“Seems like I have a lot to learn, still,” Saskia said, with a half-smile. “Do you think she’d object to meeting me? Not necessarily for a full-on interview, but maybe just for a quotation that I can use in my article…?”
“I don’t know.” Anastasia bit her lip. “She’s going to be exhausted tonight, and I can tell from the way she was standing that her back is killing her. Leave it with me, okay?” Now she smiled. “If anyone can bring her around, it’s me.”
“The magic of love,” Saskia said, and at that magic word, shejustmoved her elbow so it would nudge Kivi. It made Kivi nearly combust on the spot.
“Oh look, they’re about to start again,” Anastasia said, and they all turned their attention back to the choir. Kivi barely noticed them, even when they broke into a Broadway-style chorus-line up complete with hilarious high-kicks towards the end. Saskia laughed, as did the rest of the crowd, but Kivi just clung on tighter to Saskia’s waist, still pressed against her.
Yep, completely screwed. Absolutely falling in love with her.
When they got home, sun-soaked and deliriously happy, Kivi wasted no time in attacking Saskia’s mouth with her own. They shut the door, leaving Toto in the garden because he’d found a toy that he was determined to play with, and then Kivi pressed Saskia up against it, determined to kiss her senseless.
“Oh my God,” Saskia moaned in a brief break for air, before Kivi belaboured her with kisses again.
“Wanted to do that all day,” she panted, untucking Saskia’s blouse so she could snake a hand up her front. “Do you have any idea how many people wanted to do this to you? Do you?”
“Perhaps,” Saskia said, not even attempting to play coy. Kivi liked her confidence. “But you’re the only one who gets to.”
“Because you’re mine.” Kivi’s blood surged. “And I love you.”
At themagic words, they both froze.
“You… do you?” Saskia said, her voicealmoststeady.
“Mm-hmm,” Kivi said, averting her gaze. She couldn’t bear to look at the confusion she was sure was painted across Saskia’s face. “Sorry. Too soon. I’m an idiot.”
“Kivi…” Saskia breathed. “Look… look at me.”
“No.” She couldn’t.
“Please.”
“No.”
“Kivi.”
Saskia put two fingers under her chin and applied pressure, forcing Kivi to raise her gaze.
“I’m so sorry,” she garbled. “I can’t believe I just said- you don’t have to say it back or anyth-”
“I love you too,”Saskia whispered.Then she leaned forward and placed a delicate kiss to her lips. Then another. And another. Before she could stop herself, Kivi let out a half-hysterical laugh. Her head swimming with emotions, it was the only way she could think to let them out.
“Now we’ve got that out of the way, shall we continue where we left off? I believe you were in the process of undressing me.”
Kivi looked at Saskia once again. Her eyebrow was raised in an expression of hauteur, but there was no mistaking the tell-tale uncontrollable raise of her lips. Kivi laughed again, and obeyed.
Chapter Forty-One
Saskia
“It’s got to be done.”
Those were the words that she had repeated, both for her sake and Kivi’s, several times over the course of the last twenty-four hours.
It had started when, sitting in the kitchen the previous night while Kivi cooked salmon linguine, Saskia had attempted to help by cutting up a shallot. She’d never cut any sort of vegetable before – her few previous forays into home cooking had been mostly courtesy of frozen pre-prepared ingredients – and she held the knife awkwardly, chasing the vegetable around the chopping board, before finally managing to nick herself. While running the cut under the tap, embarrassment had tipped over into irritation.
“What sort of an adult am I?” she’d ranted. “Thirty-one years old, and I can’t even chop a bloody shallot!”
“Itwillbe a bloody shallot if you continue to chop your own finger like that,” Kivi chuckled, but seeing that Saskia was truly upset, she slipped an arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze. “It’s okay. You’ll learn. How about a little cooking-slash-baking lesson tomorrow afternoon, after my brunch with Eva? I’ve been wanting to do some batch cooking this weekend anyhow – you can be my sous chef. Sous baker.”
