‘Can you get your hair done for that?’ Daniel asked.
‘Er, no.’
‘Your nails?’
‘No.’ Holly laughed at the very notion. He really didn’t have a clue.
‘I’m trying to be thoughtful,’ Daniel chided her mirth. ‘Could you maybe get a nail polish?’
‘Indeed I could.’ Holly beamed. ‘I could get two, in fact.’
‘Well, then, you can do your nails on me.’
‘Thank you.’
‘Keep looking.’
‘There’s nothing else...’ Holly said, and then her voice trailed off when her fingers found something shiny and silver and she went to hand his wallet back to him. ‘You didn’t empty it out properly.’
‘I did.’
‘No.’ Holly shook her head. ‘You didn’t.’ She took out a condom. ‘You’re such a slut, Daniel. You forgot to take this out.’
‘No, Holly, I didn’t.’
Her cheeks were on fire as he continued to speak.
‘One night, just for you...’
‘That’s such a generous present,’ Holly said. ‘So selfless.’
‘I know. I can be nice like that at times.’
‘I mean, you’d have sex with me just because it’s my birthday...’
‘Not just sex,’ Daniel said. ‘This would be just-for-Holly sex.’
‘So you won’t enjoy it?’
‘That’s not you for you to concern yourself with. Your wish, or rather your birthday wish, would be my command.’
‘Just some fun?’ Holly checked.
‘Exactly!’
‘I don’t think so.’ She shook her head. ‘I thought you said that even if I was naked and dancing...’
‘I meant it when I said it.’ Daniel broke in. ‘But that got me thinking about just that...’
‘No.’
‘Well, the offer is there, just tear the edge off that little wrapper and I’ll appear!’
He got into bed.
And she put on tartan pyjama bottoms and a little top that were fine for home but not exactly Daniel Chandler worthy and climbed into bed beside him.
She lay on her back more than a little miffed by his gift offer but also intrigued at the concept of her wish being his command. ‘You could be skiing down a mountain one minute and then diving head-first between my legs the next...’
‘I’m not a genie, Holly.’ He pulled her into his lovely, warm body. ‘The gift offer expires at seven a.m. Then it’s Christmas.’
‘Why would you rot things up now?’ she asked. ‘It’s taken three weeks to be talking and it would take us straight back to awkward again.’
‘But it wouldn’t,’ Daniel said. ‘I’d just be showing you how to loosen up. You say tomato...’
Holly frowned. ‘I don’t get it.’
‘You call it making love, whereas I...’
‘I don’t call it making love.’
‘You think of it as such.’
‘Not really,’ Holly said. ‘Maybe a bit.’
He was right.
Oh, she wished Daniel wasn’t. That she could just take out her heart and leave it on charge overnight, just as she had done with her phone. Yes, she wished she could say, Go for it Daniel, have wicked sex with me all night and I shan’t hurt when you leave me in the morning.
But she didn’t work like that.
‘The offer’s there.’
‘Noted.’
Because he clearly had no conscience, Daniel was soon asleep, whereas Holly lay there, listening to the sound of rain against the window and his heavy breathing.
His leg came over hers, but he wasn’t making a move, it was just that he was tall and the bed was small.
And once she felt him harden and Holly lay there all nervous and tense and awaiting his pounce.
He didn’t.
It was already the best birthday she had ever had!
CHAPTER TWELVE
Christmas morning
IT WAS COLD.
Not just cold, it was freezing.
So freezing that in sleep in they had rolled into the dint in the bed and wrapped themselves around each other, and for Daniel, who didn’t really do the wrapped around you type of thing, or rather didn’t usually, he woke for the second time with her in his arms and facing away from him.
She had on a little strappy top and pyjama bottoms yet his hand had found its way to her stomach and he went to remove it. His intent was to roll on his back so she didn’t feel him hard against her, but then his hand chose to linger and then she stirred and it was a little too late for that.
Actually, it wasn’t.
He could still roll onto his back now and then roll out of bed.
They could be up and packed and out of here and heading for her home.
Or he could kiss her shoulder as he had wanted to that morning all those weeks ago.
His hand was lightly stroking her stomach and he could feel that she was trying to keep her breathing even.
So too was he.
‘Happy birthday, Holly.’
‘Thank you.’
He was breathing through his nostrils in that delicious turned-on, decision-making way. Resisting and yet wanting.
She looked at the clock and saw it was just before seven.
And then everything went black because she closed her eyes to the feel of his mouth and the deep kiss that met her shoulder.
It was a slow, sensual kiss and his tongue was warm on her cold, bare skin and his hand slipped up her top and found her breast.
He toyed with her nipple and then rubbed her breast with his palm and his mouth moved up her neck to her ear so she could both hear and feel his ragged breathing.
Holly pressed her bottom back into him, just because she wanted more of the feel of him hard and turned on.
