Not a chance. She’d be reduced to begging for a space on someone’s floor or even worse, trying to find a hook-up for the night. She shuddered.
The door opened to reveal Josh, looking like a giant in the tiny room.
“Hi,” he said, warm brown eyes fixed on her. She wanted to drink him in, hit some sense into him and make love to him all at once. Confused just didn’t cover it.
“Hi,” she whispered back, hiccupping. Her hands trembled so she linked them around her knees, pulling them up towards her chest.
Unspoken questions hung in the air, emotional vibrations making the atmosphere heavy with tension. Amy wanted to scream.
How can it be ‘the right thing’ to give Ms Bridezilla the benefit of the doubt but not to trust me, not to be there for me? What about doing the right thing by me Josh?
She opened her mouth but the words seemed to stick in her throat.
“How could you believe her?” she asked, feeling raw and exposed.
“I don’t.” Josh said, coming into the room and closing the door behind him. He got down onto the floor beside her.
“Oh?” It felt like she’d stepped into a lift, only to find herself falling down the shaft. Her heart beat wildly, hope, fear and desire pulsing through her.
He sat, his back against the wall, his body pressed up against hers, the warmth comforting her.
“I believe you Amy. And I was marrying Juliet for all the wrong reasons. I barely knew her. But it felt like the right time to marry, to make a family, create some ties…”
“Did you love her?” Amy broke in, letting her head fall to rest on his shoulder. The warmth from the underfloor heating thawed her out.
Where do we go from here?
“I persuaded myself I did but then I was in a bad place, after mum and dad, you know…” There was a catch in his voice and Amy reached over instinctively, taking one of his hands in hers and squeezing it.
“Is it off then? The wedding, I mean.” Amy’s heart seemed to leap up into her throat as she waited for Josh’s answer.
“Yes, definitely off.” He spoke decisively.
“Holly’s going to kill me.” Amy nestled her head closer into Josh’s shoulder. Even if this left her jobless and homeless she didn’t regret a thing. The vice-like grip around her chest loosened its grip and she could breathe easily again.
Her skin prickled with anticipation as he stroked the palm of her hand with his thumb, slowly, suggestively. Every hormone in her body screamed at her to throw away her objections, to let go of the pain and fear he might hurt her again.
To forgive him.
He hadn’t meant to be callous, she could see that now. He was a good man. What had happened had just been one of those things.
Josh bent his head down towards her, lips parted as though about to kiss her.
“I was depressed,” she blurted out before his lips could reach hers.
He paused and stared. “What?”
“I became clinically depressed after you left for your job in Saudi, that’s why I’m not teaching, why I didn’t go to teacher training college.” She stared down at their hands, still linked tightly together. “Grandad died of a heart attack, and that combined with you…well they think it triggered it. A reactive depression.”
“Why on earth didn’t you tell me?” He frowned, pulling her closer.
She shrugged. “What was the point? We weren’t in touch and you didn’t want to be. It didn’t change anything.
She looked up at him, tears rolling down her face and dripping off her chin. He lifted a hand and with his thumb gently wiped the tears away. Then his mouth followed where his thumb had touched her and he kissed her tears away, so tenderly she felt the hard lump of ice around her heart begin to melt.
Where had this tenderness been when she needed it? She shuddered, all questions receding as his lips trailed kisses down to her neck and he nuzzled her. Slowly the tears stopped falling and she let herself enjoy what he was doing to her.
“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you Amy,’ he said softly. “I wish I’d known. I really never meant to hurt you, I just thought it was the right thing to do, for both of us…”
“Ssh.” She put one finger on his lips, she needed his kisses more than his words right now. “Let’s put it behind us, I’ve had enough of being miserable, I want to say hello properly.”
She trailed one hand over his chest, suggestively, tentatively, asking him with her eyes, wanting so much to be one with him again her body ached. She felt sick of thinking about sad stuff. Enough. She wanted to live, to enjoy life.
She wanted to make love to Josh.
Josh smiled at her, the gleam in his eye telling her all she needed to know. They were always good at reading one another’s’ bodies. She climbed into his lap, straddling him, her mouth meeting his with a hunger that took her breath away. She pressed down onto his hard thighs and his growing erection.
Josh pulled her harder up against him, wrapping her in his arms, his mouth moving onto her neck and his hands moving up inside her top, pulling it up over her head. He lowered his mouth to her breasts, softly kissing each nipple through the fabric of her bra.
