by Holly Martin
He stared at her. ‘I just want to give you the best.’
She leaned up and pressed a hand against his heart. ‘This is the best part of you and you’ve given me that.’
He nodded and then smiled, the seriousness of the conversation suddenly gone. ‘Doesn’t mean I can’t treat you to a pancake and a horse sleigh ride once in a while though. Shall we go and meet the horse?’
Eden sighed with frustration but followed Dougie round the front of the sleigh anyway. She realised that the harness had the horse’s name printed on it in gold and she smiled when she saw his name was Saint Nicholas. The Christmas festival was definitely going all out to make sure every element of the event was ticking the Christmas box.
She stroked his velvety nose and he whickered softly then licked her hand, obviously smelling the remains of the pancake.
They walked back to the sleigh, Dougie holding out his hand to help her aboard, and they settled themselves under a large silvery fur blanket.
The sleigh started moving, a gentle rocking motion as Nicholas started plodding around the park.
Dougie put his arm round her and she snuggled against him. There was a small course laid out, seemingly made of ice sculptures though Eden knew they were made from glass. The ice carvings would last only a few hours before they started to melt and these had been here the day the festival opened, though she hadn’t yet had a chance to look at them properly. There were statues of snowmen, angels and elves playing and gambolling in the snow. It was all so well put together, Bella had completely outdone herself.
‘Now we’re under this blanket I can do rude and dirty things to you and no one would know,’ Dougie said, snaking his hand over her thigh.
Eden giggled and batted his hand away. ‘Stop that, Hope Island is a respectable place, we are not getting up to rude things in a one-horse open sleigh.’
‘Dashing through the snow,’ Dougie suddenly launched into song, drumming out the beat of the song on her thigh and slowly drifting his hand up towards the top of her jeans, singing loudly to distract her from where his hands was going. ‘Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh.’ he finished, putting extra emphasis on ‘fun’ and ‘ride’.
‘You’re pure filth,’ Eden said, wriggling out of his greedy hands. ‘There will be no fun in this sleigh.’
‘You’re such a spoilsport,’ he said.
‘If you’re good, I’ll let you ring my bells on bobtails tonight.’
‘I have no idea what that is, but I definitely want part of it.’
She smiled as she snuggled back against him and he wrapped his arm round her and kissed the top of her head. She closed her eyes for a moment, relishing in his warmth, his body against hers. She looked up at him and realised he was watching her.
‘Enjoying the ride?’
‘Very much.’
‘With your eyes closed?’
‘I’m enjoying being with you.’
He grinned and held her closer as he looked out over the park and at the sea beyond which was twinkling gold in the late afternoon sun.
‘You know, a horse carriage ride is on my list,’ Eden said.
‘It is?’
‘I thought it would be romantic and it really is.’
Dougie slid his hand back up her thigh. ‘It could be more romantic.’
She laughed and snagged his fingers with her own.
‘I’m not doing too badly on this list of yours, am I?’
‘You’re doing well so far.’ She leaned up and stroked her hand through his stubble. ‘If it all ends at midnight tonight, I’d still have the biggest grin on my face for the rest of my life.’
He frowned. ‘You’d be happy if things ended between us?’
‘No, I’d be gutted about that, but I would be happy about what we’d had. I couldn’t be happier than I am right now. This is everything I ever wanted and if it ends I would still be happy that I experienced it all.’
‘I don’t intend to let it end,’ Dougie said.
‘You won’t turn into a pumpkin at midnight?’
‘I can promise you that.’
‘Just promise me we’ll make love before midnight, just in case.’
‘OK, straight after dinner, I promise.’
‘Straight after the wooing?’
‘That’s right. Well, the whole thing is the wooing, this, dinner, doing rude things to you in the back of a sleigh, shame I didn’t get to do that one.’
‘Yes it is. You’ll just have to try harder with the rest of the wooing to make up for it.’
‘OK, I will.’
They came back to where they started and the driver pulled the sleigh to a halt. Dougie immediately hopped out and held out a hand to help her down.
She smirked at his charm and manners.
‘What would my princess like to do now?’
Eden looked around and up at the ride called Icy Extravaganza, where people were sliding down an icy ramp in giant, inflatable doughnuts, whooping and screaming as the inflatables bumped down the ice and deposited them on a crash mat at the end, most of the people failing to stay in the doughnut by the end of the ride.
‘That.’
He smiled and rolled his eyes. ‘There’s nothing romantic about that.’
‘True, but it does look like a lot of fun.’ She quickly walked off in that direction and he caught up with her and snagged her hand. ‘And I’m paying this time, or they’ll be no nookie for you tonight.’
‘Then you can definitely pay.’
Chapter Sixteen
Dougie looked down at Eden as they waited in the queue for the ice slide. That conversation in the sleigh had put him on edge.
She was expecting it to end between them.
As far as she was concerned she was enjoying it all now because it would end in the not-too-distant future.
She didn’t trust him and that hurt.
They’d both said they loved each other and in his book that meant forever for them. Why did she doubt that?
