Love & Loss (39 page)

‘Excuse me a minute Milo.’ I put down my plate and headed over to her. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Gabe’s looking for you, figured you may not want to be found cozying up in the corner with Milo.’

‘I wasn’t cozying, we were just talking, but I appreciate the heads up. Where is he?’

‘The kitchen … our kitchen … your kitchen … my kitchen … fuck this is confusing, number five’s kitchen. He’s discovered the trays of chocolate caramel shortbreads in the freezer and I’m telling you it could get ugly if anyone else wants any.’

‘Really? That’s not like him.’

‘Well try and get him away from them, I’d like some.’

I laughed and headed off via the bathroom, filling up my pistols again and crept up to the kitchen door. He had his back to me and Lexi was right, he was standing in front of the tray and a good chunk were missing. I took him by surprise with a load of squirts to the back of the neck, but he spun around, his cheeks bulging from the small squares of dessert and raised a water rifle and I screamed as he laughed while we soaked each other.

‘What are you doing?’ I spluttered as he grasped me around the waist and smoothed my wet fringe to the side.

‘I like you wet,’ he winked.

‘Not
that,
I heard a rumour you’d liberated a tray of dessert from the freezer and were protecting it with your life. What gives Stonebridge?’

‘Come to tomb raid them from under me have you Croft?’

‘Yes and to witness your gluttony, you don’t normally go for sweet treats, you prefer savoury.’

‘I know but Lex gave me one and they’re really good.’

‘One?’ I laughed, ‘there’s more than one missing off that tray. Soldiers need to stay in shape you know.’

‘I do know baby, after watching you on that pole I know exactly how I’d like to stay in shape, but given we are stuck with all these people for a few more hours I wanted something else sweet to satisfy me. I’m thinking I’d like to buy some chocolate and caramel sauce so I can pour it on you and lick it all off.’

‘Could we get some of that chocolate stuff that goes hard when you pour it? I’d love to coat your cock in it and then have to bite and suck it off slowly.’

‘O fuck,’ he groaned and he moved his hands down to my bottom and pressed me against him. ‘Can’t we kick everyone out and do it now?’

‘Sadly not, but you know what we can do tomorrow?’

‘Spend all day having sex?’

‘That too, but I was thinking we haven’t used the Clone your Willy kit Lexi got us.’

‘Ok, I’m game,’ he nodded as his voice took on a lower huskier tone than normal. ‘I like the idea of a 69 with my cock in your mouth while I suck your clit and fuck you with my clone,’ he whispered as he bit my ear lobe and I groaned at the thought of it.

‘Only if you use the butt plug as well.’

‘Greedy greedy
greedy
girl,’ he chuckled as he kissed my neck. ‘Why don’t we get a second kit and I can fuck you in all three holes at the same time?’

‘O shit,’ I moaned as I sagged against him. ‘I think I could come by you just kissing my neck and talking me through that scenario.’

‘Step away from Croft Stonebridge, or I will stick you with my pointy sword,’ came Lexi’s voice and Gabe groaned with frustration as I turned giggling to see her brandishing her plastic weapon.

‘Have you come to free the chocolate squares?’ I asked.

‘I have, Stonebridge is a greedy chuffer and needs to be stopped before he bloats like the marshmallow man from Ghostbusters.’

‘Greedy chuffer?’ he scowled at her and I giggled again.

‘You’ll get chunky,’ I nodded and he smacked my bottom making me squeal and Lexi blush.

I left them to argue over the fact Gabe wanted to hide some for our personal use and went back to our apartment to grab another beer. The party was in full flow and I did a quick responsible home owners check that nothing had been damaged yet. My phone was buzzing non-stop with pre-midnight texts from Mum and Gerry, Georgie and the girls back home. I replied to them all and looked up and spotted Gabe on the other side of the room, mid conversation with some of his swim team, but his eyes were firmly fixed on me. I blew him a kiss and I felt my chest constrict, I swore he got more handsome by the day. It was already twenty past eleven and I quickly side stepped a staggering James and felt my phone vibrate again. I looked down to see it was Sam, the singer calling and quickly looked around for Lexi, but couldn’t see her. Gabe was still talking to his friends so I answered but could hardly hear over the noise.

