The Angels' Share (22 page)

Impatient for more and daring enough to admit it, Connor loosened the belt of the robe and peeled the soft, thick fabric from my shoulders. Like an artist, his large hands drew the outline of my body, tracing a sketchy image of me while his lips coloured me in. He cupped my breasts, studying them like he was in a life-drawing class, and then brought his mouth onto them, delivering a strawberry wash of watercolour to my skin.

‘You are so beautiful. More than I’d imagined all these years.’

‘You’ve thought about me?’

‘Constantly.’ Connor’s admission drove his eyes to match the colour of the grey sea before a storm. ‘You’ve grown up in my head. I made you into my perfect woman. In my imagination, we’re already married.’

‘Already?’ I didn’t need to say more. If I searched deep enough, it was all in my head too.

He continued with his art, painting colour all over my body until he arrived at the very core of me, where his attention to detail was equal to the masters’. Meanwhile, I fumbled with his shirt buttons beneath the frills of his silly king’s outfit –
we were finally king and queen
– and exposed his warm body and a waft of his delicious musky smell. I dotted tiny kisses across his chest, the reddish-blonde fuzz that grew there tickling my nose, and inhaled the scent of his skin to burn in my memory for ever.

We were playing a game, taking turns, each more daring than the last. Connor was winning and plainly at an advantage when his fingers slipped inside my panties. His touch messed up my internal circuitry and lights and sparks twinkled through me as his fingers walked their way to my heart.

‘I didn’t think that you wanted me,’ I admitted breathlessly. I could feel my juices welcoming his finger as he carefully slipped inside me. It wasn’t an appropriate time to speak, but it was relevant to his desire for me. ‘I thought you and Steph…’ I trailed off. Saying another woman’s name didn’t seem right either.

‘Steph and me?’ Connor withdrew his fingers and I knew that our game was temporarily on hold. My sex pulsed from his sudden departure. He began to laugh. ‘She’s my cousin.’

I don’t know how long I waited before replying. It seemed like hours but was probably only a few seconds. ‘Oh.’ I wasn’t laughing. ‘And?’ I was trying to avoid ridicule. Again. So I acted like I already knew. ‘Cousins have relationships, too.’

‘Not these two cousins.’ He stroked hair away from my forehead and planted his hands lightly on my shoulders. ‘Steph has been trying to get us together since she knew you were on the island and realised you were the woman that I had written to her about over the years.’ His eyes were transparent. I knew he was telling the truth. ‘Steph’s a great believer in fate and when I told her not to mess with it, she told me that she was a part of it so how couldn’t she interfere. She’s – how can I put it? – exuberant, forceful. She did at least keep reasonably quiet and not reveal my feelings to you.’

‘Wouldn’t it have been easier if she had?’ My head was spinning.

‘You didn’t return to the island because of me. If it wasn’t for Creg-ny-Varn, then you wouldn’t be here. I wanted you to genuinely want me.’

‘I felt the same.’

‘Then it would have been stalemate without Steph. She convinced me not to give up. She insisted that you had never stopped wanting me.’

‘How did she know?’ Even as I was saying it, I realised that it was all in my diary.

‘I never read a page, before you ask. Steph, being Steph, has read it from cover to cover and alluded to your feelings constantly. Don’t be angry with her. In fact, you should be flattered. You’ve inspired her to kick out and go after her dreams. She’s going to drama school.’

I laughed. ‘She’ll do well then.’

‘It was her idea that we go to the party together as king and queen, after I’d told her about our childhood games. She orchestrated the limousine, too.’

‘And showing me the whisky? Was that her idea?’

‘All mine, actually. And it’s convinced me that fate did have a hand in this. What was I to do with a hundred and fifty crates of
Ailey’s Single Malt
?’ He leant over me and kissed me again. ‘Something brought you back here. I don’t care what, as long as my angel stays this time.’

I sighed. ‘I’m going to be drinking whisky forever.’

‘Until we’re ancient,’ he replied, before working tiny kisses down my stomach, across the gentle rise of my pubic bone and into the cleft of my eager pussy. And that’s where he stayed for a long time, deftly bringing me close to orgasm, knowing that when he pushed himself inside me, sliding into my body as we lay beside the fire, I would climax within the first dozen and most intimate strokes that would ever happen between us. Then he could work me up again, kneading me from the inside out – in fact, working my mind with tiny teasers and the promise of everything to come – until I clenched around him again as he jetted high inside me.