And Daniel too needed more because he slid the top up over her head, discarded it and then went back to her neck. He loved the feel of her now naked back against his chest.
Now his hand slid down further down and he listened to the throaty moans she made as he stroked her clitoris and delivered little volts of pleasure that had her thighs grip his hand.
And it was all about her yet he stopped just long enough that they both kicked off their bottoms halves. His free hand moved under her torso so he could play with her other breast.
He moved his hand down, sliding his fingers inside her. She could feel him nudging between her thighs, wet, warm and hard.
‘Oh, God,’ he said, but just quietly and not to her, and for a moment she wondered why. Then she understood, for he knew, even before Holly did, that she was about to come.
It was so intense that she brought her knees up.
* * *
There, the sensible part of him warned as she came to his hand. Leave it there. Feel that bliss on your fingers and then smile and say Happy Birthday.
It wasn’t enough, though.
For either of them.
Her lovely birthday ‘gift’ hadn’t left her sated, it had just made her hungry for more. She turned in his arms and they found each other’s mouths briefly before he moved down to kiss her breasts, one by delicious one, tasting them for the first time.
Oh, that mouth, Holly thought as her fingers tangled in his hair. She wished he had two of them so he could keep kissing her breasts while also taking her mouth. His head followed the upward guide of her hand and their mouths met again in a kiss unplanned. Deep, slow and sensual, their tongues mingled and then their mouths parted in private focus as he entered her.
She moaned at the bliss of the slow long strokes that had her wrap one leg around him as they moved together.
They were kissing intensely, stop
ping only to stare into each other’s eyes before kissing again. It was so real, so raw.
Daniel got up on his forearms just to watch her and she pressed her palms into his chest.
The tight, slick grip of her had Daniel revelling in the sensations and then the demand of his pace increased.
The shift in him started to tip her. Even when he had taken her standing, fast and rough, he had been in measured control.
But now neither had hold of themselves, they were lost in each other. His hand came over her mouth and the sound of her affirmations were silenced. He felt the stretch of her smile on his palm as she realised the noises she’d been making. Daniel would usually have revelled in that but there was something about the simple sound of them, slick and in tune, intensely moving together that enraptured him. He forgot to smile, or to do anything other than focus hard...on her.
His breathing was ragged and hard in her ear as he pulled her deeper into oblivion.
Holly dug her fingers into taut buttocks and the fire low in his spine shot forward.
Her reward for silence? The deep moan of his release.
Heat met perfect heat and though she gripped and tightened and drew him in, as he shot into her, she also unfurled, for she opened herself up to him.
Those last thrusts were exquisite, those deep kisses, while still dizzy, were the most intense expression she had ever known. They coiled with each other, caressed each other, and their lips did not know how to part.
Until they did...
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
THEY LAY AFTERWARDS, both a little stunned by what had taken place.
She had never known just how beautiful sex could be and Daniel had done all he could not to find out.
The only sound now was the rain and they lay on their backs, idly holding hands as their breathing slowed down, and Holly knew, with absolute clarity, the moment he regretted it.
His hand let go of hers and raked through his hair. The sound then was one of tense silence.
‘We didn’t—’ he started.
‘I was there, Daniel,’ Holly interrupted. She didn’t need to be told that they hadn’t used a condom.
He nodded, only it wasn’t contraception that was troubling him, it was the closeness, the absolute abandon that he had never felt with another.
He couldn’t pretend that they hadn’t just crossed the line.
And neither could Holly.
Had he tied a red ribbon around it last night and shouted Surprise! well, maybe she could have chalked it down to experience, albeit a new one.
This, though, felt like she had just handed over her soul, only for it to be promptly handed back.
‘Are you on the Pill?’
There were many ways this question could be asked, Holly thought. A necessary way, like a doctor. The hopeful way of a lover wanting to pounce.
Or the Daniel way—please, God, tell me you are.
She didn’t answer and he got up and sat on the edge of the bed, reaching for his jeans.
‘Yes, I’m on the Pill,’ she finally said, just to put him out of his obvious misery.
Daniel nodded but said nothing.
And she stopped trying.
It was quite a feat for Holly, but she just stopped trying to pretend that this was okay and didn’t even bother to wish him a happy Christmas, she just pulled on her pyjamas and headed out to get ready.
Daniel pulled on his jeans, loathing his own silence.
And just like the last time there were repercussions.
Big ones.
He was staring down the barrel of a future but he couldn’t get a clear shot for all the obstacles that were in the way.
Hell, he couldn’t even promise to be there for his sister when she needed him to stay.
‘I’m ready.’
Holly stood at the door, but of course it wasn’t that easy. They’d made quite a mess last night. He threw the remnants of their picnic in the bin and she packed up a few things.
And they were done.
