Let's Call the Whole Thing Off
marvellous,’ I said, trying to sound worldly and sophisticated. ‘I’m so pleased you haven’t brought me here with a cunning plan to murder me.’
    He shook his head wryly, looking at me with only affection in his eyes.
    ‘No, you’re safe with me, but not everyone you meet will be as decent and honest.’
    Yes, lesson learned. Think, Anna, before going off blindly with the first gorgeous man you come across. One thing was for sure: I wouldn’t be meeting too many guys who were as downright gorgeous in such an obscenely masculine way as Dave. I seemed to have developed an unhealthy fascination with the delicious curve of his lips and had to use all my superhuman strength to drop my gaze.
    ‘Just something to think about in future though, yeah?’
    ‘Yes, I will. Of course,’ I said, taking the opportunity to look away, refocusing my attentions on the horizon. Perhaps it had been a stupid thing to do, to come here with this big hulk of a man who I didn’t know the first thing about, but sometimes your instincts count for a lot and my instinct told me that, in Dave’s hands, I’d be safe from any danger.
    ‘Okay, so now we’ve got that cleared up now, can I ask you something else?’
    ‘Yeah, sure.’ Let me have it. After ducking questions about my hugely successful career as a jewellery designer and getting over the fact that he wasn’t a mass murderer on the loose and that I wasn’t just out of a secure hospital on licence, anything else would be child’s play surely.
    ‘Can I kiss you?’ he asked, tilting my head up with his thumb.
    Apart from that, of course. That came from left of centre. His gaze landed on my face with an intense thud and a jolt of anticipation reverberated around my body. Totally unexpected, but he wasn’t going to need to ask me twice. I just closed my eyes and fell backwards onto the uncomfortable stones that were only uncomfortable for a nanosecond because as soon as those lips that I knew intimately by sight were hot on mine, everything else was forgotten. The faint sweet taste of beer lingered on his breath as his tongue gently pushed my lips apart and my aversion to beer was over in that moment. Totally unexpected. Totally divine.
    I knew now wasn’t the time to be thinking about Ed, but I couldn’t help myself. His cross face flashed into my mind for the briefest moment as I wondered what the hell I was doing snogging a complete stranger. When had Ed ever kissed me like this, with an urgency and passion that sent my whole body into a quivering mess? Never. It was a revelation. All those years of sub-standard kissing and I hadn’t even realised. If Ed was Tesco Value range, Dave was definitely in the Finest category. As quickly as the thought of Ed flashed into my mind, it flashed out again as I was completely distracted by the man, very much, of the moment.
    His arm brushed against my breast and I didn’t know whether it was intentional or accidental only that my body responded with such a powerful and intense longing that had me clutching him to my chest like a limpet. He extracted himself from my embrace, a smile resting on his lips, his hand brushing the hair away from my face.
    ‘Hey, you’re something special, do you know that?’ His eyes were heavy with longing and if he’d wanted to he could have ravished me right there on the spot, but instead he stood up and held out his hand to me.
    ‘Come on, Perce, let’s get you back to your hotel before you send me completely out of my mind.’
    Disappointment swelled in my chest, but of course, Dave was far too much of a gentlemen to take advantage of me here where anyone could have stumbled upon us. I should have known that. There was being spontaneous and there was being reckless and I think after the headiness of the last couple of hours I was verging on the reckless side. Eagerly I jumped up to join him, grabbing hold of his hand, hardly able to contain my excitement.
    Was this how Ed had felt when he’d kissed

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