*
How had twelve hours passed so quickly? One minute Olivia was leisurely making her way to meet Cece, enjoying the thought of a slow, delicious breakfast where she knew, of course, that her friend would demand to hear about every single second of her day with Jacob. And the next, she was only half packed, face half done, rushing to the beach to meet Jacob for dinner.
Maybe time did operate differently out here. Because there was no way on earth she would have let this happen back home.
Home.
The word sat heavy on her chest. The thought of leaving and the mixed emotions it brought with it had been haunting her all day. Was she ready to leave? Most definitely. But was she happy about it? Not entirely.
‘Wow. You look …’ Jacob faltered as Olivia hurried towards him.
Overdone?
Ridiculous?
She pulled at the dress she’d bought from the market earlier that afternoon. It wasn’t anything fancy, just your standard floral-patterned summer dress, but Cece had insisted that frayed denim shorts and an old white T-shirt were not going to cut it for the evening’s events. Because of the time, she’d only managed to apply a little bit of make-up, quickly twisting her hair so that it fell in loose waves down her back. It wasn’t much, but apparently the transformation was shocking.
‘… you look lovely,’ he finished, pulling her in for a hug.
‘Thank you.’
Olivia turned her head as Jacob leant in for a kiss. Their faces knocked together clumsily.
‘God, I’m sorry,’ she bumbled.
‘No, it was my fault, I went in without warning.’
The verbose, confident Jacob seemed to have been replaced by a rather shy, unsure version.
‘It’s OK.’
Jacob clenched his fists and gave a long exhale, shuddering, as though shaking himself from his thoughts. ‘I guess I’m just not very good at being nervous.’
His admission made her tummy flip.
‘TheJacob Green, nervous? Surely not.’
‘Apparently so.’ He brought his face down to hers and kissed her in the most deliciously delicate way. ‘Doing that helps though.’
Olivia felt herself relax as he held her tighter, the sudden confidence reflected in their kisses; faster, hungrier, with greater intensity.
‘Woah there.’ She pulled away. ‘We can’t do that here.’
His dark eyes bored into hers. ‘Why not?’
‘Because if we carry on any longer, I’m not sure I’ll be able to stop at just kissing.’
Olivia heard the soft moan escape under his breath, which did nothing to quell the desire that was rising up inside her.
‘Come on.’ She took his hand in hers. ‘Let’s go eat.’
‘Do we have to?’
‘Yes!’ She gripped him tightly. ‘But you have to lead the way because I don’t know where we’re going, remember?’
‘OK, OK.’ He steadied himself, rolling his shoulders back and leading them down the beach.
‘No mopeds in sight.’ She grinned. ‘This is a good start.’
