Sexy Summers (Sexy Series) (22 page)

"No, it's just the cool breeze, it makes my eyes water."

"Okay, as long as my girl is good."

"Are you coming for a coffee with us?" I ask, hoping they will, we've only been apart for a few hours and already I need him near me, holding me. It's as if I run on Luke powered batteries that can only go so long without being charged. I can't remember ever being so
dependent on anyone, especially not emotionally. I feel like I've stepped into someone else's life, and I love it too much to ever leave.

"Sure... Danny?" he calls, disturbing his and Bea's clearly private conversation, she's smiling and flushed and he's got naughty thoughts written all over his face. "You wanna join the girls for coffee?"

"Sure," he replies, and they look to Oliver for his approval.

Sitting around the table in the warm coffee shop, all I can do is gaze at him, thinking about Wriggler. I'm psyching myself up to tell him. I will tell him today, absolutely, definitely. I will find the appropriate time and he will know. He will be shocked, maybe a little cross that I have kept it from him, but he'll be okay. He'll be fine, maybe even a little excited. He won't leave us.
Oh fucking fuckers, I hope he doesn't leave us. I think my heart would just stop beating.

"Did you buy me stuff?" he asks, cheekily, making me grin. Again.

"Maybe. Did you buy me stuff?"

"Yep. But it's all in the car so you can't go exploring my bags."

"I like surprises, anyway."

"Good," he says, "me too."
Oh god, I hope that's true!

"So when are you off to the slopes?" I ask, enjoying the fact that he will be able to do what he so loves again, instead of having to stay in with me. Though I will look forward to his return; I am definitely ready for
him to throw me about again... maybe somewhere naughty. Oh, and also because I will be discussing Wriggler with him.
Yes, Tilly. Get with the programme, stop thinking about sex; hot, hard, scream-worthy, bad-boy sex...

"I don't know if I'm going to go, I want to come home with you." he says, reaching for my hand as he sips his coffee.

I play with his fingers and smile. "Do you?"

"Yeah. I really do. And not just to poke you with my baton either."

I giggle quietly. "What do you want then?" I ask, softly.

"I want to fall asleep with you on the balcony again. Just you and me, wrapped up warm inside the comforter, listening to the snow fall." I gaze up at him and realise that I'm witnessing yet another Luke now. In-love Luke. Gentle, sweet, I-love-you-with-all-of-my-heart Luke. And I feel so special to be the one that this Luke comes out for.

I clutch his hand in both of mine and hold it to my heart. "That would be lovely, I would really, really,
really
like that. But you've agreed to go with the boys; they haven't spent any time on the slopes with you, I'd like you to go and have some fun with them."

He pouts playfully. "Oh. You don't want me?"

I giggle at his joviality, "Of course I want you. But I have to wait until you've had some fun. I can't keep hogging you. When you come back, we'll have some time together before we go to Bea and Daniels. And then, after..."

"Mmm, after? I like the sound of that. What about during? Maybe we can get up to some mischief during dinner..."

"Sounds... creative. I will look forward to it."

We continue with our group coffee date, talking about the plans for Christmas Day, tomorrow, which I'm really looking forward to. Just one little huge thing to get through first. I'm shitting myself.

We leave after we have all warmed up and rested a little; the boys head off to ski, and we visit a couple more shops before hopping back in the limo and going home. Bea stays in the car and continues back to her house to get ready for dinner, and Clare and I climb the stairs to Alexia's luxurious pad.

We go straight upstairs to Clare's room, to wrap everything. It occurs to me that I haven't even been in here yet, I've been so preoccupied with me and Luke, that I've spent no time exploring the rooms in which my friends are sleeping.

Clare's room is gorgeous, and clearly the master suite of the house. She has a beautiful stone fireplace facing the end of her bed and double French doors on either side to the large, covered balcony. Her en-suite is bigger than our entire maisonette at home, with a beautiful oval, stone bath centring the room.

"Bloody Nora, Clare, this room is flipping gorgeous!"

