Edward leans towards me, and for a magical moment I think he’s going to kiss me – and I freeze in panic, not knowing what to do – but then his face moves past mine and his lips land on my cheek, a friendly gesture or the kind of thing a family friend would do, and he smiles at me and is gone.
I turn to watch him after a moment, but all I see is his form vanishing through the doors of the elevator. I step inside my room instead, feeling all kinds of things – excitement, satisfaction from the food, but most of all an electric kind of longing for him.
I wish for a moment that I had said something. Invited him in for a coffee, or whatever it is that people say in order to keep the night alive just a little bit longer. But I only have packets of coffee from the complimentary hotel service, not exactly a gourmet treat. And I don’t know what I would have said or done next. Maybe it’s for the best that I didn’t say a word.
It’s already late, so I get ready for bed and change into my nightgown, then snuggle into the big puffy duvet the hotel has, resting my head on a pile of pillows. Sleeping in a hotel alone means you get to use all of the pillows just for yourself, and I’m definitely enjoying them. But that makes me think about who I might be sharing these pillows with, and before I know it my thoughts are filled with Edward again, and the mental image of him lying beside me.
That thought sends a shudder through my whole body. Him here beside me… shirtless, maybe even naked under the sheets, and me the same. Before I can really think about what I’m doing, my hand travels under the sheets and under the hem of my nightgown, and I start to touch myself, lost in the fantasy of Edward.
I picture him kissing me, his body over mine as he rolls over me, the covers ripped away and my body totally exposed under him. He would touch my breasts, touch me between my legs just like I’m doing now – I try to pretend it’s his hand instead of mine – and then he would…
And then he would – what? The moment fizzles away and I’m left frustrated and disappointed, knowing that I can’t finish the fantasy. As much as I would like to know how it feels – and as much as I’m turned on at the very thought of it happening – I’m a virgin. I don’t know what it feels like to have sex. I don’t have a real reference point for that. It might be the most amazing feeling in the world – at least, that’s the impression I’ve been given – but I have no idea.
I burrow deeper into the covers and sigh, closing my eyes to sleep. Tomorrow still holds a lot of promise, even if today didn’t go quite the way I would have liked it to. I can only hope that Edward might start seeing me as a real woman – not just the little girl he associates me with from before. Maybe that way, there might be some small hope that he could one day be in my bed for real – though I can’t say I’m optimistic.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Edward
I’m determined. Casey will be mine. Nothing is going to stop me from achieving that goal – and by tonight, I’ll have her in my arms.
It took only a bit of back and forth with my assistant to get everything booked and into place. Now it’s ready, and I wait with the taxi outside of Casey’s hotel, scanning the front reception area constantly for any sign of her.
Before too long, she appears, breathless and pink in the face from what must have been a dash out of her room and down the elevator to meet me. She waves her cellphone at me, an indication that she got my message to come downstairs, and smiles. As she rushes out of the hotel I put my arms out instinctively to catch her, worried that she will slip and fall under the sheer momentum she is carrying.
“Good morning,” I chuckle, catching hold of her elbows and holding her steady.
“Morning,” she pants. “I came as soon as I saw your message.”
“I can tell.” I look her up and down; she’s stunning even in just jeans and a simple t-shirt.
Casey blushes. “I didn’t want to keep you waiting.”
“And you didn’t,” I laugh, opening the door of the cab for her. “Come on, get in. We’ve got an appointment to make.”
“Oh, really?” Casey scrambles into the cab, looking back up at me. “Where?”
“You’ll see,” I say with a grin, moving to get in next to her and closing the door.
A night to sleep on it has done nothing to dampen my appreciation for Casey’s body, her beautiful face, the easy way we get along. If anything, I’m appreciating it more today – realizing that it wasn’t just a moment of madness. This is real, and it’s going somewhere.
As the taxi moves along, I point things out through the windows, Big Ben, Harrods, London Bridge and Tower Bridge across the water; and then we're pulling up alongside the docks, giving Casey an amused look before getting out.
I hurry around the car to offer her a hand as she gets out, and she emerges into the morning air, fresh and brisk this close to the river.
“What are we doing?” she asks, looking around in wonder.
I chuckle and point to the short pier that extends across the water, towards a boat moored close to the edge. “I’ve booked us a quintessential London experience. The river cruise with lunch.”
“A river cruise?” Casey’s eyes widen slightly. “That sounds kind of fancy.”
I laugh, offering her my arm as has become my habit as we walk towards the gangway. “It’s a little bit fancy. I upgraded us to VIP. But it’s just a tour of the city, as seen from the river. We’ll tick off a lot of your sights this way, and we get lunch wrapped up as well so we don’t have to scramble around for somewhere to go after.”
Casey grins. “It sounds really fun,” she says. “I can’t wait.”
“The boarding time is in ten minutes, but we should be able to get on early with our VIP pass,” I tell her. I show our tickets to a man in a waterproof coat standing by the gangplank that leads to the boat, and he unclips a black rope to let us through.
