‘I don’t want to ignore it,’ she whispered.

He carried on kissing her for a few moments before he stopped. ‘What?’

Flushing, Penny stroked his face. ‘I want you to make love to me.’

He stared at her, not blinking. ‘Now?’

She nodded.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Do I need to beg?’

‘No, Christ no.’ He immediately pulled her top off, and trailed reverential kisses across her shoulder down to her breast. His hands caressed her skin, moving slowly down to her hips and sliding her shorts down her legs. She ran her hands down his back, feeling the warm, soft velvet over a wall of muscle as he peppered kisses over every inch of her body, taking his time to touch, stroke, caress and adore her until her whole body was thrumming with need, responding to the slightest of touches.

Finally he knelt up and grabbed a condom from the nearby bulging bag. She giggled as he tried to find one he liked but he quickly did, and a few frustrating moments later he settled himself between her legs, carefully lowering his weight onto her. He kissed her deeply as he slid slowly inside her, capturing her moans with his mouth, he let out a deep guttural moan too.

He pulled back slightly to look at her as she ran her hands round the back of his neck and she was thrown by the look of pure love and adoration in his eyes. She was falling for this man and there was no way back now. Any hope of trying to protect her heart from the devastating pain she had felt eight years before was gone. It didn’t make sense to fall this hard, this fast, and as he frowned slightly, she could see he was thinking it too.

‘Do you know what I wished for?’

She shook her head.

‘I wished that I can make all your wishes come true.’

He started moving, slowly, tenderly, 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 as friends, never, not once.’

‘This was your idea.’

‘I know, but I didn’t think you’d actually go through with it. Do you like her?’

‘No.’ Horribly aware that Penny was listening to every single word that was being said and he had lied to his daughter about ten times in one conversation, he needed to say something that would rescue this situation. ‘Yes, as friends.’

‘Nothing more?’

‘No. Maybe the friendship could turn into something more, but not yet. I need to get to know her a bit more first.’

‘So more dates?’

Daisy looked down at the computer as she logged in, but not before he caught the flash of worry in her eyes.

‘Yes, as friends.’

She nodded. ‘I’m going to phone Melissa.’

‘OK, don’t be long, I thought we could go out, catch a film, have some lunch.’

‘Cool.’ She got up and walked to the door. ‘We can ask Penny too, if you want.’

‘I think she’s out.’

‘Her car is here.’

‘She could have gone for a walk.’

‘Bernard is here.’

‘Maybe she went out without him, I don’t know, but there hasn’t been a peep from her side of the house all morning. Come on, phone Melissa and we’ll go out in ten minutes.’

‘Make it fifteen,’ Daisy grinned and walked off into her bedroom.

Henry waited a moment and then closed the door and rushed back to the wardrobe. He opened the door and saw Penny was sitting on the floor looking angry. Shit, it wasn’t possible for it to get any worse.