"I know, if you were quicker on your feet..."

"Naa, my room is fine, I'm in Luke's most of the time anyway. This must be Alexia's bedroom," I say, strolling slowly around, scoping out the features and fittings. I open the balcony door and step out to a different view than mine and Luke's rooms, but a beautiful one none-the-less.

"Come in, Til, it's freezing and I have a gazillion questions to ask you, you're forgetting that we have a little baby to talk about."

I smile and re-enter the room, closing the doors behind me. "Yes, we do. So go ahead. Ask away," I say as I sit, cross legged on the floor next to her, taking the cellophane from the rolls of wrapping paper.

"So, you're sixteen weeks."

"Tomorrow."

"Sixteen weeks tomorrow," she nods, "so that means you're due when?"

"Eleventh
of June."

"Ooh, just before my birthday! How exciting. So, how has it been? What's it like? Does it feel funny? Did you have morning sickness? Oh my god, how did I not notice? You've been so ill! I hadn't even connected the two until now."

I nod and shrug, "Yeah, I felt really shitty for a while, I wasn't sick all the time, but I felt like I had a really bad hangover, or like... car sickness - for weeks. I had two weeks where I thought I was going to be sick every time I moved, but that passed, thank god. I'm feeling a lot better now, just tired."

"So the bad two weeks, is that when you took that time off work?"

"Yeah."

"You've been avoiding going to the pub and stuff... I thought that was all to do with you missing Luke!"

"It was at first, before I knew, but I also felt really emotional and couldn't work out why - turns out, I had pregnancy hormones to blame."

"It all makes sense now; you not drinking... hang on, what about all those vodkas I bought you when you
did
actually come to the pub."

"Mmm, about that..."

"You vodka'd the plants, didn't you?"

"Uh huh. Sorry, doll." She tuts and rolls her eyes. "But what could I do? If I'd have asked for sparkling water, you'd have all bombarded me with questions about what's wrong with me!"

"Yes, you're right. We would have..." she gasps suddenly, "Oh. My. God!
That's
why you never have any tampons anymore!"

I laugh out loud, "How the hell do you know about my tampon supply?"

"Oh darling, I've been nicking your tampons for as long as I can remember. I always run out," she says, waving her arm like I should already know this.

"Ah, I see, that explains a lot." I say, remembering all those times when I could have sworn I had a full box left, but only had a couple loose in the bottom of the drawer.

"Can I see? Please?" she asks, smiling excitedly.

I rise onto my knees and lift my jumper and vest top to reveal baby Wriggler's bump. Clare gasps again and immediately reaches out to touch it. "Oh..." she says, taking one hand and putting it to her mouth, her eyes well up and she smiles sweetly, "hello little baby... oh Tilly..." she sobs as she throws her arms around my neck, "I'm so sorry you've been doing this on your own. I wish I could have been there for you. I wish I'd have concentrated more on what was going on at home." She cries on my shoulder, holding me tightly.

"You couldn't have known, Clare, I would have done everything to stop anyone finding out before Luke. I just shouldn't have left it so long."

"I'm so happy for you, Tils, you're going to be the most amazing mum in the world."

"I hope so," I say, determined to do my best.

"Let me see again," she says, releasing me and sniffing. She bends and kisses my belly, "You're too cute, Wriggler, I know I can't see you and everything, but you're still the cutest little thing, ever. This is Auntie Clare speaking, I'll be your favourite. Okay, maybe Auntie Gemma will be your favourite, but your Auntie Bea and I will come very close. Then of course you'll have Uncle Jay and Uncle Daniel... you'll like them a lot. But no one will be as perfect for you,  as Mummy and Daddy. Oh, and if you're a boy and you take after Daddy, you're going to have all the girls chasing after you because your dad is seriously hot..."

"Er... I am still in the room you know..." I say, chuckling, "I'm glad to know you think my boyfriend's good looking and everything, but let's not forget that he's mine."