‘Hold on, I’m going somewhere quieter,’ I yelled. I headed out onto the landing and opened the door to the roof terrace and stepped out and gasped to find Lexi locked in an embrace with Milo’s friend Dan. They pulled apart quickly and Dan ran his hands through his hair and played tennis going from my scowling face to Lexi’s embarrassed one and made the wise choice of squeezing past me and leaving. ‘Sam, I’m really sorry, can I ring you back in five minutes, I just have a crisis to deal with,’ I said calmly while spearing Lexi with another look as her face lit up to realise he’d called. I’d taken a photo of us earlier and texted it to him with ‘Up for it?’ as the caption.

‘Sure babe, make sure you do, I have a date for you. I’m definitely up for it.’

‘Excellent,’ I responded. ‘Call you in a while.’

‘Holy shit he called back?’

‘Don’t even
think
of changing tack with me Lexi. Have you and Doug split up?’

‘
Mia
,’ she sighed.

‘I take it that’s a no then.
Again
. Unacceptable Lexi, what if he’d just come out here looking for you?’ I watched her shrug and I let out an exasperated sigh. ‘That’s what you want isn’t it? You want him to catch you with someone else so he can have a fit and break up with you, so you don’t have to do it.’

‘I really like him Mia, I don’t want to hurt him.’

‘You think seeing you snogging someone else isn’t going to hurt him?’

‘He’ll probably put it down to the booze and me being a slut and move on. If I break up with him I’ll always be the girl that broke his heart at Christmas, after he’d told her he loved her.’

‘Lexi you …’ I cut myself off as I saw her bottom lip wobbling. Why couldn’t she just admit how she felt about him and give into it. ‘Come here,’ I sighed and opened my arms and she walked into them. I rubbed her back as I rocked her. ‘If you really can’t let go with him you have to end it Lexi. It’s not fair and he deserves better. Don’t do it like this, he’ll be hurt, but he’ll go away with happy memories of your time together instead of hating you. We’re still going to see him, a lot, you need to try and keep things amicable, you knew this from the start.’

‘I know,’ she whispered. ‘I just feel so miserable.’

‘Come on then, let’s ring Sam back and fix up a date as you’re going to be single.’ I let go of her and she straightened up and gave me a half smile.

‘You’d really do that?’

‘I’d do it for you, arrange the meeting,
not
the threesome,’ I added and this time I got a full smile. I redialled his number and he gave me the name of the hotel he’d be staying in while in London on Valentine’s night we agreed on meeting in the hotel bar at 8 p.m. ‘Sam, I’m sorry but it’s coming up to midnight here, I need to re-join the party.’

‘Cool, happy New Year babe, I’ll look forward to seeing you in Feb.’

‘Happy New Year to you too Sam,’ I blew a kiss down the phone for extra effect as I raised my eyebrows at Lexi. ‘Well how the hell am I going to get out of Valentine’s night with Gabe to wrangle a trip with you to London?’

‘We’ll find some excuse. I love you,’ she grinned as she hugged me. ‘Right, party, we need to get back.’

‘I’ll be there in a minute,’ I nodded. ‘Just got a few more texts to reply to.’ I leaned on the railings as I did them and screamed, wobbled and nearly dropped my phone as I felt a hand on my shoulder and suddenly I was hauled back from the edge of the roof.

‘Christ Mia, you nearly went over.’

‘Milo?’ I gasped. ‘You gave me the fright of my life. Shit I’m shaking,’ I uttered as I looked down at my trembling hands. He took me by surprise by pulling me into a hug, pressing my face against his chest.

‘It’s ok, I’d never let anything happen to you, you know that right?’ I could hear a slight slur in his voice and I suddenly felt rather uncomfortable.

‘I know,’ I nodded. ‘Thanks, but I really need to get back, Gabe will be wondering where I am.’ I went to move, but his arms tightened around me. ‘Milo, I need to go.’

‘What do you see him Mia? He’s … he’s no good for you,’ he whispered as his lips met my neck.

‘Milo, get off me right now, this isn’t appropriate.’ I pushed my palms on his chest, but he didn’t work out on the weights for nothing, he was as strong as Gabe and I couldn’t get out of his grasp. I felt panic starting to rise inside me, my heart racing as the tremors in my hands worsened. What if Gabe came out here and saw this? He’d go crazy and we weren’t exactly in a safe place for a brawl. ‘Milo, let me go, you’re scaring me.’

‘You deserve better than
him
Mia, you’re so beautiful, with your long brown hair, it glitters in the sun, like … like … strands of gold.’

‘Milo, if you don’t let me go I’m going to hurt you,’ I growled. Where the bloody hell had this come from? He’d never acted inappropriately around me before and I refused to believe that Gabe, Doug and Lexi had all been right about him all along, I was sure I could suss people out quite quickly, but if I was wrong about Milo, it called my judgement into question.

