Playing the Playboy's Sweetheart

by Carol Marinelli

  Emily headed back to work, glad that she had their friendship back and very determined to keep it at just that!

  CHAPTER FOUR

  IN A MINUTE she would get up and get dressed and tidy up a bit before Hugh got here, Emily thought, enjoying the warm sun on her skin.

  The weather was blissfully warm and after a long walk on the beach Emily had returned to the small cottage she was renting. She made herself a big glass of iced water filled with slices of cucumber and lemon and headed out to the sundeck to enjoy her latest book, along with the sound of the sea in the background.

  Emily lay on her stomach and undid her bikini top to avoid strap marks and settled in to read the morning away. Hugh had just texted to say that he expected to get there at about one and that he was bringing not just lunch but afternoon tea and dessert. The plan was to take loads of photos inside and out and change clothes and things and then Hugh would head off for the night and tomorrow Emily could get on with doing precisely nothing.

  She was looking forward to seeing him, though, but was just a little bit nervous too because their friendship had mainly been in the safe confines of theatre walls. It was outside Theatre that things tended to get a little out of hand.

  Still, she was nicely nervous at the thought of Hugh joining her and Emily put down her book and allowed herself to indulge in one tiny daydream, or rather one tiny memory, Emily corrected herself as she returned to their near kiss the other night.

  Ah, but the next night he’d got off with Gina, Emily reminded herself.

  They would be friends with no benefits, Emily told herself firmly, and then closed her eyes and got back to thinking about a problem that wasn’t named Hugh.

  Did she really want to leave her job?

  She should be dwelling on that, instead of remembering the feel of his lips on her face, but thinking about work was too complicated for eleven in the morning and she was here to relax after all, so she didn’t fight it when her mind slipped to a kiss that had taken place all those years ago...

  * * *

  For Hugh, it had been a long and difficult week. He’d had to take Ernest back to Theatre and was very worried about the elderly man, but he was also concerned about Gina. She had been off sick all week and it had not gone unnoticed by Hugh.

  The thought of spending a day with Emily, even if it involved a ten-hour round trip, had been a very pleasant distraction during a trying week. His rare quiet times had been taken up with the question that if he were going to join Emily for two nights of sizzling sex and two days of the same, what supplies would he bring?

  Instead of stopping at the supermarket for a quiche and a few tomatoes, as well as some champagne, which was Hugh’s best attempt at a picnic, he took Alex’s advice and rang Fortnum & Mason and ordered their best picnic hamper, filled with delicious treats. As well as that, while picking it up he bought a few extras in the food hall and so, with a gorgeous scent filling the car, by the time he arrived, just a little behind schedule, Hugh was starving.

  He had found the cottage easily but there was no smiling Emily opening the door.

  It would seem that there was no Emily home.

  Maybe she had gone for a walk, Hugh thought, calling out her name as he headed around the side of the cottage to the back garden, and then he saw an Emily he never had before.

  There she lay on her back, and her large breasts were, to his discredit, the first thing that Hugh noticed.

  They were very pink, as was her stomach.

  For a moment there he did consider waking her up by pouring the remains of her jug of water over her but he knew that Emily would loathe that she had been caught in an unguarded moment and she was doing him a huge favour after all. So Hugh resisted a more fun awakening for Emily and headed back to the front of the house and knocked more loudly on the door while calling out her name, and it was that that Emily woke up to.

  God!

  Emily pulled off that bikini top that had travelled up around her neck and quickly put on a loose T-shirt before opening the door. ‘Sorry!’ She gave Hugh a wide smile. ‘I was on the phone.’

  Liar, Hugh thought. ‘For a moment there I thought that I had the wrong place, or that maybe you’d decided it was all too much trouble.’

  ‘It’s no trouble, if that’s what I think it is!’ Emily said, her eyes widening when she saw the picnic hamper and then widening more as Hugh unloaded the rest of the car with some very nice treats. ‘How much food have you brought?’

  ‘Three days’ worth!’ Hugh said, putting the basket down on the kitchen table. ‘Nothing is too much trouble for you, my love,’ he teased. ‘We’re the talk of the hospital, you know!’

