Sexy Berkeley (1) (8 page)

CHAPTER SIX

MONDAY 17TH SEPTEMBER

The sun gleams through the open curtains as the alarm on Daniel's iPhone wakes me from a luscious, deep sleep. Wrapped in his strong, muscular arms, I stretch, letting out a slight sigh, and wriggle back into his warm body. He tightens his hold around me and kisses my neck softly, over and over.

"Mmm," I mumble sleepily, closing my eyes again to enjoy the feel of this deliciously hot, naked man pressed against me.

 
I wake again, a short while later, to Daniel, smoothing my hair away from my face. He is crouched in front of me, at the side of the bed, fully dressed. "Good morning, sleepyhead," he whispers.

"Mmm, good morning," I smile, "are you going?"

"I've got to get back to my place to get ready for work, so I have to leave, but I'd like to give you a lift home, if I can?" 

"Yes, thanks, that would be great. I'll just get dressed."

I sit up, covering myself with the duvet and yawn quietly. He looks at me and reaches his hand to my neck, pulling me towards him. I take a slight detour and kiss his cheek.

"Thank you for yesterday, and last night, Daniel. I had a wonderful time. I'd kiss you on the mouth but I haven't cleaned my teeth yet... I don't 'do' morning breath'."

He chuckles and flashes his spectacular smile. "You're welcome, I should be thanking you, I haven't had so much fun in a long time. I'll leave you to get ready." He smiles at me before heading into the bathroom. I would love nothing more than for him to join me in bed and have mad, passionate sex again, but I know he has to go.
Sigh.

As he returns from the bathroom, I'm dressed in yesterday's clothes, making the bed, getting ready to leave.

"You don't have to make the bed, Bea," he says as if I'm doing something alien.

"It's ok, I always have to make the bed." I smile at him and shrug, knowing that a maid will most likely be stripping it later anyway.

"Shall we?" he asks, motioning to the door and I nod.

As he opens it, I whisper, "Oh... do you know if they're up?" I point to Luke's bedroom door, "I need to tell Tilly that you're taking me home."

"I don't know, I don't hear anything downstairs, why don't we knock?" he suggests.

"Ok, good idea."

Daniel knocks on the door and we wait for a response. Nothing, so he knocks again. We both lean in to the door, trying to listen for signs of life.

"Why don't you open the door and poke your head around?" I ask, not willing to do it myself.

"And what if Tilly is running around Luke's bed, naked? You do it."

"No way! What if Luke is running around the bed, naked?" I respond with a giggle.

He laughs out loud. "Well I'm not doing it."

We both pause for a moment, leaning into the door to see if we can hear anything. Just as I lean into the door further, Daniel's hand darts to the handle, and he opens it so quickly, that I stumble into the room and fall to the floor. I hear his laughs as I find myself on the carpet of Luke's bedroom, on my hands and knees, peering straight at Luke's naked backside, in between Tilly's legs.
Oh for the love of god!

"Oh my god!!! I'm so sorry!" I cry as I shuffle back towards the door with my hand covering my eyes.
"Um, as you were..." I giggle as I stand and rush out of the door, slamming it behind me.

"You bastard!" I shout, swatting his arm and laughing with him as I run down the stairs behind him.

Daniel laughs cheekily and wraps an arm around my waist. "Shall we go? I wish I had time to take you for breakfast, but I need to go to my place and get ready before work. I'm sorry," he says as we reach the lounge.

"Oh, don't worry about breakfast, I'll eat back at
Gemma’s. Do you think Luke will bring Tilly home? I can't believe I just saw them having sex, I'll get you back for that."

As I say it, the bedroom door opens upstairs and Tilly shouts down, "Bea, are you going back now?"

"Yes, do you want to come or will Luke take you home?" I call up the stairs.

"Luke has work so I'll come with you. I'll just be a sec."

"Ok, don't be long," I add.

In a couple of minutes, she's downstairs with her t-shirt back to front and her hair all over the place. They obviously enjoyed their time together!

"Looking good, Til," I joke with a wink, and she swats my arm, running her fingers through her hair, giggling.

We head down to the underground car park and walk towards Daniel's car.

"Wow! Nice car!" Tilly says as she climbs into the backseat. I'd have to agree. "What is it?"

"It's a Bentley Continental, GTC V8. Thank you, I like it, too."

"It's lovely, wouldn't mind one of these myself!" I add, sliding into the front passenger seat next to Daniel.

"What exactly is it that you do, Daniel?" Tilly asks, "These cars don't cost peanuts..."

"Tilly!" I scold, she may as well have asked him his annual wage.

 He laughs, "It's ok. I work for the family company, my sister, Alexia, and I both work for the business with my dad who's the CEO. I'm the CBDO."

"Right... and that means?" Tilly responds.

I'm listening, intently. I know we discussed this briefly on the plane but at the time, I was a little distracted. Now, I want to know everything. He starts the engine and makes his way up the ramp and out onto the street.

"Chief Business Development Officer. Simply put, I look for new sales perspectives and design processes to support growth. I work closely with my sister who is the Chief Marketing Officer, we develop marketing strategies and generally run the business with our dad." He shrugs as if the information would be boring for us, but I'm riveted, hoping he continues. He's so sexy when he talks shop, too.
Mmm
.

"And what does your company do?" I ask, intrigued.

Daniel looks genuinely surprised by my interest. "I don't know if you'll have heard of us, considering you're from the UK, it is a global business but it's heavily based in the US. The UK division is growing rapidly though and that's why I was in London. It's called 'Henry Berkeley.'"

I shake my head. "No, I don't think I've heard of it."

