by Holly Martin
He stared down at her with complete adoration in his eyes and the biggest smile on his face.
She slid her hands down his back and then into his shorts, squeezing his bum playfully. She tried to push the shorts down but his weight on top of her meant she couldn’t reach past his thighs.
‘Off, off, off, off,’ Eden chanted and Dougie laughed.
He stood up and Eden leaned back on her elbows to watch. Dougie started singing the famous striptease music, ‘The Stripper’, as he started wiggling his bum and playing with the waistband of his shorts, pulling it down a little bit and then pulling it back up again. Eden laughed as he turned around and sexily lowered his shorts, bending over so she could see his bottom as if he really was a stripper. He had a marvellous bum.
‘You’re too good at this,’ Eden said, laughing. ‘Did you go to night classes to learn this as well?’
‘These moves are all my own, baby.’
He grabbed a cushion and held it over his manhood and turned around, then kicked his boxers across the room. Eden laughed again but the laughter died on her lips when she saw Dougie’s expression of horror.
She turned round to see what he was looking at and saw that his boxers had landed on top of one of the candles and had caught fire.
‘Crap,’ he said, dropping the cushion and running across the room. Eden scrabbled to her feet too as he grabbed the vase of roses and poured it over the flames, putting them out before it had a chance to get out of hand.
As they both stood there naked, staring at the smouldering remains of Dougie’s shorts, and the water dripping down the walls, Eden couldn’t help but laugh, giggling uncontrollably at the mess.
‘Well, when you promised me a night of smoking hot sex, I didn’t expect this,’ she said.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Dougie laughed. ‘Looks like I owe you some more roses too.’
He picked up his soggy boxers and shook out the water and then held them open to reveal a gaping hole right at the front. Eden laughed.
‘Aww, these were my lucky pants,’ he said.
‘Well fortunately for you, you’re still going to get lucky tonight.’
Dougie immediately dropped his shorts, his eyes lighting up as he gathered her against him. ‘I haven’t ruined my chances?’
‘Dougie, the world could end, aliens could come down and take over the planet and I’d still be sleeping with you tonight. I’ve waited twelve years for this; nothing is going to stop me now.’
He grinned as he shuffled her back towards the blankets. ‘Well let’s get on with it then.’
‘That’s the most romantic thing that anybody has ever said to me.’
‘I’m filled with romance, me.’
She reached for him, wrapping her hand around him, making him take a sharp intake of breath. ‘Why don’t you fill me up with some of your romance too?’
He smiled as he lowered her to the floor, lying on top of her and kissing her sweetly. He pulled away slightly to grab a condom, and her gaze was drawn down as he slid it on, her eyes widening as she suddenly realized how big he was.
‘Stop staring at it like it might kill you,’ Dougie said.
‘It might, it’s bloody big enough.’
Dougie laughed as he moved back over her. ‘What every man dreams of hearing.’
A delicious thrill ran through her as he settled himself between her legs. They really were going to do this. She ran her hands over his back and shoulders and then up his neck to stroke his hair. He stared down at her, the humour suddenly fading from his eyes replaced by something much deeper. Love, affection, friendship, it was all there on his face.
He slid inside her, filling her, and she wrapped her legs around him. His breath was accelerated and she could feel him trembling slightly, with excitement or nerves, she didn’t know which. He stared at her for the longest time, not moving, just taking her in.
‘Best sex ever,’ Dougie said.
‘We’ve only just started.’
He shook his head. ‘It doesn’t matter; being with you was always going to be the best sexual experience of my life.’
She smiled and as he started to move against her, she knew he was right. It didn’t matter whether the sex was good, bad or earth-shattering, it was going to be amazing because they belonged together and right here in his arms, with Dougie deep inside her, was definitely the best place in the world.
Chapter Nineteen
The fire had almost died out completely, just a faint glow amongst the embers was the only thing that remained, but Dougie didn’t have the energy to move to relight it. Most of the candles had gone out too, though some were still flickering brightly, competing with the twinkling fairy lights to brighten the room.
The room would most likely get a bit chilly now but he had never felt more content and happier in his life as he did right now, with Eden lying naked on the blankets in front of him, his chest to her back, his arms wrapped tightly round her.
He pulled a blanket over them both, making sure she was entirely covered apart from a tiny sliver of her shoulder which he wanted to leave open so he could kiss her. He laid his lips against her warm skin, breathing her in as his hand caressed over her silky stomach.
She hadn’t really said a lot since they’d finished making love. He frowned with concern. In fact, he wasn’t sure she’d said anything.
Straight after, when they were still trying to catch their breath, he’d asked her if she was OK and she’d nodded and then they’d kissed for the longest time. Eventually, when he realised he was probably crushing her with his weight he had rolled off her and she had rolled onto her side facing away from him. He had curled himself around her and they hadn’t moved since.
Maybe she was asleep; his whole body felt so deliciously weary after they had made love that he’d understand if she felt the same.