  ‘I do know!’

  Since they had announced on Facebook that they were in a relationship the hospital grapevine had gone a little bit wild, but the main comments had been What took the two of you so long? Or About time.

  ‘We’ll be old news soon,’ Hugh said.

  They unloaded the shopping into the kitchen and Emily gave him a little tour of downstairs but halted him as he went to head upstairs.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘Nature’s calling.’

  ‘There’s a loo downstairs,’ Emily said, because she hadn’t even made the bed upstairs and she had knickers and bras all over the bathroom.

  Why the hell had she fallen asleep?

  ‘How many bedrooms does it have?’ Hugh asked. ‘Seriously, Emily, that was a very long drive.’

  ‘Two,’ Emily said, but didn’t offer him the use of the spare one. She had, till he’d arrived, felt a bit guilty about making him drive all the way back tonight, but now she was rather relieved that she had been so firm about it.

  He looked tired but there was a certain energy to him, a side to him she didn’t really see at work. Usually Hugh wore dark blue scrubs, sometimes she saw him in a suit, but it was the outside-work Hugh that tended to get them into trouble, and now she was starting to see why.

  Jeans were just jeans until Hugh decided to wear them. She couldn’t help but notice his bum as he put some food, champagne and wine in the fridge. His top was gunmetal grey and possibly, possibly a bit too tight, or rather too tight for Emily’s liking because she could see the stretch of lean muscles and when he turned around it confirmed his stomach was deliciously flat.

  No, it was the fridge contents that were delicious, Emily told herself as her face burnt under his gaze.

  ‘You’re sunburnt,’ Hugh said, misreading her flaming cheeks.

  ‘Just a bit.’

  ‘More than just a bit,’ Hugh said. ‘You’re going to be in absolute agony tonight.’

  ‘I shan’t, and anyway,’ Emily added, deciding to deal with the spare-room issue he had raised, here and now, ‘if I am in agony you won’t be here to witness it.’

  ‘Then we’d better get started,’ Hugh said, regretting her choice but for now accepting it. ‘Right, let’s kick things off.’

  He sat at the kitchen table and pulled out his phone. ‘Come and sit on my knee and we’ll take a photo of the two of us.’

  ‘Stop it!’ Emily started to laugh. ‘There’s no way that I’m sitting on your knee. Why don’t I just take a photo of you and then put it up and you can do the same of me?’

  ‘We’re supposed to be a couple,’ Hugh pointed out. ‘Come on, don’t be shy now...’ he teased.

  It wasn’t shyness that was the issue! Emily perched on his knee and tried to deny just how gorgeous he felt to her naked thigh.

  ‘I’m not some pervy uncle,’ Hugh said, pulling her higher up his lap, but when his hand met her suntanned, oiled thigh and Emily wriggled to get a little bit more comfortable for the picture, he amended that statement. ‘Whoops, maybe I am!’

  That made Emily laugh, just enough that a very nice photo was ta
ken and Emily remained on his knee as they examined the image and then Hugh updated his status.

  Emily has sunburn in June, he typed, and then, before posting he thought for a moment. ‘Should I make a joke about you being a Scottish rose or something?’

  ‘No, because then Alex really would know that we were faking it,’ Emily said. ‘Just leave it at that.’

  Hugh posted his status and very soon a couple of his friends had ‘liked’ the image.

  ‘We should do a few like that,’ Hugh said, but Emily would prefer that they didn’t. She was still on his knee and it felt very nice to be there. She could feel the heat of his palm on her thigh and the solidness between his legs and was actually grateful for the excuse of being sunburnt, because her body felt as if it were on fire.

  She smelt of summer—suntan oil, combined with the crisp scent of her T-shirt and an elusive fragrance that seem to be designed just for him, because in that moment both were turned on.

  She could feel his eyes burning into the back of her neck and worried she might leave a damp patch on his jeans as his hand pressed a little into her thigh. She was so turned on.

  ‘What’s for lunch?’ Emily asked, but with the air so thick and lust-laden even that sounded suggestive because had he said This and then pulled her a fraction back further onto his lap, offended was the very last thing Emily would have been.