"I didn't think so. Anyway, my dad founded the company, back in the seventies. It started as an automotive business in the States, but it was very successful and expanded quickly to become an integrated commercial and services organisation. We now have five divisions; automotive, insurance, services, real estate and retail."
Oh Daniel, keep talking...

"Wow, so you must be really proud of your dad?" I ask.
 

"I am, very proud, and I'm proud of the business," he smiles. He clearly likes to talk about the business, and I'm more than ok about that, I find this man fascinating.

"Tilly, can you give me directions? I just realised that I don't know where I'm headed," he asks.

"Oh sorry, if you head to Santa Monica Boulevard and then do a left onto North Cahuenga Boulevard, I can direct you from there."
 

"Great, thanks."

The short journey is over before we know it, and Daniel is dropping us outside Gemma’s. He gets out to open my door and helps Tilly climb out of the back, before handing us our shopping bags from yesterday. Tilly kisses his cheek and thanks him before heading to the side gate and disappearing around the side of the house.

Daniel leans against his car and tugs on my dress to bring me against him. "Thank you again for yesterday, I had a really great time. I hope you'll still let me take you out for dinner tonight?"

I smile shyly and place my hand on his chest. "I had a great time too, so thank you. Yes, dinner would be lovely, but please, like I said, let's not get heavy or anything, just have a little fun enjoying each other's company before I head home."

"Sure, I understand. Can I take your number?" He fishes his iPhone from his pocket and enters the number I give him. "Thanks, I'll look forward to seeing you, all day."

I smile and touch his beautifully defined biceps.
"I look forward to it, too. I'd better let you get to work, we couldn't have the CBDO late for his Monday morning meeting, could we?"

"You're right, Miss Hart. How will I ever get through the day with last night on my mind?"

"You'll have to try your best, Mr. Berkeley. Now, go and get ready for work, I have a sun lounger waiting." I lean in to kiss his cheek and he puts his arms around me, pulling me into an embrace. Oh, how I love the smell of this man. He lowers his mouth to my neck and lays light kisses under my ear.
My god, I really like this guy.

"Mmm, I could stay here all day," he mumbles against my neck.

"Mmm," I respond and let out a barely audible sigh, "me too."

"But I've got damned work." He pulls back, seemingly reluctantly, and smiles that irresistible smile. "But I'll pick you up later and we can continue."

"Looking forward to it," I say as I take a step back, "text me to let me know when I should be ready."

"Sure, see you later, Bea." He climbs back into the sexy car without taking his eyes off me. I'd like to get down and dirty in that thing.

"See you later, handsome," I say with a wink and turn to walk towards the side of the house. I close the side gate behind me and skip around to the pool before hopping up the steps and collapsing on one of our sun loungers, my hands clenched on my chest. "Oh, good morning Los Angeles!" I say with a smile.

Tilly strolls out and hands me a cup of tea, she's grinning from ear to ear, her eyes as wide and excited as mine.
"Oh. My. God! How amazing was that?" she squeals.

"
So
amazing!" I wiggle, excitedly, careful not to spill boiling tea all over myself.

"I want to know everything!"

"Are you kidding, Tilly? I want to know everything! I can't believe I saw you two having sex!!! O.M.G. you two were going for it!"

"Why don't we get breakfast sorted and then come out for a sunbathe and a good old gossip? Then you can tell me how you came to stumble into the bedroom while Luke and I were 'taking the log to the beaver'... so to speak."

I howl with laughter. "Tilly, you're so bad! Oh, by the way, Daniel wants to take me out for dinner tonight, is that ok with you?"

"Of course, that's fine, I might ask Gemma if she wants to go out somewhere and have a catch up."

"Great, it's a plan Stan."

~~~~~~~

A couple of hours later, I'm sitting on the side of the pool, my feet dangling into the cool water with the sun burning down on my shoulders. It's heavenly. I feel like I haven't had a proper holiday for years, and this is what it's all about. Gemma and Tilly are floating around on the lilo chairs and we're having a boisterous chat about yesterday, filling Gemma in on Daniel and Luke.

Jay has taken Jack over to his mum's house today, giving us some girly time alone. Tilly has arranged for them to go out for dinner tonight too, and although it would have been fun to join them, I'm really looking forward to seeing Daniel again. I'm trying not to get too excited, I can't get attached to this lovely man, but I do really like him. Really, really like him.
 
Oh dear god.

At about eleven thirty, my iPhone chimes from under the sun lounger so I stroll over to retrieve it. It's a number I don't know.

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17 Sep 11:33

Pick you up at 8pm,  looking forward to seeing you. Been thinking about you all morning. Daniel xx

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Eee! I'm so excited!

"Who's that?" Tilly asks, "is it Clare? I was supposed to text her yesterday, whoops."

"No, it's like, three in the morning at home. It's Daniel," I reply, a giant smile spreading across my face.

"Ooh!" she teases, "What does he say?"

"Just that he's picking me up at eight."

"Is that it?"

"And that he's been thinking about me all morning." I blush and cannot wipe the smile of my face.

"He's got it bad. You're gonna get married and have like, fifteen babies. And he's stinking rich," she says casually as she tilts her head back, towards the sun, relaxing into her lilo.

"Oh Tilly, stop it. He's got a nice car and good job, that's all we know, and that's not what I like about him. Besides, it's just a bit of holiday fun, nothing serious."

"Yeah, yeah, holiday fun." She raises an eyebrow and chuckles while I try to hide my smile, and turn towards the pool-house so I can reply in peace.

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17 Sep 11:36

Hi, 8 is good for me, I will be ready and waiting. Been thinking about you too... and last night. Might doze by the pool and dream about it for a bit ;-) Bea xx

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17 Sep 11:37

You've got me hot and bothered. Can't stop thinking about last night. You're amazing. Can I join you for a doze? Daniel xx

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