Sexy Hart (Sexy Series) (14 page)

“Now, as this is Vegas, we really don’t have too far to go, but the walks can be long - so as the beautiful ladies are wearing heels, I thought we could use a car for the evening.”

“So thoughtful, my sexy Berkeley,” Bea says, as she grabs his face and kisses him as they sit next to each other in the vehicle.

“Mmm…” he murmurs into the kiss… “Okay…” He closes his eyes and wraps a hand around the back of her neck, turning the quick peck into a long, romantic, passionate kiss.

I smile and tilt my head as I watch, loving how romantic they are together.

“Oh god.” Oliver says, repulsed. “Thank god Tilly and Luke
aren’t
here to join in and make it a giant gross-fest.”

“Tilly isn’t your sister, you know.” I say, still feeling those questions about why he sees her as a sister and not me… though it is a good thing, I suppose, or I wouldn’t get to make love to him like I do.

“I know that - but I think of her as one. You know that.”

“And I’m also a sibling to one of these guys so can we please hold off for now?” Alexia says, giggling, “I’m okay with kissing and all, but you two are getting a little close to the heavy petting stage and I’m really not interested in witnessing that, thank you.”

Oliver and I laugh as Bea and Daniel come up for air, smiling at each other, sharing something… special. Lucky them. I can’t wait until they start to plan the wedding and Bea lets me help… although, maybe I can wait - that’s probably going to be almost as emotional for me as Emily’s birth.

Gosh, marriage and babies, everywhere! I want it and I want it now! If I was the stroppy type, I’d even stomp my foot. It’s going to be at least three years until I get any of that - and that’s if I meet someone new now, and the way I’m currently feeling about Oliver, I’m unlikely to be putting myself out there for other guys in the near future.
Oh god, what am I doing?
This ‘thing’ with Oliver is going to set me so far back, I’m really not thinking straight.

“So where are we going?” Oliver asks.

“Well, this first bit was my idea,” Bea says, “because I just know you’re going to love this, Clare.”

“Ooh! What is it?” I ask, excitedly.

“We’ll be there shortly, just hang on a minute and you’ll see,” she says with a warm smile and a little wink.

When we step out of the car, a matter of minutes later, we’re outside the ‘Bellagio Hotel’, overlooking the beautiful huge lake at the front. “The fountains?” I ask, looking at Bea and she simply smiles and nods.
What fun!

“It’ll be a couple of minutes or so.” Daniel comments.

Bea stands next to me at the front, holding my hand, and Daniel behind her, his arms around her chest as she rests back against him. Alexia is on the other side of me and Oliver, behind me. He’s not holding me - but quite rightly so, we’re not together and I don’t want Alexia or Daniel… or Bea, even, to think we’re becoming an item. Because we’re not.

Everybody chats quietly, looking forward to the start of the show, and suddenly the music begins, immediately locking my attention. It’s music that I adore… maybe from the musical background of my family, but probably more so, because of my own love of this type of lament. Goose bumps run over my skin as the water starts to move in time to this most beautiful song
; ‘Con Te Partiro', or ‘Time to Say Goodbye’ as most people know it, by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman.

I step forward to get as close as I possibly can and concentrate fully on the capturing music and romantic fluidity of the movement of the water along with it. They have it perfectly right, each jet moving so accurately with the rhythm of the beautiful melody. It’s incredible how a lake, a few jets and a song you’ve always known, can bring a huge lump to your throat and tears to your eyes.

I’m hypnotised by the dance I’m watching, it’s surprisingly emotional. Bea tightens her hold on my hand but it’s not enough to take my attention from the lake ahead, the streams of water shooting to the sky with every crescendo, and falling, weightlessly, back down into the pool. Whoever had the idea to combine water acrobatics with music like this definitely knew how perfectly the two would complement each other.

I take a short, sharp intake of breath as the volume increases slightly and the fountains reach their peak, it’s stunning, and just as I think how grateful I am that Bea is holding my hand during this unusually teary moment for me, I feel a strong hand reach around my waist and rest firmly, comfortingly, against my stomach.
It’s him… exactly the person I want to comfort me right now. He knows.

