‘Me?’ Penny laughed incredulously. ‘You’re very vocal. You shout a lot.’

‘You scream, that’s probably scarred her more than anything.’

‘Oh god. We can do it quietly, can’t we?’

‘Yes, I’m sure we can and there’ll be times when she isn’t here and we can be as noisy as we like. So let’s make the most of it now.’

She laughed.

He shuffled her back against the table and kissed her hard. She quickly realised he wasn’t joking as he lifted her onto the table and attacked her clothes with great relish.

Suddenly a movement caught her eye over his shoulder and Penny stared in horror into the eyes of another woman.

‘Henry, stop.’

‘Not likely.’

‘There’s someone outside.’

Henry whirled around, protecting her half-naked body from view. Thankfully it was only the top half that was undressed and she still had her bra on but it was quite obvious this woman had seen what they were doing.

Henry laughed nervously. ‘That’s my sister, Anna.’

‘Shit.’

Anna was frozen to the spot, staring at them both.

Henry looked back at Penny and smiled shyly. ‘Why don’t you put your clothes back on and meet us next door for a coffee? I’m sure she will be delighted to meet you at last. Daisy has told her all about you.’

Henry turned back to Anna, still protecting Penny from being seen and pointed to his house. Anna walked off, clearly not happy.

‘She doesn’t look delighted to meet me,’ Penny said.

‘Anna’s lovely. I love her to bits and she’s helped out so much with Daisy over the years. But occasionally she can be a right judgemental pain in the ass.’

‘Well, as first impressions go, this isn’t a good one,’ Penny muttered, yanking her top back over her head. ‘Coupled with what Daisy will undoubtedly tell her about me watching porn, I’m going to go down a storm at family events.’

Henry kissed her briefly on the lips. ‘She will love you, just like I do.’

He ran off through the connecting door before Penny could say anything. She stared at the door as it closed.

Did he just say he loved her?

Chapter Eighteen

‘I just thought I’d come round and see your new place, I didn’t realise I’d be interrupting anything,’ Anna said, slamming her bag down on the counter and standing with her hands on her hips.

Henry sighed. It was clear that today was judgemental ass day.

He heard the connecting door open and he hated that Penny was going to get a mouthful of abuse too.

Penny came into the kitchen slowly and he reached out a hand for her. Pulling her into his side, he wrapped his arm round her waist and placed a kiss on her forehead.

‘Penny, this is my sister Anna. Anna, this is my girlfriend Penny.’

Penny smiled. ‘Hi.’

‘Girlfriend?’ Anna deliberately ignored Penny. ‘You’ve known her less than a week. What kind of example is that to set to Daisy?’

‘Daisy doesn’t know,’ Henry said quietly and he watched Anna’s face turn from indignation to anger.

‘She doesn’t know? You’re sneaking around behind her back, lying to her?’

Henry bit his lip. He hated lying to Daisy and he questioned himself every day over that decision. But he could hardly tell Daisy that he had jumped into bed with his neighbour just two days after she had specifically asked him not to date her. She was happy now and he wanted to keep her that way at least until Christmas. Was that so bad? He hadn’t come to White Cliff Bay looking for a serious relationship, in fact any kind of relationship was supposed to be off the table. But then he had met Penny and everything had changed. Nothing seemed to make sense about Penny, he had fallen hard very quickly and nothing had ever felt like this before.

‘It’s just for a few days, until she’s more settled and gets used to seeing us together, at least platonically. We’ll tell her then.’

Penny leaned into him and he held her tighter, but surprisingly she was stroking his back trying to offer him support when really he thought it should be the other way round.

‘It didn’t take you long to get settled. You’ve been here just a few days and you’re sleeping together already.’ Anna turned her attention to Penny. ‘Did you just open your legs to him on the first night?’

‘Anna!’ Henry said, forcefully. There was no way he was standing for that. ‘I won’t let you speak to Penny like that.’

‘It’s OK,’ Penny said. ‘I know how it looks, neither of us expected it to happen. But we have something really special.’

‘Please! This isn’t serious for Henry, this is all about his inability to keep it in his pants. He has never been in love, never had a girlfriend that lasted longer than a few months. You’ll be no different. Why do you think he hasn’t told Daisy yet? Because he knows that it’s not going to last.’

‘This is serious.’ He could feel himself getting really angry and Penny’s hand squeezed his, probably to try to get him to calm down. God, the last thing he wanted was for Anna to give Penny reason to doubt their relationship. ‘I am very serious about Penny. I adore her and Daisy does too. I’m not keeping it a secret from Daisy because I don’t think it will last. I just didn’t want to upset her.’

‘Then why do it at all? You promised me and her that you wouldn’t be getting involved with anyone ever again.’

‘That was a rash statement and you know that. You can’t expect me to not have a relationship ever again because I made one terrible mistake with Emily.’

‘I can expect you not to get involved with the type of person who lets you shag them across the breakfast table in the middle of the day.’

Penny let out a bark of a laugh and Henry looked down at her in confusion.

‘I’m sorry, but I’m not worthy enough for him because we were about to have sex on the kitchen table? In my own home? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. You have no idea what kind of relationship me and Henry have—’

‘I don’t care about what kind of relationship you and my brother have. I care about Daisy and how this will affect her.’

‘I care about her too,’ Penny said indignantly.

If Henry had thought that Penny was going to be shy when she met Anna for the first time, he had clearly been mistaken. He tried to suppress a smile; he liked this fiery side to her. He hadn’t seen it very often but she certainly knew how to stand up for herself.

‘Bullshit. You’re clearly using her to get to Henry. She adores you, you’re all she’s spoken about for the last week, and when all this comes to an end, which it undoubtedly will, you will drop her like a hot potato. Do you have any idea how much that will hurt her?’

‘I have no intention of ever doing anything to hurt Daisy. I really like her and if this thing between me and Henry comes to an end, that absolutely won’t affect my relationship with her. If Henry moves out and never wants to speak to me again, she can still come up here every day and practise her ice carving. I like working with her, she’s brilliant and funny and I thought that long before I was involved with Henry. I’ve already offered her a job, I have way too many carving jobs for me to do alone and she shows a real talent for this kind of thing.’

‘What sort of person befriends a sixteen-year-old girl?’

Penny went very still next to him. ‘What are you suggesting, that I’m some kind of pervert?’

Anna quickly back-pedalled. ‘No, I didn’t mean that, I just meant that it’s a bit weird.’

‘Why is it weird?’ Henry said, angrily.

‘Well…’

‘You’ve made a snap judgement based on the fact that you saw me and Henry about to have sex and you’ve come into my house and accused me of the most disgusting things. How dare you, you don’t even know me. Now I suggest you get out of my house now because you’re certainly not welcome any more.’