Soon we’re seated at a table up in the roped-off VIP area, getting our bearings. The boat fits a number of tables – ours, along with the other VIP seats, are round with a precise number of chairs depending on the number of people dining. Further down the boat are the ordinary seats, tables of eight where people are seated in mixed and matched groups of bookings.
We’re able to sit in comfort and enjoy fresh juice and coffee while the other guests file onto the boat, and we even get a chance to go upstairs to admire the deck before the tour is ready to set off. We stay up there, admiring the view, as the tour begins.
We don’t talk much, because the tour guide does that for us. He tells us about Big Ben and the Tower of London, takes us under Tower Bridge and London Bridge, points out the House of Parliament and all of the other famous sights – and even things I didn’t know about. Ancient ships still moored in their harbors, pubs and inns that have been around since Shakespeare’s time – all of it interesting and noteworthy. Most of the time, though, all I can see is Casey.
Finally, as we reach the furthest point of our journey, the spoken tour coming through the speakers ends and we’re ushered downstairs. There, as the boat slowly returns us to the docks, we eat a lunch of delicious seasonal pasta and berry cheesecakes, and I can’t help but wonder if anything in my life is ever going to have quite the same shine on it if Casey isn’t by my side.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Casey
I love this. I love all of it. I love the way that Edward offers me his arm, and helps me down the stairs so I won’t fall, and pulls out my chair for me. I love how he looks at me like I’m the most interesting person in the world, even though I know he must meet more interesting people all the time. I love eating with him, feeling like I’m not being judged at all, and talking freely between bites.
He takes care of me, makes sure that all of my needs are met. He won’t let me stand on the deck feeling too cold or too hot, won’t let me get thirsty or hungry. Is this what it would be like to be his wife? The thought fills me with a yearning I can barely explain. We’ve only really known each other a day, but I already feel like I don’t ever want to
be apart from him again. I just wish there was some way to make him feel the same.
When the lunch is over and the plates are cleared, we come slowly back into the docks, and I feel sad that the river tour is finally coming to an end. I enjoyed every minute of it, all the more so because Edward was by my side.
We’re just stepping off the boat when I hear it. The thing I’ve so far managed to avoid with Edward, but I knew had to be coming at some point. The one thing I get everywhere I go. The cruel comments about my weight, always making me feel so low and embarrassed.
“Better be careful,” someone in the line behind us mutters, though not so quietly that I can’t hear it. I can’t help but wonder if it’s on purpose. “The anchor’s about to get off the ship. We might float away without lardarse there!”
I feel my cheeks burning red, and for a moment I want nothing more than to curl up and die. Instead, I do what I always do when someone makes a comment like that. I keep walking ahead, pretending I haven’t heard a thing, trying not to show how hard I’m shaking, blinking back the tears stinging at my eyes.
Until I hear a loud thump and a number of gasps behind me, forcing me to turn and look in the direction the voice came from.
I’m not at all expecting to see what I do. Edward, striding towards me with his hands curled into fists at his side. I thought he was right behind me, but now he’s having to catch up – and, I realize, walking back past other people who were behind him in the line to leave. All of them are staring at him with a kind of shocked awe, even moving aside as he goes through. He catches up with me and grabs hold of my arm, and starts to pull me away.
But not before I see what was blocked from my view behind him. A man laid out on the floor of the boat with a dazed expression, just now starting to sit up as another woman fusses around beside him.
Edward must have gone back there and laid him out after hearing what he said.
I look up at Edward wordlessly as he walks along, an angry yet confident kind of energy now surrounding him. I don’t even have the presence of mind to wonder where we’re going next, because all I can think about is how he just punched a guy for being rude to me.
He’s like a knight in shining armor, ready to defend my honor. It feels incredible. No one has ever stood up for me like that before.
But at the same time, a part of me is still dying inside. The fact that he did means he heard the comment that guy made – about me being so heavy I must have anchored the ship. I don’t always feel bad about my weight – a lot of the time, I think I look good – but when people make those comments about me, thinking I can’t hear them, it really hurts. And now Edward’s heard it too – the source of my shame.
I know he won’t want to be with me now. What kind of man would want a girlfriend, let alone wife, who attracts those kinds of comments? I might as well give up on the feelings I’ve started to have for him. Who was I kidding? I’m never going to be in his league.
CHAPTER NINE
Edward
I slowly let go of the anger that is gripping my insides, forcing myself to deliberately regulate my steps so Casey can keep up. All I want to do is go back there and hit that guy again. How dare he say something that would make Casey feel anything less than the beautiful goddess she is?
She doesn’t say anything about what happened on the boat. I’m not sure that she actually heard him say what he did. In fact, we don’t say anything at all for a while as we walk instead of taking a taxi, taking a route I know will get us to our next destination.
Actually, I’m glad we have a little walk. It helps to burn the anger out of me, and by the time we arrive, I feel much better.
“Here we are,” I tell Casey, turning to her and waving a hand at the iconic landmark behind me. “The London Eye.”
“Wow!” Casey exclaims. “It’s so much taller from down here on the ground than I thought. I had no idea how big it really is. I’m glad we came to see this.”
