The Little Village of Happiness: A gorgeous uplifting romantic comedy to escape with this summer

by Martin, Holly

  They passed the ruins of the old houses.

  ‘No more stories about fairies and ghosts then?’ she said.

  ‘Actually I do have a story. Well, not really a story, more like a little nugget of information. This house here was known as the honeymoon house.’

  ‘Really, why?’

  ‘Apparently when a couple in the village got married, they would spend their wedding night here. The villagers would come out and decorate it during the day, get it all ready for them, but it was considered to be a very lucky place to consummate the wedding.’

  ‘Blessed by the fairies?’ Willow said.

  ‘Something like that.’

  In the light of the torch she could see Andrew’s mischievous smile.

  ‘Are you telling me this for some particular reason?’

  He shrugged. ‘Well if it’s a lucky place to…’

  ‘Have sex?’

  ‘Yes. I think we could…’

  ‘Consummate our relationship here?’

  ‘Yes,’ he grinned in the darkness.

  ‘It’s a bit bloody late for that if last night was anything to go by,’ Willow said.

  ‘Yes but that wasn’t blessed by the fairies.’

  ‘I’m not sure I want the fairies to watch us having sex.’

  ‘I tell you what, we’ll turn the torch off so the fairies can’t see,’ Andrew said, snapping the torch off and plunging them into darkness.

  A thrill of excitement burst through her. She couldn’t even see Andrew but she could feel his warmth as he stepped closer to her. He was still holding her hand and he placed a sweet kiss on her forehead before he stepped away and led her inside the four walls of the house.

  Impossibly, it seemed even darker in here – though the house didn’t have a roof and she could see the moon above them, the stone walls blocked out any further light.

  Andrew cupped her face in the darkness and kissed her, gently. She ran her hands down his shoulders, feeling the muscles there, taut and strong. He slipped her jacket from her shoulders and, as it fell to the floor, he placed a kiss on her collar bone. God, that simple touch from him was enough to have her climbing the walls with need for him. He placed another warm kiss on her shoulder. There was something so incredibly sexy about being kissed in the darkness, not knowing what he was doing, just feeling his hot mouth on her body.

  She could see his shadow, looming large in front of her, but she couldn’t see anything else. She felt her way down his sides until she found the hem of his t-shirt and slid it up over his head.

  She ran her hands gently down his chest, caressing across his stomach, and heard his breath hitch. This was heaven. She had enjoyed seeing Andrew naked but this was a whole new level of intimacy, like she was truly exploring him for the first time. She felt the slight bumpiness of a scar just under his ribcage, she felt the contours of his broad chest and placed a kiss right over his thundering heart.

  He pulled down the top of her dress, exposing one of her breasts to the cool night air, but she let out a groan as his hot mouth was suddenly on it, kissing her, teasing her with his tongue.

  ‘Christ Andrew,’ Willow whispered in the darkness.

  She needed this man right now.

  She stepped away slightly.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Andrew said.

  ‘Taking my knickers off,’ Willow laughed.

  ‘Planning ahead, I like it.’

  ‘Not too far ahead, I hope,’ Willow said, feeling his warm hands at her waist.

  He shuffled her back gently against the wall, kissing her hard. She moaned against his lips and wrapped one leg around his hips. He didn’t take his mouth from hers as suddenly his hand was right there between her legs, caressing, stroking until she was shouting out all manner of nonsense.

  She felt him fumble around in his pocket, heard the tear of the foil packet as it glinted in the moonlight. The next thing he lifted her and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He kissed her hard as he slid perfectly inside of her. She wrapped her arms round his neck, pulling herself tighter against him as he moved deeper inside her. His hands were underneath her bottom, pinning her to the wall with his wonderful body.

  Her heart roared against her chest, that incredible feeling building inside her again.

  ‘Can you feel this connection between us?’ Andrew said.

  ‘Yes,’ Willow moaned, teetering right on the edge.

  To her frustration, Andrew stopped and that feeling started to fade away.

  ‘I don’t mean amazing sex, although sex with you is always amazing. I mean this incredible connection, this spark between us. This is what it feels like when you’re in a proper relationship, when the person you’re with is so incredible, so brilliant and kind and warm, it feels like this passion is impossible to contain. Tell me you feel that too?’

  ‘I feel it,’ Willow said against his lips. And so much more.

  He kissed her again and started moving again and that feeling started to build inside her again, spiralling out to every part of her body as he took her higher and higher.

  God she loved this man. It was utterly ridiculous to feel like this after such a short amount of time but she knew that she loved him. She wanted to tell him, to shout it out for everyone to hear, but something held her back. Those three little words were so big and so important and so terrifying and she didn’t want to casually throw them out during sex. But maybe she could tell him without saying it.

  And just as that feeling burst through her she whispered against his lips. ‘Elephant shoes.’

  She felt him still as she fell apart around him and then he was kissing her passionately, moving against her faster and harder, holding her tight as he fell over the edge himself.

  Twenty-Seven

  Andrew stroked a hand down Willow’s hair as she slept on his chest. He was exhausted himself. It was already approaching nine in the morning and he had to get up and go to work. He was loath to wake Willow, and he would much rather spend the rest of the day sleeping off the night before with her wrapped in his arms, but he had a ton of stuff to do.