She pressed more urgently against him, desperate for all clothing barriers to be pushed away, to feel skin on skin with Josh again. This felt so long overdue, every frustration, every dream about him combining to make her sizzle with sexual tension. Her skin felt super-sensitised, she jerked beneath his kisses, as though he were charging her with each kiss, slowly bringing her back to life again.
She was finished with living life on her reserve battery, she wanted to feel fully alive again, to let herself feel.
Pulling at his long-sleeved t-shirt with one hand she lowered the other hand to tug at the button fly of his jeans. Frantically they pulled and tugged at clothing until they were finally naked except for Amy’s underwear, discarded clothes lying on the floor around them. They stood breathing hard, staring, remembering, wanting…
“Take off your knickers.” The sexy grin she remembered so well was back on Josh’s face. “You won’t be needed them.”
Her insides went into free-fall again, as she slipped her fingers into the knicker elastic and edged them down her thighs, eventually stepping out of them. She unclasped her bra and threw it up onto her bunk, drinking in the appreciative gleam in Josh’s eyes.
“I’ve missed you,” she whispered.
“Me too.” Josh stared back, eyes dark with desire. “What do you say, do we give it another go?”
She gazed down at his erection and raised an eyebrow. “I think we should.”
Seized by a desire to be as intimately close to Josh as possible she knelt down, taking his erection in her mouth. He groaned as her mouth formed a tight ring around him and her tongue darted out to lick and tease him. When he’d stiffened even more, she knew she needed him inside her, wanting to be truly reunited.
She stood up again, kissing and licking up to his chest to his nipples and neck, every bit of flesh she could reach. Wanting to finally believe this might be true, to drink him in and to make them one again.
Josh put a hand on her shoulder. “Turn around, it’s your turn.”
He bent her over the bunk bed, his hands stroking inside her thighs as he pulled her legs apart to position her. She shuddered as his fingers slipped up inside her and dipped in and out, rubbing her clit. He’d always been good at this and he knew exactly what she liked, knew this was her favourite position as he could thrust more deeply.
She moaned and writhed against his hand, loving what he was doing but needing him inside her. She could feel him pressed up against her and felt deliciously exposed. He teased her into a delicious release, her orgasm rocking her body, piercing her in two before sending her floating. But still she ached for him inside her, she felt empty.
“I need you inside me now,” she begged. “I’m, um… on the pill so…no need for, um…”
She hoped he couldn’t see her flushed face but sh
e had to tell him, wanted so much to feel him inside her without the barrier of a condom.
“Okay,” Josh whispered.
Josh stood back and pulled her legs even further apart, exposing her to him. She felt the cool air against her sex. He must be able to see how wet she was for him but she felt no embarrassment, she felt totally comfortable and very, very turned on.
Amy’s breasts ached, pressed hard into the mattress. She was ready for him, oh so ready.
“Please,” she begged again as he rubbed the tip of his erection against her sex, spreading the wetness.
Then he plunged inside her, deep and hard, making her gasp. This had always been their favourite position, the thrusts so much deeper. She met each of his thrusts and once they found their rhythm they moved in time, a hot molten wetness swelling inside her.
“Amy,” Josh groaned as he jerked inside her, shuddering as he rode the wave of his own orgasm. She rode it with him, coming together.
They both slid to the floor and Amy climbed onto his lap, sitting sideways, arms around his neck.
“Where do we go from here Amy?” He planted a soft kiss on the top of her head.
“I don’t know,” she replied, her head resting against his chest, listening to the reassuring sound of his heartbeat. Thud, thud, thud… “But I hope we can work something out. I don’t want to be apart from you again.”
“Me neither,” Josh agreed. “I’m going to find some accommodation here in Verbier for the New Year. How long are you contracted here for?”
“Just until February half term time. Then I’ve got nothing planned. Well unless Holly fires me, that is.” Amy exhaled slowly; could she summon any sympathy for Juliet?
It was a stretch.
Although she did feel some guilt at the chaos she’d caused, she suspected she’d get over it. There were consolations. She nestled against Josh, feeling the tension seeping away.
