Emergency: Wife Lost and Found by Carol Marinelli Page B

his for the first time since the film had started. ‘You told me you felt trapped, that you weren’t in love with me.’
    ‘I didn’t say that.’
    ‘Yes, James you did. You married me because I was pregnant and then six weeks later I wasn’t.’ She stood up, didn’t care that the film was not quite finished because she knew the ending already, just as she’d known this moment was coming and she couldn’t face it. ‘I’m tired.’
    ‘Lorna, please…’ He stood up, went to take her hands but he took her arms, could feel them thin and rigid beneath his fingers, this little guarded woman who had always confused him and always, always entranced him. ‘I just wish we could talk.’
    ‘I can’t.’
    ‘Okay,’ he said, because that had been the rule. She hadn’t asked to come back into his life, circumstance had seen to that. ‘You don’t have to say anything.’ It hurt to let her arms go. Was it so wrong to want to hold her? Was it wrong to take her in his arms? ‘Go to bed, we’ve got our shopping expedition tomorrow.’
    She nodded, wiped away the tears with the back of her hand and, as always, she confused him.
    ‘’Night, James.’ She kissed him on the cheek, which people often did, except they’d avoided it till yesterday. It was just a little kiss, tentative and faltering, but a kiss all the same. The bitter-sweet contact was dangerous, but instead of scuttling off to bed, there she stood.
    ‘’Night, Lorna.’ He meant it, he really meant it, because he’d already given more of himself tonight than he had ever intended. He had told her about Ellie, had pushed her to talk and she’d refused, just as she had after they’d lost the baby, just as she had in that hellish year after the break-up when she’d refused all contact. Now she stood there just a kiss away and he wasn’t sure he could go there again and live to tell the tale. He could feel where her lips had been on his cheek, could feel her in his space. Maybe if he kissed her it would be enough, could be the conclusion he’d sought all those years ago. Maybe this could be the moment he remembered when in the future he pondered them again.
    Kiss me. She wouldn’t say it, wouldn’t kiss him again, but every cell in her body screamed it, and the cries were heeded because his mouth did find hers. For Lorna, the bliss of familiar lips on hers bought a shock of comfort. Shock, because every nerve jumped as their master flicked the switch and declared he was home. Comfort, because his kiss had been sought but never found in others.
    It was their lazy kiss.
    They’d had lots of different types of kisses, but this was their lovely lazy one. Slow and languid and relishing each other, in no rush to move on or retreat, savouring, and how they savoured. She could feel the tears on her cheeks, tasted them too as they ran onto her lips. Hetasted them too. They kissed her salty river of tears with their tongues, and breathed each other’s air with their mouths. His arms were the nicest place in the whole wide world. He created this little island where it was only the two of them and nothing else mattered. They both pulled back, stared at each other for the longest time, indecision, lust, regret and want all offering differing directions, but there was only one safe road to take and it was James who guided them.
    ‘’Night, Lorna.’ He kissed her on the cheek, let her go and for three full seconds she stood before turning.
    ‘’Night, James.’

Chapter Twelve
    F OR a man, he was good to shop with.
    Or maybe it was that anything would look better than the leggings, a rugby shirt and a pair of pumps that Pauline had leant her for the day trip. She also had a scarf and one of his jackets, which meant within minutes of entering a department store she was boiling and had to peel off the layers. It was the quickest shop in history. She bought jeans, a pale grey jumper and the softest beige flat boots that were, even James agreed, divine, and a