Johnny's Girl by Paige Toon Page B

warmth.
    The feeling, as we keep saying, is very much mutual.
    After breakfast we go for a wander through a forest of enormous redwood pines soaring over our heads. The last time I was in this forest, I gave myself a hot flush imagining
Johnny and I together. I come clean to him about this now.
    ‘Did you?’ he asks with a flirtatiously raised eyebrow, pausing for a moment and leaning back against a huge tree trunk. It’s dark and quiet in here, the only noise coming from
birds singing in the high tree tops. He takes my hands and pulls me closer.
    ‘I remember you going for that walk, actually. I thought about coming to find you.’
    ‘You didn’t?’
    He nods, seriously. ‘I did. After that night in the hot tub… Mmm.’ His voice is deep and sexy. ‘I wanted you.’
    Even now, even after all this time, I blush at his intonation.
    ‘You should have come to get me,’ I tell him.
    ‘I thought you were into Christian,’ he replies, and it surprises me to see a flicker of pain cross his features. It still bothers him, still hurts him to remember that I got
together with his best friend after I fled LA – and him – the first time.
    I place my hands on his chest and then I slip them up and under his T-shirt, wanting to touch his taut stomach. He breathes in sharply and smiles down at me.
    ‘It was always you. You know it was always you,’ I say quietly, looking up into his eyes, which are darker in this subdued light. ‘This is what I wanted to do,’ I tell
him, sliding my hands around his waist.
    ‘Is that
all
?’ he asks with amusement.
    ‘What did you want to do with me?’ I respond with mock outrage.
    ‘You really want to know?’ He gives me a look and it sends a shiver rocketing up and down my spine.
    I nod slowly. He takes my wrists and spins me around, pinning me up against the tree trunk. He presses his body hard up against me from behind and kisses my neck.
    I gasp. ‘You’re so naughty.’
    He stills. ‘This is not me being naughty.’
    I smirk and turn back around to face him. ‘You know we can’t, right? Someone might see us.’
    ‘Live dangerously, Nutmeg.’ He kisses me and then nips my bottom lip with his teeth. I know how much he wants me. It’s, well,
obvious
.
    I put my hands on his chest and gently, but firmly keep him at bay. ‘You’ve done enough of living dangerously for both of us,’ I say, and the look on his face makes me giggle.
‘Do you think you’ve shagged me more in the last couple of years-’
    ‘Not two years yet,’ he interrupts.
    I roll my eyes. ‘Okay, Mr Pedantic.’ I continue. ‘Do you think you’ve shagged me more in the last “not quite two years” than you shagged all of those
groupies?’
    ‘Jesus, Meg!’ He looks horrified as he takes a step away from me.
    I laugh. ‘I want to know!’
    ‘How to lose a guy his hard on,’ he exclaims, looking down at his crotch. This only makes me snort, but he’s not finding it as funny as I am.
    In truth, I don’t find it funny at all. I’m only laughing in this context. I still haven’t come to terms with how many women Johnny would have slept with when he was in Fence,
the rock group that made him famous, and later when he went solo and his career soared to the highest of heights. Okay, we have sex all the bloody time, even now with two kids, but I still
don’t know if I’ve broken his record. And yes, however bad it sounds, I do want to.
    ‘In our first proper
month
together I’d been with you more than I had with any other woman,’ he tells me seriously.
    ‘Yeah, but I want to know about your total.’
    ‘I don’t know my total,’ he mutters.
    ‘Am I close?’
    He frowns, looking away from me with frustration. He glances back at me. ‘You really want to know?’
    Actually, I’m not sure that I do. I feel a bit sick now. ‘Yes,’ I tell him.
    ‘Bloody hell. Okay. So we’ve been together, what… We got together at the end of June? July, August, September…’ He counts on