Free 31 Days of Summer (31 Days #2) by C.J. Fallowfield

call her.
    ‘Ellie?’ I heard Dan’s panicked voice come from
the living room.
    ‘Terrace,’ I called. He strode out with his coffee
and ran a hand through his hair as he sighed and sat down next to me.
    ‘I can’t make any promises about the future Ellie,
but I care for you like … like I’ve never cared for anyone since Rebecca. I’ll
tell you everything on the condition it stays confidential. This is all extremely
personal to me and I don’t want the tabloids getting hold of it.’
    ‘You can trust me,’ I responded, insulted that he
thought it needed stating. He nodded and I settled back as he started talking.
     

Day Five
    Monday 7 th July ~ Year One

    Ellie
    I woke in bed, in my
t-shirt and knickers with Dan wrapped around me like a vine. It was our second
night sleeping together, without actually sleeping together. We’d talked
most of the night Saturday, slept in late on Sunday, then went out for Sunday
lunch and spent most of the night talking again. I’d cried, he’d cried, but we’d
come to the conclusion that we wanted to give us a shot, even though we’d not
had the dreaded discussion around marriage and children. He’d come around to
believing that he wasn’t being a bastard for wanting to have some happiness
with someone else, but equally he still hadn’t come around to the fact that
nothing was going to bring Moira back and he was punishing himself and her
parents by refusing to let her go. He’d been gutted that I’d refused to have
sex, with me reminding him it wasn’t exactly easy for me to abstain. I was
nearly there with trusting him, but I wanted to see her for my own eyes, to
hear from a medical professional that what he was telling me really was true.
I’d been so gullible with Matt and Zac, I wanted one hundred percent
reassurance that I wasn’t being made a fool of again. I opened my eyes to see
his face on the pillow next to mine and reached up and ran my fingertip over
his brow, down his chiselled cheekbone and circled his lips. They parted as he
let out a sigh and I leaned forward and gently kissed him.
    ‘Ellie,’ he sighed happily and tightened his grip
on me before slowly opening his stunning eyes making me gulp. ‘You’re still
here.’
    ‘I couldn’t have gone anywhere if I tried,’ I
smiled, realising from his comment that he’d inadvertently revealed just how
insecure he was about his suitability for me. ‘You’re like a straight jacket,
but on my whole body. Can I order you breakfast in bed?’
    ‘I’d love you for breakfast,’ he replied, with a
bite of his full bottom lip and a raise of his eyebrows.
    ‘We agreed,’ I sighed.
    ‘No, you bloody told me. You know no one tells me
what to do, with the exception of my parents and Magda, if I want to do
something I do it,’ he muttered with a sulky frown.
    ‘The mighty Mr. Davenport bowing to a mere woman,’
I teased.
    ‘You’re an amazing woman, not a mere woman. Can I
at least kiss you?’
    ‘Once we agree what I’m going to call you,’ I
reminded him. It was one of the few things we struggled with since he arrived
at the hotel.
    ‘I guess you met me as Dan, I won’t be moving back
to London and I like my anonymity up here, so it had better be Dan.’
    ‘Would I be allowed to call you that if we have
sex again?’
    ‘If we’re having sex again you can call me
whatever the hell you want, baby,’ he chuckled. ‘I just hated you calling me
that when you didn’t know my real name was Oliver, it reminded me that I was
keeping you in the dark.’
    ‘Baby eh?’ I smiled and laughed when he went pink.
‘You know you called me that the night you saved me from the loch?’
    ‘Did I?’
    ‘I got under your skin, even then,’ I nodded.
    ‘You did, you do,’ he smiled. ‘Now you promised me
a kiss,’ he advised, as he grasped my face and slanted his mouth over mine,
creating a perfect seal as his tongue gently flickered against mine and I went malleable
in his arms. I reluctantly pulled