‘Do you want this?’ He held up the bottle of Scotch and she took it in almost a snatch.
And whereas they should have been lingering in bed and then heading down for breakfast, instead they were signing the guest register to Mrs Barrett’s disapproving eyes when Holly had to put down the bottle to pick up the pen!
They drove in strained silence on a now clear motorway.
Holly’s earrings had stopped flashing and, from his reaction to the morning’s events, all hope for them was gone.
‘It’s left here,’ Holly said, even though his phone told them to take a right. ‘It’s just a bit quicker.’
The village looked gorgeous and they passed a pretty old pub and she already missed the lazy weekend afternoons the mythical ‘us’ could have spent there.
Had the closeness between them not completely gone.
Had he had the guts to follow his heart.
‘Do you want to come in for breakfast?’ Holly offered, even though she knew the answer.
‘No.’
‘Why?’ Holly asked, because she needed to hear it.
Daniel stared out at the sleety street and there were times when you really did have to be cruel to be kind and so he gave Holly her answer. ‘Because it would mean something to you. Because in Holly’s world when the guy she’s just slept with comes to her parents’ it means something more.’
And she could say, no, it’s just breakfast and my mother would never expect me to let you drop me off and not invite you to come in.
But that would be a lie.
If Daniel came in then so too would hope.
‘You’re right.’
‘I can’t play happy families, Holly.’
‘You don’t even want to try.’
‘No.’ Because over and over it had failed to work out. ‘I’m going to go,’ Daniel said, ‘and you’re going to go in and have a wonderful Christmas with your family.’
He got out of the car and started to unload her bags.
‘You’re not going to change your mind, are you?’
‘No.’
‘Are you going to go to your father’s?’
‘I’ll drop off the presents and then I’m going to go home and catch up on some sleep.’
And it hurt that he’d rather get back on the motorway and spend Christmas alone than come in and spend Christmas with her.
‘I don’t know what to say,’ Holly admitted.
She should leave it there really, given him a wave and show what a good detached lover she could be.
That wasn’t her, though, and so, just as he climbed back into his car to leave, Holly spoke.
‘I don’t get you.’
‘Holly, let’s not do this.’
‘No, let’s.’ Holly’s smile was black. ‘You see, Daniel, I don’t think you’re an utter bastard. A bit of one perhaps but if you really thought I was going to go and get stupid ideas about us from sex, you’d never have got into that crinoline bed last night. I think you’d have slept on the floor, or even in the car, rather than hurt me. And I also believe if a quick shag was what you’d wanted this morning, then for my sake you’d have managed to resist.’ And then she said it. ‘But it wasn’t a quick shag.’
‘Oh, that’s right, we made love.’
He could be as sarcastic and derisive as he chose to be, but, as she’d said this morning, Holly had been there too.
And she could point that out to him, but the war was won and Daniel was the victor.
‘I’m done,’ Holly said. ‘I really am. I’ve made enough of a fool of myself over you. And I’m not going to say thank you for the lift because the truth is I wish you’d never come out to the car park yesterday.’
�
��I came out because I didn’t want us to end on a row.’
‘Do you know what?’ Holly retorted. ‘It would have been far easier on me if it had.’
She staggered off under the weight of presents and this time she didn’t turn around.
Her mother must have been peeking out of the window though because the door opened before she had to work out how to knock.
‘Hi, darling, where’s your friend?’
‘He’s not coming in.’
‘Oh! But surely—’
‘Mum!’ Holly said. ‘Please.’
If it wasn’t Christmas Day she would love to run to her old room fling herself on her bed and cry but, of course, she couldn’t.
Instead, she took her bags into the lounge and placed them beside the tree.
And she kept on hoping, so much so that she half expected a knock on the door and for Daniel to say he’d changed his mind, and maybe he’d stay for breakfast.
Instead, with all the bags by the tree, she stood and walked to the window, just in time to see him drive off.
And that was it, Holly knew.
She was never going to see him again.
They were done.
There was no time to process it, though.
Breakfast, as was traditional in the Jacobs family, was birthday cake. Holly blew out her candles and opened her birthday present from her parents and it was a gorgeous pair of earrings.
She took out her cheap Christmas ones that had now completely stopped flashing and replaced them with her lovely new silver ones.
Then it was champagne with orange juice, though Holly just had orange juice because she was working tonight.
It was smiles and happy all round and Holly joined in, even if she felt as if a part of her had died.
Adam loved his necklace and in turn she loved the travel wallet he had bought, and they traded their gifts with a smile.
Then relatives started to descend and there were parsnips to peel and stuffing to make and then Drunkle Harry and co. arrived.
‘I’ll take up your coats,’ Holly said.
She went up to her old bedroom and took a breath.
‘Holly?’
She turned around as her mother came in and saw that she was holding a snowman bag.
Playboy On Her Christmas List Page 13