by Alice Raine
‘Would you like a drink? Tea? Coffee? Or I’ve got some wine if you’d like a glass? I don’t really drink beer, so I don’t think I’ve got any in …’ Now as well as arm-flapping I was babbling like a crazy woman. Crikey, I was so nervous it was a miracle that I was still stood upright.
‘Allie.’ Sean said my name in a voice so low and firm that I instantly stilled and turned widened eyes up to him nervously. ‘Calm down. We can have a drink later, if you want, but first we need to talk. OK?’
Swallowing loudly, I nodded and turned to lead the way into the lounge. It normally wasn’t good news when someone said the dreaded ‘we need to talk’, was it? Oh God, was that why he was here? To dump me officially and make sure I didn’t go running to the press with juicy stories of our fling?
Using firm hands on my shoulders, Sean guided my useless body towards the sofa, swivelled me around, and ushered me into a sitting position, before joining me and taking one of my hands. I stared down at our joined fingers, my skin buzzing from the dry warmth of his palm. He was holding my hand. That had to be a good sign, didn’t it? Or perhaps it was just to stop me thrashing out and slapping him when he broke bad news to me.
Ugh. Instead of trying to predict the outcome, I tried to clear my mind and just let it play out. Our thighs were touching. My sofa too small to really accommodate both of us, meaning that the heat from his close proximity was now seeping into my skin and reminding me of just how explosively good we had been together.
Unsure of what to do, I clung on to him, my fingers twining with his as I desperately hoped that this wasn’t going to be the last time that I saw him.
Sean stared at me for several moments, his eyes sweeping over my face, before he sighed and his shoulders slumped slightly, taking my stomach with them before it plummeted to my boots at his deflated look. ‘I am so sorry about these last two weeks,’ he murmured grittily, his eyes still lowered to our joined hands. ‘I wanted to call you, Allie. Every single day I wanted to. But I was an idiot.’ He had wanted to call me? Hope surged inside me, and now, instead of sinking to my boots, my heart was soaring so fast and so high that I felt quite dizzy.
Shaking his head, I watched his lips thin as he chewed them frantically between his teeth. ‘When you left my house, you seemed so … so adamant that what we’d had was just a fling …’ Pausing, he drew in a another ragged breath, his eyes troubled and dark and making me desperate to correct him, to tell him that I’d assumed he’d wanted a short fling, which was why I’d left like I did, but my throat was constricted with growing tears and I couldn’t speak.
‘And then I saw your note, and it was so … dismissive.’ Guilt swept over me as his eyes flashed to mine, a glint of annoyance tinting the blue before clouding over again. ‘I threw your number in the fire and deleted it from my phone in a fit of anger,’ he admitted, looking incredibly sheepish. Wow. I had no idea that my leaving like that would have caused such a reaction in him, but as selfish as it sounded, I was so glad it had, because surely that proved that he also cared for me too?
‘I missed you so much,’ he suddenly admitted, pinning me with his laser-like eyes. ‘After panicking that I had lost all ways to contact you it suddenly occurred to me that you knew Sarah, and I tried to call her, but there was no fucking phone reception on set.’ Dragging a hand through his dark hair, Sean dropped his fingers back to encase mine once again, leaving his hair a spiky mess on his head. The urge to arrange it more neatly for him crossed my mind, but there was no way I was going to willingly break the contact of our joined hands – they were like my lifeline, his vitality gradually bringing me back to life. Through our connected skin I could feel the tension brimming inside him, his wrists giving the occasional flick and spasm as his muscles clenched and unclenched.
‘I’ve never been so frustrated in my life, and then filming ran over to nearly two and a half weeks.’ Closing his eyes, his grip on my hand tightened until it was almost painful and I winced. ‘Not knowing if you were safe was driving me insane,’ he muttered under his breath, almost sounding as if he were talking to himself, before opening his eyes and continuing. ‘I had an early interview this morning and then I jumped straight on a plane. I called Sarah as soon as I landed in Manchester an hour ago, got your address, and I’ve literally come straight here from the airport.’
Wow. That was some determination. Not to mention long-haul travel time. All for me.
