by Holly Martin
He looked away for a moment because part of his plan involved not being honest with her at all. Even if it was for the right reasons.
‘OK, complete honesty going forward,’ she said.
He smiled. He felt like this was going to come back and bite him if she found out but he was hoping she would understand.
She rested her cheek back on his chest and sighed happily. ‘You know, having a bath with a man is on my list.’
‘What list?’
‘Things I’d like in a romantic relationship. It’s silly really, most men don’t care about any of that romance stuff. Cuddling, going for walks on the beach, taking baths, going on dates, yet you seem quite happy to do all of that stuff. I never figured you for a cuddling-in-the-bath type of guy.’
‘What kind of guy did you think I was?’
‘I don’t know, I imagined that you would be very confident with women, passionate, someone who likes sex a lot. I never had you down as much of a cuddler.’
‘It’s different with you. I want all of that and I want to make you happy, so it’s not exactly a hardship. And we can still have all of that and have the passionate sex too.’
She ran her hand down his belly towards his shorts. ‘Well we could have the passionate sex now.’
He caught her hand to stop it going any further, linking his fingers through hers to soften the blow. ‘I want our first time together to be perfect and at the moment you don’t really trust me. Sex when you trust the other person is infinitely better than when you don’t.’
‘I just keep waiting for this to end. The last time you kissed me it was never mentioned ever again.’
‘That was because I found out that I was going to America straight after our first kiss. It wouldn’t have been fair to start something with you then, knowing I was leaving a few weeks later. And I never knew that you felt that way about me.’
‘Would it have changed things if you had?’
‘Honestly, I don’t know. But I wouldn’t have left it so long to come back if I had. But I promise you now, I’m never leaving you again.’
He saw her smile and she closed her eyes with a look of complete contentment on her face.
‘If this is a dream, I don’t ever want to wake up.’
Dougie held her tighter. ‘Not even when your prince gets here?’
She looked up at him and smiled. ‘Oh, you’re too smooth. Go on then, Prince Charming, you can kiss me.’
He grinned and bent his head to do just that.
Chapter Fifteen
Eden wandered through the gingerbread houses that made up the Christmas market, each selling their individual and beautiful wares. Large oversized iced sweets decorated the tops of the houses, along with snow lit up with tiny LED lights that made it look like it was sparkling. Wonderful smells of delicious sweet treats and savoury snacks hung in the air and she wanted to try them all. Christmas trees, snowmen and reindeer decorated the gaps in between the little houses and holly, ivy and mistletoe garlands were strewn from the rooftops, lit up with fairy lights. It looked magical and she couldn’t help but smile.
She glanced down and knew that, charming and beautiful as the Christmas market was, the thing that was making her smile so much her face was starting to ache was that she was holding hands with Dougie Harrison.
The reaction of the islanders made her want to laugh. Some of them stopped and stared, some pointed and whispered, some nodded to her knowingly, but every single one of them was over the moon about it. She wasn’t sure if there had been the same reaction from them when they had turned up to the snowman competition hand in hand and she just hadn’t noticed. But they’d just been friends then and now they were... well she wasn’t really sure what they were now. Boyfriend and girlfriend? Lovers? Except they hadn’t even done that yet. But it didn’t matter what they were, because they were something and she wanted to shout it out to everyone.
‘What are you smiling at?’ Dougie said, drawing her to one side as a child wearing a flashing reindeer antler headband and carrying a sticky toffee apple in one hand came charging through the marketplace, his harried-looking mum chasing after him.
‘Just this,’ she indicated their joined hands. ‘Us. I don’t think I will ever stop smiling about this. For so many years I’ve had comments from the islanders about us, about me being in love with you and you being in love with me and I’ve just dismissed them all. But now we’re together I kind of want to tell everyone. I know you probably don’t want that and you probably want to keep it private but, well, I will just continue being happy that we’re holding hands.’
She knew she was rambling. Everything had changed between them and she wasn’t sure what the rules were any more.
Before she had a chance to say anything else, Dougie bent his head and kissed her, stalling all other words in her head.
It was the sweetest, gentlest of kisses and she smiled against his lips. He clearly didn’t care who saw or what they thought, he was just happy to kiss her.
He pulled back slightly.
‘I’m happy about this too; I never thought it would happen either. Never doubt that I’m not as excited as you are. If you want, I’ll go up to everyone here in the market and tell them personally.’ He turned to the nearest passers-by, who happened to be her dad’s friend Roger and his girlfriend Elsie. ‘Excuse me, I just wanted to say that me and Eden are together now, we love each other and we’re going to get married and have babies.’
Eden blushed, furiously. OK, maybe she didn’t actually want to tell everyone at all.
‘Oh, that’s wonderful news,’ Roger said.
‘We always knew you two would get together,’ Elsie said. ‘We couldn’t be happier for you both.’
They hurried off, no doubt to impart this wonderful gossip to everyone they could find.
‘I can’t believe you just did that,’ Eden said.
‘Who else would you like me to tell?’ Dougie said, looking around for his next victim.
