Authors: Kristen Ashley
At “five” she
felt a warm hand on the small of her back. At “four” it was an arm
that wound around her waist. At “three” it was pulling her firmly
around. At “two” it was hauling her against a hard body. At “one”
another arm joined it to tighten around her. At the strike of
midnight, a sexy, scarred mouth descended on hers in a hard,
thorough, unmistakably possessive kiss that seemed to last forever
and stole her breath away.
Anyone who saw
it would have been in no doubt that Julia and Douglas were a
couple.
Regardless how good the kiss was or, more to the
point,
because
of how
good it was, and the point it so publicly made, Julia seethed all
the way home.
Monique was
still (thankfully) in Munich meaning they were all alone at the
Kensington house. As Douglas pulled the parking brake up on the
Jag, Julia darted out of the car only to have to stand on the steps
to wait for him to let her in the house because she didn’t have a
key.
I really
, she
thought,
have to think ahead.
Her blood
pressure, already nearly at brain attack level, ratcheted up a
notch.
Douglas
politely, though not trying to hide his amusement, allowed her to
precede him into the house. She practically ran up the stairs only
to hear him chuckle.
She was
beginning to detest his chuckle. For fifteen years she rarely heard
it and now it seemed to ring in her ears on a daily basis. At the
top of the stairs she whirled to wait for him and watched as he
took his time ascending like he had all the new year.
“
I want
you to release a press statement that says we are
not
an item,” she demanded
irritably when he was four steps away.
He completed
his ascension and then stopped several inches from her. Towering
over her, he looked down at her, not down the length of his nose,
as used to be his wont, but directly at her, eye-to-eye.
“And why,” he
drawled, “would I do that?”
“Because we’re
not a couple!” She wanted to stamp her foot at having to point out
what she thought was the obvious.
He quirked a
brow.
She was a
woman prone to dramatics but not to violence.
Not until that
moment.
She was saved
from doing something she would regret by the door opening
below.
Visions of
Monique drifting in, wafting malevolence and baring fangs, made
Julia’s chest tighten painfully.
Instead, from
their vantage point at the top of the stairs, they saw Veronika
enter on a giggle and then lose her footing and crash to the
floor.
Julia and
Douglas both descended the stairs rapidly, Douglas (of course) made
it to the bottom first. Julia was wearing high-heeled, strappy
bronze sandals and couldn’t catch herself in time at the bottom and
ploughed into Douglas. To steady herself, she grabbed his waist
with both hands. Worried about Ronnie, she didn’t pull her hands
away but she peeked around his body and saw Veronika sprawled on
the floor, her legs out in front of her and a loopy grin on her
face.
Ronnie slowly
lifted a curled hand, thumb extended then jerked it toward herself
and said gaily, “Drunk!”
“Oh dear,”
Julia sighed, releasing Douglas’s waist and moving around him. “We
need to get her upstairs,” she told him, all the time looking down
on Veronika.
“Sham’s very
nie-sh,” Veronika slurred to the approaching Julia.
“She’s
lovely,” Julia murmured to her as she bent down beside the girl and
heard Douglas join them. “We’re going to get you upstairs to
bed.”
“
I am
lucky,” Ronnie stated while Douglas silently put one shoulder under
Ronnie’s armpit while his other hand grabbed her wrist and pulled
it around his neck, lifting her up to her feet. Through his
actions, Ronnie spoke. “To have you,” she motioned to Julia with
her head, an action that threw her off balance and made her
stumble, forcing Douglas to right her, “as friend.” She went on.
“And
you
,” she turned
to Douglas as he started walking her towards the stairs, “are
hero!” she finished triumphantly.
Julia had no
idea what Ronnie was talking about but she had no time to consider
it as Ronnie made an unmistakably unpleasant noise.
“Quick,
upstairs to the bathroom,” she told Douglas urgently.
Douglas didn’t
hesitate. He reached down and slid an arm around the backs of
Ronnie’s knees, hefted her up and swiftly moved up the stairs. By
the time Julia made it to the door of the bathroom, Veronika was on
her knees getting sick in the toilet.
