Free Love You Better by Natalie K Martin Page B

lane to Izzy and Tom’s house. Or was it a mansion? Nestled in the Surrey countryside, their detached, five-bedroom house sat in ten acres of ancient woodland. The smell of damp leaves wafted through the open window of the car, mixing with the comforting smell of new leather. Oliver had pushed the new BMW’s engine as hard as he could legally get away with, and sometimes more. Effie had settled back into the heated seats and had to mentally congratulate him on his need for impeccability . The car suited him. It was sophisticated, understated, sleek and expensiv e.
    As they passed the trees strung up with lanterns and the elegant copper torches lining both sides of the lane, she glanced over at Oliver. He looked handsome in a crisp white shirt and blue chinos, and a rush of love hit her.
    ‘What?’ he asked warily, looking back at her. ‘Are you okay?’
    She nodded and beamed a smile. ‘Yep. Better than okay.’
    Things were perfect. She was sitting in a fabulous car, next to her handsome husband, on their way to a glamorous party. This was living. This was her life. She thought back to life with Smith, so full of uncertainty and doubt, never quite knowing where she stood. When he said that their ‘relationship’ had worked, he’d been so wrong it was laughable, and Effie couldn’t do anything other than laugh at the way she’d reacted to seeing him again. Thank god, her mind was stronger than her body. Now that she had Oliver, she never needed to have an uncertain day again. He loved her, plain and simple.
    Effie looked at the house coming into view around the gentle curve of the lane, until Oliver killed the purring engine and parked up among the Mercedes, Audis and a couple of Aston Martins. They stepped out of the car, and Effie looked up at Sky House, the three-storey, forty-eight-hundred-square-foot property that Izzy and Tom called home. On the ground level, the floor-to-ceiling glass doors were folded all the way open, allowing the chilled house music, tinkles of laughter and buzz of conversation to float outside. Its sleek lines, timber exterior walls and two floors of wrap-around windows were wedged into a slope, and it sat under a canopy of oak and birch trees. The lights from the house spilled out, dappling the woodland floor in an orange glow.
    ‘I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing this place. It’s beautiful,’ Effie said.
    ‘I know. I’d have loved to design something like this.’
    She looked at him. ‘You still regret not being an architect, d on’t you ?’
    ‘Sometimes.’ He shrugged. ‘But law is the family business. Sometimes, life means making compromises.’ He took her hand, and they ascended the huge slabs of slate serving as stairs. Effie could only nod. She didn’t feel like she’d had to compromise anything being with him.
    ‘Anyway,’ he continued, ‘it’s nice, but there’s no point having a place like this in the city. A house like this needs to breathe.’
    ‘Do houses breathe?’
    ‘This one does.’ He grinned, and as if to prove his point, a gust of wind blew behind them, almost ushering them into the house.
    How many people had turned up? A hundred, maybe? On the ground floor alone, the entire open space was packed with people lounging on oversized, charcoal-grey sofas, sitting on the stairs or talking in groups. An impeccably dressed waiter offered champagne from a silver tray, and Effie took one, grateful for something to hold. She never knew what to do with her hands in situations like this and usually reverted to picking at her nails. As lovely as Izzy and Tom were, they could be intimidating, and from what she’d seen so far, the same could be said for their friends. She could have sworn that was Jude Law over by the kitchen, but she couldn’t see past the redhead in front of him, and she refused to gawp like a fangirl.
    ‘I fancy a Scotch,’ Oliver said. ‘I’ll be back in a tick.’
    Effie frowned as he left her standing in the middle of