31 Days of Winter (37 page)

‘So stop talking and go and pack an overnight kit,
you can stay in the guest room.’

‘Go and stand by the fire then and I’ll chuck a
few things in a bag.’ He stepped aside and left me to go and attempt to dry my
backside by the wood burner. I sighed and wondered if we were going to get
through tonight and tomorrow unscathed. He seemed to lose some of his control
when he spent too long with me, while I had no reason to resist his advances,
not when I wanted him so badly. This had the potential for disaster written all
over it. He reappeared holding a small bag, turned all the lights out and held
out his arm and nodded for me to jump up. I opened my mouth to object. ‘I’m not
letting you fall over again Ellie, and what were you thinking coming out
without a coat?’

‘I wasn’t thinking, I was really mad at you.’

‘You’re not going to knife me while I’m asleep,
are you?’

‘I don’t hate you that much, actually I don’t hate
you at all.’
I love you.
‘You just pissed me off. I like people who are
straight with me Dan, I don’t need mixed signals from anyone, non-friend, friend,
or friends with benefits, whatever we are.’

‘I’m a friend with benefits?’ he grinned at me.

‘Not anymore it seems, no, as it doesn’t seem to
help either of us.’

‘I thought you were hungry or are we going to have
some deep analytic chat for the next hour about the fuckedupness of this …
whatever we’re calling our relationship?’

‘I vote food and no fuckedupness discussion,
please.’

‘Me too, so jump up,’ he ordered.

Ellie

I woke up first and smiled
to myself. We’d had a really nice night, even though there was the continual
undercurrent of simmering sexual tension, we’d resisted. I’d made steak and
homemade chips with a brandy sauce, and a pear and apple crumble and still
marvelled at the amount of food he managed to shovel down without any of it
accumulating as fat on his body. After I’d got ready for bed, dressed in a
t-shirt so as not to tempt him, he’d lain down on the bed next to me to listen
to me excitedly discussing my plans for when I returned home. The last I’d
remembered was struggling against my eyes wanting to close, trying to stay
focussed on his green eyes and soft lips.

As I slowly opened my eyes I smiled properly, he’d
fallen asleep with me and was lying on his side with his arm draped over my
waist, those perfect lips were so close, tempting me and I wondered if I could
just lean in a little and kiss them without him noticing.
How was he so good
looking?
I wondered what his parents looked like, there must be some
serious genes in the family to have produced him. Just as I was about to risk
it and lay a kiss on him, he groaned and lazily opened his eyes, dazzling mine
with their brilliance.

‘Good morning, Miss Baxter,’ he smiled.

‘Good morning, Mr. Complex. You were supposed to
sleep in the guest room.’

‘I was comfortable here, plus I figured I needed
to protect you from those Grizzly bears in case one of them opened the front
door and came in to maul you in your sleep,’ he winked.

‘You’re so good looking,’ I blurted out without
thinking and bit my lip, screwing up my face embarrassed as he laughed.

‘Thank you. You’re not so bad to wake up to
either.’

‘I have a few questions to ask,’ I reminded him,
welcome for a distraction. He’d not removed his arm and I could feel his
fingers circling the small of my back over my t-shirt.

‘You do,’ he sighed with a nod of the head.

‘Four,’ I tested, wondering if he was actually
keeping count.

‘Three,’ he retorted. Damn him!

‘Only three?’

‘It was three, but that was a question so I’m
reducing it now to two,’ he chuckled.

‘O, come on,’ I groaned with a shove of his
shoulder. ‘That’s not fair, it wasn’t even a personal one.’

‘You say you’re asking special questions and I set
the clock,’ he shrugged. ‘My game, my rules. Two questions left.’

‘You’re so infuriating,’ I huffed. ‘Ok … tell me about
your parents?’

‘At last an open ended question,’ he grinned.

‘What’s an open ended question?’

‘One where I can’t give a yes or no answer to, and
that in itself was another question, so once I’ve answered the one about my
parents you’re done until midnight.’ He laughed when he was hit with my
disapproving scowl.

‘You’re so
sneaky
, Dan. I bet you cheat at
cards and Monopoly don’t you?’

‘I don’t and I’ll prove it later, I have some
board games in my bag to try and occupy us so we keep our hands to ourselves,’
he winked and I embarrassed myself even further by snorting like a pig, which
made him laugh.

‘Well you’d better get them out now, the games
that is, as you have your arm around me and you’re stroking my back,’ I
reminded him. He frowned and his bottom lip jutted out as he removed his hand.
I quickly closed my eyes and took a deep breath, startled at how badly I wanted
to kiss him and for his hand to stay exactly where it had been.