I smile, holding back the tears, and place my hand on top of his, thankfully. Thankful for him being so sweet right now, thankful for him actually being here to witness this and thankful for how much he’s made me smile over the past couple of days. He’s… he’s just… oh I don’t know.

As the water slows, along with the music, the huge crowd begins to applaud, bringing me back to the real world. I release Bea’s hand to join in - that was truly wonderful, I loved every minute and would come back over and over again to watch how many different types of music they can create such a beautiful show to.

I watch as Bea smiles with Daniel and they talk amongst themselves.

“Pretty cool, huh?” Alexia says with a big smile, “Your kind of thing…”

“Oh yes, absolutely, I adored it! It was so much more emotional than I would have expected!”

“I love your enthusiasm, you see things so differently to other people, you feel the emotion behind it, rather than getting hooked up on the technicalities.”

I smile and shrug, feeling a little embarrassed. I’m such a dork
sometimes, I bet no one else was crying. She slips around the back of Oliver to join Bea and Daniel, unknowingly giving us a little time to chat privately. I look up at his face and smile, his hand still on my waist.

“You okay?” he asks.

“Yes! I loved it!”

“I know you did, so did I.” He tugs on my dress to bring me towards him ever so slightly, it’s like it’s just
me and him, the crowd behind us - nonexistent.  “I want to kiss you so much…” he whispers and I quiver visibly, I love him.
As a friend, as a friend, or course.

“That would have been nice. If we could…”

“Can’t we?” he asks, his other hand sliding around to my back so I’m almost pressed up against him.

I pause momentarily, trying to remember why we can’t… “Everyone will see, Oliver…”

“Uh huh, I know that…” he says, slowly bending, nearing my face with his.

“And… and…” And before I can come to my senses to respond, his soft lips are on mine, his eyes gazing into mine telling me it’s good, it’s all good, we can do this.

He continues to stare into my eyes as he slowly moves, brushing my lips with his and letting his tongue ever so lightly touch me. I frown and bring my arms up and around his neck, not giving a shit who’s watching. I need him, I need him to hold me and kiss me, I need to feel myself totally wrapped in him.

He reciprocates fully, holding me tightly against him, one of his hands splayed at the back of my head, the other wrapped around my body as we lose ourselves, together. It feels so right, so necessary, and I refuse to stop and worry about what our friends are doing, saying or thinking. Okay, so I’m sure I’ll freak out about it afterwards, but while I have my dream man’s sweet lips on me… I’m giving nothing else my attention.

His hands move oh-so-subtly, pressing me further against him, slightly massaging with their pressure, and mine on him, similarly; my fingers splayed to hold the largest area possible - as if I’m trying to prevent any of him from going anywhere.

Eventually, we slow, we begin to release each other a little and our lips part. We only look into one another’s eyes as we do, still allowing nothing into our moment. It was perfect; we were in public, yet totally alone. Amongst friends, but just us.
Just friends, but… something more. We’ve never shared such closeness before, yes - we’re super close as friends, but this is romance… this goes so much deeper than friendship… it’s almost,
almost
like a… a ‘love’ thing.

“Whoa, what was that?” Bea asks, looking really rather
gobsmacked, along with Daniel and Alexia.
Oh god…

“Are you two… are you
dating
?” Alexia asks, shocked.

We release each other fully and I begin to stutter and mumble some nonsensical mumbo-jumbo before Oliver interrupts.

“No, we’re not dating, I just needed to kiss her. Nothing more to see here, let’s move on, shall we?”

“Um… sure. Let’s do that. To the Casino.” Daniel says, confused.

“The Casino.” Oliver repeats, and the men begin to move.

“Bea, come on, baby, stop gawping.”

