Free The Domville 6 (The Domville #6) by C. J. Fallowfield

it just felt so natural to be around her, like time hadn’t passed
at all. ‘Can you put some clothes on, for God’s sake,’ she muttered with a roll
of her eyes.
    ‘I have none,’ I shrugged, amused that she was trying to
look anywhere but at my body, as I stood with my hands on my hips watching her.
‘Yesterday’s shirt is rumpled in the bottom of my bag, you soaked last night’s
shirt and you’re wearing the one I was going to put on this morning.’
    ‘Sorry about that,’ she mumbled.
    ‘I guess it was deserved. You give a mean slap,
Freckles.’
    ‘I told you to stop calling me that.’ She fixed me with
her best attempt at a glare, but it wasn’t as fierce or full of anger as it had
been when she’d slapped me earlier. I was breaking her down. I walked over and
sat on the edge of the bed, one leg crooked up on it so I could face her.
    ‘You’ll always be Freckles to me. You’re still my best
friend. They say time and distance don’t get in the way of true friendship.’
     
    Toni

     
    ‘No, but cutting them out of your life with no
explanation does. I have no idea if you’re still an architect, how your family
is, if you’ve had a steady girlfriend or got kids. You don’t know any of that
about me either.’ Christ, it was hard trying to only look at his face. His body
was insane. So toned and perfected, with the remains of his Middle Eastern tan
accentuating every rippling muscle. I just wanted to run my hands all over his
skin, lick, kiss and bite every inch of it. I swallowed hard as I recalled that
kiss only moments ago. He kissed like a man, full of confidence and power. It
had made me lightheaded and giddy. But much as I wanted to take it further, I
was still angry with him.
    ‘Yes, I’m still an architect. I have my own firm, here in
London. I’ve been set up for a few months now. I needed to get settled in
before I contacted you. I’ve not had any steady girlfriends, just … encounters,
like I always did. No kids, at least I don’t think I have and I want to know
everything that’s happened to you since I last saw you.’ His gorgeous blue eyes
held my gaze as he spoke, draining the saliva from my mouth. I reached out to
grab the water on the bedside table and took a few gulps.
    ‘What about your family? How are your ma and pa and your
sisters?’ I asked. I missed them. They had been my extended family at one
point. I often went over to Ireland with Fin for visits.
    ‘My sisters are great. All married now and Cerie and Iona
have had kids since you last saw them. Pa is gutted, all of them have had girls.
He has eleven grandkids now and he really wants a grandson.’
    ‘I bet he’s gutted,’ I giggled. Mr. Delany was a real
man’s man. He used to moan that Finian needed to come home more often, as he
was surrounded by too many women. ‘Your ma must be so thrilled though.’
    ‘She was,’ he nodded, after a pause. He dropped his head
and started picking at his thumbnail. ‘She adored and spoiled every single one
of them.’
    ‘Was?’ I sat up a little straighter, not liking the
sudden change in his tone of voice or demeanour. ‘Fin? She’s ok, isn’t she?’
    ‘She passed away in January, Freckles.’ He said it so
quietly, I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.
    ‘She’s gone?’ I uttered, suddenly feeling an ache in my
heart for him. I knew how close he was to her. He was the baby of the family
and she doted on him so much.
    ‘Heart attack,’ he sighed. ‘It’s part of the reason I
came back to London, to be closer to my family.’ I reached out and took one of
his hands, smothering it in mine and squeezing it tightly.
    ‘I’m so sorry, Finian. She was such an amazing lady.’
    ‘She was,’ he agreed, the words catching in his throat.
He was still unable to look me in the eye. I’d never seen him cry in the five
years we knew each other. To see him suddenly broken like this had the same
effect on my heart. I scrambled out of the bed and quickly straddled