  Or had he said This and then planted his lips where the pulse in her neck was jumping, Emily might have found herself turning around and so, rather quickly, Emily jumped from his lap.

  Her T-shirt felt like a blanket. There it was again—the sudden urge to shed her clothing that occurred when he was around. Emily opened the fridge and was rather tempted to climb into it, just so that she could have a cool place to hide.

  ‘What do you want for lunch?’ Emily said, but her words were very stilted because she was choosing them very carefully.

  ‘I would like,’ Hugh answered, equally carefully, because he was as turned on as she was, ‘whatever you would like.’

  Emily pulled out a bottle of wine.

  ‘That’s what got us here in the first place,’ Hugh pointed out.

  ‘I’m on holiday,’ Emily said, and poured two glasses.

  ‘I’ve got a very long drive tonight, so I’d better not.’

  ‘It’s just for the photos,’ Emily said, putting a glass on the table beside him.

  ‘That’s very cruel,’ Hugh said.

  It actually was—he wanted a glass of wine, he wanted to stay here a while, he wanted her to raise her arms so that he could simply strip off her T-shirt.

  Sex was in the air and he didn’t get how Emily consistently denied it.

  Hugh watched as she added a few cubes to her wine. ‘That’s so wrong!’

  ‘Ah, but it’s so nice,’ Emily said, taking a sip.

  ‘Get changed,’ Hugh said.

  ‘Changed?’

  ‘For tomorrow’s picnic.’

  ‘Of course.’

  Emily ran upstairs and selected denim shorts and a black halterneck, put on some large silver loops and some lipstick then pulled her hair out of her ponytail.

  ‘Wow!’ Hugh said, as she came down the stairs. ‘I wish I was here tomorrow to see you!’

  He had changed too but only into a different T-shirt, which was now white and only served to make his eyes more green.

  Help!

  ‘Aren’t you wearing shorts on your holiday?’ Emily teased, as they headed out to the back garden.

  ‘I don’t want you getting too excited, Em.’

  He was joking, of course, teasing her too, yet, Emily conceded, he was also telling a bit of the truth. Yes, perhaps the less of Hugh’s skin on show the better, Emily thought as she spread a blanket under the shade of a tree.

  Hugh was thinking the same because her rather ample breasts were still without a bra and when she bent over, her ample bottom actually had him look away.

  ‘Oh, my,’ Emily said, opening the hamper. ‘I don’t know where to start.’

  ‘I do,’ Hugh said, taking out a Scotch egg, ‘these taste nothing like you remember them.’

  ‘Have you had one already?’ Her eyes accused him of cheating.

  ‘One, when I was collecting the order.’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘No.’

  She squeezed lemon over wild Scottish salmon and Hugh got straight into the potted lobster, but there was just too much to choose from. From pepper and jalapeno-stuffed olives, to gorgeous cheeses and quince paste, and they chatted and laughed and smacked hands away when someone pounced on a delicacy the other wanted.

  They did everything but feed each other and in the end, for safety’s sake, Emily lay on her back rather than face him.

  ‘I never want to stop eating,’ Emily said.

  ‘Nor me.’

  ‘But I have to,’ Emily said, closing her eyes under the lovely weight of feeling full. ‘Though the pastries are calling me.’

  ‘We’ll have dessert later,’ Hugh said, and she thought of the tiny blueberry and lemon-curd tarts and wanted an empty stomach to devour them. ‘It will be good for the photos to spread them out a bit...’ Hugh’s voice trailed off as realisation hit.

  ‘Oh!’ Emily’s eyes snapped open and met Hugh’s.

  They hadn’t taken a single photo.

  Which was the whole point of him being here!

  ‘Okay,’ Hugh said, and dealt with it immediately. ‘Just stay there.’ He pulled out his phone and took a photo of Emily half-asleep, surrounded by empty containers. ‘I’ll put it up tomorrow.’

  ‘And if you write “Feeding time at the zoo is over”,’ Emily warned, ‘we’ll be over before we start.’

