"Mmm, yes please. Naughty is definitely on my 'to-do list', today."
The song ends and another fun song starts to play; Mariah Carey, 'All I want for Christmas'. Such a classic and I can't help but wriggle, dancing along.
"I like this," Luke says, nodding at me, "but I'd rather you did it..." he pauses as he pulls me up onto his lap sideways, "on my lap. Don't stop - wiggle."
I grab his face in my hands and smile as I lean in to kiss his beautiful lips. I close my eyes and linger, totally absorbed by the moment, by his fun naughtiness, by his supreme masculinity, by his attraction to little old me.
"All I want for Christmas is you," he whispers, as he breaks away, looking directly into my eyes. He's not laughing or joking about; he means it."
"Well, you've got it. We're in stunning Aspen for two weeks of festivities, it's going to be such a fun holiday." I say, not even thinking about what'll happen once I break the news.
"Can I ask you a question, baby?" he says, his head tipped to the side, holding my gloved hand in his.
"Of course you can, lover-boy."
"You never really told me why you like bad boys..."
I sigh, silently, and look down at our hands. Snuggling into his chest, I get comfy before I let the truth about the past flow. I know I needn't be honest about it, but I feel there's no reason to withhold the truth, no reason why Luke shouldn't know a bit more about me. Okay, we're still only temporary fuck-buddies, but he's also Wriggler's dad, and if he wants to have anything to do with the baby, I think he should know as much about me, as he wants to. "Well, it starts with Scott. My last real boyfriend."
"He was a bad-boy?"
"No, anything but. He was as good as they get; loving, attentive, completely besotted by me. Or so I thought at the time."
"Go on," he prompts, removing his gloves and then mine. He wraps one arm around me, and threads the fingers of his other hand through mine, comfortingly.
"Well, our relationship was lovely; he always put me first, we never argued, we were like a very happily married couple, I suppose. A little old before our time, but blissfully content. Then, one day, when he was at work, some girl came to the door and told me that he'd been fucking her for two years."
"Holy shit..."
"Naturally, I didn't believe her; my wonderful, attentive boyfriend would never do that to me, she must have got the wrong house, or whatever - but then she started talking about Scott. That's when I knew it was true, the things he said to me, he was saying to her. She was very sweet and compassionate, so I asked her to come inside so we could talk more. She stayed for a good couple of hours. Apparently they weren't too serious, but she found out he was sleeping with someone else, followed him home one night and found out about me, too."
"Wow, Til, I'm sorry you had to go through that bullshit."
"It's okay, it was crap at the time, but it lead to a really fun stage of my life. Had he not done that, I might never have known who I really am."
"But that still doesn't explain the bad-boy thing
..."
"No, well, after what happened with my good-boy, I found myself going for bad-boys, wanting nothing more than a quick fling because that way, I knew where I stood. I was in control and nobody could hurt me because I expected bad behaviour. Nothing shocked me and no one ever managed to get inside my head to take over my feelings and emotions. I also had so much fun with these types of guys, they liked that I wasn't pressuring them for more and we had a great laugh together. I learnt a lot..." I wink at him, cheekily, "and really enjoyed my life that way."
"Enjoyed? So you're not enjoying it anymore?" Oh, crap, here we go.
"Like I said before, Lukey..." I smile coyly at him and fiddle with his fingers, "you got to me a bit, you were the first person to tweak at my emotional frigidity, I started feeling things for you that I hadn't known since way back in the early 'Scott' days. That's when we got weird. I'm used to naughty sex in limos with fuck buddies, not romantic trips up snowy mountains with Christmas music and hand holding."
He looks at me with a smile and a cheeky twinkle in his eye. "But you love it, don't you? Admit it, you want this until you're old and decrepit, you want the sexy motherfucker from LA as your husband. Come on... you know you want to come clean."
I laugh out loud, I love how he turns anything remotely serious or uncomfortable into a laugh fest. "Luke, my darling man, I want all that shit, just about as much as you do. Alright?"
