Christmas at Lilac Cottage: (#1 White Cliff Bay) (9 page)

H
is response was instant
, his hands holding her face gently, his lips touching hers with the softest of kisses, his mouth lingering slowly. His tongue licked her bottom lip, ever so slightly, and she opened to him. As his tongue touched hers, the taste of him exploded through her and she flushed with embarrassment at the moan that escaped her throat. The sweet, spicy smell of him invaded her senses, his touch on her face, the feel of him against her mouth, it was too much all at once. She wanted to separate each sensation, each feeling, each moment and appreciate it all slowly but there was no time for any of that.

Eventually he pulled back slightly to look at her. He smiled. ‘I’ve been wanting to do that since you opened the door to me on that first night.’

She smiled. ‘Me too.’

He moved to the sofa, taking her with him. He sat down in the corner of the sofa and pulled her onto his chest, wrapping his arm round her shoulders.

‘Do you want to talk about what went on tonight?’ he asked softly.

She nodded, telling him all about Chris and his parents and the new baby and he listened without interrupting, without taking his eyes off hers. It was a cathartic release to talk about it with someone after so long keeping it locked up inside. Whilst she talked he wrapped a blanket round her, warming her from the outside and from the inside with his kind gesture.

When she had finished she rested her head on his chest and closed her eyes, suddenly feeling like she had run a marathon. She wasn’t sure what the future held for her and Henry, but it didn’t seem to matter right then, lying in his arms.

He shifted slightly beneath her and she found her hand instinctively gripping his shirt, before she quickly released him. She opened her eyes to look at him and he smiled at her.

‘Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.’

She smiled and let herself drift off to sleep.

H
enry woke
the next morning to find he was stretched out on the sofa, Penny lying completely on top of him, her face buried in his neck. Her soft breath on his skin was one of the most wonderful feelings he’d ever had.

He couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss, how it felt, how she tasted. He wanted so much more.

Guilt suddenly slammed into him. For the first time in his life, Daisy hadn’t been at the forefront of his mind. She had specifically asked him not to do anything with Penny and, although he hadn’t promised anything, he had decided to respect her wishes and not take things any further. But that hadn’t even entered his head the night before when Penny had kissed him and he had most certainly kissed her back. Crap. The one thing Daisy had asked him not to do and he’d gone ahead and done it anyway. He really didn’t want to do anything that might upset or hurt Daisy.

But he was already in way over his head here. He really liked Penny. Maybe he’d just see how things went over the next few days, maybe nothing would happen between them at all and there would be no point bringing it up with Daisy. Maybe the kiss would be the last of it. But he had only known Penny for a few days and he’d already kissed her and spent the night with her, albeit in a far more gentlemanly fashion than any other woman he’d spent the night with. Things were not looking good for something casual.

He eyed the clock above the fire and knew he had to get up, even though he would have quite liked to have stayed there all day. He was supposed to go to work for a few hours today so they could show him a few things and he could get used to some of the tools and equipment, meet his line manager and some of the people on his team.

He shifted, trying to get up without waking her, but her eyes shot open.

‘Hi,’ he said, resisting the urge to smooth her hair from her face.

‘Hi.’

‘I need to go. I have to pop to work today and I don’t want Daisy to wake up and find I’m not there.’

‘Of course you don’t.’ She sat up and shifted off him and he stood up, leaving her sitting on the sofa, looking sleepy and adorable.

‘She’ll probably try to hang around with you, but just tell her to sod off if she gets on your nerves.’

‘I’m happy to have her around, she’s lovely.’

He nodded, not really sure how to say goodbye.

‘Thank you for being there last night and staying with me and for…’ she trailed off, touching her lips. She was remembering the kiss and wonderful memories slammed into his mind too.

He smiled and gave her a little wave before walking out. God, that kiss had been sublime, he wanted nothing more than to go back and do it again. He made it halfway across the kitchen before his control snapped. He turned and strode back towards her, immediately taking her face in his hands and kissing her hard.

She started a little before her hands slid round his neck, running her fingers over the fine hairs at the back of his head and kissing him back. She smiled against his lips before she pulled back slightly.

