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‘Get into bed...’
His words sounded suspiciously like an order, which made Marie smile. Her movements seemed to slow even more and Alex grinned. She knew exactly how to tease him.
When she slipped under the duvet he moved towards her, wrapping his arms around her but keeping thick layers of down between them. He could tease too.
Alex leaned forward, planting a kiss on her mouth, and she let out a gasp.
‘Everything okay?’ He smiled innocently at her.
‘Yes. Mum just wanted to say how pleased she was about Zack.’ She turned the corners of her mouth down. ‘She could have said that
when she called me.’
Alex resisted the temptation to agree. He loved the way that Marie was so close to her family, and wished he could have had a measure of that himself. It was hypocritical to say that he wished they’d give her a bit more time to herself. Because what he really meant was that he wanted her time.
‘We’ve got a few hours to catch up on...’ she said, disentangling her arm from the duvet, caressing the side of his face.
‘Hey... You know I don’t mind if you’ve got something else to do.’ Tearing Marie in two wasn’t going to solve the problem—it would only make things worse.
‘I know you don’t. But I mind.’
The thought shattered the last of his self-control—that Marie had wanted to give up the responsibilities that she clung to so ferociously in favour of this.
He pulled the duvet away from them and rolled her over onto her back, covering her body with his. She could see and feel how much he wanted her.
‘Where do you most want to be now?’
He wanted to hear it. If she screamed it out, then all the better. He wanted every moment she spent with him to be time that she didn’t want to be anywhere else.
Her eyes darkened suddenly, the light playing that trick he loved so much and turning them to midnight blue. Marie reached behind her, giving an impatient huff when she remembered that they’d used all the condoms taped to his headboard last night. Her fingers searched the surface of the bedside table until she found the packet he’d bought on his way home.
He gritted his teeth, waiting while she fumbled with the wrappings. Then she reached down, and he felt his blood begin to boil as she carefully rolled the condom into place.
When she took him inside her it felt as if he was coming home after a long journey. He stared into her eyes, watching every small movement, listening to the way her breathing started to quicken and match his as he pushed deeper.
One moment of stillness.
They spent it wisely, feeling the warm sensations of being together at last.
Then Marie’s lips parted. ‘Here, Alex. I want to be right here.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
ALEX HAD ENVISAGED a rather sedate affair for the clinic’s open day—a Saturday afternoon spent coaxing people in with the promise of free coffee and then showing them around to give them an idea of what the clinic could offer to the community.
Marie had dismissed that idea with a wave of her hand and started to search the internet for someone who could supply bunting.
Alex knew that Marie thrived on organising this kind of thing and he’d passed the preparations to her, taking over her clinic caseload for a week while she appeared and disappeared, off on various missions to secure the things that they simply couldn’t do without. When they were alone at night he got her undivided attention. Alex had always reckoned that sex was a pleasant addition to a relationship, but when he had Marie in his arms it was more important than breathing.
He arrived at eight in the morning the day of the open day, six hours before the doors were due to open, and found that a bouncy castle was already being set up on the grassy area at the back of the clinic. When he walked into the café, he found Marie supervising a couple of Jim Armitage’s men, who were manoeuvring a piano into place.
‘Where did you get this?’ Alex ran his finger over the wooden frame. It was a good one, and had clearly been polished recently.
‘I found it in the outhouse where Jim puts all the things you ask him to get rid of.’ She tapped her nose, in the way that Jim did when he was about to impart a pearl of wisdom. ‘You never know what might come in handy.’
‘I thought it was just old pieces of wood. What else is in there?’
‘Loads of stuff. I found one of those old-style blackboards, with a wooden stand. You should go and take a look sometime. This was from the school music room.’ She opened the lid that covered the keyboard. ‘I had it tuned.’