And that’s where we were again, having had breakfast, talked, drifted through the drowsiness that follows first-time sex; that place where you’re so tired but can’t bear to sleep in case you forget.

Connor was at my breasts again, suckling noisily with his hands trapped beneath my buttocks on the sofa. Even with limited finger movement, he managed to find the tight little hole of my bottom and, using lubrication already present, slipped the tip of one finger inside me. I stiffened, unsure of the new feeling it gave me, although it was still a familiar shot of pleasure. My squirming seemed to tempt his finger deeper and with every millimetre he gained I was awarded another thrill from this secret place.

‘Oh, Connor,’ I whispered, driven to tugging at his hair and dragging my nails down the skin on his back. ‘It’s like my life has been simmering, waiting on hold until I could come back to you.’

My admission caused him to grip me tighter and press his solid cock against me. I fumbled with his clothing and freed his erection, wasting no time in turning him over and applying my mouth to the very tip. I sucked and nipped at the thin crepe skin and Connor twitched and moaned and held my head, wanting me to plunge him deep down my throat. But I held off for as long as I could, teasing every last unbearable sensation from him and lapping up the beads of salty liquid that escaped involuntarily.

‘Slow down or I’ll come,’ he said breathlessly. I could hardly believe that it was Connor’s deep, rich voice saying such a thing to me. Grinning with my mouth full was tricky but in my head I was beaming. I eased off on the tip-to-base rhythm and ran my tongue around the sensitive ridge at the head, familiarising myself with his foreign geography. But Connor couldn’t wait. He got his arms around my body and moved me onto my back, gently easing me onto the floor so that I was lying on the soft blanket with the fire bathing my left side in warmth.

Then, as easily as if we had been lovers for years, Connor slipped inside me, slowly savouring the feel of new territory as I had just done with him. His chest vibrated gently with a low rumble of approval and I knew that, even after only a few strokes, he was on the brink of orgasm.

‘Not yet,’ I whispered, pulling him down upon me so that his tense arms and shoulders relaxed. I gripped his tight buttocks and wrapped my ankles around his thighs, giving me good leverage so that I could work while he drifted back from the inevitable release. A minute or two later and I was on the edge myself, grinding my sex against his groin, burying his cock so deep that I was convinced he was in my womb, and then I stopped, savouring the delicious feelings gripping my body.

‘Are you ready? I can’t wait any long…er.’ Connor took control and hauled himself back onto his hands, his face, crumpled with desire, only a foot above mine. He thrust a few more times, virtually escaping my sex each time he drew back, but then driving home with such force that I was unable to prevent the explosion of my orgasm. As the shockwaves subsided, Connor came with half a dozen terrifyingly powerful shudders, which sent me fluttering into a second climax.

I lay in his arms, watching the flames rise and fall in the stove and listening to the comforting sound of his breathing. I realised that everything I ever wanted was on this island.

*   *   *

Steph and I had ridden together in the taxi. She insisted that Connor should not disrupt his working day – he had a container arriving for an overseas shipment of whisky – and besides, she promised to return very soon. They kissed each other tentatively on the cheek, as cousins would.

‘I expect to be bringing a new hat with me,’ she said with a grin as the taxi dropped us at the sea port. The ferry loomed in the harbour, the Legs of Mann proudly displayed on her red funnel. I held my hair back as the wind lashed round the corner of the terminal building.

‘And why would that be?’ I grinned as my cheeks smarted from the cold.

‘For the wedding, stupid. He’s not going to risk losing you again.’

We went inside for coffee and warmth. Our friendship had been short and plagued with misunderstandings, but it was wearing into something solid and worthy of prolonging through the years. I wrapped my hands around my hot mug.

‘I have something for you.’ Steph rummaged in her pack and withdrew a packet tied up with brown paper and string. She slid it across the laminated table.

I didn’t open it right then but tucked it inside my jacket, next to my heart, next to Connor and the take-away warmth he had bestowed on me. ‘And I have a gift for you.’ I took out a bottle of my whisky and showed her the special label.