He leaned up on his elbow and swept her hair back from her face so he could look at her. Her eyes were wide open as she stared at the dying embers in the fire and she had the biggest smile on her face, which was something of a relief.
‘Are you OK?’
She nodded again.
‘You’re very quiet.’
‘I just… wasn’t expecting it to be like that.’
He swallowed. Had he taken it too far? ‘In that it exceeded your expectations or didn’t meet them?’
She rolled onto her back to look at him, stroking her hand through the stubble on his jaw as she smiled at him fondly. Was this the part where she told him the sex was nice? He wasn’t sure his ego could take that.
‘Both. It wasn’t what I thought it would be and it far exceeded my expectations. I thought when I made love to you for the first time it would be beautiful, and it was, but it was so much more than that. I’ve never laughed during sex before, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so much in my entire life as I did tonight. And it made it so much better than I thought it would be. It felt like… I wasn’t just making love to the man I loved, I was making love to my best friend and there was something so wonderfully different about that.’
He smiled with relief. He knew exactly what she meant.
He hadn’t expected it to turn out like it had either. He had planned for a night of pure romance, flowers, candles, fine food, and he had assumed that it would be beautiful and sweet too. But when they had begun to make love, Eden had started giggling about his pants catching fire and there’d been lots of silly fire puns after that in between the most heated of kisses. Then she’d started singing the ‘Hokey Cokey’ and he’d followed her instructions to the letter, pumping his hips in time with her words, ‘in, out, in, out’. And when she sang ‘shake it all about’ and he’d obliged, she had laughed so hard she snorted, which made her laugh harder and did wonderful things to their bodies where they were joined. He’d been unable to stop laughing too and when she’d demanded that he do the ‘Hokey Cokey’ on her, neither of them had been able to stop giggling for several minutes. Then he’d shifted her legs higher
so he could take her deeper and all humour had vanished for the next few minutes as they both found their incredible release, Eden clinging to him and shouting out his name. It had been without a doubt the most unexpected, tremendous, extraordinary sex he’d ever had.
‘You are so silly and I love you so much for that. You didn’t have to do any of this to woo me, I’m already well and truly wooed.’
He smiled and kissed her. ‘Doesn’t mean I’m going to stop doing nice things for you.’
‘OK, but maybe next time we can have sex to “Agadoo” instead.’
He laughed. ‘OK but I’m not using a real pineapple, that might hurt.’
‘Agreed.’
She rolled back onto her side, facing away from him, and he snuggled into her again, sweeping her hair over her shoulder so he could kiss the back of her neck.
‘It’s almost midnight,’ Eden said.
He looked over her shoulder and saw it was just a minute until the clock struck twelve.
‘I promise you, I’m not going to turn into a pumpkin.’
‘Or a gremlin?’
He laughed.
‘Well I can’t promise that.’ He playfully bit on her shoulder and she giggled.
‘You’d be Gizmo anyway if you did; you’re too sweet to be anything else.’
He wasn’t sure he liked being called sweet but if it made her happy then he’d go with it.
‘So you’re not going to disappear or run away again back to America?’
‘Definitely not.’ He kissed her shoulder.
‘Even if the thing you came home for doesn’t work out?’
He stalled in his kisses. She had clung onto that throwaway comment he had made on the beach the other morning about there being a bigger reason why he had come home. She was the main reason but she didn’t know that. He hadn’t meant to make it sound like he would go back to America if it didn’t work out between them. In reality he had come home for many more reasons than just Eden. It had simply been cold feet over whether he had done the right thing by moving his whole life back to Hope Island and he was bound to have those fears.
‘Nothing is going to take me away from you, you’re way too important to me for that.’
‘More important than the thing you came here for?’
He didn’t want to say that she was one of the main reasons he had come back here for. That put way too much pressure on the relationship for her.
‘You’re the single most important thing in my life at the moment. I’m not going anywhere.’
The clock on the mantelpiece suddenly chimed midnight and he resumed his kisses on her shoulder and neck. The clock finished chiming.
‘See, I’m still here,’ Dougie said.
‘In that case, you can make love to me again.’
He smiled against her skin. ‘You’re so demanding.’
‘You’ll find that being married to a princess is very demanding.’
His heart skittered at the mention of marriage. He had tried to be blasé about it over dinner to show her he was in this for the long haul but he was still fearful of it. He didn’t want anything to ruin what they had and marriage had ruined his parents’ relationship. But if that was what she wanted then he’d just have to man up and get on with it.
Although he was very happy to comply with her most recent demand.
He slid the hand that had been around her stomach down her outer thigh and gently back up as he continued kissing her neck. He ran his hands back down her leg and lifted her knee, hooking it over his own leg. When he slid his hand back up it was on the inside of her thigh and she moaned softly at his gentle touch. She arched against him, leaning into his hand, then she settled her head on her bent arm and he linked fingers with her. He stroked and caressed, nibbling little kisses along her neck. Her fingers tightened against his, her breathing becoming faster, and he had never been so turned on before giving pleasure to someone else. Watching her fall apart, crying out his name as he stroked her, it was an incredible feeling.