‘No one. Kissing me is more than enough.’
He grinned. ‘Well I can do that.’
He bent his head and kissed her again and Eden forgot her embarrassment with her lips against his. A giggle bubbled inside her and she pulled back slightly so she could laugh. ‘I can’t believe you told them we were going to get married and have babies. You couldn’t have just left it at telling them we’re dating?’
‘Well I didn’t want there to be any doubt.’
‘I think you succeeded with that. The whole island will believe we’re engaged within the hour and most of them will think that I’m already pregnant, despite you not having been here since the beginning of September.’
He smirked. ‘How would that work exactly?’
‘I’m sure the islanders will have their own theories. You being a computer geek, you probably emailed me your sperm and sent me a 3D printer to print it out on.’
He laughed loudly. ‘That would be pretty amazing.’
‘Can we just slow this courtship down a tiny bit, before you whisk me down the aisle?’
‘We can take it as slow as you want, we can date for the next six months before we even sleep together if that’s what you want.’ He bent his head and kissed just below her ear, somehow knowing from the short time they had spent together the exact place to kiss her that made her go weak in the knees. She immediately wanted to drag him back to her house and make love to him as soon as they closed the door behind them. And she knew he knew that. He trailed his hot mouth lower and she closed her eyes before she remembered where they were and she pushed him gently away.
She cleared her throat before she spoke. ‘I don’t think we need to go to that extreme, but let’s not go to the other extreme either.’
‘OK, honey, whatever you wish. Now let’s have a look around the market and maybe if we’re lucky we might be able to get matching tattoos, or one of those heart necklaces where the pendant is split in half and I’d wear one half of the heart and you’d wear the othe
r and then everyone would know we are two halves of the whole.’
‘You’re so cheesy, it’s unreal.’
‘I know, but you love it.’
‘No, you can keep your cheesy tattoos and necklaces.’
‘How about some cheesy Christmas cushion with a motto about love like, “I love winter because it gives us more reason to cuddle” or “If kisses were waves I’d give you the ocean”?’
Eden laughed. ‘No, no cushions either.’
‘Wow, you spoil all my fun.’
He gave her another brief kiss on the lips, as if he couldn’t be parted from her, and a few feet away she heard a little squeal of excitement.
She pulled back slightly and saw her mum and dad staring at them as if all their Christmases had come at once.
‘So you are together,’ Finn squealed like an overexcited teenage girl.
Eden smiled as she pulled out of Dougie’s arms slightly.
‘Yes, we are but—’
‘We couldn’t be happier,’ Lucy said, running forward and pulling them both into a big hug. ‘We just saw Roger and Elsie and they said you’d told them you were engaged and pregnant. Are we really going to be grandparents again? This is so exciting. Your child will only be a few months younger than Freya and Rome’s. They can grow up together and play together and that’s so important to have family that will look out for each other, don’t you think? There was quite a big gap between me and my sisters and, as you know, I don’t even speak to one of them any more and—’
‘Wait, I’m not pregnant,’ Eden said, before it got too far out of hand, although it seemed a bit late for that. She passed Dougie a glare though he seemed to think the whole thing was hilarious. ‘And we’re not engaged. We only got together last night. This is still really early days for us.’
She watched her parents’ faces fall.
‘You’re not pregnant?’ Finn said, looking like he was about to cry.
‘I’m sorry, that was my fault,’ Dougie said, finally speaking up. ‘We were just getting a bit carried away with our excitement about being together and I told Roger and Elsie that we were going to get married and have babies. I meant eventually, umm… not now.’
Lucy and Finn stared at them for a second before Finn started smiling again. Nothing could dampen their spirits for long.
‘The important thing is that you’re together,’ he said. ‘We always knew you two would end up with each other. You see that sometimes, soul mates, two people that were born to be with each other. It took you a lot longer to come back for Eden than we all would have liked but sometimes you have to go away to see what you’re missing, otherwise you just take it for granted and you don’t want to do that. I was young once and I know you want to sow your seed, have some fun, have lots of sex. I used to love sex when I was young, still do if truth be told, but Lucy knows she wasn’t my first. I wasn’t her first either. We both had lots of partners before we found each other and I think you have to do that sometimes, try on different pairs of shoes to find the one that fits. It’s a bit different for you two as Lucy and I hadn’t met so we didn’t know the other existed until we did meet. You knew Eden was here but you didn’t know you were in love with her so you had to try on all those other women to see if they turned out to be the one. Eden was trying on lots of other men too. Well not lots. Not as many as you. To be honest I think she only slept with those other men because she couldn’t have you. None of them lasted very long because none of them were you.’
‘Dad—’ Eden tried. This was getting more awkward by the second.
‘The important thing is that it doesn’t matter that you’ve had lots of sex with lots of different women, what matters is that you’re here now and you two are together, where you should be. The fact that you have sold your house and moved to a different country to be with her is all the sign we need that you’re serious about her. And now it’s time to let go of your pasts and embrace your beautiful future together.’