“They’re always looking for classroom assistants at the British and American schools in the Middle East and there are lots of job opportunities out there for engineers. There’s one I’d like to go for in Oman, it’s very different to Saudi. You’d be able to work and drive and we could go to the beach or wadi bashing in the desert. Would you like that? We could always stay in the UK if you’d like, only I don’t feel ready to go back to Exmoor.”
“I understand,” she replied, finding his hand and squeezing it. “And I think that sounds like fun.”
“So.” Scott looked quizzically down the table at Amy and Josh. “We’re not having the wedding today then, it’s all off?”
“No.” Josh shook his head. “No wedding. But as we’ve already bought the food and drink and your lovely wife has put so much effort into the planning, I thought we could turn the reception into a Christmas Eve party. I think we all could do with a bit of chilling out.”
He had wondered about seeing if he could marry Amy today instead but there wasn’t enough time to sort out the legalities and anyway, it was too soon.
Holly smiled weakly. “Amen to that.” She looked pointedly at Amy. “When you said you were willing to help out I had no idea you were planning to take the whole event off my hands.”
There was humour in her tone though.
Amy smiled wryly. “Sorry about that. But I sort of had to, sometimes you just know, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Holly replied softly. “You do.”
“So, we’re all on for a party tonight then?” Tash whooped, breaking the moment.
They all got up from the table, Amy visibly relieved at not being sacked.
Josh pulled Amy aside. “I told you Scott and Holly would be cool with it, they’ve been paid after all and I got the impression Holly and Juliet didn’t hit it off.”
“Yes,” Amy smiled the smile that Josh had been missing since they day she’d dropped the cake. It was a cheeky smile, mischievous and full of life.
“Come over to the Christmas tree,” he murmured in her ear. “I’ve got a present for you.”
She grinned, the smile transforming her heart-shaped face. “But shouldn’t we wait for Christmas day?”
“”I found something I knew you’d love at the Christmas market.” He reached up to a small silver parcel tied onto the tree. “Didn’t you know they give presents on Christmas Eve in Switzerland? When in Verbier…”
She took the present, kissing him lightly on the mouth, and he marvelled that he could reach out and touch her whenever she wanted. Finally. After the initial fuss had died down yesterday and Holly had managed to dispatch Juliet, everyone had turned a blind eye to Amy moving into Josh’s room.
Opening the present she gasped. “You remembered?”
In her hand lay an exquisite platinum hare pendant.
“Of course. Do you still have the brooch I gave you?”
She nodded. “Would you put the pendant on for me?”
She held up her hair and he fastened the pendant around her neck. He hoped the bounce would gradually reappear into Amy’s life. One thing he knew, he was certainly never letting her go again.
“But I feel bad now, I haven’t got anything to give you.” Amy protested.
“Oh yes you have.” Josh pulled her into his arms, smiling down at her.
The tree glittered behind them and the Michael Buble version of the song he’d heard yesterday came onto the iPod dock. All I want for Christmas…
Is you.
How had he managed to get things so wrong? Now he’d made the decision to call off the wedding and to be with Amy both his heart and mind were filled with an overwhelming peace. He’d been so obsessed with what was right and wrong he’d missed what was right under his nose. Next time he was listening to his gut.
“All I want for Christmas is you,” he sang along to the music, manoeuvring Amy beneath the mistletoe Tash had pinned to the beam. Holding her tightly he stopped singing to kiss her, then he pulled away and whispered into her ear, “All I want for Christmas is you, Amy.”
Tash wolf-whistled from the doorway. “At last. You two took your time.”
Amy stuck her tongue out at Tash.
“I’ve just got one question for Josh,” Tash declared sternly, a hand on each hip.
Amy stirred uneasily in Josh’s arms. He guessed she was wondering how long it would take to cross the room and rugby tackle Tash to the ground.
He stroked Amy’s hip reassuring and met Tash’s sharp eyes. “Go ahead.”
Tash raised an eyebrow. “What are you going to do with the sodding reindeer?”
Don’t miss the other books in Lorraine’s fabulous Chalet Girl series …
Confessions of a Chalet Girl
Secrets of a Chalet Girl
Love Romance?
Try one of these other titles from HarperImpulse
Buy Your Room or Mine
Buy Waking Up in Vegas
Buy The Keepers: Archer
Buy Sinfully Summer
Buy Confessions of a Chalet Girl
Buy On the Scent
Buy The Songbird & The Soldier
Buy Do You Remember?
Buy The Outlaw of Cedar Ridge
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