get the day started.
‘I’ll bring you some breakfast,’ she said, ‘just as soon as I’ve had a shower. Er…’ Should she ask him whether he wanted a shower? A bath, maybe, if he was up to that?She decided not to because just the thought of helping him get undressed made her feel light-headed and horribly, horribly turned on.
‘Er… I won’t be long…’ She thought about helping him get naked, wondered what he would look like and felt faint at the thought of it. ‘You can make a list of what you want me to bring back from the house for you and I’ll need your key. I know Dad has one but I have a feeling he keeps it on his key ring, which he took with him to Scotland.’
For the first time since she had arrived at the cottage and run slap bang into James, Jennifer was feeling on top of the world as she quickly showered and changed into a pair of faded jeans, a vest, a tee shirt, a jumper and some very thick knee-high socks. She knew why. Keeping him at a continual distance was hard work. Of course, she wasn’t about to start being overly chummy, giggling and forgetting that he was the guy who had broken her young heart, but it was just a hell of a lot easier to let him in just a little.
At any rate she had no choice, did she? He was laid up, unable to move. She
had
to physically help him! If she could open up and be friends with him once more, it would just prove that she had got over him! More or less! Those niggly, confused, tumultuous, excited feelings she was having would therefore be nothing to worry about!
The list was ready when she returned. On it he had written, ‘laptop, charger, clothes’.
‘But before you disappear,’ he said, making it sound as though she were Scott of the Antarctic, ‘I’m feeling a little peckish…’
She was still feeling strangely upbeat when, forty-five minutes later, she headed off to his house. The estate was so vast that no other dwelling could be glimpsed from any window in the house. In summer, the trees shielded the view of the house but those trees now were bare andheavy with snow and it was a battle against the wind and the snow to make it to the front door. She had been to the house before but never to his bedroom, which she managed to locate by a process of elimination. The top of the house was comprised of a suite of rooms, and was virtually closed off, used only for guests. Of the other bedrooms, only one, apart from Daisy’s, resembled a room that was occupied.
Deep burgundy floor-length drapes were pulled open so that she could see, outside, the steady swirl of the never-ending snow. Most of the pale carpet was covered by a sprawling Persian rug and a massive four-poster bed dominated much of the room. It was neatly made up but, when she leaned against the doorframe and closed her eyes, she could picture James lying on it, wickedly, sensationally sexy, with dark satin sheets lightly covering his bronzed muscular body. Then she pictured him on that sofa, with the duvet over him as she perched on the edge and chatted to him, so close that their bodies had been practically touching. She blinked guiltily and the image was gone.
Locating a handful of clothes took no time at all but it felt uncomfortable gathering them up, jumpers, trousers, tee shirts and underwear. Designer items neatly laundered and tossed into the drawer indiscriminately. She had grabbed two plastic bags before leaving the cottage and she stuffed all the items inside and then hunted down his laptop computer and charger, both of which were in the kitchen where he had left them before his heroic mission to fell the tree.
She had left him lying on the sofa and he was still there when she finally returned, although he had decided that he couldn’t remain prone for ever.
‘I can manage to move a bit when the painkillers kick in,’ he announced, liking the way the wet made the wavesin her long hair turn into curls. Her dark hair was dramatic against the paleness of her skin and he
‘I’ll bring you some breakfast,’ she said, ‘just as soon as I’ve had a shower. Er…’ Should she ask him whether he wanted a shower? A bath, maybe, if he was up to that?She decided not to because just the thought of helping him get undressed made her feel light-headed and horribly, horribly turned on.
‘Er… I won’t be long…’ She thought about helping him get naked, wondered what he would look like and felt faint at the thought of it. ‘You can make a list of what you want me to bring back from the house for you and I’ll need your key. I know Dad has one but I have a feeling he keeps it on his key ring, which he took with him to Scotland.’
For the first time since she had arrived at the cottage and run slap bang into James, Jennifer was feeling on top of the world as she quickly showered and changed into a pair of faded jeans, a vest, a tee shirt, a jumper and some very thick knee-high socks. She knew why. Keeping him at a continual distance was hard work. Of course, she wasn’t about to start being overly chummy, giggling and forgetting that he was the guy who had broken her young heart, but it was just a hell of a lot easier to let him in just a little.
At any rate she had no choice, did she? He was laid up, unable to move. She
had
to physically help him! If she could open up and be friends with him once more, it would just prove that she had got over him! More or less! Those niggly, confused, tumultuous, excited feelings she was having would therefore be nothing to worry about!
The list was ready when she returned. On it he had written, ‘laptop, charger, clothes’.
‘But before you disappear,’ he said, making it sound as though she were Scott of the Antarctic, ‘I’m feeling a little peckish…’
She was still feeling strangely upbeat when, forty-five minutes later, she headed off to his house. The estate was so vast that no other dwelling could be glimpsed from any window in the house. In summer, the trees shielded the view of the house but those trees now were bare andheavy with snow and it was a battle against the wind and the snow to make it to the front door. She had been to the house before but never to his bedroom, which she managed to locate by a process of elimination. The top of the house was comprised of a suite of rooms, and was virtually closed off, used only for guests. Of the other bedrooms, only one, apart from Daisy’s, resembled a room that was occupied.
Deep burgundy floor-length drapes were pulled open so that she could see, outside, the steady swirl of the never-ending snow. Most of the pale carpet was covered by a sprawling Persian rug and a massive four-poster bed dominated much of the room. It was neatly made up but, when she leaned against the doorframe and closed her eyes, she could picture James lying on it, wickedly, sensationally sexy, with dark satin sheets lightly covering his bronzed muscular body. Then she pictured him on that sofa, with the duvet over him as she perched on the edge and chatted to him, so close that their bodies had been practically touching. She blinked guiltily and the image was gone.
Locating a handful of clothes took no time at all but it felt uncomfortable gathering them up, jumpers, trousers, tee shirts and underwear. Designer items neatly laundered and tossed into the drawer indiscriminately. She had grabbed two plastic bags before leaving the cottage and she stuffed all the items inside and then hunted down his laptop computer and charger, both of which were in the kitchen where he had left them before his heroic mission to fell the tree.
She had left him lying on the sofa and he was still there when she finally returned, although he had decided that he couldn’t remain prone for ever.
‘I can manage to move a bit when the painkillers kick in,’ he announced, liking the way the wet made the wavesin her long hair turn into curls. Her dark hair was dramatic against the paleness of her skin and he
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