‘That’s a wonderful thing to have. I’ll think of you every time I take a dram. I’ve learnt a lot from Connor over the last week. My father needs to be more commercial if the business is to survive. Connor’s father retired gracefully but mine refuses to hand over to a woman.’ Steph grinned, pointing at herself, and I couldn’t tell if it was because she was upset at being sidelined or pleased that she wouldn’t have the responsibility.

‘Connor tells me you’re going to London.’

‘To seek my fortune. I want to go to theatre school.’

‘You’ll make it,’ I said, reaching out for her gloved hand. And I knew she would. Steph was driven, her unique brand of energy inspiring and fuelling the lives of those she touched.

‘What about you? Are you going to move back to Creg-ny-Varn?’

‘Oh yes,’ I replied without hesitation. ‘I can’t leave again. My heart, my memories, my future – it’s all there, waiting for me.’ Damn that tear that caught in the corner of my eye. ‘And if you don’t come and visit us, I’m going to…’

‘What, write bad things about me in your diary?’ Steph laughed out loud, making the old couple at the next table turn their heads our way. ‘I’d like it if you did.’ She squeezed my hand.

‘My diary-writing days are over. It’s got me into too much trouble.’ More to the point, I knew I wouldn’t have time or even the need to spend hours each day transcribing my secret thoughts. With a big estate to manage and a man in my life, I was going to be busy. And then there was Dominic to keep in check and Connor would need to be introduced to Liz and Lewis…A flickering smile grew on my lips as I recalled the dirty secrets Connor had already revealed to me about his latent desires. He’d made me promise that I would wear the naughty underwear that night and take to him with my riding crop. He didn’t want Kinrade to be the only recipient of my kinky admonishment.

‘It seems to me that your diary has got you into the perfect situation. And you shouldn’t be too hard on me. It was fate that made me take it. I had a part to play in bringing you two together.’

It was too late to be angry at Steph and I had already figured out that she was the type of person that you simply couldn’t get mad at. From the moment she first approached me on the inbound ferry, she had worked her cheeky charm on me and unwittingly shaped the rest of my life. How
could
I do anything but forgive her?

The departure of Steph’s ferry to Heysham was announced and all remaining foot passengers were required to embark.

‘Will you go straight to London?’ I held her hand as we walked to the ticket collector, both of us lugging her large pack.

‘I’ll return to the Highlands first. Let Dad know gently that I’ll be leaving.’ She sighed wistfully.

‘I’ll invite you to my première,’ she said, laughing, and handed over her ticket.

We kissed and hugged, our cheeks pressed close for a second, each sharing the other’s scent, the other’s dreams.

‘Bye, Steph,’ I called out as she disappeared down the walkway. ‘And thanks.’

She didn’t turn but instead raised a gloved hand in a cheery salute and then she was gone, as the deep blast of the ferry horn resounded through the building.

*   *   *

I didn’t have much to move, and it wasn’t even worth sending for my belongings in Spain. Of course my mother was upset but when she realised that there would be a wedding in the summer and that she was invited, the thrill of resurrecting old ghosts was too much to turn down. She was desperate to see Creg-ny-Varn after all these years.

‘I’m so happy for you, Ailey,’ she confessed. ‘And Connor was always such a lovely boy.’

‘He’s a lovely
man
, Mum,’ I corrected. ‘Every mother’s dream.’

And then she had babbled about Marco and the farm and the village and the dreadful party of German tourists that she’d had to endure for an entire week while they explored the mountains in the winter. I’d hung up feeling that she wasn’t quite in the right place, hoping that perhaps she would return one day, too. I realised this about myself, that living so far away from the island could never be sustained. I had merely been ripening in the sun.

*   *   *

‘That’s nearly every room sorted out,’ I said, spinning round in the vast space of our drawing room. ‘No more dust sheets and hiding away the antiques. This place needs to be lived in and loved and filled with –’

‘Kids?’ Connor interrupted. He gripped me around the waist and sank his mouth into my neck.

‘I was thinking more of our friends and dogs and…well, there’s no harm in trying. That’s the fun bit. But I’m selfish. I want you all to myself for a while yet. There’s so much I want to do to you in so many places…’