by Holly Martin
He pulled back and grabbed the shower gel, poured it into his hands and then started washing her body. He was stroking her, caressing her, taking care of her, and it was hot as hell.
She grabbed the shower gel too and started washing his chest and arms, and was rewarded with a dazzling warm smile as she took care of him. God, she wanted nothing more than to take care of him for the rest of her life if only he’d let her.
As he continued to stroke his hands across her body she reached up and kissed him. She suddenly gasped against his lips as his fingers slipped between her thighs. He didn’t take his lips off hers for a second as he worked his magic on her. As tension built in her stomach, he pulled back slightly so he could watch her when she fell apart. It was so sexy and so intimate to have him look at her so intently in that intense moment that she quickly tumbled over the edge. Before she had caught her breath he was kissing her again, hard, seemingly as turned on by watching her as he would be if she had been touching him.
‘Is that better?’ he whispered against her lips.
‘A little.’
‘I promise, when we do make love again, it’ll be worth the wait. For now, we have a family meal to endure and I don’t think they are going to make it easy for us.’
Freya frowned slightly. ‘What does that mean?’
‘It means, if we can get out of there without my parents mentioning marriage, weddings or babies, it will be a bloody miracle.’
Freya laughed. ‘Really?’
‘Oh yes, they’ve been badgering me for years to ask you out. “Freya’s a nice girl, when you going to ask her out?” and “I really like Freya, I think you should take her out” and then more recently, “When are you going to marry Freya and give me some grandchildren?”’
Freya laughed as Rome turned the shower off.
‘She didn’t say that?’
‘That was my dad, but Mum is just as bad.’
‘That’s hilarious. But the question is, if you’ve had feelings for me for so long, why didn’t you ask me out before?’
‘Because you’re my best friend and I didn’t want to do anything to damage that.’
She smiled with love for him as Rome wrapped a towel around her and tugged her towards him so he could kiss her on the forehead.
‘So what do I say when they start asking me about when I’m going to marry you?’
‘You say, “soon”.’
Freya laughed. ‘Isn’t that giving them false hope?’
He stared at her for a moment. ‘I don’t think so.’
Her heart soared with hope herself.
‘Well, we better go and face the music. Isaac has just asked Bella to move in with him so with any luck they’ll be asking them about marriage, not us.’
Chapter Twenty-Five
Freya walked up the garden path of Rome’s parents’ house feeling slightly nervous. The last time she had seen Finn hadn’t been in the best circumstances and to know that he had immediately come home and told Lucy all about their late night swim didn’t lessen her awkwardness about the situation.
Rome was holding her hand, which made her feel slightly better. She loved how affectionate he was with her, always taking every opportunity to touch her in some way. It gave her such hope. She knew he had strong feelings for her and she was hopeful that those feelings were love or at least would be eventually. He just hadn’t figured it out or wasn’t prepared to admit it yet.
Rome knocked on the door and she heard Lucy inside practically whoop for joy.
‘They’re here, oh my god, I can’t believe she’s really here with him. Everyone, play it cool, don’t ask them embarrassing questions. Just act normal,’ Lucy bellowed at everyone else who had already arrived.
‘Just act normal?’ Freya giggled.
Rome rolled his eyes. ‘Welcome to my life.’
The door opened and, before Freya could utter a word, Lucy had yanked her into a giant bear hug.
‘Oh my dear, we’re so pleased to have you here for dinner. We’re so glad the two of you have finally got together. Come in and tell us all about it.’
Freya suppressed a giggle as she was dragged inside. What on earth was she going to tell them?
Rome shut the door behind them just as Finn came barrelling out and grabbed Freya into a big hug too.
‘I hope you’re not embarrassing them by talking about the beach incident,’ Finn said. ‘We agreed we weren’t going to talk about that.’
‘I’m not talking about it, you are,’ Lucy scolded.