Julia rushed
forward passed Douglas to pull the girl’s dark hair out of her face
and kneeled down to soothe her by stroking her back and murmuring
to her. All the while, she did her best not to get sick herself at
the sight, the sound and the awful smell.
“I’ll leave
you to it,” Douglas said from the doorway, feeling his part in this
current drama was done.
Julia
just nodded, thinking,
saved by the drunk Russian girl.
* * * * *
Days later
they were back home at Sommersgate and Julia was coming in from
running errands, entering by the kitchen door.
“Hey Mrs. K,”
she greeted the older lady, “I could do with a cuppa. You need a
break?”
Mrs. K turned
peculiarly sparkling eyes to Julia and opened her mouth to answer
when Ruby rushed into the room followed by Lizzie. They were both
panting at their mad dash and they, too, had sparkling eyes.
“Auntie
Jewel!” Lizzie puffed.
The children
had survived the Christmas Night Meltdown valiantly. For several
days they were quiet and introspective and Ruby had stopped
shouting altogether (and Julia found, knowing the reason behind it,
she now missed it). But they were beginning to pull out of it
having had a great time with Sam’s family. Indeed, Julia had a
queer sense that Ruby’s breakdown had allowed them all to settle
more thoroughly into their new lives and begin to truly come to
terms with their loss and start healing.
Right then,
they seemed to be lit up with happiness and expectation.
“What’s up?”
Julia asked, unable to stop a grin from spreading across her face
at their jubilation. Ruby scrambled forward and grabbed Julia’s
hand, giving it a hearty tug. Their excitement was catching and she
let out a little laugh. “What’s happening?” she inquired again.
“Just come
with us,” Lizzie ordered bossily, grabbing Julia’s other hand and
pulling more strongly.
They led Julia
to the leather couches of the entryway where Douglas and Willie
were standing around the furniture. A fire blazed in the grate and
Willie was looking down at something on the floor while Douglas
watched Julia approach, his eyes roaming over her appreciatively
(as he seemed inclined to do more often than not).
“Will someone
tell me what’s going on?” Julia blurted, deciding it best to ignore
Douglas. If she didn’t, she knew her palms would sweat or her knees
would buckle or her stomach would do somersaults or, in her weakest
moments, all three.
“Look!” Ruby
pointed at a strange, plastic box with a handle on top and lots of
holes all around.
The kind of
box in which you carried a small animal.
Looking at the
box, Julia felt her palms start to sweat, her knees begin to get
weak and her stomach prepared to do somersaults.
“Look, look,
look!” Ruby cried, no longer able to contain herself.
She sprinted
forward then dropped to her knees and she fidgeted with the box but
Julia already knew.
She knew.
She
remembered, somewhat hazily, but she
remembered
muttering to Douglas the morning after their first
night together.
Therefore, she
knew.
Then Ruby had
her prize and turned around, cuddling a fluffy, perfectly white,
beautiful, squash-nosed, incredibly adorable Persian kitty in her
arms.
“Unka Douglas
bought them for you!” Ruby squealed.
Julia’s eyes
filled with tears. She couldn’t help herself; she couldn’t have
controlled her reaction if she was SuperGirl. She missed her own
cat and had never been without an animal for this long in her life.
It was better than an emerald (which was pretty fantastic), it was
better than a diamond watch (which was absolutely tremendous), it
was the best present she’d ever received.
With one quick
step forward, she reached out her hands and Ruby easily gave up the
kitten to Julia who practically snatched it out of her niece’s
arms.
She didn’t
notice Ruby whirl back around as she pulled the kitten up to her
face and rubbed it against her cheek.
She turned
glistening eyes to Douglas.
She didn’t
know what to say.
More kittens
were produced, two more to be exact.
“Uncle Douglas
got one for each of us girls,” Lizzie declared cheerfully but Julia
only had eyes for Douglas who, for his part, was watching her back
with a look of tenderness (albeit a somewhat smug tenderness).
“I’m getting a
dog,” Willie declared at this point.