‘So, Happy Christmas, Miss Baxter. As I can’t do
what I’d like to do right now, are we eating soon? I’m starving.’

‘You’re always starving,’ I replied with a blush
as his eyes told me exactly what he wanted to be doing right now. I didn’t even
have to flick my eyes down to check if he had an erection, I knew he had from
the heavy breathing and the way he kept shifting his hips. ‘Happy Christmas
too, Dan.’ I leaned in and kissed his cheek, then quickly pulled away and leapt
out of bed, heading for the bathroom before either of us lost control. I locked
the bathroom door, just in case, showered and styled my hair, for once put on
some mascara and eyeliner and a smudge of gold eye shadow which always
highlighted the green of my eyes. I sprayed some perfume and put on my new
black lace underwear, pleased it was my old knickers he’d ripped the other
night. I topped it all off with my mini knitted dress and gold heels and
checked myself out in the mirror. ‘Looking good,’ I nodded as I did a twirl. I
picked up my locket, opened it and looked at the photograph of my parents.
‘Happy Christmas,’ I whispered with a kiss on the tiny piece of glass
protecting the old black and white shot, before snapping it shut and kissing
the silver casing. I quickly smudged away the tears gathered along my lash
line. I still missed them terribly, Christmas always made it harder. I sighed
and shook myself down before heading down the stairs, carefully in my heels.

‘Wow,’ Dan uttered as he looked at me from his
perch at the island. ‘You look beautiful.’

‘Thank you,’ I smiled, pleased at his reaction to
my efforts.

‘I feel kind of underdressed now.’

‘You look amazing, as always,’ I shrugged as I
quickly walked past putting more distance between us. He’d obviously had a
shower in the guest room, his hair was damp, he smelled delicious and he’d
shaved, the lack of beard or stubble just showing off his devastating square
jaw line. Damn it, I was horny already and we were only an hour into the day.
‘So my question, you never answered it,’ I reminded him as I put the turkey in
and started emptying the fridge of the vegetables to prepare.

‘Why don’t I make us a fire, we can have breakfast,
and when you’re ready we can sit with some Champagne and I’ll answer it then.’

‘So long as it’s not an avoidance tactic,’ I
warned as I looked at him over my shoulder. He winked and headed over to the
lounge and I cocked my head to check out his backside. He may think he was
underdressed in his jeans and a pale blue shirt, but I was thinking he was
overdressed. I’d much prefer him to be wandering around in his boxers, or
preferably naked, that would be a great Christmas present, if I couldn’t have
the actual man himself. I made pancakes with bacon and maple syrup for
breakfast and we enjoyed them at the island, then chatted as I prepared the
vegetables.

‘What time were you thinking of us eating?’ he
asked.

‘You’re hungry
again
?’ I laughed.

‘No, I’m good for a few minutes,’ he teased. ‘I
just … I need to think about …’ he sighed and I looked up at him.

‘You need to go and do whatever you do each day,
today?’

‘I ought to, yes.’

‘Then I can get everything ready for an early
evening meal instead of lunch. How does six p.m. sound?’

‘Great, I’m really sorry to leave you on your
own.’

‘It’s no big deal,’ I shrugged as I looked back
down at the potatoes I was prepping. Except it
was
a big deal. He was
leaving me alone on Christmas Day for four or five hours to do … I hadn’t a
clue. There again I had to remind myself that we weren’t a couple, nor was there
any obligation for him to hang around all day.

‘You’re disappointed?’

‘We’re not a couple, Dan. You’re free to do whatever
you want, just make sure you let me know if you’re held up as I’ll be really
pissed if I’ve gone to the trouble of cooking all day and I sit waiting for
hours on my own.’

‘I’m really sorry, I wish I didn’t have to go. Can
I do anything to help?’

‘I’m nearly done, you can get that backgammon set
out, I’m going to beat you this time.’

Half an hour later I cleaned up the kitchen and
set the alarms on my iPhone to remind me what time various items needed to go
into the oven, and grabbed my glass of Champagne and headed over to join him in
the lounge. I deliberately sat in the armchair, at a right angle to him and saw
his eyebrows raise.

‘You’re not sitting next to me?’

‘I’m not sure it’s a good idea.’

‘I’m not sure it’s a good idea you sitting where I
can see your bare legs and then down your dress every time you bend forward.’

