Time to take charge of your life, Lili, instead of cowering in the shadows. Time to leap on the opportunity of the moment.
‘I won. You’re buying the—’ he started to say, but I strode right up to him, slid my hands up his chest and into the hair at the back of his head, pulling him closer, and then stopped when I was half a millimetre away, giving him the opportunity to back out, but his arms came around my waist, pulling me closer.
At first, the kiss was light and soft, a ‘hello’ kiss, a ‘getting to know you’ kiss, feather-light touches that set nerve endings zinging, but then it changed gear, deepened, and the hunger became not just for his mouth on mine but for all of him. Not just the muscular arms that were clamped around me or the firm chest I was pressed up against, but him. Everything he was, inside and out.
When he finally dragged his lips from mine, we rested our foreheads together, eyes closed, our breathing shallow. ‘Wow,’ he whispered. ‘I’d been imagining doing that all day, but I must have a pretty poor imagination for things like that because … just … wow.’
I smiled gently, buoyed up by the fact I could make someone, makehim, feel that way. ‘I think your imagination is just fine. It’s not that it’s … it’s …’ I hesitated, scared to let the words out. What if I was reading too much into this?
But Ben pulled back so he could see my whole face, one hand still cradling my neck,and finished my sentence for me. ‘It’s us.’
I nodded. ‘It is.’
We just stared at each other for a long moment, saying nothing but, at the same time, I felt as if I was spilling myself out before him, all the secret things no one knew about me, all the talent and potential and hope, but all the flaws too, all the things I never wantedanyoneto see.
I lowered my lashes and looked away, afraid of what I was feeling. ‘Do you do this every time you visit a new city? Fly in, charm a local girl, then fly away again?’
For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence. ‘No,’ he said, sounding emphatic but also maybe a little offended.
I flicked a glance at him.
‘Don’t do that,’ he said. ‘Don’t pretend you don’t know this is different.’
I swallowed. There wasn’t really anything I could say in my defence. That wasexactlywhat I’d been doing – ducking out, retreating to a place of safety before this feeling completely overwhelmed me and took my heart on the tidal wave that came with it.
‘Lili?’
I loved hearing him say my name. Well, my nickname. My younger sister hadn’t been able to say my full name when she was little, and that had been her best attempt. My parents had thought it was cute, and somehow it had stuck.
I slowly raised my eyes to meet his.
‘No, I don’t pick up random girls in foreign cities and spend the day with them. You’re the first, the only …’ He brushed my cheek with his thumb. ‘Don’t you know that?’
‘Yes …’ I whispered back in between kisses. Even though it made sense to me that this charming man would have a woman in every port, I believed him. My heart was so full, I almost couldn’t bear it, but there was also a little rip down in one corner, one that was threatening to tear further as the minutes ticked past.
‘I’ll never forget today,’ I said softly. ‘I wish it didn’t have to end.’
His chest rose and fell heavily. ‘Me too.’
I pulled him to me and hugged him hard, attempting to hide the fact I felt perilously close to crying. I didn’t want to do that in front of him. However, when I spoke, I suspected the rasp in my tone gave me away. ‘When’s your flight?’
He checked the functional-looking chunky watch he wore on his wrist. ‘I ought to get going, well …now.’
But he didn’t go anywhere. Instead, he kissed me again. We wasted at least another ten minutes before making our way back to the exit, making only a few dead-end turns along the way.
When we got to the entrance, we found the gate padlocked. Thankfully, it only came up to my waist, so it was no obstacle for Ben’s long legs, and he clambered over first and held his arms out for me. Unfortunately, the hem of my dress got stuck on one of the pointed wooden struts, and I almost face-planted onto the tarmac on the other side of the gate, which resulted in us both giggling as Ben lifted me up and over and then placed me carefully on the ground.
‘I wish the gate had been bigger,’ I said, sighing. ‘Then we would have been locked in and you’d have no choice but to stay a little bit longer.’ I pulled a face, realising how selfish I was being.‘Sorry … That would have meant you’d miss your flight, and I wouldn’t want that.’
Ben stared at me. ‘I would,’ he said, and then he dug into his jeans pocket, pulled out his phone and tapped away on it with fierce concentration.
‘Ben?’
‘I’m cancelling my flight,’ he said.
‘What? No!’ I reached out to try and pull his hand away from his phone screen, but he captured my fingers in his. ‘You said earlier that you’ve been planning this trip for a year! You can’t miss going to all those places, especially New Zealand, for me! It’s been your dream since … forever!’
‘I won’t miss out,’ he said. ‘Trust me.’ When he’d finished messing around on his phone, he grinned at me. ‘Where do you want to go next? Wanna grab some dinner? Or do you want to try one of those “secret” bars you told me about? The one you get to by going through a door disguised as a vintage fridge sounds fun, or the one that looks like a detective agency.’