He’d hurt her after their first kiss on the beach all those years before, he’d hurt her by never mentioning it again as if it meant nothing to him, when nothing could have been further from the truth. He’d never told her how he felt, never given her any indication that he had feelings for her over all the years he had been away. This was all out of the blue for her, so maybe he just needed to give her time to get used to the idea. It hadn’t even been a day since he’d told her he loved her.
He hadn’t planned for any of this. He thought he would kiss her and if she kissed him back he might pluck up the courage and ask her out. They’d date for a few weeks, maybe months, while he tried to get her to fall in love with him and he tried to convince her that he was good enough for her and then eventually he would tell her how he loved her. But now they’d both said they loved each other, it seemed they had skipped ahead several months in his plans. And it was wonderful and it was everything he had ever imagined it would be and so much more and a little scary if he was honest. He’d only been back four days and he was in a full-blown relationship already.
There was no way he was walking away from it though. He wanted forever with Eden and that was scary too because could love really endure, could it really last for the rest of their lives? His parents were proof that love wasn’t everlasting. His uncle had had an affair with Bella’s mum even though he was supposedly happily married. What if he was like his mum and ended up just walking away from the marriage? What if he was like his uncle and wasn’t content to stick to one woman for the rest of his life? He had never been in a relationship that could be considered serious, he’d never wanted forever with anyone before. Could he really give Eden that?
She looked up at him and smiled and he felt a surge of love for her. Yes he could. He would do everything he could to keep her, to make her happy, to make her trust him so she would believe in forever too.
What would it take for her to believe in them, to trust in their future together?
She wanted
marriage and children and though the marriage part scared him, the children part didn’t. The thought of her carrying his baby made him smile, he loved the idea of raising a child with her; he felt ready for that stage in his life. However, his parents’ marriage had been enough to put him off that aspect for life. They had been happy before they got married and it was only after tying the knot that cracks had started to show. But maybe that was more to do with them than the act of marriage. Being with Eden forever didn’t scare him; it was just the getting married part. But if that would make her feel more secure and happy then he’d give her that too.
She reached up and stroked his face and he wrapped one arm around her, holding her against him.
‘Why are you frowning?’ she asked.
‘Just thinking how I can make you trust me.’
Her eyebrows lifted in surprise. ‘I do trust you.’
‘Enough to trust in us forever?’
She hesitated and his heart dropped.
‘This is just going to take a bit of getting used to. Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think this would happen. I hoped for it, but I knew in my heart that it wouldn’t. Before you came home I was so excited and so desperately sad all at the same time. I wanted you home and I was so looking forward to seeing you every day but I knew it would be even more painful to have you here all the time and know you would never be mine. And now here we are and I’m still finding it hard to believe. I trust you but there is a small part of me that is fearful of hoping for a future together because what if you change your mind and don’t want to be with me any more? It’s easier for me to take each day as it comes at the moment rather than believing in that future like I did when we first kissed and then having it snatched away again.’
‘I’m not going to let you down again, I promise you that.’
She smiled and reached up to kiss him. ‘Let’s just enjoy what we have now and don’t make promises you can’t keep.’
He sighed. He was going to have to pull out all the stops to get her to trust him but in the meantime he had every intention of enjoying himself.
The people in front of them paid to go on the ride and they moved forward to pay themselves. Knowing how important it was to Eden to pay, he didn’t even attempt to this time, though she was so quick in producing the money that he wouldn’t have stood a chance even if he’d wanted to.
‘Come on.’ Eden grabbed him by the hand, dragging him up the stairs, and he couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm.
They reached the top and waited a while for the slide to become free. He watched the other people as they hurtled down the icy slide, most being thrown up in the air as they got to the end.
‘If I break any bones on this, it won’t exactly be conducive to a romantic night.’
She grinned at him. ‘Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.’
The ride attendant gestured them to come forward as he held the large oversized doughnut at the top of the slide. Dougie got in and Eden sat between his legs. She turned round to face him with a huge smile on her face.
‘Don’t be scared.’
He looked at her smiling face. Love was scary, for them both, but he was prepared to take the risk for her because the reward of being with her was definitely worth it.
‘I’m not.’
She grinned and gave the thumbs up to the ride attendant. Dougie wrapped his hands around her waist and the attendant pushed them over the edge.
Eden whooped and screamed and he yelled as they hurtled towards the end. As they hit the crash mat the doughnut stopped and they both flew into the air. Eden landed face down on the crash mat and a second later he landed face down on top of her.
Immediately he was worried he might have hurt her by landing on her so hard and tried to scramble up, but she was giggling and laughing so hard he knew she couldn’t be in any pain so he stayed where he was for a few seconds as he caught his breath and realised his groin was pressed against her bum.
He leaned over to whisper in her ear. ‘I’ve changed my mind, this ride is very romantic.’
He flexed his hips a tiny fraction and her laughter went up an octave.
‘Get off me you great big pervert,’ Eden said and he climbed off her.
