The Little Teashop in Tokyo by Julie Caplin Page 0,93

he pulled her to lie on his chest while he pressed a kiss on the top of her head. Her hand caught his nipple and he sucked in a breath.

‘You’re not going to pester me for sex this morning, are you?’ he groaned with a teasing glint in his eye.

‘Me?’

He caressed her breast with a lazy hand, nuzzling down her cheek to find her lips.

It was some time before they made it to the shower where he scooted in behind her and insisted on making her very clean.

‘Do you think I dare do the walk of shame in my towel?’ he asked, surveying the heap of last night’s clothes at the foot of the bed.

‘You can’t! You’ll shock the chambermaids.’ Or give them a great start to their working day.

He grinned cheerfully at her. ‘Why not? It’s a few doors down. You can be lookout.’ She gave him a prim stare.

‘Or I could get dressed and go and get some clean things for you.’

‘You’re no fun.’

‘That’s not what you said in the shower.’ She lifted her eyebrows with pointed meaning.

Still clad in a towel, he yanked her to him. ‘You are …’ He gazed down and then with a quick disbelieving shake of his head, he kissed her so thoroughly that she was left clinging to him because her knees were having a moment.

‘Can you grab my phone? I left it charging.’

‘Sure. Anything else?’ she shot him a teasing smirk.

‘Unless you want me to go commando today,’ he raised lascivious eyebrows, ‘underwear would be good. Top drawer. And I wouldn’t mind a clean shirt. I brought two … you can choose.’

He dug out his key card from his jeans pocket.

His room was the twin of hers with the same picture window view of the mountain. She gathered up pants and socks and took a little while deciding which shirt to take him. The intimacy of this act she would store up and savour as a memory for the future. She chose a pale blue button-down Oxford shirt before checking to see where his phone was.

Focused on the phone charging on the bedside cabinet, she didn’t see the pair of running shoes protruding from under the bed and went flying as she tripped over one of them. Her hand caught the phone with an undignified karate chop and the sudden jolt brought it to life, the screen notification telling her Gabe had three missed calls from Yumi. It was an unpleasant reminder that she’d still be in his life long after Fiona had returned to London.

‘But you knew what you were getting into,’ she told herself, pocketing the phone. ‘This was only ever going to be temporary. It finishes when you step on that plane back to Heathrow.’

***

Thoughts of flights and London were quickly banished when they went down to breakfast and the tone for the day was set. Gabe seemed to like holding her hand a lot and sneaking in kisses whenever there was a quiet corner. After a Western-style breakfast – Fiona couldn’t resist the pancakes on offer – they took the train to Kawaguchiko and the staggeringly steep cable car which climbed 200 metres in three minutes up to Tenjozan Park.

‘Fancy walking back down to the lake?’ asked Gabe after they’d spent nearly forty minutes in the viewing area taking in the view of Mount Fuji to one side and Lake Kawaguchiko on the other.

‘Yes. I’m all viewed out and I don’t think I can possibly take any more pictures of Mount Fuji. I’m done.’ Besides, a sneaky peep at the middle-of-the-night pictures confirmed she’d bagged the shot she wanted. No one but her would ever know it was Gabe, so she felt safe in planning to use it in her exhibition. For all his promises, she couldn’t see him flying to London for it and really didn’t expect him to.

‘Good. Think you might put the camera away for a while and enjoy yourself?’

‘Jealous?’ she teased, unhooking the strap from her neck and tucking it into the padded bag she carried over her shoulder.

‘Hell, yes. I want your undivided attention for the rest of the day.’

She laughed at his mock diva pout. ‘OK then. Let’s tackle this climb then.’ The route down was about five kilometres along paths and steps lined with dense, wide-leaved bushes which Gabe said were hydrangeas.

‘This is lovely. I’m not sure I want to go back to the city,’ she said as they paused at the top of one flight of stairs, the birdsong