Joe moved first, peeling himself away from the car and walking around towards me as I backed up, the hot metal of the Range Rover burning through the thin fabric of my dress. He stopped right in front of me, brown suede desert boots toe-to-toe with my black leather sandals, the car behind me, Joe in front. There was nowhere for me to go.
‘I thought it might be a good idea,’ he said. ‘Get it out of our systems.’
‘That sounds like something Eric would say,’ I replied as he wrapped my ponytail around his fist and pulledgently, angling my face upwards towards his. ‘But you’re not Eric.’
‘No, I’m not,’ Joe murmured against my lips. ‘He’s just a fantasy. I’m real.’
And then he kissed me.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
‘And how was it?’ Sarah asked, eyes wild with vicarious excitement. ‘The actual kiss?’
I glanced across the party to where Joe was standing in front of the big top-styled marquee that had gone up while Joe and I were at the fete. He was chatting with my mum and a couple I didn’t recognise, smiling, nodding, occasionally throwing in a casual laugh. His hair was as carelessly perfect as ever, sleeves pushed up and his trademark white shirt tucked into a pair of soft grey trousers. All his clothes looked like they had been made just for him, tailored to show off his assets, another set of unnecessary weapons in his arsenal, as if the raw materials weren’t dangerous enough.
‘Oh, you know,’ I said. ‘Fine.’
But the punch she landed on my upper arm confirmed she knew me better than that.
‘That’s a lie. You’re lying. I want a millisecond-by-millisecond rundown. Where were his hands, where were your hands? Were there tongues, eyes open or closed, did he or did he not get a hard on during? Finewon’t do, Taylor, I demand the same level of detail you would’ve given me when we were fifteen.’
‘Firstly, ow.’ I rubbed my arm, she was stronger than she knew. ‘When we were fifteen, there were no details to share, only me in my room writingVampire Diariesfanfic. I think you’re mixing the two of us up.’
‘Then pretend you’re me at fifteen.’ She took a deep drink of the organic prosecco Mum swore they always drank in Umbria, even though she bought it in bulk from Aldi, draining half the glass in one gulp, then set her shoulders, readying herself for battle. ‘Hit me with the specifics, I’m ready.’
I hitched up a strap of my dress, fighting off a hot flush when Joe’s gaze crossed mine and that crooked smile appeared on his face. The evening was so humid, I could taste the air, but nothing made me sweat like the thought of his lips on mine. ‘We were outside, in public, in the middle of the day. How salacious do you think it could be?’
‘I don’t know but your skin is glowing, your eyes are sparkling and he hasn’t taken his eyes off you since I got here, so either you sneaked in a full spa treatment since I saw you this morning or that kiss was more than “fine”. You’re the romance writer, use your words.’
The only problem was, the words didn’t exist. Joe and I had shared the single greatest kiss ever experienced, the kind of kiss that put all others to shame. His hands were in my hair, cradling my face, anchoring us together when the storm rushed in. I fell apart on contact, his mouth, soft and warm and yielding until everything intensified beyond my control and I came apart. The pressure built until a gasp escaped my lips, mine or his, I wasn’t sure. It didn’t matter. Pinned between the hothard car and Joe’s solid body, I had all but melted away, surrendering everything to the kiss. Who needed to stand? Who needed to breathe? All I could do was loop my arms around his neck and cling on for dear life as his tongue grazed mine for the first time. He tasted of freshly picked strawberries and damson jam …
‘It was just a kiss,’ I said, dabbing at my suddenly damp forehead and exorcising the memory from my mind. ‘No big deal.’
‘You’re still lying but what happened after?’
I sipped my drink and flipped my freshly washed hair over my shoulder.
‘We came home, Joe helped my dad with setting up the party and I … worked.’
It was more or less the truth. When we finally broke apart, both of us shaking and panting, Joe pulled away without a word, walked around the car and got inside, until I found the strength to open the passenger side door. It took a minute. Neither of us said a word on the drive home and I couldn’t remember what was playing on the stereo, a nineties station maybe? I could barely remember my own name. The Range Rover screeched into my parents’ driveway, kicking gravel up the side of the garage, and before we’d even come to a complete stop, I let myself out and sprinted to the cottage, locked myself in the bathroom and spent the best part of an hour getting to know the new showerhead intimately. Which was sort of work, and I was certainly exhausted by the end of it.
‘And that’s that,’ Sarah said, openly staring at Joe. ‘You snogged once and now you’re done.’
‘Precisely,’ I agreed. ‘Scientific experiment complete. He is completely out of my system.’
It was such a useless lie. Before the kiss, Joe was under my skin, now he was in my bones. He ran through my veins, sweet and sharp at the same time, the kind of desire I’d only ever written about and never experienced myself. A dangerous downhill slide there was no coming back from. Joe didn’t do relationships and I didn’t do one night stands, so where did that leave me? Aside from locked in the bathroom for an hour with the showerhead, I wasn’t sure.
‘Is it weird that I couldn’t find much about him online?’ Sarah asked. ‘What? Why are you looking at me like that?’
‘Why were you looking for him online?’ I replied.
‘I wanted to check out the thighs so I wouldn’t be overcome with lust when I saw them in real life,’ she quipped. ‘I’m serious, there’s barely any personal information out there otherwise I’d have come armed with a full report.’
She was, as ever, a very good friend.
‘Look, I know how much you love living in denial so I won’t push,’ she offered graciously. ‘Happy to pretend nothing is going on until it all explodes in your face the way these things always do. Fun party, eh?’
‘Nothing is going to explode in anyone’s face,’ I said, the fleeting memory passing through my mind of something pressed against my hip that definitely felt as though it was about to explode. ‘And yes, it’s a lovely party. Against all the odds. Can’t believe no one’s had a go on the bouncy castle yet though.’
