without taking his eyes off hers, but with every breath, every movement, she knew she was falling deeper in love and deeper in trouble.
Chapter Thirteen
Henry woke the next day to the winter sun pouring through the open curtains and a stark naked Penny lying asleep on his chest, wrapped tightly in his arms. He pulled the duvet over her shoulders, and resumed his hold on her.
So much for taking things slow. He’d hoped to get to know her properly, date her, spend time with her, start a proper relationship and not one that was based on sex. Two minutes kissing her in that unbelievably sexy underwear and he’d forgotten all his best intentions. He wanted this to work with Penny. She felt like the start of a wonderful new chapter in his life, one that he wanted to last a lifetime. He didn’t know how Penny felt about them, whether for her this was a long-term thing or nothing more than a fling to get back in the saddle after all this time. But one thing was for sure, he wasn’t letting her go without a fight.
She stirred and looked up at him, her conker brown hair sticking out everywhere and a huge grin spreading on her face as she clearly remembered the events of the night before.
He brushed her hair from her face. ‘Hi.’
‘Hi.’
‘I know last night didn’t go according to plan but—’
‘Last night was—’
A door slammed downstairs. ‘Dad?’ Daisy shouted. ‘Get up, you lazy sod.’
Penny’s eyes widened with fear.
‘Crap. I didn’t expect her back so soon,’ Henry whispered.
‘Dad!’
‘Yeah hang on, love, I’m just getting dressed, I’ll be down in a second.’
Shit, he was going into full-blown panic mode here. He didn’t want Daisy to know about him and Penny, not yet, and he absolutely did not want her to know that he’d slept with his neighbour just five days after meeting her, what kind of example was that to set for his daughter?
Henry scrabbled up and started throwing on his clothes. ‘Get dressed.’
Penny quickly climbed out of bed too, her gorgeous, naked body disappearing into her underwear and dress. Jesus, there was no way to explain what she was doing upstairs in his room, dressed clearly in the clothes she had worn the night before. There was only one conclusion that Daisy could come to and that would be the right one.
‘What do we do?’ Penny said.
‘I’ll take her out somewhere and then you can escape.’
A thunder of feet came racing up the stairs and Henry thanked god that the door was closed and Daisy would never just walk in out of fear of seeing her dad naked.
‘Dad, is the laptop in there? I want to Skype Melissa.’
Henry looked around and saw the laptop on top of the drawers. ‘Yes, hang on, I’ll bring it down to you.’
‘It’s OK, I was going to Skype her from my room, come on.’ She rattled the doorknob impatiently.
‘In the wardrobe, quick,’ Henry whispered and he felt a stab of guilt and pain at the look of hurt that flashed across Penny’s face as she stepped into the wardrobe and closed the door. He grabbed the bag of condoms and hid it in the drawers, quickly straightened the duvet and pillows, kicked Penny’s shoes under the bed, gave the room a quick cursory glance to make sure there was no other evidence, and then opened the door.
‘Took you long enough,’ Daisy grinned up at him.
‘I’d just got out the shower when you came in, I didn’t know I’d have to get dressed in record time.’
Daisy walked in and grabbed the laptop, sitting on the edge of the bed and firing it up.
‘How was your date with Penny?’
‘It was…’ brilliant, wonderful, fun and ended in the best sex he’d ever had, ‘fine.’
‘Fine? That doesn’t sound good, was she boring or a terrible kisser or something?’
Could the morning after the most wonderful night end more badly than this?
‘It wasn’t a proper date, you know that, so there was no kissing and no she wasn’t boring, she was great fun.’
‘But?’
‘There’s no but.’
‘There was definitely a but.’
‘There isn’t. We went for a meal, we chatted, we had a lovely time and we came back here and went to bed.’
‘Together?’ Daisy’s eyes lit up, mischievously.
‘No, of course not.’
‘Did she come on to you? Did she try to kiss you or something, because you’re acting all weird?’
‘No.’
‘Did you kiss her and she rejected you?’
‘No, what’s with all the questions?’
‘Because you never take a woman out on a date