‘Well, it was just a bit of a shock,’ Finn said. ‘There I was fishing, thinking about making some kind of fish curry, and then suddenly I was interrupted by two people getting naked. It was all just a bit embarrassing really. And when I realised it was my own son and Freya, well I didn’t know where to look.’
‘Stop talking about it,’ Lucy said. ‘You’re embarrassing them. I want to hear all about how you finally told each other you loved each other. I think it’s so romantic. Two best friends, falling in love after all this time. I want to hear all the details.’
‘And that’s not embarrassing?’ Finn said. ‘Maybe they don’t want to share that with everyone. If it was anything like the beach incident then maybe it’s better left unsaid.’
‘Nonsense, we are all family. We don’t have any secrets. Come through, everyone is here.’
Finn and Lucy disappeared back towards the kitchen and Freya looked up at Rome.
‘This is playing it cool?’
‘My parents don’t have that setting. They have enthusiastic, over-enthusiastic and “this is the best news ever”. I think if the day comes when Dougie and Eden ever get together, my mum might actually explode with happiness. Look, we won’t be staying long so just try to grin and bear it for a few hours.’
‘I think it’s wonderful that they’re so excited for us. I love your parents, it’s totally fine.’
‘Well, I actually have a plan for afterwards, so we really can’t stay long. We have somewhere we need to be at nine o’clock.’
‘Sounds intriguing.’
‘I’m hoping you’ll think it’s romantic.’
Lucy came back out, clearly too impatient to wait. ‘Come on dear, you can sit next to me.’
She took Freya’s hand and tugged her into the kitchen. Bella and Isaac were already sitting on one side of the table and Dougie and Eden were sitting opposite them. They all grinned at her as she was dragged in. Clearly this was totally normal behaviour from Lucy.
Lucy sat down next to Dougie and pulled Freya down beside her, leaving Rome to sit down opposite her.
Finn came over holding a bottle of champagne which he popped and the sweet foam poured from the top before he managed to get a glass under it. ‘We were saving this for a special occasion but I think we’ve got to celebrate you two getting together,’ Finn said as he filled everyone’s glasses.
Freya smirked. Actual champagne to celebrate that they were dating and having sex. It was so cute it was laughable.
‘We want to know everything,’ Lucy said. ‘How did it happen?’
How could she describe what had happened between her and Rome over the last few days? Would she start from the fateful night at the restaurant when she had cried because Rome had asked her to be his business partner and not his girlfriend? Should she include the part where she and Rome had had a row at the hotel in Penzance and then ended up having the hottest sex of her life in the shower?
‘Umm… we went to Penzance, we ended up kissing under the fireworks. We won the best float award and part of the prize was a night in the Under the Sea suite where I told him I loved him and… well, the rest as they say is history,’ Freya said, trying to skate over that he hadn’t actually said it back yet.
‘You told him?’ Lucy said. ‘That’s so romantic. He’s been in love with you since you came to the island, though he’s always been too scared to admit it or do anything about it, but any idiot could tell that he was head over heels in love with y
ou. And you, clever girl, you knew it too and instead of waiting for him to pluck up the courage to tell you, you took matters into your own hands. Did he just say it straight back to you?’
‘Wait, what do you mean? You knew I was in love with her?’ Rome asked.
‘Of course, everyone knew.’
‘What do you mean, everyone knew? We were friends, that’s all it was in the beginning.’
‘Yes dear, for the first few weeks, then you fell in love with her. We all knew that.’
‘How did you know?’
‘Because she was all you would talk about, all the time, and the way you looked at her, it was obvious. Dorothy from the WI said you didn’t know it and one day you would suddenly realise it. We all had bets on how long it would take for you two to get together. No one expected it to take this long when you were so besotted with her.’
Rome didn’t say anything, he just frowned as he focussed on his glass of champagne. Well, this was a bit awkward. The whole island thought Rome had been in love with her for years and he hadn’t. Unless he was and he really didn’t know it.
‘We have some news,’ Bella said, breaking the silence and beautifully taking the attention away from Freya and Rome.