‘You need to go.’

He nodded, kissing her briefly. ‘I’ll see you tonight.’

He walked out, suddenly feeling a hell of a lot better about his day. He let himself through the connecting door and came face to face with Daisy as she came down the stairs. Guilt burned through his gut. Why had he not thought about Daisy when he had cuddled up on the sofa and decided to spend the night with his wonderful neighbour?

Her eyes widened as she took in the same clothes he was wearing the night before.

‘Did you spend the night with her?’

He closed the door behind him. ‘Yes but not like that, she was upset, I was just comforting her. I fell asleep on her sofa but I promise, no clothes were removed, I just stayed with her, that’s all.’

That and two incredible kisses but he didn’t want to tell Daisy about that yet. He had to figure out how he felt for Penny before he told his daughter. She wouldn’t be happy, he knew that.

‘I need a shower and then I’m going to work for a few hours. Will you be OK around here for a bit?’

Daisy nodded. ‘I’ll see if Penny will mind me watching her ice carving again. Or maybe I can walk Bernard with her.’

‘Well, don’t harass her, I’m sure she’s very busy with all the carving jobs she needs to do and I think she has a competition tonight.’

‘I won’t be in the way.’

He smiled. ‘I’m sure you won’t.’

He ran up the stairs. He never wanted her to feel in the way again.

P
enny stared at the flowers
. There were bouquets of every colour, flower, size and arrangement covering her table. She sipped her tea and wondered if it would be safe to go into town later or whether she would be lifted on people’s shoulders and paraded through the streets. Maybe it would be easier to stay up here out the way.

She heard the connecting door open and peered through the blooms to see a pair of pink-socked feet which she guessed belonged to Daisy.

‘Wow, did someone die?’ Daisy asked.

‘These are from Sam and Alex’s parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, neighbours and anyone else in the town that heard about last night’s little adventure. It doesn’t help that Pippa, the boys’ mum, is the Mayor of White Cliff Bay. There’s a certain amount of glory that comes from saving the Mayor’s kids.’

‘In that case, surely you should get the Victoria Cross or some other kind of medal.’

Penny laughed. ‘I have better than that: there’s five cakes in the fridge and four bottles of wine. Would you like a slice of cake?’

‘Oh yes, if there’s some going spare.’ Daisy sat down opposite Penny and cleared a small space so she could see her through the flowers. Penny stood up to get some cake. ‘Did they come round then, Sam and Alex’s parents?’

‘Yeah, I’d just got back from walking Bernard and they were here waiting for me, there’s been a steady stream of deliveries ever since.’

‘What did they say? We saw who I presume was the boys’ dad running out of a café when it all kicked off. What kind of parents would leave their kids to play outside on the street while they go and have a cup of tea in the café? Alex couldn’t have been older than eight or nine and Sam looked about five. It’s neglectful.’

Penny put the chocolate cake on a plate and cut two slices. ‘Pippa is pregnant and she nearly passed out while they were watching the fire breather. Mike rushed her into the café and told the boys to stay where they were for a second. He was only gone for two minutes.’

‘They shouldn’t have been left at all.’

Penny smiled at the outrage of someone who had never had the responsibility of looking after a child twenty-four hours a day.

‘You can’t watch them every second of the day, and even when you do watch them, accidents still happen. Mike apparently asked Jade to watch them for a few minutes while he took care of Pippa.’

‘What? That’s even worse than leaving them on their own.’

‘Well yes, she was just the nearest person there at the time.’

‘So did Jade just wander off and leave them?’

‘Mike doesn’t know, there was no sign of her at all when he came back out. They were both very apologetic and thankful. I don’t think we should judge them too harshly.’

Penny passed Daisy her cake and sat down to eat her own. Daisy took a big bite and moaned with pleasure. ‘Well, if they bring cakes like this round, I guess not. Dad loves chocolate cake so if you want to find a way to his heart, definitely ply him with lots of this.’

Penny scooped a bit of chocolate icing up from the plate, deliberately not looking at Daisy. She got the sense that Daisy didn’t want her to date Henry, though she wasn’t sure why.