Breathless, she turned her head to face him and he kissed her hard, her hands stroking through the curls at the back of his head.
Blindly and without taking his mouth from hers, he reached behind him for a condom. He’d had the foresight to scatter them around. He quickly found one and tore his mouth from Eden’s long enough only to rip open the foil packet with his teeth before he was kissing her again, and sliding the condom on.
He pushed inside her and she moaned against his lips. God, she felt so indescribably good.
She started rocking her hips against his, setting the pace, and it was slow, lazy, unhurried love-making. He felt like he could lie here all night like this; that just being connected to her in this way was enough.
He continued to kiss her for the longest time, holding her hand, stroking across her body with the other.
But as the feelings inside him started to tighten, like a coiled spring about to release, he felt her fingers tighten around his again, that tell-tale hitch of her breath that said she was nearing the edge too. God, they were so perfectly in sync.
He moved against her again, feeling the change in her body as much as he could feel it in his own, and as he captured the moans of pleasure from her on his lips they both hurtled over the edge together.
She pulled back slightly to stare at him, her hands still caressing the back of his neck as he tried to catch his breath.
He had no idea why it was so good with her but it was, it really bloody was.
She smiled at him as if she knew what he was thinking.
‘You OK?’ she asked.
He laughed and nodded. ‘There is no way in the world I’m walking away from that.’
She grinned and turned away from him, closing her eyes. ‘Good.’
He kissed her on the shoulder and then laid his head down on the pillow too. Their fingers were still linked and he wrapped his arm around her and closed his eyes.
This was where he belonged.
Eden walked into Pots and Paints the next day and smiled to see that Clare already had everything in hand. The cakes had been made and the smell of warm mince pies filled the air. There were a few tables filled with parents and children painting mugs and plates with poster paints as with only three days until Christmas there would be no time to glaze them and put them in the kiln before the big day. Most of the tables were filled with the islanders who had just come in for a coffee or cake. Clare clearly had everything under control. She was such a godsend, and always worked her arse off for Eden. Whenever either one of them had a day off, the other always took the early morning shift the next day so they could make the most of another lie-in.
Although Eden hadn’t had much of a lie-in that morning when Dougie had woke her up to make love to her again. Then they’d ended up having a shower together and he’d made love to her again. The memory of it was enough to make her smile even more. He couldn’t keep his hands off her, which was fortunate as she couldn’t get enough of him either.
He’d gone out for a run before she’d left the house and she knew he would be in here after. It was becoming a regular habit and she loved it.
Clare looked up at her and smiled but her smile grew even bigger as Eden walked round the counter towards her. She took her hat and coat off and hung it up and turned back to face Clare.
‘Does your beautiful smile have anything to do with that rather gorgeous boyfriend of yours?’ Clare asked.
Word had certainly got around the island quickly. Though they had hardly been discreet. And was Dougie her boyfriend? Regardless of what they were now, Dougie was the sole reason for her being so happy and she didn’t care who knew it.
‘Yes it does.’
‘So you two are a thing now?’
‘We’re something,’ Eden said, unable to stop herself from smiling, even if she couldn’t pinpoint what that something was. ‘He says he loves me.’
‘Oh, Eden, I’m so happy for you. You two have finally got together after all this
time. Everyone said that he came back here for you and I was so sure he had a thing for you for years and now it’s really happened.’ Clare flapped her hands around excitedly. ‘And you love him right? Of course you do.’
‘I really do, I don’t even care who knows it any more, I love him,’ she raised her voice. ‘I love Dougie Harrison.’
‘Well that’s good to know,’ Dougie said, and she spun around to see that the man himself had come in. It was clear he’d been out for a run; his red hair was slightly damp from the fog outside and the running top that he was wearing hugged his chest and his broad arms. It was hard not to remember spending the night wrapped in those arms. He was watching her with that glorious charming smile. And the wonderful thing was she didn’t even feel embarrassed about Dougie having heard her because she was pretty sure he felt the same.
She walked back around the counter and leaned up and kissed him, just briefly. He smiled against her lips as he kissed her back.
‘I thought I might get some lunch in here if that’s OK? I’ve got a bit of work I need to get on with so I won’t disturb you.’
‘Of course you can stay, what would you like to eat?’
‘I’ll have a ham and mozzarella toastie please and a gingerbread latte and no arguments about me paying this time.’
‘OK, coming right up.’
She slipped back behind the counter and Clare gave her a huge grin. Dougie settled himself at a nearby table and pulled his iPad from his bag.
‘Oh I meant to say, the Pots and Paints bank account is looking a bit short this month, what with the kiln repairs we did last week and the new pottery wheel we had delivered,’ Clare said.
‘That’s OK, would you mind transferring some money from my personal savings account to cover it?’ Eden said as she busied herself doing Dougie’s toastie. She had known Clare for so long she trusted her completely and would often get her to pay bills from the bank account or transfer money over from her personal account whenever it was needed.
‘No problem, I’ll do that now,’ Clare said and disappeared into the little office in the corner.