‘O, right.’ I looked down at my scoop neck top and
sighed, he was right. I reluctantly got up and sat next to him, tucking myself
right up to the arm of the sofa, trying to avoid our thighs touching. ‘So, stop
stalling. Answer my question, please.’

‘I’m not sure what I can tell you that would be of
interest. My father’s a QC in London, he should have retired but can’t bring
himself to. My mother was a model in her younger years, she’s Brazilian and
they went crazy for her looks on the catwalks in New York.’

‘That explains your dark good looks,’ I smiled.
‘Are they both tall? And don’t even think of refusing to answer, you hardly
gave me anything there.’

‘Dad’s six foot three, Mum’s five foot eleven.’

‘Same as me. How did they meet?’

‘In a restaurant in London. Dad was a barrister
back then and was celebrating winning a major case. He turned around in a bar
and spilt his scotch all down my mother’s white dress. Naturally, being fiery tempered,
she launched into a tirade of abuse in Portuguese and to shut her up he kissed
her, she slapped him and the rest is history.’

‘He kissed her?’ I laughed. ‘Sounds like not
knowing boundaries runs in the family.’

‘Yes, well Dad’s used to taking action and getting
his own way. He decided he wanted my mum and nothing was going to stop him.’

‘He’s lucky she didn’t sue him. Do they still live
in London?’

‘Yes,’ he nodded.

‘Do you get to see them much?’

‘Not as often as I’d like.’ He ran a hand over his
eyes. ‘In fact, I ought to ring them. Do you mind if I head down to the
boathouse for a while? I forgot to bring your Christmas present with me, too.’

‘You got me a present?’ I looked at him amazed.
Presents and a load of personal information, I
was
wearing him down.

‘Don’t get excited, it’s not much.’

‘It’s the thought that counts,’ I smiled and
quickly looked down and took a deep breath as he stood up, his crotch level
with my face.

‘I’ll be back in a while, then I’ll disappear as
discussed.’

‘Ok,’ I nodded. I felt him hesitate and wondered
what he was thinking, but he suddenly strode away and I heard the door shut. I went
and checked on the turkey, basting it and covering up the wings with foil
again. Then I grabbed my iPad and sat back in an armchair and facetimed Brooke.

‘Ellie!’ she screeched as her face came into view.
‘Happy Christmas.’

‘Happy Christmas, Brooke,’ I beamed. ‘How are you?
I’m really missing you.’

‘I miss you too babe, I’m fine.’ She looked over
her shoulder and then came closer to the screen. ‘Bored to fucking tears with
the oldies, I’d much rather be up there with you.’

‘Brooke Hansen!’ I scolded. ‘You’re lucky you get
to spend Christmas with your parents, it’s one day, make an effort and give
them lots of love.’

‘Shit, sorry babe, I didn’t think. So, how you
doing? You can be honest with Brooke.’ I rolled my eyes at her instance of
speaking about herself like that.

‘Ok, I guess,’ I shrugged.

‘That’s a no. Talk to me. Have you fucked and it’s
all gone to shit?’

‘No,’ I laughed. ‘No fucking, though we did fall
asleep together last night and we’re spending today together too, with the
exception of his daily missing hours.’

‘Seriously? He’s doing that today?’

‘Yeah,’ I sighed.

‘What the hell does he go and do?’

‘I’ve no idea.’

‘Ask him,’ she suggested and I laughed again.  

‘If only it were that easy, Brooke. You have no
idea how complex this guy is. He usually volunteers nothing personal unless
pressed, and refuses to answer any question that he considers
too
personal. I got him to tell me about his parents earlier and it was the most
I’ve heard him speak, let alone disclose.’

‘He must have another job.’

‘No, ruled that one out. He’d have to be paid a
ridiculous amount to make it worth him doing a two hour journey each day for a
two hour job.’

‘His parents are in an old people’s home and he
goes to visit them?’

‘No, they live in London. Besides, why wouldn’t he
want to tell me about that?’

‘He works for MI5 and has to attend daily meetings
at their secret headquarters!’ She winked making me laugh again.

‘Actually not that implausible Brooke, where
better to have top secret headquarters than a small town in the middle of
nowhere? No one would suspect.’

‘He’d look good in a Bond tuxedo,’ she nodded.

‘He would,’ I sighed as the image of it played
through my head. I looked at her puzzled as she frowned. ‘What? What have you
thought of?’

‘Maybe he has cancer or something and has to go to
the hospital for regular daily treatment.’

‘I don’t see it, he’s amazingly healthy and strong
and still has a full head of hair. Besides, I’m sure no one would want an hour’s
drive after a load of radiation or chemo.’