‘Stay there. I’ll put the lamp on.’ Carli waited, breathing in the smell of the room and trying to figure out what it was. Ancient paper, leather, fire smoke.
‘Is this some kind of study?’ she asked. ‘I can smell old paper and even older books.’
‘There’s a reason for that.’ And then that reason became illuminated in all its splendour as lamplight illuminated the space and Carli saw that every single wall except one was filled from ceiling to floor with books in a rainbow of colours.
‘It’s a library.’ She spun around. ‘Oh, my goodness, just… Wow!’
‘It’s not any old library.’ Niall slid his arms around her waist. He’d showered since football and smelled like laundry and lemons.
‘What kind of library is it?’ she asked.
Niall hovered his lips to hers. ‘It’s a romance library. We are surrounded by romance books.’
‘I’ve never read a romance book.’ Carli gaped at thefloor-to-ceiling shelves, Niall’s warm hold still steadying her.
‘Well, you haven’t lived then. Between these pages is a whole world that’ll blow your mind. There’s a reason my mum didn’t want us coming in here when we were younger. I mean, we were fine as kids because we weren’t interested in boring grown-up books, but once Cal was fourteen he started tiptoeing in here quite a lot and then he brought Jamie to show him.’
‘I never knew boys would be so interested in romance.’ Niall was romantic, but his brothers seemed less so. Then again, she wasn’t up close and personal with them.
‘Are you serious?’
‘What, yeah? Aren’t romance books about dashing gentlemen sweeping fair maidens off their feet and stuff like that?’
‘They can be, and some are, but a lot of these books are sexy as fuck. Some of them areverysexy.’
‘Sexier than you?’ Niall was quite the heartthrob as far as Carli was concerned. Sometimes she wondered if using the word sexy around him might mean he’d want to have sex with her, but she took the risk. It wasn’t like she hadn’t considered it, but she wouldn’t be going there until certain things were cemented.
‘Almost as sexy as me,’ he said. ‘Come on, I’ll show you. And they’re categorised by sexiness. My mum thinks we’re clueless, but Cal worked it out ages ago. Those three shelves over there are totally boring. Nothing more than kisses. This one over here,’ Niall walked over to the wall to the right of the door, ‘complete filth.’ He reached up and pulled a book from the shelf. ‘Come on, I’ll read you a bit. If you want me to, that is?’
‘Sure. My mum never had anything like this in thehouse and obviously my dad didn’t. This is a whole new world to me.’
‘Take a seat.’ Niall pulled some giant floor cushions over.
‘You sit,’ said Carli. ‘I’ll sit between your legs.’
‘Um, are you sure about that? I mean, these books are kind of…’
‘Racy?’ Carli’s neck grew a little warmer at her bold word choice. She was acting all grown-up, like she was a sex expert. And while it was true that she and Niall had done some things together and she was completely comfortable with him, at the same time, it was all new to her.
‘It’s fine,’ she said. ‘Come on. Get down there and read me a story.’
‘C’mon then.’ Niall sat on the cushion and made room for Carli to sit between his legs. He reached his arms round and pulled her back and she sank into his chest. Was there anything better than this? This feeling of complete safety and love. This boy. What would this trip have been like if he hadn’t been here to brighten the days, to hold her tight, to make her laugh and to hide in a romance library and read smutty books with?
‘Let’s start with this one.’ Niall flicked through the book he was holding in front of Carli. He could be about to read her a Greek dictionary and she wouldn’t have cared. All she could focus on was the waft of his warm breath on her neck and his rich Scottish burr vibrating to her heart. Although once the words started to flow, something else edged into the mix.
‘Kind of hot, eh?’ Niall lifted her hair to the side and planted more kisses on her skin.
‘Mmm, I enjoyed that.’
‘We could always try some of that stuff out later, if you like?’
‘Later?’ Carli suspected Niall meant an indiscriminate later, or sometime between now and Sunday evening. He was ready for them to have sex. But she’d told herself, no sex without knowing exactly how he felt.
‘Yeah, maybe. Maybe we should read some of the other ones first. Or…you know what I’d love?’
‘Aye? I mean, no… What?’
‘I’d love if you’d read me some Burns.’ Niall might be disappointed, moving away from the steamier reads to something more romantic, but it was the best tool in her kit to steer the ship into calmer waters for a bit. And she hit the jackpot as, for some reason, Niall loved Scotland’s national poet; possibly all the spirited declarations of ‘fancy’ chimed with him. She hoped it wasn’t the ladies’ man aspect, Burns notoriously jumping from one love of his life to the next.