‘Oh my god, Isaac’s proposed. I knew it, I knew he would.’
‘No, not yet,’ Bella laughed. ‘We’ve only been together three months.’
‘You’re pregnant then, I’m going to be a grandmother.’
‘No.’ Bella shook her head affectionately at Lucy and Isaac laughed. He was clearly used to this by now. ‘Isaac has asked me to move in with him.’
Lucy leapt up from her seat so fast she nearly sent Freya flying.
‘That’s wonderful news,’ Lucy said, running round the table and pulling them both into a big hug.
Bella glanced at Freya through the hugs that Finn and Lucy were plying her and Isaac with and winked.
‘Thank you,’ Freya mouthed and Bella just grinned.
‘Right, we need to go,’ Rome said, standing up.
Freya looked up from the wedding magazine that had been casually placed on the table, clearly in the hope that either Rome or Isaac would suddenly be inspired to propose. When neither men had given it even a second glance, Lucy had pushed it gently in Bella’s direction and, when Bella had pushed it firmly back into the middle of the table, Lucy had gently pushed it in Freya’s direction instead. Not wanting to offend Lucy, and not having that relationship with her that Bella did where she could be firm with her, Freya had obligingly flicked through the pages, which seemed to make Rome increasingly uncomfortable. And now he was on his feet saying goodbye to his parents.
‘Oh yes, you two have your wonderful date,’ Lucy gushed. ‘I’m so excited for the two of you. It’s so romantic.’
Rome smiled and bent to kiss his mum on the cheek. ‘Bye Mum, thanks for dinner.’
Lucy hugged him and then whispered in his ear, loud enough for everyone to hear. ‘Are you going to propose tonight?’
Freya snorted as she tried to keep the laughter in, then turned it into a cough.
Rome shook his head at Lucy and Freya saw the visible disappointment in her face.
‘Well, you two have fun anyway,’ Lucy said.
Freya stood up and Eden came to give her a hug.
‘Don’t pay any attention to her,’ Eden whispered. ‘She means well.’
Freya smiled. ‘I love your mum.’
Bella hugged her too. ‘Well, at least you took the heat off us a little bit.’
Freya grinned. ‘And thank you for sharing the load.’
She turned back to see Lucy finishing her conversation with Rome and she came over to give Freya a hug goodbye. ‘So good to see you tonight, you’ll come again next week, won’t you? I promise there’ll be no more talk about weddings. I just got a bit carried away tonight.’
‘It’s totally fine. I love how happy you are for us. I think Rome was more bothered by it than I was.’
Lucy waved away her concerns. ‘He’s always held himself back. With you he can truly be himself. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to him, I truly believe that. He’ll realise it soon enough.’
Rome appeared at her side and took Freya’s hand. They said their goodbyes and then Rome ushered her out onto the street.
‘I’m sorry about them.’
‘Don’t be. Your parents are wonderful. We didn’t have to leave just because the wedding magazine came out.’
‘We didn’t leave because of that. I told you I have a date planned.’
To Freya’s surprise, they didn’t walk down the hill towards the town but up the hill and then along the footpath that would take them towards the western corner of the island. Freya was intrigued. There wasn’t a lot up that end of the island, a few cottages, a few boats were kept there, but as they came to the end of the path and the field opened out in front of them, she saw the big white domed building ahead of them and she gasped.
‘Are we going to the observatory?’
‘Yes we are.’
‘I didn’t think it was open to the public yet.’
‘It isn’t. Amelia is letting us look around before the grand opening in a few weeks’ time.’
‘That’s fantastic, how exciting,’ Freya said, a huge smile spreading across her face.
‘Well, you said you wanted to see space. I know part of that dream was to travel through space and as that’s a bit tricky to accomplish for you at the moment, I thought this would be the next best thing.’
‘Oh.’ Freya’s heart filled with love for him as she realised the significance of the venue. This was not just a romantic date, this was about making her dreams come true. It was not possible to love him more than she did right then. She swallowed down a big lump in her throat.