Suddenly, this made sense of Sarah’s earlier phone call and subsequent excitement in the bar. It was Sean who had called her, which was why she’d been so giddy, and also explained why she had insisted we leave when we did, because she knew he was on his way over. She could have warned me! I was wearing penguin pyjamas, for goodness’ sakes. Penguin. It was hardly the sexiest of looks. If I’d been prepared for his arrival I would have worn something decidedly more revealing and sexy than these old things. I was going to have some serious words with my friend when I next spoke to her.
‘All I kept thinking was how I’d said I’d call in a week and then couldn’t. I could see in your face when you left that you were sceptical that I’d phone you, so when I wanted to but couldn’t, I felt like utter shit. I felt so awful leaving you hanging, Allie, please believe me.’ Sean pulled his standard move of shuffling across the sofa so he was right inside my personal space, his body turned sideways so we were as close as our seated position allowed. Using his thumb, he gently caressed my jaw and lower lip until my eyes fluttered shut and an embarrassingly needy whimper slipped from my mouth.
Our faces were so close we were almost touching, and his warm, minty breath fanned across my skin, making me sigh with pleasure. ‘Open your eyes, my gorgeous girl,’ he ordered softly, and like the slave to him that I was, I complied immediately. He was really here. I couldn’t believe it.
‘I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you, and I don’t just mean the sex … although that was incredible,’ he added with one of his characteristically roguish grins which nearly made me swoon on the spot, but then his expression sobered and shook his head. ‘But it’s you, Allie, just everything about you …’
Everything about me? Blimey. This was a lot to take in. My face must have been a picture by this point as I struggled to comprehend his words. It truly seemed that Sean felt the same way about me as I did about him, which was totally amazing and at the same time almost unbelievable.
I was no doubt gawking at him very unattractively, so I mustered up the energy to close my mouth as I gazed up, not even knowing what to say. These last ten minutes had been completely, astonishingly miraculous, and so many things were swimming around my head that I was struggling to decide what to say first. To be honest, I couldn’t quite believe that it was really happening, the only thing stopping me from losing it and completely falling apart into a blubbering wreck was Sean’s intense gaze which was locked with mine and keeping me sane.
Clearing his throat, Sean closed his eyes and appeared to want to say more, causing me to hold my breath in anticipation. Leaning forwards, he rubbed his nose around mine, a gesture so sweet that I smiled and closed my eyes again. ‘I know you were doubtful about us working because of my job, but we can work, Allie. I’ll make us work, I promise. Can I have a second chance?’ A hiccupy, wet sob broke from my throat as I nodded frantically and clasped at his hands desperately.
‘I’ve missed you so much, Sean.’ I sniffled back my tears of happiness, hating the way that I always seemed to cry when I was happy. It was so inconvenient, and rather got in the way of deep and meaningful conversations. ‘Yes, of course you can have a second chance. Not that you need one. If anything, it’s me who should be apologising.’ I watched as he frowned, his forehead puckering in the middle and drawing his eyebrows together. Lifting my hand, I smoothed the creases of skin with my thumb, his eyes closing and head pressing into my contact with a small hum of pleasure that made me grin so broadly my cheeks hurt.
‘When we were together and things got …’ I blushed, remember
ing back to our first encounter on his desk, ‘… more intimate … I knew I felt something for you,’ I whispered, my words causing his eyes to open in surprise as he blinked slowly several times, his penetrating gaze drawing me in. ‘The thing was, I kept telling myself that you wouldn’t want more, that I would just be an unwanted complication in your busy life.’ Sean’s mouth opened, presumably to protest, but I laid my finger over his parted lips. ‘You’re famous, Sean, and our lives are worlds apart, it just didn’t seem feasible …’
Frowning he shook his head. ‘But, Allie …’ he began, and I instantly silenced him with a firmer pressure of my finger. He relented and silenced, but the frown that I was so familiar with remained firmly embedded on his handsome face, telling me he wasn’t happy with my enforced silence.