He nods slowly, smiling, "Aight, I can deal with that answer. Seriously though, Til, it's great to know a bit more about your past, why you're who you are. And personally, as much as I don't want to think of you hurt, I think Scott did the best thing for you. I think this Tilly is awesome."
"Thanks, lover-boy, I know that's your way of telling me you're totally head over heels in love with me." I giggle and accept the smiling, soft kiss he plants on my lips.
"What happened to the other girl?" he asks as he slowly pulls away.
"Laura's a great friend of ours now. She is blissfully happy with our other friend, Jamie. They make a gorgeous couple; she actually thanks Scott for bringing us together, if he hadn't shagged us both, she'd never have met me, the girls or Jamie."
"Wow, it's cool you could be friends after all that."
"Yeah, it wasn't her fault. She had no idea either. So, now that I've told you that, one of these days you're going to tell me about the girl who you kept it in your trousers... pants for."
He looks down with a shy smile and shrugs. Wow, he really doesn't want to talk about her, I wonder what makes her so special? Makes me a bit jealous actually. "Don't worry, not now. But one day you'll tell me." He smiles, the relief evident, but something in his eyes tells me he wants to talk about it. I hope he wasn't terribly hurt, I couldn't bear to think of this gorgeous, gentle giant in a place of darkness and grey. Shit, Til, you need to stop falling in love with him; you're a fucking idiot. Maybe I just think I love him because I have his beautiful little baby inside me... Oh shut up.
"Okay then, how about you answer me this: when 'working' with your lady clients, have you ever had a husband catch you... at it?"
He laughs heartily and squeezes me tightly. I feel so comfortable tucked in his arms in this private space, the beautiful view passing us by, his fucking sexy face smiling at me like that; it makes me want to snog the hell out of him, take him back to England and make him my bitch. "Sure, I've been caught a few times."
"Oh my god, really? What happened?"
"Well, it hasn't happened a whole lot, but a couple times, the guys turned a blind eye - they married hot young chicks and knew they were having fun on the side, just grateful to have them on their arm for events. That's why they hired me to do the... um... 'training' - keep 'em happy. They'd hire the guys they thought their wives wanted to play with."
"And of course they all want to play with sexy Luke Summers, who wouldn't?"
"Well, naturally..." he says with a jovial smirk.
"And any others who weren't so happy about it?"
"Yeah, one guy tried to beat the shit out of me while I was literally in his wife; broke his hand, I took him to the emergency room and we agreed to end the contract and never tell a soul that he broke his hand punching some guy in the bicep."
I laugh out loud as he continues. "And then one guy - who's into some serious shit that I don't even want to know about - got some of his 'colleagues' to pay me a visit. That was the worst time, I got fucked up real bad, I was in the hospital for a while."
My heart hurts suddenly, a chill spreads across my skin and I immediately want to wrap my arms around his neck and hold him to me. The thought of him getting pulverised by a bunch of Neanderthals is enough to make my stomach churn. I feel immediately sick. Holy fuck, I have never felt this protective over anyone before. Well, apart from Jack and Wriggler, but this is a man; a grown man for shit's sake! "Oh my god, Luke, were you okay? How long ago was this?"
"About a year and a half, yeah, I was fine. Just a few broken ribs and shit like that. They tried to fuck up my face, but if nature wants something perfect, you just can't mess with it."
His attempt at playing this down isn't working. "What happened to your face?
"Not a lot; broke my nose, fractured a cheek bone and eye socket... not enough to flaw perfection," he says with a wink, but I'm mortified.
"I can't believe I didn't know about this, you never mention it..." I gently run the tip of my finger down the bridge of his perfect nose, it's hard to believe it has been broken. I look at both sides of his face wondering which was the damaged side, and he silently, nonchalantly, points to his left side.
I cup his cheek bone in the palm of my small hand and lean forward to lay a soft kiss just underneath his eye. His eyes close and I have to fight back the tears that are desperately trying to force through. I'm not a crier - yeah, okay, since I got pregnant I have cried all the time - but in general, especially around men - I do not cry.
