SHE SHOULD HAVE said goodbye to him back at the pub.
Then there might have been a hope that, should they meet up in the future, all they would be were ex-colleagues who had flirted a little on occasion.
Back at the pub she could have wished him well for his trip and, yes, of course she could do the same when he pulled up at her flat.
Holly didn’t want to, though.
How did it even work? Holly thought. She was way too far out of her comfort zone. Did she offer him a drink, or did she leave it to him to suggest coming in?
And what about the morning?
Holly wished that she didn’t overthink things, she wished she could be more like Anna and just worry about the day, or rather the night, at hand.
She wanted the traffic lights to turn red, for a pause, to turn and tell him that the flirty version of Holly he had met at times wasn’t the real one. That the woman who had laughed at the suggestive tone in his voice when he’d told her she’d be in discreet hands, did not, prior to his arrival on her part of the planet, exist.
Yet the lights all stayed green and afforded swift passage.
And anyway, Daniel knew all that.
While he was driving he was trying to convince himself that this wasn’t any different from what he was used to and that Holly could more than handle a hook-up. And he was also trying to convince himself that he didn’t care in the way he actually did.
He couldn’t afford to care. It wasn’t an emotion he sought, and he was leaving after all.
His phone told him that the destination was on his left and he slid the car into a parking space outside her flat and his conscience won—Daniel didn’t want to risk hurting her.
‘You’d better go in,’ Daniel said.
And so this was it.
‘Thanks for the lift.’
‘No problem.’
‘It’s been nice working with you,’ Holly said. ‘I’m going to miss your sulking face.’
‘I’ll miss your smiling one.’
And this really was it.
There was a charge in the air that should signal thunder but instead Daniel turned and looked ahead.
Holly reached to open the door and he did nothing to halt her so she got out.
They were both congratulating themselves on how adult and sensible they had been.
Now she could breathe, except, despite the cool and the drizzle, the night felt as humid as if it was summer.
Holly looked at the path to her door and she was six, maybe seven steps away from saving herself from a rather big mistake, except she wanted so badly to turn around and to follow desire rather than walk away.
Just once.
It was her choice as to what happened next, Holly knew.
Could she keep it light, without revealing how deeply she felt?
Daniel was just about to hit ‘Home’ as his destination when she tapped on the window.
‘What?’ he asked as it slid down. His voice was surly. He didn’t want to do this a second time, especially as now that she was bending down there was the pearly white of her breasts at eye level.
And she looked at him and, no, she would not be so cheesy as to ask him in for a drink and then somehow, whoops, they’d up in bed.
She wanted a kiss, Daniel knew, but he was also rather certain she wanted a whole lot more than that. Not just sex, but the part of himself he refused to give.
‘What?’ he said again, and then his face broke into a smile, as, very unexpectedly, Holly, sweet Holly, showed another side of her.
‘Are you going to make me invite you in?’
‘Yes.’
‘You’re not even going to try and persuade me with a kiss?’ Holly checked.
‘You want me or you don’t.’ Daniel shrugged. ‘There’s no question that I want you. But, Holly, do you get that—?’
She knew what was coming and she didn’t need the warning—he had made his position perfectly clear—so she interrupted him. ‘I don’t need the speech.’
She just needed this.
Holly had thought his hand was moving to open the door but instead it came out of the window and to her head and pulled her face down to his.
He kissed her hard, even though she was the one standing. The stubble of his unshaven jaw was rough on her face and his tongue was straight in.
He pulled her in tight so that her upper abdomen hurt from the pressure of the open window and it was a warning, she knew, of the passion to come.
Even now she could pull back and straighten, say goodnight and walk off, but Holly was through with being cautious.
In a second she would be falling through the open window for all the neighbours to see and sucked into the dark vacuum of his car.
Holly simply didn’t care.
Her bag dropped to the pavement and he then released her.
Holly stared back at him, breathless, her lipstick smeared across her face, and all it made him want to do was to kiss her again.
But this was a street.
Holly bent and retrieved her bag and then walked off towards her flat. There was a roaring sound in her ears and her heart seemed to be leaping up near her throat.
Daniel closed up the car and was soon following her to the flats.
She turned the key in the main door to the flats and clipped up the concrete steps.
She could hear his heavy footsteps coming up the steps behind her as she turned and Holly almost broke into a run.
Daniel actually did!
He had thought her cute, sweet and gorgeous these past months and had done all he could not to think of her outright as sexy.
Except she was, and seriously so.
Those heavy footsteps chasing her were thrilling and caught up with her just as she was getting her key into the door of her own flat. Holly was breathless with excitement and the rush and power of him grabbing for her almost toppled Holly as they burst in through the door.
The hall was in darkness; he could just make out some Christmas-tree lights in a room down the hall but there was no time to get to the lounge.
Daniel had no patience now.
Holly had never known anything like it. Never, in her almost twenty-nine years, had she had that simply-have-to-have-you feeling.
And Daniel had to have her.
Every obstacle he dealt with.
He hitched her lovely raven dress up.
Stockings?
No problem, he expertly removed them and then her knickers too.
And when he wanted a better view of her breasts he lowered her zipper at the back, just enough to free them.
Holly looked down at her exposed breasts, and then at her stockings and knickers lying on the hallway floor—she felt slutty and sexy. She liked it. So much so that she was pulling at his thin jumper just to reveal his stomach, and then running a hand up the heavy jeans-clad thighs, getting closer to the lovely bit in the middle. She dealt with the brass button deftly, though she broke a nail on the zipper, and then