Matilda Next Door - Kelly Hunter Page 0,39

would be a give and take about that discussion. A willingness on your part to venture forth and share new experiences with me. To let your own culinary studies take you far and wide.’ He spread his hands at his side, and there was that body again, such a glorious distraction. ‘A willingness on my part to return, over and over again, to the place that makes you happy. To make it my happy place too. Does any of that sound appealing?’

More than. She nodded vigorously. A bobble-headed, hopeful fool as she took a step back and then another, still facing him. ‘Yes.’ All of it. Intrepid, worldly Tilly, with Wirralong and Henry the pillars on which she built. ‘Yes, it does. Can we have sex now?’

Uh oh. Too soon.

‘Matilda Moore, I am shocked; shocked by your artless attempt to seduce me. Where’s the subtlety, the agony of the slow build, the simmering—oomph!’

The best way to shut him up was to launch herself into his arms and kiss him quiet. She’d been wearing his shirt for weeks now, rifling in his sock drawer, slathering herself with his body soap. Bonding late at night over a sleeping baby. Ogling the sheer glory of him not two minutes ago. Surely the foreplay was done?

He was laughing as he allowed her to nudge him backwards onto the bed, still smiling as she peppered his face with kisses and climbed all over him, and he was gratifyingly hard in all the right places and she could not wait for him to discover all her soft parts. She could help him find them, yes, the thin material of his trousers and the dampness beneath her shorts doing little to disguise how utterly ready she was for more.

‘Do you have any idea how often I imagined you and me in your sexy shower? I have an entire ten-minute fantasy fully imagined and set on standby.’

‘Only ten minutes?’ He had such lovely hands. Devious fingers as they slipped beneath barriers and unerringly found her centre. ‘Give me some credit. You know I’m a high achiever.’

‘Go on then. Challenge my fantasy.’ She didn’t need to be a genius to know that some people rose magnificently to a challenge.

Just magnificently.

There were kisses and plenty of them. Touches and sighs and melting pleasure and piercing heat as she opened for him and softness met velvet-wrapped steel.

He reworked all her fantasies until they were better and surer and dripping with anticipation. There was a finale in there somewhere, a final build of greedy lips at her breast and possessive hands as he took control of her body and put her where he wanted her, playing her to perfection.

Up and up, as she lost all sense of time.

And over.

Chapter Nine

Four am was not Henry’s favourite time of day. Or night. It was all relative. But wake up he did, and get up he did, to go and see to the daughter he’d so recently been introduced to. His feelings for Rowan were complicated in the extreme, a tangled mix of bemusement, affection, frustration that he wasn’t doing a good job by her, and fear that he wouldn’t get any better at it.

It was not as if his role models could help him out any but, then, what was it he’d said to Amanda? That she’d make a great mother in spite of her lack of knowing what it meant. No role models at all, just instinct and knowing when she would be most needed. Because of what Amanda had needed as a child and never received.

Could the same go for him?

‘What do you think, baby? Want to take your chances with me as your father?’

Not that he was expecting an answer as he made short work of her dirty nappy, and didn’t dry heave once. Progress.

‘Not as if you have much of a choice,’ he answered for her. ‘Okay, let’s do this. Hi.’

She smiled at him and he took it as a reciprocal greeting.

‘I’m Henry, your …’ He could do this. ‘Father.’

Easy.

So not easy, as self-doubt assailed him. ‘Let’s start with the basics. My sock drawer is sacrosanct. Led Zeppelin IV is the best music album in existence—do not let Tilly speak of Pink Floyd. Your mother’s name is Amanda and whenever you want to talk about her or ask questions, we’ll talk. I may not always know the answer to your questions about her, but we can go looking for information if need be. So that’s me. What about you? How’s