My mouth twitches downwards at the sides and I blink repeatedly, wishing I could control this. I continue to lay gentle kisses all around his eye socket, I can't stop thinking about the bones underneath his beautiful skin, broken and cracked, he must have been in such terrible pain. A tear rolls down my cheek and I close my eyes, pressing my forehead against his. He wraps a hand around the back of my neck and whispers to me, "Tilly, I was fucking someone's wife. I deserved it. I knew she was married, I just assumed their arrangement was like the others. Don't be sad."
I snap my head back and wipe my cheeks with my hand. "I know, you're totally, right, I don't know what's frigging wrong with me, I don't do crying. Ignore me."
"No, no, don't do that. Come back and kiss my face again, don't be embarrassed. You care about me, that's all. If you told me something had happened to you, I'd probably want to go shoot the fucker." I smile, grateful for his understanding and for trying to ease my discomfort. "Please? I was enjoying your lips on me, I don't 'do' intimacy, so this feels... good."
Oh so honest. And so incredibly open with me, so vulnerable for such a big, strong, confident man. "Me neither, I haven't been like that with anyone since... well, anyway, I forgot that it's actually quite nice."
I kiss his face again, closing my eyes and really absorbing the affection we're sharing. I hadn't even noticed that the Christmas music has changed to a slower, quieter number... how convenient of it. It seems like we've been in the gondola forever, but it must have only been about fifteen minutes. I wish we could stay in here - in our bubble, all day long.
A few more minutes pass, Luke's hands cradling my face as I lay more and more kisses over his precious, damaged bones. It feels, almost, like kissing him like this will heal him - my affection, my love for him will fuse his broken face. He looks so perfect, how can he possibly have been beaten so badly and have no marks on the outside? Someone up there wants this man to stay beautiful. For me? No, you imbecile, not for you, for every 'twenty something' female with a pulse that takes his fancy.
"We're nearly at the station," he whispers, hol
ding my face, guiding my lips from his cheek to his mouth. My eyes remain closed, and I softly caress his lips, moving slowly, caring for him so much. He introduces his tongue ever so lightly, brushing my lip, deepening the connection and I welcome it, readily.
A barely-audible, masculine groan sends a warm tingle to my groin, his hands gently gripping my face; he's enjoying this as much as I am. He wants me too. We pick up the pace, our hands caressing each other's faces, our lips entwined. Good god, I can't get enough, I wish I could hold him close, twenty-four-seven.
We pass through the last mechanism and the gondola jolts, interrupting our increasingly-heated moment. "We're getting out here, Princess," he says against my lips, and I open my eyes to find his burning into me, needy and raw. Maybe he could fall for me, too, after all? "We'll pick up where we left off later, on the way down." He winks at me with a cheeky grin, flashing his sexy dimples, and I'm reminded that this isn't all lovey dovey romantic mush, we're having so much fun, too, just like LA.
I was so worried about this trip, in fact I was very close to cancelling, but thank god I didn't. Although I haven't done the 'deed' yet, I am so grateful for the time that I have had, and to experience the usual fun with this added, unexpected intimate romance, has totally made my Christmas.
Our pod slides into the station and the doors open as it slows. Luke takes his iPod and stands, taking my hand to help me out. "Enjoyable journey, ma'am?"
I giggle, "Quite satisfactory, thank you."
"Satisfactory? That won't do, I'll have to work harder on the way down. Maybe you'd prefer some cock."
Again, I burst out laughing, not expecting it. "Only if it's yours," I say with a grin, "but on a serious note, that was lovely, Luke, I really enjoyed the journey up here. I'll always remember that about this trip."
"I hope you remember more than just that. I can recall a pretty memorable kitchen encounter that shouldn't go amiss. Oh, and a balcony encounter... a backyard encounter..."
"Yes, yes, I get the message. I will remember all of the steamy moments, too."
'Great, and we still have a whole lot of time to create more of them. If you'd let me, I'd rip your clothes off and fuck you right here," he says with a cocky smile, and I can't help but get excited.