Julia opened
her mouth and then closed it. She opened it again and then, again,
closed it. She brought the kitten down to snuggle him on her chest
and shook her head as if to clear it.
“Aren’t you
going to say something?” Lizzie demanded, eyeing Julia
incredulously.
Julia was
speechless.
“Sometimes,”
Willie put in, his words and tone far more mature than they should
have been, “there’s nothing to say.”
* * * * *
The kittens
caused havoc in the household, nearly making Ronnie fall down the
stairs and giving Mrs. K fits as they scratched at every available
surface (including undoubtedly priceless silk rugs). The children
ran around playing with them and chasing them, which caused the
once silent-as-a-tomb Sommersgate House to ring with happy
noise.
That weekend,
Julia decided to take a walk to clear her head. She put on her
mucky cowboy boots, a pair of jeans, a dusky pink fleece and
wrapped a long, pink and lavender-striped scarf around her neck.
The day was bright, sunny and bitter cold.
The children
had gone to the stables with Douglas to ride. Douglas was spending
an extraordinary (for him) amount of time at home and had made a
habit of being home on the weekends.
Julia found
this most annoying, even though there was once a time, not very
long ago, when she demanded that he be at home more.
She
tried to avoid them. She
wanted
to avoid them. But she found, as if they had minds of their
own, after only fifteen minutes her feet took her toward the
stables.
Lizzie and
Willie were already in their saddles with Ruby sitting alone on a
beautiful, shining chestnut horse. As Julia approached, she watched
Douglas swing expertly up in the saddle behind Ruby and her heart
did a little flip.
She told her
feet to turn left. They refused. She told them to turn right. They,
again, refused. Before she could begin to escape, Lizzie saw
her.
“Hey, Auntie
Jewel!” she shouted.
Douglas had
his back to her and, at Lizzie’s call, he whirled the animal around
expertly so he could watch her arrival.
“Don’t mind
me,” Julia called. “You guys go on. I’m on my way to –”
“You should
let Uncle Douglas teach you how to ride,” Lizzie suggested,
obviously thrilled at her wonderful idea.
Julia sighed.
Lizzie was definitely beginning to be a problem.
If she
was truthful with herself, which she was being less and less these
days, she would have admitted that she wanted to see him. However,
she did
not
want a
riding lesson. She loved horses, she loved all animals, she just
didn’t particularly like riding them. She wouldn’t have wanted to
ride a camel either. Or an elephant. Definitely not a
horse.
“That’s okay.”
She was amongst them now, all of them looking down at her. She
gently stroked the soft muzzle of Willie’s horse (a beautiful grey
which Julia knew Gavin liked to ride). “I’m good on my own two
feet.”
But she heard
rather than saw Douglas hit the ground and then Ruby was moved from
Douglas’s horse to the front of Willie’s.
Julia watched
in alarm.
“Is that
wise?” she asked Douglas.
“He’s strong
and he’s good in the saddle. She’ll be fine,” Douglas replied with
confidence and Julia stiffened as he came toward her. “Now let’s
see about you.”
Julia glanced
at Willie whose face was glowing at his uncle’s compliment. It
almost made her want to give in but then she saw Douglas leading
the big chestnut toward her. The horse was bigger than all the
others and Julia took a step back.
“They can
sense fear,” Douglas informed her.
“I know!” she
snapped. “I’ve seen enough cowboy movies. They always say that in
the cowboy movies.”
Douglas
grinned.
She narrowed
her eyes at him.
That was when
he smiled.
“Oh all
right,” she gave in, mainly because the children were there and she
was trying to retain as much dignity as she could considering she
knew she was going to lose it all in mere minutes. “What do I
do?”
While she had
both feet planted firmly on the ground (thankfully) and Douglas
adjusted the stirrups, he patiently and competently explained what
she should do. She listened as intently as she could considering
how much she loved his voice and what it did to her insides. As
this went on, the children cantered around them, giving them a wide
berth.
“You ready to
go up?” Douglas asked, motioning to the horse with his head.