“But…” she says to her fiancé, still rooted to the spot, “but… I thought they had only shagged, I didn’t realise they were getting all…
‘in love’
and everything…”

“We’re not, Bea,” I say, panicked, “we’re just… we just…”

“We just - it’s none of your business, Beatrice,” Oliver says.

“Don’t make it my business then,
Oliver
, by pashing like maniacs right in front of me!”

“Baby, just leave it… let them figure it out for themselves.” Daniel says again and Bea frowns, not wanting to agree, but reluctantly doing so anyway. I love how much respect these two have for each other.

The three of them walk ahead of us, leaving us to that awkward ‘what just happened?’ moment.

We amble slowly behind, silently, trying to figure out where to start. Strangely, I go first.

“So… okay. I think this is starting to get out of hand.”

“Why?” he says quickly, disgruntled.

“Well, you know…” I add, softly, so as not to hurt his feelings, “why is this all happening now? Why are we starting to do more than usual? Why is stuff starting to happening in front of people? And why are you telling everyone stuff all of a sudden when it was always our big, naughty secret before?”

He shrugs and looks forward before rubbing his forehead. “I don’t really know the answer to any of that, just… I like it.”

“You like people knowing?”

“Yes, and I know it’s always been that way, Clare, but why are you so dead set on people
not
knowing?”

“Because we’re not an item, that’s why. Because we’re friends, we’re BFFs… if people start getting the wrong idea, they’ll start to gossip and then one of us will meet someone else, it’ll end and we’ll both look like idiots  - not to mention one of us getting hurt. And to add insult to injury, we’ll lose what we’ve got.”

“But don’t you think we can add to what we’ve got?”

“And then take it away again later? No, Oliver, there’s no room for mathematics here, we have something amazing and I’m not prepared to risk it by telling everyone we’re shagging every now and again and having some stupid public ‘purely sexual’ relationship like teenagers.”

“What’s the real story here?”

“Oliver, please, let’s not
argue on my birthday.”

He turns and steps in front of me to stop me in my tracks, holding both of my hands between us. “No, I’m not arguing with you, really, I’m not. I don’t want to argue, it’s your birthday and we’re having an amazing time here, so don’t think that’s what I’m doing. I want to know if there’s more to it.”

There is more to it, of course there is more to it. I don’t want to fall in love with him again. I don’t want to be heartbroken and miserable for another couple of years because he’s decided to move on from whatever fun we’re having. I know what it feels like when Oliver doesn’t want you and I never want to feel like that again. But I’m not telling him that.

“No, I just don’t understand what’s happening. We were the same as we always were and now, all of a sudden, you want to stay the night and tell our friends that we’re being intimate occasionally and kiss in public…”

He sighs and smiles, kindly. “I don’t know why things have changed… But when I was with Stacy, I just wanted you… all the time, every time I saw you… I wanted you. I kept picturing you when she was having one of her crazy rants… I’d picture you at work, smiling, or I’d hear your soft voice chatting away to me about what colour rug I should get for the sitting room… I’d imagine you were in my house with me, on the sofa, watching a film and giggling the way you do… I couldn’t stop and I don’t know why it was happening. When Stacy left… you were the first person I wanted to come to.”

I gawp at him, semi-open-mouthed, stunned. He sounds like me! “I… er… well… Oliver, I…”

He smiles. “It’s okay, I wasn’t saying that to get a response. I just… I needed to tell you what was going on with me. It’s like, being with her and having her tell me to stay away from you and creating issues between us… well, it kind of did the opposite. It made me realise that you are so much more to me than just a friend. I really love you, Clare, you know that don’t you?”

“Of course I do, I love you,
too, we all love each other, Oliver.”

“Yeah, but… I do…”

I giggle, “I know! Listen, we need to catch up with everyone or we won’t know where to go. Maybe we can talk later, because, honestly, I think I need to digest everything you just said. Then, maybe we can sit down to try to figure out how we move forwards without damaging what we have - but at the same time, letting everyone know we’re still just ‘us’ the same as always, only we’ve had a bit of a kiss and a cuddle here and there.”