  ‘I was going to write exactly that.’ Hugh smiled but for a second it wavered, not that she’d notice. Emily’s eyes were still closed, but because they knew each other so well, shared the same kind of humour, they got all excited over the blood orange no-peel marmalade he’d bought her. The fact that they got each other bemused him at times.

  Why wouldn’t she give them a try?

  It was late afternoon and idyllic and more tempting than dessert was Emily’s breasts falling a little to the side, her nipples beckoning him, and he moved his gaze to her mouth and wondered what would happen if he simply leant over and kissed her.

  She’d kiss him right back.

  * * *

  Emily was very glad that her eyes were closed because she was wondering if sex in a garden was illegal.

  Maybe he could stay one night after all?

  It would be mean to send him off and there was that lovely champagne he’d bought.

  Emily’s mind was turning like a carousel as she lay there, wrestling with common sense, telling herself that sex she could handle, it was the emotional part, the inevitable bitter ending that she was attempting to shield herself from.

  She knew that his eyes were on her, could almost feel his gaze as a caress, and if she opened her own eyes...

  She did and there was his gaze waiting, but when his phone rang Hugh let out a small cuss as Emily let out a sigh of relief. She sat up, glad the moment of madness had been broken before any harm had been done, and started to collect together the picnic things.

  ‘Oh, Alex, hi.’ Hugh rolled his eyes as Alex checked in on him. ‘Yes, the weather’s being very kind. Emily is already sunburnt.’

  He glanced over to smile but Emily wasn’t looking at him. Instead, she was torturing him with her cleavage as she gathered together the plates.

  But then, as Alex told him the reason for his phone call, Hugh stopped thinking rude thoughts and wondered just what the hell he was supposed to do and how on earth he could tell Emily.

  ‘I’ll just check if Emily has any plan
s...’ He grimaced as Emily looked up and frowned at him. ‘Emily, Alex and Jennifer are heading up this way tomorrow to look at houses and they wondered if they might join us for dinner?’

  ‘That would be lovely!’ Emily said, though the smile on her face was black.

  ‘Great,’ Hugh said to Alex. ‘About six?’ Then he gave another wince and ignored her shaking head as he continued. ‘Of course you don’t need to book anywhere, there’s a spare room here.’

  ‘Oh, no!’ Emily said the second Hugh ended the call. ‘What the hell did you invite them to stay for?’

  ‘I didn’t invite them,’ Hugh protested. ‘Alex practically invited himself. I don’t doubt that he’s checking up on us. What was I supposed to say?’

  Emily picked up the basket and headed back to the house, and when Hugh followed her in she got straight to the point. ‘I’m not sharing a bed with you tomorrow night,’ she said, because she was having enough trouble keeping them apart with the kitchen table between them.

  ‘Fine. I’ll sleep on the floor.’ He went to the fridge and finally poured the glass of wine that he’d wanted since Emily had first poured hers.

  ‘You’re driving!’ Emily reminded him.

  ‘Emily, you surely don’t expect me to drive back tonight and then come here again tomorrow.’ Before she could answer that, yes, as unreasonable as it was, she expected just that, Hugh spoke over her. ‘If I do that then you’ll complain that I left shopping and all the meal preparation to you.’ When still she said nothing Hugh let out a sigh. ‘All right, I’ll see if I can get a bed and breakfast for tonight.’

  With a martyred sigh he went back to his phone and started looking for accommodation.

  ‘Did you suggest this to Alex?’ Emily asked.

  ‘I swear that I didn’t. Alex was actually saying the other day that he was going to make a bit more effort with his marriage.’

  ‘Are they having problems?’

  ‘Why do you jump straight to they must be having problems?’ Hugh asked.

  ‘Because isn’t that what it usually means?’

  ‘Not in their case. As far as I know, they are very happy, and not by accident.’ Hugh added, ‘You know how Alex always has a project on the go and he’s decided it’s time to make it about Jennifer.’ Hugh carried on looking through his phone. ‘Right, there’s a bed and breakfast two doors down from here with a vacancy.’ He carried on reading. ‘I get a full breakfast served by a very friendly host, which is more than I’ll probably get here.’ He gave her a wicked smile. ‘But I’m taking back the marmalade.’