‘Me, too,’ Lucy chimed in enthusiastically. ‘We’ll certainly be buying these games for our children when they’re done, won’t we, Tony?’
‘Absolutely. It’s a numbers business, running a vineyard,’ he backed up, smiling adoringly at his wife.
Tammy wished Fletcher would smile at her like that, but the fact that he’d opened up about his work to her friends did give her a brilliant burst of happiness.
‘Come to think of it,’ Adam mused, ‘the more skilled we are at maths, the better everything works. As a writer, you can’t really nail a story unless it has a stringent inner logic. And when you’re surfing, Grant, you must need precision timing for riding a wave to get the optimum surge.’
‘You’re always assessing percentages,’ Grant agreed.
‘It’s a must for banking,’ Paul put in.
‘And accountancy,’ Andrew added.
‘One way or another, we all have to juggle numbers,’ Kirsty said, smiling at Fletcher. ‘I hope you and your gang can beat all the problems with this project and get it out there for the kids.’
‘Let’s drink to that,’ Tony said, rising to ostentatiously open another bottle. ‘Now, this wine is from a particularly good vintage….’
The rest of the afternoon drifted by very pleasantly. After they had completely stuffed themselves with delicious food and drank most of Tony’s fine wines, they all trooped into Adam’s living room to watch a highly edited video of the honeymoon in Africa and Egypt, Adam giving an amusing commentary and Jennifer handing out gifts they’d bought at the places featured.
Considering the probability they were all over the alcohol limit for driving, they decided to leave their cars at the cottage until tomorrow and take taxis to the hotel. Tammy and Fletcher shared one with Hannah and Grant, all of them still in an ebullient mood from the party and making plans for their walk in the morning. It wasn’t until the couples parted to go to their rooms at the hotel that Tammy started feeling edgy again.
Instantly the silence between them gathered a thick sense of constraint. There was no touching. Fletcher carried their bags. Tammy nursed the door key in her hands. By the time they reached their room, her mind was hopelessly stressed with sorting through the past few hours for assurances that Fletcher had really enjoyed himself in the company of her friends. Or had he merely pretended to for the sake of appearing congenial? If the latter, pretence wouldn’t stand up for long and they’d end up living under the same roof but leading separate lives.
She opened the door, stepped inside the room, waited until Fletcher had moved in with the bags, then closed it behind them, acutely aware that the kind of future relationship they would have was very much at stake. Anxiety had her bursting into speech even before he’d set their bags on the luggage rack provided.
‘Was it all right for you?’
He dumped the bags and turned to her.
Her hands flew out in agitated appeal as she babbled on. ‘I mean the party. I thought you fitted in very well, not apart from it at all, but that’s not the point, is it? It’s whether you had a good time, whether you felt any pleasure in their company, enough for you to find it a positive experience rather than a…a…’
‘A barely tolerable one?’ he supplied with a quizzical lift of one eyebrow.
Her throat seized up, unable to emit a word, her eyes begging for an answer that would ease the situation between them.
He started walking back towards her, speaking in a rueful tone. ‘I was wrong and you were right, Tamalyn. They are likeable people. I didn’t sense any envy. There was no spite, no sneaking ambition to use me for their own profit. I think Paul has a problem with having Max as his brother, just as Celine has a problem with me. The difference is too close for them to be comfortable with it.’
She swallowed hard and pleaded, ‘But Paul did show respect for you, and Celine admired what you’ve set out to do for children.’
‘True.’ His mouth twitched in amusement. ‘She even took me aside to apologise for meddling with the photos from Jennifer’s wedding, explaining she’d been angry on your behalf because she’d thought I’d let you down by not going, but she was very glad that I’d climbed down from my pinnacle and come to the party with you, so I’m now forgiven for past slights.’
Tammy rolled her eyes in exasperation. That was so Celine.
Fletcher laughed. ‘It’s impossible to change years of habit in one day, Tamalyn.’
‘But you tried giving out more of yourself, Fletcher, and I thought you got a good response.’
‘Yes. I must admit I was surprised, pleased and gratified that the work I put into the party was well received.’ He halted directly in front of her and she felt the force of his dynamic energy encompassing her, powering through her nervous system, making her body feel tremulously on the edge of being drawn irresistibly to his. ‘The only question now is…’ His eyes engaged hers with heart-stopping intensity as he lifted a hand and gently, seductively, stroked the outline of her mouth with a light, teasing finger. ‘…do I get a reward for my efforts?’
Reward?
The word echoed through her mind, setting off a wild melee of desires that had been suppressed for far too long. It was utterly impossible for her mouth to repeat it. Her lips were tingling with mesmerised pleasure. Tension exploded into action. Her arms lifted and flung themselves around his neck, her body springing against his in a rush of reckless need.
He wrapped her in a fierce embrace and kissed her as though he wanted to draw everything she was into himself, owning her so totally she’d be incapable of choosing to part from him.
With her own feelings running so high, Tammy returned the intensity of his passion, revelling in his need for her, wanting to deepen it so far he could never be free of it.
They moved to the bed in an almost blind flurry of urgency, whipping off their clothes, reaching wildly for each other, seizing, hands scrambling over flesh and muscle, bodies grinding in a frenzy of craving, mouths and tongues in deep entanglement as they fell on the bed, Tammy’s legs closing around him like a vise as Fletcher speared his body into hers, lifting her to take all of him.
It was a mindless time of intense feeling, wave after wave of sensation storming through her, pushing her relentlessly to the ultimate peak of ecstacy, and such a sweet meltdown afterwards with Fletcher holding her close, maintaining the euphoric intimacy, their hearts pounding in unison. She didn’t want to think, didn’t want to speak, just wanted to stay nestled warmly in the moment.