‘My mother told him I said yes. She lied.’ More tears were trickling down her face.
‘Why?’
‘I don’t know. Perhaps she wants me to marry Connor. He’s rich.’
‘And what do you want, Jen?’ He looked away, and she could see the profile of his face, his neck, his Adam’s apple moving up and down in his throat.
‘I want to be with you,’ she said quietly.
The corners of his mouth curled and softened into a smile. His eyes seemed to sparkle. He stepped forward, and she held her breath as the space between them compressed. She closed her eyes, happy, delirious, dizzy, their kiss everything she’d hoped it would be.
‘Shit, there’s people coming,’ he said with a low, throaty laugh.
‘Over here.’ She grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the stables.
They ran inside the huge barn. Jennifer groped around in the darkness for the light switch but couldn’t find it. There were tiles missing from the roof, and the bright beams from a silvery full moon gave the space a beautiful natural light.
‘A hayloft,’ he smiled, cornering her against the wall. ‘Are we going to get jumped on by a wild animal?’
‘Here’s hoping,’ she whispered as he kissed her again, more passionately this time.
‘You know I think we’re trapped in here,’ he said as his mouth pulled momentarily away from hers.
‘We’re just going . . . to have to stay . . . for a while longer then,’ she said between kisses as he took his cue and started to unbutton the pearl buttons on her dress. They moved across to a hay bale, huge cubes of straw that were a perfect makeshift bed. His hands slid down the slim curves of her waist as he kissed her neck.
She lay back on the bale, impatient and hungry for him. The straw was scratchy, but the dress was a soft protective layer and she slipped it off her shoulders so that it was like a thin blanket for them to lie on. She shuddered as Jim swooped down to kiss her belly, then groaned as he cupped her breast, teasing it out of her lacy bra and sucking her nipple as his hand stroked between her thighs.
She used her palms to ease off her panties, the thin fabric curling down over her thighs. Jim paused to unbuckle his trousers and unbutton his shirt, and then he lay on top of her and kissed her some more, slowly, deeply, his firm torso pressing against her. She parted her legs, and he eased himself inside her. She curled her legs around him and grabbed his hair, arching her back as a sweet, intense pressure built and built and then crescendoed, toppling over into a white-hot crashing wave of release.
‘Happy birthday,’ he whispered as they collapsed exhausted on the hay. And as Jennifer looked up at the moonlight, she didn’t just feel another year older; she felt reborn.
Chapter Twenty-One
A cool breeze blowing over her naked body woke her. Jennifer’s eyes blinked open, and for a moment she didn’t know where she was. Another second and she registered something irritating her skin: straw. Her mind felt dull – a hangover – and there was someone lying next to her: Jim.
Jennifer’s next thought was that this was not good. She was half naked, her dress completely unbuttoned; one breast had popped out from its bra cup, her panties were off and missing in action.
But as she turned her head and looked at Jim, she felt a reckless wave of happiness and desire. Last night had been incredible, and she still couldn’t believe that her body had felt all those things that it had, right there on the hay. The sex had been passionate and impatient. She remembered him kissing her until she had fallen asleep, and her chin still felt sore from the roughness of his stubble.
She took a moment to observe him. He was still snoozing and looked quite angelic – that beautiful profile and long lashes wasted on a man. She wanted to kiss him again, but a distant squawk of early birds somewhere in the oak trees warned her that dawn was coming, and they did not want to get caught. Not like this.
Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was almost six a.m. Trying to stop herself from panicking, she sat up carefully, adjusted her bra and began to fasten her dress. When she was decent, she nudged Jim from his slumber. He stirred slowly.
‘Hey,’ he said, touching her bare arm and stroking the skin with his fingertip.
‘We should go, before things get awkward,’ she said with quiet urgency.
‘I’d say we’re past that point already, wouldn’t you?’ He smiled lazily, putting both hands behind his head. ‘The party’s over. We’re past being missed, so we’re in no rush to get anywhere.’
His casualness did nothing to calm her. ‘My parents will be going mad, and I don’t know what Connor is going to think.’
‘Do you care?’
Panic began to consume her.
‘Jim, they’re going to be worried about me.’
He sat up on the straw. ‘Don’t you think they know?’ he said simply.