  After making love in the honeymoon house, he’d practically marched her back to Sunrise Cottage, tumbled through the door onto the sofa and made love to her again. Then they’d kissed for what felt like hours, just kissing and stroking and touching, before he’d taken her up to her bed and made love to her again.

  Christ this woman. He was never ever going to have his fill of her.

  And she loved him, this incredible, smart, amazing woman loved him.

  He remembered telling her that when deaf people lip-read a lot of words look the same on the lips. And that ‘I love you’ looks exactly the same as ‘elephant shoes’ or ‘olive juice’. Those weren’t just two random words she had uttered in the throes of passion, she had deliberately chosen ‘elephant shoes’.

  To hear her say those words the night before, those two words that only he would understand, well he couldn’t keep his hands off her after that.

  He had never felt so complete in his life before, like there had always been something missing and now she had filled that hole so it was completely overflowing.

  He ached for her, which was ridiculous when he barely had the energy to open his eyes.

  He’d wanted to say the words back, but when had been the right time – when his mouth was on her breast, when his hand was between her legs, when he was buried deep inside her? The words were too important for that. And he didn’t want to say them now when he had to rush off for work. But equally he didn’t want to go another second without telling her how he felt. She deserved to know. He would wake her and tell her now. He smiled as he pictured how heated that conversation could get. He looked at the clock again, wondering if he could spend another half hour in bed with her. Although that wouldn’t be enough. He sighed; realistically he was already running late and with only ten more days before the open day, there was so much to do.

  He gently rolled her onto her back and she stir
red slightly, her eyes flickering open for just a few seconds. She smiled when she saw him and then seemed to drift back off to sleep again with a big contented grin on her face.

  That smile was going to get him through the whole day.

  He slipped from the bed and quickly got washed and dressed, watching her sleep the whole time. He loved this woman so much.

  He bent down and kissed her on the cheek and then whispered in her ear. ‘I love you.’

  She didn’t even stir this time, although she was still smiling as she carried on dreaming.

  He smiled and left the house.

  * * *

  Willow woke to an empty bed. She sat up and looked around. It was quite clear Andrew wasn’t in the house. She looked at the clock and saw it was already half past nine so he must have gone to work.

  She hoped his absence didn’t have anything to do with sort of telling him she loved him the night before. Although the way he hadn’t been able to stop kissing, touching and making love to her throughout the whole night was a good indication that he either wasn’t bothered by her words or he hadn’t heard them.

  He’d never said the words back but then what did she expect, she hadn’t properly said them either. And to be fair, it had only been a week since they’d met. Just because she had crazily fallen in love with him, she couldn’t expect him to feel the same so early into their relationship.

  She needed to get up and go and see Kitty and Ken about the next part of the plan from the Secret Society of Happiness. She also needed to get to the shop – more orders had come through yesterday while she took the day off and she needed to go in and sort those out, quickly. Then she needed to do some more painting and help Ruby with the fairy lights. She felt bad because, although Andrew had agreed the fairy lights would make a lovely touch to the village, it was creating more work for him as he was the one would have to hook up the power to all of them. She only hoped that all of this effort was going to pay off on the open day.

  * * *

  Andrew came out of the castle on his quad bike after talking through a few renovations with Kitty and Ken. He spotted Morgan on her hands and knees as she continued to paint the screens. She hadn’t been there when he’d gone into the castle earlier. He wanted to talk to her about what she’d said to Willow. He was less angry today. After the wonderful night before that had happened in spite of Morgan’s meddling, he was finding it hard to wipe the smile off his face, but Morgan still needed to know it was inappropriate.

  He pulled up his quad bike behind her van and climbed off. She smiled at him as she looked up from her work. She stood up and came over to talk to him.

  ‘How’s it going?’ Andrew asked, although from what he could see it looked fantastic.

  ‘Great actually. I’m really enjoying this one. I’ve finished two of the screens so if you’ve got a spare few minutes you can help me erect them.’

  ‘Sure, whatever you need.’

  ‘OK, give me a moment, I need to clear these paints out the way.’

  He watched her put the lids carefully back on the pots and tubes of paints.

  ‘You were late starting today.’ He cringed as soon as he said it. He didn’t want to sound like the big boss, but the open day was fast approaching and the screens had to be finished by then. Although she was clearly making good progress.

  She grinned at him. ‘Sorry boss, it won’t happen again.’

  He’d known she’d take the piss as soon as he’d said it.

  ‘I had a hot date last night,’ Morgan said. ‘We were at it all night and he was amazing. Very good with his hands if you know what I mean.’

  Morgan was more of a bloke than he was when it came to talking about her sex life. When they had been friends, before they’d got together, she had always given him the intimate details of whichever man she had slept with the night before. He didn’t really want to know.

  He must have pulled a face because she laughed.

  ‘You’re not jealous, are you?’

  Jealous? Nothing could be further from the truth. He had spent the night making love with the most magnificent woman he had ever met. Why would he be jealous of Morgan having no-strings-attached sex with someone else?

  ‘No, I’m not.’