“We’re not just here to look at it,” I tell her with a wink. “We’re going on it.”
“What?” Casey exclaims. “But I heard the tickets are so expensive – and you have to book in advance!”
I grin at her. “Well, there are some advantages to all those networking dinners and events I have to go to.”
Casey looks up again at the huge wheel towering over us. “We’re going in one of those big… carriage, thingies?”
“Right,” I laugh, taking her by the arm again to lead her to the line. You have to arrive at a specific time slot to get on, and thankfully, we’re right on time. “One of those. Come on.”
Casey is so excited as we climb inside and the wheel begins to move that I know I’ve made the right choice. There are lots of different activities you can do in London – going around Madame Tussaud’s or the London Dungeon, the Natural History Museum, the National Portrait Gallery or the Tate Modern – that it was hard to narrow it down to just a few things for one day. Of course, if today goes well, then I’m hoping I can get tomorrow as well.
“This is so amazing,” Casey murmurs, as we watch the city begin to fall away beneath us. From the moment the wheel begins to move we can see a different view minute by minute, different sights appearing and being swallowed up by the distance as we go. Looking out over the city like this feels romantic – like standing at the top of the Eiffel Tower or overlooking Venice from a balcony.
Without thinking, I slip my arm around Casey as we stand by the glass looking out. She fits perfectly against me. Her head just level with my shoulder, my arm fitting around her right shoulder and traveling down so my hand can cup her waist on her left. It feels comfortable and right, but after a moment I realize what I’ve done. It wasn’t even intentional. I feel Casey stiffen, her muscles going tense at the unexpected touch.
But then, to my surprise, she doesn’t push me off or ask me what I’m doing. Instead, after just a moment, she relaxes. I could almost swear that she leans into my touch, shifting her weight towards me.
It seems that my plan is working better than I thought. It could be that there really is a chance of this happening tonight – and despite all my determined thoughts, I really wasn’t sure that I could get her to see it. The rightness of us.
But now, standing in the London Eye and looking out over the city, I feel like we might just be the only two people in the entire world. And it works so well it makes me ache. If it weren’t for the other people also riding in the gondola with us, I might rip her clothes off right now, and take her in front of the whole city. That thought makes me hard, and I have to focus very carefully on thoughts of business deals and boardrooms and elderly CEO’s to make it go away.
We spend the rest of the day doing the tourist thing, buying silly England souvenirs from one of the many tourist trap shops with all their Union Jack-printed goods, walking down famous streets, admiring the Tower and Parliament from the ground. Finally, it’s time to go for dinner; but instead, I suggest something else.
“It’s getting late,” I tell her, checking my watch. “I should probably take you back to your hotel.”
“Oh,” Casey says, looking momentarily disappointed. I’m sure she was expecting dinner – but I have other plans. “Yes, of course. I hadn’t even noticed the time.”
CHAPTER TEN
Casey
I thought it was all going so well – he put his arm around me on the Eye and it made me burn with desire – but when Edward suggests it’s time to go back to the hotel, I can’t help but feel bitterly disappointed. I suppose I was hoping to spend more time with him tonight – but if he has plans, I understand that we can’t be together for a full twenty-four hours.
Just like before, Edward puts me in a cab and then comes with me all the way to my door, carrying my bags full of souvenirs for me. I could manage them myself – I didn’t completely go all out – but it’s nice to have someone offer to do something nice for me. Not only that, but when I get to the door, I realize it’s also an excuse to invite him to come
inside.
“Could you put the bags on the desk?” I ask him, holding the door open and trying to look coy.
“Of course,” Edward smiles, brushing past me and walking right into the room. I close the door behind him and, even if it only turns out to be for just a moment, I have what I wanted. Edward inside my room, just the two of us with a big empty bed.
I sit down on the edge of it, watching Edward as he puts the bags down and then glances around. “This isn’t too bad, is it?” he asks. “Is the bed comfortable?”
“I like it,” I say, feeling shyness threatening to overcome me as I gather my courage to add. “Why don’t you sit down and try it?”
Edward does, sitting right beside me. The soft mattress dips under both of our weights, bringing us just marginally closer together.
“Um,” I say, before my nerve fails me – because I have an idea of how he can stay longer, and maybe a way to get him to do more. “We didn’t get dinner. I’m going to order room service. You can stay and have something if you want?”
I’m almost certain he will say no, and I don’t dare turn my head to look at him, staring at my hands where they rest on top of my knees.
“That sounds good,” he says, reaching for the menu on the table. “We can’t have Michelin-starred food every night, right?”
“Right,” I laugh, a wave of relief washing over me. Could it really be that he’s willing to stay here and eat with me? I can hardly believe my ears. It might have been my idea, but I never really thought he would go for it.
We order something – I barely even know what, because all I can hear is the pounding of my own heart in my ears. I can’t take my eyes off him as he shrugs out of his jacket and sits in his long sleeve shirt, the muscles in his arms visible through the fabric. He sits so close to me, and I can’t think about anything except how much I want him.
London With Dad's Best Friend: An Instalove Possessive Age Gap Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 198) Page 3