‘I am very serious about Eden,’ Dougie said. ‘I know I took my time coming back but—’
‘You had to sow your seed. I understand,’ Finn said.
‘No, it wasn’t quite like that—’
‘The thing about being with your soul mate is that it’s so much better, so much more incredible than anyone you’ve been with before. And you know, in your heart, this is forever. This is the person you’re supposed to be with for the rest of your life. And you two have that connection, everyone can see that, it shines from you. You were supposed to be together. Soul mates always find their way back to each other eventually.’
There was silence for a while and Eden didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Dougie cleared his throat. ‘I’m going to try my very best to be the man that Eden deserves.’
‘You already are, son,’ Finn said, patting him on the shoulder. ‘You make her happy, anyone can see that. That’s all you need to do, keep making her smile.’
‘I will, I promise.’
‘And don’t be too long about getting that ring on her finger either,’ Finn said.
Finn and Lucy gave them both big hugs and left them alone, whispering excitedly between them as they walked off.
Eden waited for them to get out of hearing distance before she spoke. ‘I’m sorry about them.’
‘Don’t be, your dad has a point. Those other women—’
Eden pressed a finger to his lips. ‘I don’t need to hear it. Dad was right, our pasts are just that. You are here now and that’s all that matters. Don’t let him pressure you into doing something you’re not ready for.’
Dougie stared at her for a moment, and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.
They wandered through the market for a while, smelling the amazing dried orange garlands, tasting the warm apple cider, feeling the velvety warmth of the brightly coloured hats and scarves and listening to the fantastic carols that were being piped out of the speakers. It was wonderful and filled her with a warm festive glow.
They stopped at the pancake stand and looked at all the fillings, which all looked and smelt delicious.
‘Oooh, mince pie pancakes, they sound amazing,’ Eden said as she read the sign offering a wide variety of flavours. ‘Is that actually crushed mince pie pieces?’
The stall holder shook her head. ‘Warm mincemeat served with brandy cream.’
‘Oh, that does sound good.’
‘One please,’ Dougie said, handing over the money and Eden watched as the stall holder poured the batter onto a hot plate and then flipped it when it was ready.
‘Are you not getting one?’
‘I thought we could share. After that massive lunch you cooked for me, I’m still feeling stuffed and I’m cooking dinner for you tonight so I want us to have some kind of appetite for it.’
The stall holder handed over the warm, rolled pancake and Eden eagerly took a bite as they moved away. It was fruity and sweet, the spices of the mincemeat blending wonderfully with the warm brandy cream.
She offered it out to Dougie to take a bite but instead of taking some, he bent his head and kissed the corner of her mouth.
‘Mmm, tastes delicious.’
Oh god, this man was so bloody sexy. How was she going to last until that evening?
He pulled back slightly to look at her and she could see his eyes were dark with desire.
‘Behave, you were the one that wanted to wait until tonight.’
He shrugged. ‘Doesn’t mean we can’t start the foreplay now.’
She offered out the pancake again, almost holding it as a barrier between them, and he smirked as he took a bite.
‘Oh, that does taste good. Although my first taste of it was infinitely better.’
Eden took another bite, watching him as he gazed at her. The tension bubbled in the air between them. She offered out another bite and he took it, not taking his eyes off hers. He swallowed it and licked his lips in a manner that was about way more than just getting the crumbs off them.
She laughed. ‘Dougie, you’re such a flirt.’
‘These are my best moves, you’re not supposed to laugh,’ Dougie protested though she could see he wasn’t taking this remotely seriously. He never did.
‘I can only ever laugh at you, because you are just ridiculously silly. But that’s one of the many reasons why I love you.’
He grinned. ‘Come on, let’s go on a horse sleigh ride.’
He took her hand again and led her to the far end of the market where a jaunty red and gold sleigh – on wheels – was waiting to be pulled by a white shire horse, wearing a red harness with bells on. It was adorable.
Eden rooted in her bag for her purse. ‘Let me pay for this as you bought the pancake.’ She sighed as she watched Dougie hand over the money for the ride. ‘I can pay for myself, you know. I’m not expecting you to pay for everything.’
‘My dad always paid for my mum; well she pretty much demanded it. I grew up thinking that’s how it should be. My mum said as much to me before she left, that if I ever wanted to get married, I was to stop messing around with computer games and get a proper job as women would only marry wealthy men.’
Eden stared at him in shock. ‘Your mum said that?’
‘Well in my experience, most women do like rich men. My dad plied my mum with gifts in a desperate attempt to get her to stay but it was all in vain.’
‘You listen to me. I am not “most women”. I wouldn’t care if you didn’t have two pennies to your name. You don’t need to buy my love. I loved you when you had nothing and I still love you now, regardless of how much money you have in the bank.’
‘You always said you wanted to marry a prince and live in a big castle overlooking the sea.’
‘Dougie! I was a child who believed in magic and fairy tales. And do you know who I always imagined when I pictured my prince? You. That was the fairy tale, not the castle or the royalty. It was always you. The castle was just the backdrop because I didn’t know any better, but the dream was always you.’