out of control at the speed with which everything was moving around me. I don’t believe Gwendolyn’s sage had done anything to lower my stress levels.
I brooded silently about all this while the others chatted. Dad had presumably been very busy, I told myself. Important meetings all week with beef farmers and Malbec producers. I was thirty-two, not twelve; I needed to stop being so sensitive. I’d see him tomorrow. It would all be fine.
Beside me, Mia was telling Rory about their honeymoon to Sicily. ‘I wanted to go to Zanzibar but Hugo was worried about the mosquitos.’
‘Mia, they’ve had very bad dengue fever there.’
‘So we’re staying in a hotel with not one but two golf courses instead. But it’s got an infinity pool and a spa so I’ll be fine.’
‘His and hers activities. How romantic,’ drawled Ruby, rolling her eyes at me.
‘You’ll have to keep an eye out for the Mafia in Sicily, of course,’ Rory added.
‘Really?’ Hugo said quickly. ‘I thought that sort of thing was all over?’
Rory shook his head and looked solemn. ‘No, no. It’s still very much alive. Just don’t carve anyone up on the golf course.’
‘Or he’ll find a horse’s head on his pillow?’ suggested Ruby.
‘Exactly,’ Rory replied, and they both laughed.
‘They’re joking, sweetheart, relax,’ said Mia, as Hugo’s brows knitted in panic.
The wine was finished so everyone started murmuring about bed. I stood to clear the glasses from the table but Mia told me off.
‘Leave it, Flo, we can do it in the morning. You guys go to bed.’
‘Sure?’
‘I’m sure.’
I counted the stairs in my head as we went upstairs. Bed, delicious bed. I felt strangely woozy. The sage? The wine? My jumbled emotions on hearing that Dad was back? Hard to pinpoint but I wanted to go straight to sleep and be fresh for a day manning my trestle table.
Rory had other ideas. Once he’d closed my bedroom door, he pulled the lilac blindfold from his pocket and dangled it from his fingers.
‘You thief!’ I said, trying to snatch it. But he was too quick and sidestepped so I fell forwards on to my duvet.
‘Put it on,’ he instructed, tossing the blindfold at me.
‘What, now? Like this?’ I gestured at my clothes and stifled a yawn. Not sexy to yawn in your boyfriend’s face when he wants to play a sex game, Florence. It might not be that long, I told myself. If you go to sleep in half an hour, you’ll still get six hours at least.
Rory nodded so I tugged it over my head. And when my eyes were covered, he pushed me back on my bed, unbuttoned my shirt and pulled off my trousers. Then he unhooked my bra, peeled down my knickers and started kissing my body, but as his stubble grazed my skin, I kept sniggering.
‘Shhhhhhh,’ he instructed, as his mouth moved down the hollow of my chest.
‘Sorry,’ I snorted. ‘I’m trying to be serious, it’s just…’ I cracked up again and lost it, ‘funny. And it tickles.’
Rory stopped and I heard him stand up. Then came a noise that sounded like him rummaging through my make-up bag. ‘What are you doing?’
‘Nothing. Lie down. No looking.’
He came back to the bed and I felt the mattress dip as he knelt on it and kissed me.
‘Put your hands above your head.’
I did as instructed and felt him tie them together.
‘What is tha—’
‘Shhhhh,’ he ordered.
Something feathery and light ran up my inner thigh. ‘What is THAT?’
‘Ssssshhhhhhh,’ he said, as the mysterious downy instrument trailed up my stomach, over my nipple, across my neck and down my body. He was kissing me at the same time, brushing my cheeks, my ears, my neck and the top of my chest with his mouth. As the kisses became harder, my laughter subsided and I started writhing at the sensation of being under Rory’s mouth – and whatever he was running over me.
‘I want to see you,’ I said.
‘Uh-uh,’ he replied, and continued for a few minutes until I was arching my back against the mattress.
It stopped very suddenly and I listened to him stand up and unzip his trousers, leaving me tied and blindfolded on the bed.
‘Hang on,’ he told me, and I groaned in frustration before I felt the feathery sensation start running down the side of my body again, flicking along the soles of my feet. As the heat increased between my legs, I pressed my chest into the air. ‘Seriously, that’s too much, PLEASE can we have sex?’
He laughed