She rolled onto her back and swept her curly hair off her face and she was still laughing. He held out a hand and pulled her to her feet and they struggled to get off the crash mat together.
‘That was so much fun,’ Eden said.
‘I particularly liked the end,’ Dougie said and she just rolled her eyes at him. ‘What would you like to do next?’
The sun was starting to set and it wouldn’t be long before it got dark. He was hoping to get home soon so he could start the preparations for the evening, though if Eden wanted to stay on a bit longer then he was happy to do that.
Eden looked around. ‘Oh, the ice hockey shoot-out.’
Now this was something he was definitely good at, having been a member of an amateur club on and off for several years while in New York. Maybe he could get something out of this.
‘Sure, want to make it interesting?’
‘A bet?’ Eden asked.
‘Yes, not for money though.’
She looked up at him, narrowing her eyes with suspicion. ‘Then what?’
Remembering his promise to make her trust him, he decided to forego any suggestion that would take her out of her comfort zone.
‘If I win, you have to make love to me tonight.’
She laughed. ‘Oh, you brute. OK, what do I get if I win?’
‘I’ll make love to you.’
Eden pretended to think about it as they walked closer to the ice hockey stand. She sighed theatrically as if he was coercing her into it.
‘OK, but if I win, you better make sure the sex is absolutely bloody amazing.’
‘Oh, I will.’
He reached into his pocket to pay but Eden had already whipped out her money. He was going to have to be faster than her in the future, but he’d let her have that for today.
The ice hockey shoot-out was like a shooting range with cans or targets or buckets to hit. In fact, judging by the tiny holes in some of the targets, it had obviously been used for a shooting game before and had been converted into use with hockey pucks instead. The stall holder explained that the different targets were worth different points depending what colour they were and their difficulty rating. It was quite obvious the gold ones would be the ones to get the most points, but Dougie noticed that most of those were moving targets.
He gestured to Eden that she should go first. They had three pucks to get the most points.
Eden missed with her first attempt, got ten points with her second puck and probably by sheer fluke got fifty points for her third puck. She leapt up in the air, overly impressed with her score. And then with a sassy, cocky little swagger, she handed the hockey stick to him.
He grinned as he examined the stick. It was a lot lighter than the one he was used to but he knew he could probably hit quite well with it.
He looked over at the silver star in the top left-hand corner and slammed the puck straight into that, scoring fifty points. He glanced over at Eden and her smile had vanished.
‘Let me guess, you took night classes in ice hockey too?’
He laughed. ‘I’ve played a little.’
‘You never mentioned that.’
‘You never asked.’
‘You could have asked for something much more than what you did ask for then,’ Eden said.
‘There’s nothing I want more.’
He watched her smile before he turned his attention back to the targets. Deciding to ramp up the tension a little, he deliberately missed with his second puck and he smiled when she laughed triumphantly.
He aimed for another silver star but as a small gold reindeer came flying out at the top of the shooting area he slammed the puck into that, netting him another hundred points.
He turned to face Eden and to his surprise she was stil
l smiling.
‘Well it looks like you won.’
‘Yes it does.’
‘Well I think we better go home so I can pay up.’
He grinned. ‘That sounds like an excellent plan.’
Chapter Seventeen
Eden was lying on the bed waiting for Dougie to tell her that she could come downstairs. He was preparing some big meal and over-the-top romantic gesture in his attempt to woo her. She wanted to tell him that he didn’t need to bother with all this romance, he already had her heart and no amount of ‘wooing’ would make her fall any deeper in love with him, but she was actually rather enjoying the amount of effort that he was putting into this.
She sighed as she fingered the beautiful snowflake bracelet that he had bought her just as they were leaving the Christmas market earlier that day. None of this made sense but she was going to take Bella and Freya’s advice and just enjoy it while she could. She still didn’t entirely believe that Dougie was telling the truth about loving her – he was up to something and she didn’t know what. But she had bared her soul to him now and he hadn’t run away. There was no going back. If he changed his mind he would always know how she felt. But maybe that was a good thing. After twelve years of hiding her feelings, she felt nothing but relief at finally having them out in the open. She didn’t have to pretend any more. Besides, even if Dougie didn’t love her, she did trust that he would never do anything to deliberately hurt her. But if this was some big trick how far was he going to take it? Would they actually make love? Dougie had said they would do it tonight but she couldn’t even begin to imagine they really would and what that would actually look like if they did.
She laughed. She felt as awkward as a virgin at the thought of having sex with Dougie. She had been with quite a few men over the years and had never really felt awkward or nervous before. Even her first time she hadn’t been nervous, although that probably had something to do with the half a bottle of wine that she’d consumed beforehand. Maybe she should try that again tonight, otherwise she would be trembling like a leaf by the time the main event arrived. Although knowing Dougie and his role as sweet, gentlemanly Prince Charming, he’d probably make some kind of excuse to not make love to her if he thought that she was under the influence of alcohol. And actually, if it really was going to happen and maybe it would only ever happen once, then she wanted a clear head for it so she could always remember it in glorious high definition.