Free Knight on the Children's Ward by Carol Marinelli

nodded. ‘Just have dinner?’ He winced. ‘When I say just …’
    â€˜Maybe one kiss goodnight,’ Annika relented, because Elsie would be so disappointed otherwise.
    â€˜Sounds good,’ Ross said. ‘Now or later?’
    â€˜You choose.’
    Four hours of preparation: tempering the chocolate, slicing the boxes, choosing the best raspberries. And the mousse recipe was a complicated one. All that work, all those hours, slipped deliciously away as he pulled her across the table and her breast sank into her own creation.
    His tongue tasted better than anything she could conjure. They both had to stretch, but it was worth it. He tasted of chocolate, and then of him. His hair was in her fingers and she was pressing her face into him, the scratch of his jaw, the press of his lips. She wanted more, so badly she almost climbed onto the table just to be closer, but it was easier to stand. Lips locked, they kissed over the table, and then did a sort of crab walk till they could properly touch—and touch they did.
    The most touching it was possible to do with clothes on and standing. She felt his lovely bum, and his jeans, and she pressed him into her. It was still just a kiss, one kiss, but it went on for ever.
    â€˜Oh, Annika,’ he said, when she pulled back for a gulp of air, and then he saw the mess on her top and set to work.
    â€˜That’s not kissing…’ He was kissing her breast through the fabric, sucking off the mousse and the cream, and her fingers were back in his hair.
    â€˜It is,’ he said.
    And the raspberries had made the most terrible stain, so he concentrated on getting it out, and then she had to stop him. She stepped back and did something she never did.
    She started to laugh.
    And then she did something really stupid—something she’d cringe at when she told Elsie—well, the edited version—but knew Elsie would clap her approval.
    She told him to dance—ordered him, in fact!
    She lay on the sofa and watched, and there was rather more noise than usual from Annika’s flat—not that the neighbours noticed.
    She lay there and watched as his great big black boots stamped across the floor, and it was mad, really, but fantastic. She could smell the gypsy bonfire, and she knew he could too—it was their own fantasy, crazy and sort of private, but she would tell Elsie just a little.
    And she did only kiss him—maybe once or twice, or three times more.
    But who knew the places you could go to with a kiss?
    Who knew you could be standing pressed against the door fully dressed, but naked in your mind?
    â€˜Bad girl,’ Ross said as, still standing, she landed back on earth.
    â€˜Oh, I will be!’ Annika said.
    â€˜Come back to the farm…’
    â€˜We said slowly.’
    So they had—and there was Spain, and according to form he knew he’d hurt her, but he was suddenly sure that he wouldn’t. She could take a sledgehammer to his bedroom wall if she chose, and he’d just lie on the bed and let her.
    â€˜Come to the farm.’ God, what was he doing?
    â€˜I’ve got stuff too, Ross.’
    â€˜I know, I know.’
    â€˜Don’t rush me.’
    â€˜I know.’ He was coming back to earth as well. He’d never been accused of rushing things before. It wasalways Ross pulling back, always Ross reluctant to share—it felt strange to be on the other side.
    â€˜And I’ve never been bad.’
    He started to laugh, and then he realised she wasn’t joking.
    â€˜The rules are different if you’re a Kolovsky girl, and till recently I’ve never been game enough to break them.’
    Oh!
    Looking into her troubled eyes, knowing what he knew about her family, suddenly he was scared of his own reputation and knew it was time to back off.
    Annika Kolovsky he couldn’t risk hurting.

CHAPTER EIGHT
    A T HER request, things slowed down.
    Stopped, really.
    The