‘I know he stayed the night last night.’

‘Nothing happened,’ Penny said, awkwardly. Apart from the best kiss she’d ever had. ‘I was just a little upset.’

‘What about?’

Penny smiled at her brazen confidence. ‘The pub is owned by my ex-boyfriend’s parents, it just brought back some memories. Do you want to carry on with your snowflake?’

Daisy didn’t notice the subject change, but her eyes lit up at the prospect of carving again.

‘I have a competition tonight, you’re welcome to come with me if you want to. You can meet some of the other carvers too. I’d like to say they are a friendly bunch but some of them are a little weird, but it should be fun. Some of them have very different techniques to me and I can talk you through some of them when we see them.’

‘I’d love that, I’m sure Dad won’t mind.’

‘Brilliant. Oh, and Josh will be there too.’

Daisy’s face split into a grin. ‘He’s lovely. We chatted a little bit while we were waiting for you yesterday. Does he work for you?’

‘He’s my assistant and mainly my muscles. The ice sculptures are very heavy and you need two people to lift them and move them. He comes up here two or three times a week to help to take the ice blocks out of the machines and helps me transport all my sculptures to events. I put an advert in the local paper for a big, strong man and he applied. I got the piss taken out of me for months afterwards. He’s very quiet, very sweet. He’s only seventeen. I’m sure you’ll get on with him.’

‘It would certainly be nice to make some friends round here,’ Daisy said, a mischievous glint in her eyes that Penny didn’t like.

‘Well, let’s get changed and then we can carve for a bit before tonight’s competition.’

Henry was definitely not going to thank her for setting his daughter up with a tattooed, muscular seventeen year old. Nothing was ever simple.

H
enry stood
on the warehouse floor of the White Cliff Bay Furniture Company. He looked around at the other workers and at the natural light flooding through the windows that sent ribbons of gold over the dark wood. He was going to enjoy working here. He was going to get to work with his hands every day, nurturing and perfecting beautiful pieces of handmade furniture. He was going to learn new processes and skills too and that was always something he was keen to do. White Cliff Bay Furniture Company was one of the biggest names in the world for handmade pieces and he was going to be a part of that.

He had met several members of the team he would be working with after Christmas when he started properly. They all seemed happy, cheerful people, singing and chatting and laughing while they worked. He knew he was going to love working with them.

He was waiting for Daniel, his line manager, to come back with some paperwork for him to sign when he heard the click-clack of heels across the hard floor. As all the women who worked on the factory floor wore steel toecapped boots, he turned to look at the foreign sound.

It was the fiery red hair he saw first, cascading in long curls down one side of her face. In a black trouser suit and sky high red heels, she looked like a force to be reckoned with. She was beautiful, there was no denying that, but there was a cold arrogance that marred her features. She didn’t look at anyone as she passed, almost as if they weren’t good enough to be looked at.

She was walking straight towards him.

‘Clara Stratton, CEO.’ She offered out a hand, clearly hoping he would be impressed with that title. He wasn’t, he’d already met who he considered to be the real CEO, Edward, who had stopped to talk to almost every person on the factory floor earlier. He shook her hand anyway, noting her eyes were as cold as ice, a direct contrast to her fiery hair.

‘Henry Travis, I’m starting work here after Christmas.’

This news clearly surprised her; she obviously had no idea about new staff, whereas Edward had recognised him from the interviews and made a point of coming and chatting with him for a good half hour when he saw him earlier.

‘Oh, that’s a pleasant bit of good news. It’s nice to have a bit of eye candy to look at every day at work.’

Henry refrained from letting his jaw drop. Surely if it had been Edward chatting to a new female employee like that, she could have slapped a sexual harassment suit on him faster than he could blink. But Henry would be nice to her, he had to. He couldn’t do anything to risk his job here before he had even started. He forced a smile onto his face.

‘I think you’ll be very happy here. I can help you settle in if you like. We should go out for dinner one night and we can talk about the White Cliff Bay Furniture Company, the expectations we have for you.’