‘But …’ I said, emphasising the word and raising my eyebrows, ‘the time we’ve been apart has been hell. I started to think I’d never get over you, and now like magic you’re here telling me you want to be together.’ Blowing out a long breath, I smiled at him and pressed my lips to his in a long, chaste kiss. ‘It might be tricky with your work, I know that, but I’m willing to try if you are. In fact, I can’t think of anything that would make me happier.’
‘Thank God,’ Sean murmured on a rushed whisper, as his hands slid up to tangle in the hair by my nape. ‘We will make it work. Fuck the rest of the world. I have to have you. You’re mine now,’ he growled, causing my chest to squeeze with joy. Clutching at my head, he pulled me forwards to smash his lips down onto mine in a gesture so possessive that I immediately melted into his embrace. I had missed him and his over the top gestures so bloody much.
Leaning back a fraction, Sean ran his fingers through my hair, carefully pulling a section of strands out to the side and examining them with a frown. ‘You’ve cut your hair,’ he grumbled irritably, ‘I liked it long,’ which caused me to laugh loudly, because while I had indeed had it cut last week, I’d only had the split ends off – two inches maximum – and so it was still hanging way down my back and far, far away from being short.
Looking back to my amused expression, Sean ran his gaze across my face and with a soft smile of his own, leant in and gently licked his tongue over my lower lip, which was no doubt swollen from the passion of his previous onslaught. ‘I … I’ve never said this before, Allie, because I’ve never felt it, but our time apart made it very clear to me that …’ He swallowed, his thumb moving from my hair to cup my face in his warm palm before he closed his eyes. ‘… that I’ve fallen in love with you.’
OK, retract my last statement, because hearing those words had made me even happier than I had been.
Sean, however, was unaware of my glee and sighed, still with his eyes squeezed shut and so totally unaware of the goofy grin spreading on my face. He loved me? I felt like jumping up and down and whooping my joy from the rooftop, but he continued before I could even move a single muscle.
‘You deserve better than me, but I promise I won’t let you down, Allie, I’ll keep you safe …’ On his final words his voice cracked, and it made me realise how big a deal this was for him – he’d never dated since the accident with Elena, and now here he was professing his love for me and promising to keep me safe. Holy shit. This was some seriously deep stuff.
We’d only met three weeks ago, was I ready for this? Love and words of forever? It was pretty full on, but when I looked at Sean something just clicked into place. I’d never met anyone like him – with all his eccentric, caring, dominant traits that I adored, and that was before I even considered the explosiveness of our physical connection, which bypassed anything I’d ever experienced or dreamed of having. I loved him too, so much, so there really was no question of whether I would give this a chance or not.
Now that mini panic attack had passed, I slid my hands around his neck and yanked his head down for a desperate kiss.
‘I love you too,’ I whispered in between kisses, ‘I love you, love you, love you.’ Each repetition of my words made me grin wider and wider against his mouth until I was almost unable to continue kissing him. Almost, but it would take something pretty monumental to make me stop kissing this incredible man altogether.
Sean let out a groan, which I assumed was from happiness and then, with my lips still practically melded to his I tried to ease his concerns. ‘You don’t need to be a better person, Sean, just be yourself, that’s all I want. Now stop speaking, and show me how much you love me.’
With a growl of approval, Sean stood upright and scooped me into his arms before I’d even realised that I was moving. ‘Oh, I can certainly do that,’ he murmured in a dark, deliciously promising tone.
‘I was going to give you a tour,’ I murmured, secretly hoping that he would turn down the tour and just get on with ravishing me.
‘A tour can wait. Just tell me where your bedroom is,’ he muttered, sounding decidedly impatient and making my pulse leap with desire.
‘Up the stairs and at the end of the corridor,’ I replied breathily, clutching my hands behind his neck. ‘I can walk, you know,’ I added with a small smile, remembering back to the last time he had insisted on carrying me.
‘I know, but I want to do it,’ he replied quietly, using the exact phrase he had used last time. Glancing up at him I found him looking at me with a tiny flicker twitching at the corners of his mouth as though he were remembering the same moment, and I couldn’t help but crane my neck up to peck him on the lips.
‘What was that for?’