"Nope. Of course, all yours and obviously always will be. He loves you so much Til, you know that don't you?"

"Actually Clare, I think I do."

The rest of the afternoon is really lovely. Clare still swears she'll beat me with a pole if Luke doesn't know by tomorrow, and that's fine. I probably needed a big kick up the arse anyway, so it's a good thing that someone knows and can keep me in check.

The boys are really late coming back from skiing - a fault with a lift or something, so Clare and I are sitting in the lounge, ready and waiting as Luke and Oliver burst through the door. Luke smiles gorgeously when he sees me and bends to kiss me as he passes, before disappearing up the stairs after Oliver, to get ready.

"You'll have to do it later, or tomorrow, there'll be no time before we go," Clare whispers and I nod in agreement. "Hell of a Christmas present!" she adds, grabbing hold of my hand and squeezing it, supportively.

Luke says he'll drive us to Daniel's, rather than waiting for the limo to get back, we were supposed to be using the car that has only just taken Daniel home and if we wait for it, we'll be even later for the meal.

"You can always leave the car there," Oliver says, as we reach the bottom of the steps, "if you want to have a drink."

"I'm cool, I don't think I'll drink anything tonight," he replies, squeezing my hand and winking at me, and I know he's privately referring to our conversation at the restaurant last night about abstaining from drinking, with me.

The journey takes about fifteen minutes or so and as we pull up to the beautiful house, I am awed, again. "Wow, it's amazing! What beautiful houses the Berkeleys own."

"You'd like Danny's folks house here, that's something spectacular."

"More spectacular than this and Alexia's house?"

"Oh yeah." Good god, they
do
have money growing on trees, I read somewhere that Aspen boasts the highest real estate prices in the entire United States, and these houses are fucking massive. And they're only holiday homes! I am starting to realise just how wealthy the Berkeley family is. Bentleys and what-not aside.

Bea opens the door and welcomes us into her new, stylish - yet totally welcoming home.

"This is absolutely stunning, Bea. Look at you; Lady of the manor!" I say jokingly, no malice intended.

"I know, it's so absolutely gorgeous, I'm a lucky girl. Do you see why I don't want to leave?"

She greets Clare, Oliver and Luke, and leads us into her fabulous living area to join the parents. Bea's parents, Emily and Edward immediately stand to hug Clare and I.

"Darling, how are you?" Emily says, holding me tightly. She's sort of adopted me since my dad died, and I love her for it. My mum ran away when Gemma and I were very young and we haven't seen or heard from her since. I don't remember much about her and my dad was more than perfect, so I don't think Gemma and I were too badly affected, but it's never nice to know you weren't wanted, hence why I want Luke to want our baby so much.

"I'm great, thank you."

"I'm glad to hear it, I thought we'd see you out on the mountains, it's not like you to miss out on some skiing."

Here we go again. I shrug and pull back, kissing her cheek, "I'm just not into it this year... and..."

"I know, darling, you're spending some quality time with your lovely new boyfriend. I understand. I'd have done exactly the same when I met Edward. It is wonderful to see you with such a strapping young man, we've been waiting for you to meet your special someone," she says, extending her arm to beckon for Luke. When he joins us, she raises onto tiptoes and he bends for her to kiss his cheek. "Hello, dear, I was just telling Tilly that the two of you make a stunning couple. Enjoy each other."

He smiles at me and slips his arm around my waist, "Thank you, Emily. I certainly will, I'm a lucky guy."

Emily scoots away to hug Clare and Oliver, while Luke smiles at me. He just gazes, saying nothing, holding me into his side. After a moment, he bends to kiss my forehead and whispers in my ear, "I love you. Now let's go some place and fuck like rabbits."

I giggle as he turns me to slip my coat off my shoulders. "Wow, you look hot in this," he says as he sees my loose fitting black top with open back. I've teamed it with my normal skinny jeans and boots. He bends and lays a soft kiss on my bare flesh, in full view if everyone. He's so affectionate, I love it.