  She laughed louder. ‘Oh my god, you are.’

  He sighed. ‘I’m really not.’

  ‘What we had was great, Andrew, but I’ve moved on now, to bigger and better things.’

  He stared at her and laughed out loud at that one. ‘Bigger and better things?’

  She laughed too. ‘Well I don’t want to go into too much detail…’

  ‘But I’m sure you’re going to.’

  ‘Zeus, my date from last night, he is the biggest I’ve ever seen. I never really thought size was important before, but it really is, and let me tell you he knew exactly what he was doing with it.’

  ‘Zeus?’ Was she actually making it up?

  ‘He’s from Greece.’

  ‘I’m sure he is,’ Andrew said, dryly. ‘Anyway, while we’re on the subject of sex, would you mind not discussing our sex life with my girlfriend?’

  She switched to sign language.

  ‘Oh I feel awful about that, I thought she knew about us. There she was saying that you’d told each other everything and I just presumed she knew. I did wonder why you hadn’t told her. It made me feel like a sordid little secret.’ She grinned mischievously. ‘I liked it. I don’t mind being your sordid little secret.’

  ‘You told her I’d given you multiple orgasms.’

  She laughed and continued signing. ‘Well you did.’

  He signed back. ‘And you needed to share that level of detail with her?’

  ‘I was just trying to be all girly with her. You know I’m rubbish with women. I have far more male friends than female ones. That’s what girls do right, they talk about the sex they’ve had, compare stories. I thought we could bond over a common interest.’

  Andrew sighed. ‘And what was all that stuff you told her about me having my heart broken with some woman? We’ve never talked about anything like that, why would you make out that we have?’

  ‘You went out with that girl Amy, she broke your heart,’ Morgan went on.

  ‘I’ve never been out with a girl called Amy.’

  ‘Oh, must be someone else I’m thinking of.’ Morgan shrugged as if it was no big deal, but he got the sense she had completely made it up to upset Willow, although he couldn’t exactly call her a liar.

  Morgan stopped signing.

  ‘Was she jealous that we had shared that?’ she asked incredulously. ‘Jesus, if she’s getting jealous over stuff like that, it’s not exactly a healthy start to a relationship. And she’s been staring at us for the last two or three minutes so I guess she’s not too happy about you chatting to me either.’

  He turned round and sure enough Willow was standing at the end of the road leading from the village watching them.

  Crap. Why did he immediately feel guilty?

  She waved and made her way over and he moved away from Morgan a little to greet her. He cupped Willow’s face in his hands and kissed her. God, how could the taste of her turn him on so much?

  ‘You were fast asleep when I left you this morning, you looked so beautiful sleeping with this big smile on your face,’ Andrew said.

  She stroked his cheek and smiled. ‘I was dreaming of you.’

  He kissed her on the forehead and then took her hand and led her back to where Morgan was standing.

  ‘I was just on my way to see Kitty and Ken,’ Willow said as she smiled at Morgan. ‘And I saw you two signing, it’s so interesting to watch.’

  Morgan started signing to him. ‘Oh I’m glad sign language is so entertaining for her.’

  Andrew ignored that. He turned his attention back to Willow.

  ‘What were you two talking about?’ Willow asked. ‘I was trying to work it out from the gestures but it moves so fast.’

  ‘What we did last night. Sex,
you, multiple orgasms,’ Morgan supplied, rather unhelpfully but honestly.

  He watched Willow frown. She hadn’t seemed to be annoyed or jealous that he’d been talking to Morgan before but she definitely seemed pissed off now, not surprisingly.

  Willow dropped his hand. ‘Well, I need to go and see Kitty and Ken.’

  She turned and walked up the hill towards the castle.

  Andrew glared at Morgan. ‘What the hell?’

  ‘I was just being truthful.’

  He shook his head and ran up the hill after Willow.

  ‘Willow, wait.’

  She didn’t and he didn’t catch up with her until they were inside the castle walls. He grabbed her arm and she rounded on him.

  ‘I can’t believe you. I woke up this morning thinking that last night was one of the most incredible, amazing nights of my life and the whole time you’re down here laughing about it. Was it really that bad?’

  ‘God, no, I wasn’t laughing about you.’

  ‘I saw you.’

  ‘That was something else entirely.’

  ‘But you boasted about us, you came down here to tell your mate all the gory details about how you gave me multiple orgasms. Last night was something beautiful and private between us and you couldn’t wait to get down here and tell Morgan all about it.’

  ‘You’ve got the wrong end of the stick completely,’ Andrew said, angrily. ‘She was telling me all about her hot date last night with Zeus who apparently has the biggest penis in the world. That was what I was laughing at. And then I told her that it wasn’t exactly appropriate for her to tell you all about my sex life with her.’

  She stared at him.

  ‘And why would you think so little of me? What kind of arsehole would I be to share that wonderful night with you and then tell all my mates about it after? Do you even know me at all?’

  ‘Maybe I don’t. Maybe you’d be better suited to someone like Morgan,’ Willow said. ‘You said yourself you have tons in common with her.’

  ‘Maybe I would,’ Andrew snapped.

  ‘Fine.’