‘Just for being you,’ I murmured. ‘I’m so glad you’re here.’ My voice cracked as I felt my throat begin to tighten with further tears and gave up speaking in favour of resting my head on his shoulder as he carried me up the stairs and into my bedroom.
Lying me carefully on the bed Sean stood back and began to shrug out of his suit jacket, which even after a full day’s travelling was barely creased. ‘My flight today was twelve hours, so I need a shower before we reacquaint ourselves properly,’ he informed me with a smirk.
I nearly laughed out loud at my hypocrite of a man, because I distinctly remember when he’d abducted me halfway through my gym session on Christmas Day and not allowed me to shower properly before he’d commenced licking me all over – even though I’d practically begged him for a quick rinse. It seemed to be one rule for him and another for me. But I had to say, where Sean was concerned, I didn’t care, as I was promptly distracted by the image of him peeling off his white shirt, giving me a first glimpse at his gorgeous chest. And besides, a freshly showered and wet Sean Phillips was one of my favourite sights, so I wouldn’t complain at all.
Once he had dispensed with his trousers and boxers – making himself well at home by dumping them in my laundry basket – he turned to me and revealed his beautiful body and impressively erect cock. Gosh, he was very pleased to see me, wasn’t he? Coming to stand by the side of the bed, Sean held out a hand to me as his eyes glittered. ‘Join me.’ It was a command that I happily obeyed as I practically jumped from the bed and whipped off my pyjamas in a millisecond. I certainly wouldn’t be putting those ratty things back on after my shower, that was for sure. Of all days to pick the penguin pyjamas, I had picked today – talk about embarrassing.
Dragging me back onto the landing, Sean quickly located the bathroom, started the water, and checked the temperature. Stepping into the shower, he pulled me with him, the space suddenly seeming rather small with us both squashed in. Not that either of us seemed to mind; after weeks apart extreme closeness was good. My little walk-in cubicle certainly didn’t compare to Sean’s gigantic wet room, that was for sure, but at least it was big enough for us both. Just.
Grabbing my shower gel Sean grinned down at me. ‘Now, my gorgeous girl, it might be late, but prepare for a sleepless night because you are about to be well and truly worshipped.’ My eyebrows shot up as I grinned up at him. Oh goody, a Sean style worshipping session – my favourite.
First an amazing Christmas, and now the start to my New Ye
ar was looking pretty good too, and all because I’d covered that cleaning shift for Sarah. Boy, did I owe her big time for getting ill that day!
EIGHTEEN
Allie
‘Rise and shine, baby.’
I was warm, cosy, deliciously sleepy, and wrapped up in a fluffy duvet. Mornings didn’t get better than this. If I rolled over, I was pretty sure I could fall back to sleep within a minute, which seeing as it was Sunday, seemed a perfect idea. But as I tried to shift my hips I came up against a heavy weight on my stomach. Why couldn’t I roll over? My sleepy brain briefly considered following up this issue to find the cause of the weight, but I gave up and relaxed down where I was. No problem. I’d sleep on my back.
Digging my head deeper in the pillow, I sighed contentedly. Bliss. Pure bliss.
Ugh. Actually, no. Not bliss. The heavy weight now extending to my chest was starting to get quite uncomfortable. Peeling open my eyes to investigate, I found two blue pools twinkling down at me, and a lovely stubbly chin surrounding a stupendous grin. ‘Good morning sleepyhead.’
A goofy smile immediately broke on my face as I instinctively reached up a hand and slid it in the soft hair at the nape of Sean’s neck. It had been a month since his appearance on my doorstep after my girls’ night out, but even now I could still barely believe he was really here.
‘Morning,’ I whispered. Now this was the icing on the cake; it was the weekend, I had next week off because it was half-term, and as well as being warm and cosy, I also had my gorgeous man propped over me with a wicked twinkle in his eye.
This pinned position was pretty much how I’d woken up for the past four weeks. Well, every day when he’d stayed over, anyway. All in all, the previous four and a bit weeks had been simply glorious. Working around both of our job commitments we’d managed to spend at least four nights a week together, and the evenings and weekends had basically blurred into one long superb shag fest. Sean’s bedroom skills really knew no bounds.
