“Do you still have the spare key in the same place?” Imogen bounced over to her.
Lainey nodded. “Are you heading home?”
“No. There’s a party I’m going to head to. Make the most of some sort of social life while I can. Alex and Abby are going.” She rolled her eyes before Lainey even had chance to say something about her being safe.
There was no escaping being a big sister.
“Enjoy.”
“You can come.”
“I’ll be up early. I’m going to walk home with Jake in a couple of minutes, so have you got everything you…” She swallowed her words. Imogen had already disappeared off into the crowd where Abby was standing next to Alex, looking as shy as always. There was no need to worry about Imogen, unless it was what trouble she was going to land in when she acted before she thought.
“You sure you don’t want to go to the party?” She heard Jake before she saw him.
Lainey turned to where his voice had come from. People were already leaving the barn, Micky and Jem, and a couple other of Jake’s team, moving everyone on towards the gravelled path that led towards the main road. The bands were packing up, their mates helping load the equipment. Scott was ignoring everyone else to lay his attention on Keren, holding her and applying a kiss every so often that caused Zack to shout at him to get a room.
She wondered how Jake felt about Scott and Keren now, but it wasn’t the time to ask; there would probably never be the time to ask.
“I’m sure. I do need to be up early. I want to ride tomorrow.”
Then she saw his eyes blaze and that knowingly smouldering smile grew, only enough so that she could just about notice it.
“You want to ride early?” His hand moved to her waist. “How about now?”
Lainey swallowed. Hard.
“It stays between us?”
Jake tipped his head back and laughed. “Are you ashamed of me? Really? I’ve never been someone’s dirty little secret before.”
“Maybe that’s the point. I don’t want to be another tally in your chart for how many women you’ve slept with.”
Jake didn’t smile or bat the words away like she expected him to. A darkness had crossed his face, and the lust that had burned in his eyes had gone.
“Then I’ll just walk you home and say goodnight, Lainey. Don’t let what you perceive me to be get in the way of what’s important to you.” He pulled his hand away. “Let’s go. Before someone asks me something else.”
They walked back in silence, the almost full moon hanging in the sky, a lantern lighting up the path.
“You’re not fair, you know, thinking that all I do is sleep around. Since you’ve moved here, there hasn’t been anyone.” His words came from nowhere, making her stop short.
“Then why does everyone seem to think you’ve slept with most of the women round here? Everywhere I went at first, I either heard how pissed off you were that I’d bought the farm, or about how you were the local lothario. I think even Maud said something about two girls not always being enough for you!”
Jake had turned round to face her. “This is a small town. Everyone thinks they know everything about everyone else. All it takes is a grin when Gran or Maud or one of my cousins asks me about some girl, and they think they know exactly what happened, and that’s what they’d tell everyone. I’m no fucking saint, Lainey, but whatever you’re stuck on isn’t true. You thought I’d slept with Chelle; you thought wrong.”
Lainey started walking, not knowing what to say and feeling equal parts angry and ashamed.
Jake didn’t follow at first and she didn’t turn round to see where he was, apart from in her head. There was no way she’d be able to sleep without clearing the air with him because as much as she had believed what the gossip said, she knew he was good man.
A good man who was mad with her.
Lainey stopped at the gate into Jake’s garden, not sure if he would be okay with her cutting through or not; not sure if this was the best place to wait for him.
She didn’t need to wait long. Footsteps pounded the earth, and the moonlight shone a spotlight on him. He looked serious, not angry, not about to shout at her to get off his property.
When he got to her, he only stopped himself from running into her by bracing a hand either side of her against the stone wall. There were no more words.
His mouth claimed hers, hard and raw. Immediately she grabbed his shoulders, pulling him closer, ignoring the roughness of the wall against her back. As much as he took, she took the same, fighting for dominance but never quite enough to actually take it. Her hands roamed lower, down to his belt, pulling out his T-shirt and running her fingers over his skin.
