All eyes turned to David. He shrugged, his face in a neutral expression. “Don’t give Angus a further thought,” said David. “This is your day, Amber, and you have a sell-out exhibition.” He raised his glass and the others followed suit. “To Amber, may this be the first of many exhibitions. Christchurch today, Paris tomorrow.”
Rachel grinned and they all clicked glasses. “To Paris!”
Amber forced a smile onto her face. They were doing their best to wipe the insult from her mind. But they couldn’t entirely, for the doubt lingered. And so did something else. There was something nudging at the edges of her thoughts, something which made her uneasy. She couldn’t quite place it, but she would.
It was late by the time they left the exhibition.
“Let’s grab dinner somewhere, shall we everyone?” asked the ever-sociable Rachel.
Luckily for David, it was Amber who declined. “I’m pretty tired, thanks Rach, I think I might head home.”
“Would you like a lift?” David asked Amber.
She grinned up at him. “I thought you’d never ask.” She turned to the others. “See you! And thanks for coming.”
Rachel came over and tipsily pressed a lipsticked kiss on Amber’s cheek, which she then tried to rub off. Zane laughed and put his arm around Rachel. “Come on, let’s get something to eat.”
Amber stood in front of David—her face flushed with success, one small glass of champagne and the early evening sunshine on her face—and David thought she’d never looked more beautiful. “How is it you seem to glow?”
She laughed. “Do I? Maybe that’s why Mum and Dad called me Amber. Either that, or because I’ve got red hair.”
“Or maybe it’s because you’ve got lipstick on your cheek.” He tried to brush it off with his thumb, but she caught his hand and turned his palm to her lips and kissed it. To his surprise, the kiss held no gentle feeling, but a passion which he’d only suspected lay behind that sweet exterior. It seemed the warmth Amber emanated came from a fire within. And he was scared he wouldn’t be able to resist that fire.
“Come back to my place?” she asked, as she twisted around in his arms and put her hands around his neck. Of course his hands should rest around her waist. Where else?
“How can I resist you?” he murmured, as he brought his face a little closer to hers.
“I don’t know. I’m hoping you can’t.”
“Maybe,” he said, wondering if he could press his luck a little further, “I need a little more persuading.”
She cocked her head to one side, her hair brushing his cheek. He nuzzled his nose into her hair. She smelled of lemons and fresh air. He thought he could stand there forever with his face in her hair. But she giggled and pulled away. “Your breath is tickling me,” she said.
“I just want to go on smelling you,” he said.
“That sounds weird.”
“Not to me, it doesn’t.” He pulled himself together. “Now, shall we get back to Akaroa, if you’ve quite finished basking in your own glory?”
“Yes, I’d like that.” He took her hand and they walked to the car. “You know, I feel so happy. Everything is going so well,” she said with a big grin. “I’ve got my family. Dad’s well and happy with his amateur dramatics, all my brothers and sisters have found their soul mates and put their troubles behind them. And I’ve just had the best thing that could ever happen to me happen.” She glanced at David’s face and burst out laughing, tapping him lightly on the chest. “You think I mean you?”
“Why should I think that?” he asked, with his best indignant face, utterly determined to refuse to admit that he had.
“Because you’re a man,” suggested Amber. “I was actually referring to the fact that I’ve finally had an exhibition.” She turned around and walked backwards, her hand twisted across her body as she kept hold of his. She looked back at the art gallery. “And a swanky one at that. I still don’t really know why they agreed to the exhibition.” She glanced at him, and he looked away. “I mean, my work isn’t their usual kind.”
“Maybe they want variety,” he said. “Anyway, the point is that they did, and it was an amazing success.”
She turned around again and fell into step and squeezed his hand. “It was, wasn’t it?”
It seemed like the moment for another kiss and David was, for once, very happy to follow his instincts. He’d meant it to be brief, but they ended up stopping and kissing for a few long moments, everything forgotten except each other. Eventually they parted to find people looking at them.
“Come on,” said David, mortified to find himself behaving like a love-sick teenager. What the hell had got into him? “Let’s get going.”
Amber didn’t seem to notice anything untoward. She beamed at the interested faces of passersby and carried on as if nothing had happened. But ithadhappened.
Amber had managedto capture his free hand as they drove back to Akaroa, and held it within hers, covering it and stroking it and planting little kisses on it. It should have made him feel silly, it should have made him run a mile, but it made him do none of these things. It brought out so many emotions within him that confused him. He didn’t know so many existed. But he recognized the principal among them—love. And the power of it floored him.
He’d loved his mother, and he loved his sister and brother. He’d loved his pet dog, who’d died the night before he left home. He’d only been hanging on for that dog. But, for the rest, his life had been occupied with work and pleasure, the most important of which had been work. Anything else had been a passing distraction to allow him to return to work refreshed. He’d never, in his life, experienced anything like the depth of these feelings before.
