He laughed and held me in closer. “We can have whatever you want. Let’s just make sure we’re talking about it. I don’t want that distance to happen again.”
I pushed my hands under his sweater, feeling his body through the T-shirt underneath. It wasn’t enough and I didn’t know if it could be enough.
“You think we can stretch that twenty minutes out some more?” His next kiss was searing, warming up every fibre.
“I think after those gifts you’ve managed to up it to at least forty.” My hands played with the top of his sweatpants, but we were in the room that used to be my father’s study and there was no way karma would let us get any further than this without someone desperately needing some previously forgotten book that no one had even thought about for sixty years.
“Back to our room?”
I nodded. “As quickly as we can so no one can stop us. If anyone shouts at us, just pretend we didn’t hear.”
He pulled me in closer to him. “It’s like we’re on a secret mission.”
“Your forty minutes are counting down.”
He let me go and picked up the ornament. “I’ll carry this back. If anyone asks what we’re doing, we’re just taking it back to the room for safe-keeping.”
“We just might need a while to find somewhere safe.”
“Definitely. You’ll have to do the talking.”
He glanced down and my eyes followed. Exactly what we would be doing for those forty minutes was not being hidden well by Eli’s sweats.
“Let’s go. Right now.”
Seph’s voice rang down the hall, mentioning something about sprouts and stuffing, which was what I was pretty sure he was meant to be doing.
I laughed and made Eli walk quicker. We were having our next forty minutes, sprouts be damned.
21
A spa day – from Claire to Maven and Lainey
Seph
“You did wellwith your present choices.” Payton almost sounded proud.
I sat back on the sofa and basked in the praise from my twin. I was also far too full to consider moving for the next three days at least, so someone was going to have to hoist me to Max’s wedding tomorrow and grow me a second stomach for the wedding breakfast.
“Everyone’s a doubter.” I eyed the mince pie that sat on a plate just out of reach. “Could you pass me that, Payts?”
“Absolutely not. If I move, I’ll disrupt the baby and be sick again. Get off your arse and get it yourself.” She put a hand on her stomach.
I felt mildly guilty as she had just chundered up the best part of what had been an epic Christmas pudding. It seemed that knowing you were pregnant could start morning (and also evening) sickness and Payton had started to suffer.
It wasn’t nice to see anyone feel poorly, especially your twin, but Owen’s face had been amusing. He’d gone as pale as Payton, and then the panic had slowly set in across his usual calm and smiling face. Nothing ruffled Owen normally. Except Payton being sick and it being his fault.
Jackson, Killian and Nick – who’d ventured over with the twins and his toddler – had shared knowing smiles, but the best was Max, who’d sat there and looked completely and utterly confounded.
“You’ve got all this to come,” Jackson had said, and gave him a huge smile that ate shit. “Months of demands, sickness, huge credit card bills, antenatal classes, being forced to read books, listening to lectures on forceps and stitches. It’s all coming your way, brother.”
Owen then joined in with looking more green than pale, before fleeing from the room, possibly to vomit himself.
I’d just sniggered semi-politely in a corner and hoped that the jibes stayed away from me for once, especially because I was nowhere near this situation coming to me.
Now, a few hours later, Payton had recovered and was picking at a plate containing a plethora of weird things.
“Are you craving stuff? Like gherkins or pickles or whatever it’s meant to be?”