He stroked her face and held her close. ‘I thought tomorrow we could spend some time booking our safari holiday too. I want to make sure it’s the right one for you, that it ticks all those boxes for you in terms of the animal experiences. So I thought we could book it together.’
‘Thank you, this is amazing, thank you so much. That will be four out of five things on my list you’ve made come true for me.’
He kissed her on the forehead. ‘I’m working on the fifth,’ he whispered.
He looked into her eyes and she knew he was just asking for more time. Right then, she would have given him all the time in the world.
‘Come on, let’s go inside.’
Amelia was waiting for them inside and Freya noticed several computers and large telescopes. On the roof of the dome a huge, detailed photo of the moon was projected into the darkened room, so it was gleaming down upon them.
‘Hey guys, good to have you here. As you can probably tell, we’re not quite ready for the public yet and if you both come back in a few weeks, I’ll give you a proper guided tour and talk to you a little bit about what we do here, but I have some great photos to show you. These are all ones we have taken from here using our astral imaging equipment.’ Amelia turned to Freya. ‘Rome thought you might want to watch one of the videos we have made for the public of all the photos. The one you’re about to watch is called, “Travelling Through Space”.’
Freya smiled. Oh god, this man.
‘I’ve got some things I need to take care of in my office, so I’ll leave you guys to it. Just give me a knock before you go,’ Amelia said, handing Rome a remote control. She smiled at Freya and then left them alone.
‘This is incredible, look at that moon,’ Freya said, staring up at the great orb in wonder. She could see every crater, every lump and bump in glorious detail. She felt like she could reach out and touch it.
‘Shall we sit down and watch the video?’ Rome said and indicated two leather recliners that were positioned so they could lie back and look at the photos on the dome above them.
Freya sat down and lay back as Rome did the same next to her. Rome pressed a button on the remote and the video started playing. Several different images o
f the moon passed by on the ceiling above them and Freya stared in awe at the wonderful detail the camera had managed to capture.
The next few photos were of vibrant nebulas that looked like coloured clouds or arcs of bright lightning in space. It was beautiful and unlike anything she had seen before. Because the domed roof stretched all round them, it felt like they were actually there as the pictures changed while they travelled through the dark wilderness.
‘It’s a shame there’s no commentary, I’d like to hear more about these photos and what we’re actually looking at,’ Freya said, settling back into her chair.
‘There is, but I have it on mute,’ Rome said. ‘I thought it would just be more romantic to look at the pictures.’
‘No, I want to hear all about it. I want to learn it all,’ Freya protested. ‘Can you go back to the beginning and play the commentary this time?’
Rome obliged and the commanding voice of the narrator filled the dome as the film started again.
Freya giggled because Rome was right. There was nothing romantic about this. But she didn’t care. As the narrator launched into his spiel about the moon and the other images, Freya sat listening to every word.
Rome watched Freya with wonder. She was a geek just like him. She was loving listening to all the facts about space, finding it as fascinating as he would, though right now the only thing he could look at was her. He smiled at her. He had seen elements of this geeky side before – she was always fascinated when he came out with some little nugget or fact and she would often quiz him about the book he was reading whenever he brought a new one into work. This little detail was something else he loved about her.
The smile slid off his face as he thought about that. He was in love with her. He was in love with her.
He thought back to what his mum had said about everyone on the island thinking that he loved her for the last two years. Had he really been in love with her all this time and he just didn’t know? How could he not have known?
He had nothing to compare it to, that was the problem. He had this belief that he had been in love with Paige and he knew this didn’t feel like that. Looking back, maybe he loved Paige but he wasn’t in love with her. Or maybe it had only been lust. But suddenly it didn’t matter any more what he had felt for Paige. It had been six years and she would have wanted him to move on. He certainly wasn’t going to feel guilty about it any more. The only thing that mattered was his feelings for Freya.