‘Hurt me?’ he laughed. ‘You already hurt me being with that cocky …
twat
.’

‘I warned you,’ I muttered and lifted Lexi’s heavy biker boot and brought it crashing down on his foot. He yelled out in pain and loosened his grip on me, so I took the opportunity to shove him back as he cursed and hopped up and down. ‘This had better be inappropriate flirtation because you’re pissed Milo, I want you to leave right now and I’ll be having a serious conversation with you about this when you’re sober. And don’t you
ever
question Gabe’s suitability for me again.’ I yanked open the door and stepped out feeling my whole body trembling and slammed it shut behind me and came face to face with Lexi leaning over the bannister.

‘Shit, are you ok? You look really pale.’

‘It’s nothing, I’m fine.’ I smiled.

‘Please, how long have I known you Mia, you’re not fine. What’s going on?’

‘Not now please Lexi, I just want to find Gabe. Have you seen him?’

‘He’s sitting at your island. Mia seriously what the hell’s happ …’ she stopped mid-sentence and her mouth dropped as she looked behind me. I turned to see Milo squeezing out of the door from the terrace and looked back at her as she straightened up. ‘Has he just …’

‘Lexi, leave it please. Milo’s had too much to drink and he’s leaving. Can you go and find Dan or one of his friends to take him home.
Right now
please,’ I ordered. She scowled over my shoulder but nodded her head.

‘Mia?’ came Milo’s voice.

‘Good night Milo,’ I replied as I walked away without looking back at him and pushed my way through the crowds in our apartment. I felt sick, physically sick and I just wanted Gabe, we spotted each other through the bodies separating us and I felt my eyes tearing up. How could Milo have behaved like that? Gabe immediately frowned and started making his way towards me. God this wasn’t the time to have a meltdown, no way could I tell him what had just happened, I needed to pull myself together. I bit my lip to stop myself from crying as he virtually barrelled someone out of the way to get to me.

‘Baby, what’s wrong?’ he uttered as he pulled me into his arms. I melted into them and wrapped my arms tightly around his waist as I nuzzled his chest and breathed him in, replacing the smell of Milo with my man’s irresistible aroma.

‘I missed you. I’ve hardly seen you all night and I just wanted to feel your arms around me.’

‘I’m confused. You told me you didn’t want me by your side all night,’ he said softly as he kissed the top of my head.

‘Well I was stupid, please don’t leave me now.’

‘I’m not going anywhere, I never wanted to leave you in the first place. Baby you’re trembling. What have you had to eat tonight?’

‘Half a chicken wrap,’ I mumbled.

‘
Mia
,’ he sighed. ‘We didn’t have lunch with getting ready. You probably have low blood sugar again and you’re drinking on a virtually empty stomach. Come on, let’s go and see if there’s anything left.’ He tugged my hair and I looked up at him and smiled as he bowed his head and kissed me. I felt so safe with him, how dare Milo criticise him, making out that he was no good for me. He
was
good for me, even when he was in one of his frequent stress moods he’d lay down his life to protect me, I just knew it, because I’d do the same for him. ‘Love face,’ he smiled.

‘They need a stronger word for what I feel for you Gabe,’ I said sincerely as I held his gaze.

‘Like engine,’ he whispered as his eyes glittered.

‘Like engine,’ I nodded and for a moment we were just in a little bubble of bliss, seeing into each other’s souls and nothing else mattered but the love I felt flowing back to replace what I was sending to him. I let go of his waist and hopped up onto his hips and clasped his face. ‘Kiss me.’

‘Abso
lute
ly,’ he smiled, mimicking Lara and I laughed and pulled his lips onto mine and kissed him tenderly, my lips tingling with pleasure as they worked against his. ‘Hmmm, great kiss,’ he sighed as I pulled back and smiled. ‘I’m going to get some food in you, then if it’s ok with you, I’d like to find somewhere to get my cock in you.’

‘Abso
fucking
lutely,’ I laughed and kissed him again as he effortlessly strode out and I buried my face in his neck in case Milo was still out on the landing.

‘Ok, cocktail sausage?’ he asked as he kissed my cheek.

‘Why go mini when I have maxi to look forward to later?’ I giggled as I lifted my head and looked at him.

‘Very true, but maybe this little one will make you appreciate my large one even more.’

‘O trust me, I appreciate it like you wouldn’t believe,’ I nodded as I snatched the chipolata off him and bit down on it with a wink.