style="font-size:15px;"> There were her parents buckling under the weight of jars filled with home-made tomato sauce.
‘I said I’d pick them up next week,’ she said.
‘Why are you all dressed up?’ her mother asked, instantly accusing.
‘Because I’m just about to go out,’
‘You need to wear a top under that dress!’ Her mother warned.
They walked through and put the jars of tomato sauce on the bench and Candy got out the coffee machine. There was no such thing as her parents coming over and them not having a coffee, though her father’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw the bottle of wine on the bench and Candy poured him a glass.
‘Where are you going tonight?’ her father asked.
‘To the movies with a friend.’
‘What friend?’ her mother checked.
‘Kelly.’ Candy glanced at the clock. ‘Ma, I really do need to get going soon.’
‘We’ve barely seen you these last few weeks.’
They chatted in Italian for twenty minutes or so. Candy had promised herself that the next time she saw them she’d tell them about her trip to Hawaii, but with Steele hiding in the bedroom she chose not to. It was not a conversation that would take twenty minutes—it would be an entire evening of tears and threats and shouting.
Her dad’s wineglass was empty, her mum’s coffee was gone and though they looked settled in for the evening and her father would no doubt love another glass of wine, Candy stood. ‘I’m already late for Kelly,’ she said. ‘I really am going to have to get ready.’
She felt guilty kicking them out, and then cross that she’d had to. Couldn’t they simply ring before they dropped around?
They’d be offended if she asked them to.
Talk about kill the mood, she thought once they had gone and she headed to her bedroom. Steele was lying on her bed, his legs crossed and reading her book.
‘I’m so sorry about that,’ she said.
‘Why?’ Steele shrugged. ‘Your parents dropped around. It’s no big deal.’ He smiled at her as she came and sat on the bed beside him. ‘I understand, though, that it would be a big deal if they found me here.’
‘Thanks.’ Candy smiled.
‘Do they drop around a lot?’
‘They do,’ she said. ‘They don’t drive and, as a sweetener, when I moved out I said I was only moving nearby, which was a big mistake.’ She let out a long sigh. ‘Another one. I seem to be making rather a lot of them lately. Have I made us late for the movies?’
‘I haven’t even got the tickets,’ he said. ‘I didn’t know if you’d like the idea.’
‘I do,’ Candy said, ‘I haven’t been in ages.’
‘I go all the time,’ he said. ‘Well, not all the time, but I guess going to the movies, for me, is like reading a book is to you. I usually go on my own,’ Steele said. It had surprised him that he’d considered taking Candy along. He really did prefer his own company when watching a film.
‘How come you go alone?’ she asked, gently poking him in the ribs as he lay there. ‘Don’t you have any friends?’
‘I have a lot of friends but not any I’d want to go to the movies with. You should try going by yourself,’ he said. ‘I loathe trying to concentrate while getting the What the hell did you bring me to this for? vibe coming from my right or left.’
Candy started to laugh. ‘I get that with my friend Kelly.’ She told him about the time she’d suggested to Kelly that they see what Candy had thought was a romance and he laughed as she described Kelly’s reaction as she’d sat beside her, watching someone being tied to the bed.
‘She said I was never allowed to choose the movie again,’ Candy said, and then she looked down and saw that her hands were now on his chest and fiddling with his buttons and that his hands were playing with her hair. It was as if their bodies were having a little conversation of their own as they carried on talking.
His hand pressed the back of her head a little and she started to kiss him. Her heart was still hammering a bit from her parents’ unexpected visit, and a long, slow kiss did nothing to calm it down, but slowly the turmoil of the sudden invasion by her family was fading.
His shirt was open again and beneath her hands were lovely flat nipples that she could not stop stroking, and her dress was open again and how she wished she had a front-opening bra, because she did not want to move her hands from his skin to get naked.
Steele peeled off her dress as she sat over him.
Till this point, till this evening, she had always felt that brief moment of judgment as she undressed. She felt only adoration now; she didn’t even try to define what was going on in her head as her dress slid off. She did not care what he thought, safe in the knowledge he thought only good things.
He did think only good things. More used to slenderness, he adored her generous curves and her ripe breasts spilling as he undid her bra, but more giddying and satisfying was the mutual eagerness, as if they had somehow known this was where they were leading.
‘I’ve got something I ought to tell you …’ Steele said, pulling back.
‘What?’ she breathed. ‘What do you have to tell me?’
He smiled at the dart of concern in her eyes.
‘I’m not sleeping with you till I hear about your name.’ His hand stroked one generous breast. ‘Tell me,’ Steele said.
‘No.’
He pulled her onto him and then flipped her onto her back and she lay looking up at him, aching for his kiss. She had already kicked off her ballet pumps. All she had on were her panties and it was he who looked down at her now.
‘I’m never going to tell you,’ Candy said.
He stood and picked up his shirt.
‘Come on,’ he said. ‘Get dressed.
‘That’s bribery.’
‘Yep.’
Well, two could play at that game. ‘Fine,’ she said, half-heartedly sitting up, putting her legs over the bed and reaching for her clothes. ‘Let’s go and get something to eat …’
She picked up her bra and Steele took it from her hands.
He placed it beneath her breasts and did it up at the back and while he did so she could feel his breath on her shoulder and she was more than a little aware of his erection through his trousers. He took one of her breasts and gently stuffed it into the fabric but his hand stayed in there, stroking her, teasing her, and she sat still as his lips started to nuzzle the other one, licking and sucking at her nipple, stretching it
