Free England or Bust by Georgiana Louis Page B

her mouth. She shouldn’t even be thinking about how good those lips would feel, but she was.
    She nodded. “I suppose you’re right.”
    “How strange is it to be caught in this sort of storm in December though? I thought we left winter months ago.”
    Michelle nodded again, unable to match the happy, chatty tone of the person sitting opposite her.
    “To fate.” Rob said and clinked his glass with hers.
    Another of those strange laughs bubbled up inside Michelle and she drank down a sip of her wine in a hurry. Why was she so nervous?
    She forced herself to speak. “Fate? Really?”
    Rob laughed and ordered the same burger she had, then looked back at her.
    “Yeah, why not? We could have been on a plane crashing into the ocean at this moment. I’m definitely one to believe in whatever happens, happens for a reason.”
    Michelle’s chest squeezed tight. “Really?” Her words choked out, tears welling in her eyes. She dropped her head and went to clasp her hands in her lap, but Rob reached out and gripped one of them in his.
    “Hey, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
    Michelle wanted to pull her hand away, her senses recoiling from the touch of a man she barely knew.
    “Tell me what’s wrong.” Rob used his thumb to caress the back of her hand, which once again calmed her nerves down. As he felt her relax, he withdrew his hand.
    The loss of that warmth made a pained sound rise in her throat and she grabbed her hand back quickly. What was wrong with her?
    “Nothing’s wrong.” She picked up her glass and swallowed twice, most of the wine disappearing down her throat.
    Rob waited until she set her glass down, then filled it up again.
    “All right. Where are you going and why?”
    Michelle twirled the glass in her fingers, the red wine seeping into her blood stream and causing a hot flush on her usually pale cheeks.
    “I am moving to England, permanently. I have a few cousins over there - I need a change.”
    Rob moved their drinks out of the way as the food arrived. In front of Michelle sat one of the biggest burgers she had ever seen. Yellow melted cheese oozed over the red meat. The egg, lettuce and tomato was threatening to slide out of the bun and onto the plate.
    “Wow.” Rob breathed and picked up his burger with both hands.
    He opened his mouth wide and took a massive bite, moaning in appreciation as he put it back down again.
    Michelle watched him acting without fear or thought. He was so artless, so hungry for every little pleasure. Her cheeks flushed again at the thought.
    In all her twenty five years, she had only ever had two lovers and both were long term relationships. She had never really enjoyed love making. Whether her lovers were selfish (well her last one definitely had been), or she hadn’t learnt to enjoy it, she didn’t know. Either way her starved body was aching for a real man’s touch. A man like the one sitting opposite her.
    She buried her red cheeks in her glass of wine once again. Was it the horrible year that she had had? Or the unusual circumstances of being stranded for the next twelve hours? Either way, something was happening to her.
    “Try the burger Michelle. It’s really good.” Rob brought the burger back up to his mouth and took another huge bite.
    Michelle picked up her knife to cut hers in half. She needed to slice it into more manageable pieces if she was even going to attempt to eat such a monster.
    “No, just pick it up.” Rob said even though he still had a full mouth.
    Was he kidding? Michelle eyed the burger once again and put both hands around it. She was about to make a fool of herself in front of this gorgeous stranger.
    “Here goes nothing…”

 Two
    Rob chewed his greasy, delicious burger as he watched the girl opposite him attempt to pick hers up with her tiny hands. She was a petite little thing and so fragile looking, as if she could be blown down with a feather.
    Not physically. Physically, she looked healthy. Beautiful in fact,