Summer's Edge Page 18

  "If Francis found out he’d go ballistic!"

  Maddy was furious. "You are such a slag."

  Without warning a half-full jug of cocktail was tipped over Maddy’s head. "What the hell?" she said, turning round in a fury, liquid streaming from her hair and slices of fruit all over her.

  It was Becky. Quiet little Becky, liberated enough by alcohol to reach the end of her tether.

  "You are the slag, Maddy. You slept with that guy from Malvern High and that’s why Paul Sutton dumped you," Becky.

  Maddy swore at her.

  But now it was Becky who wouldn’t let up. "I’m so sick of you having a go at all of us all the time when you are the biggest hypocrite out there."

  Someone started chanting "cat fight!" but Maddy took one look at a fairly aggressive looking Jules sitting next to Becky, and a sober but angry Alice, turned on her heels and marched off.

  "Good riddance," Becky said. Alice then wanted to laugh. Anyone else would have said something far stronger.

  The row and the sight of a drenched Maddy and her exit fortunately reset the mood and took the focus away from Alice’s love life. Someone slammed an empty jug on the table and shouted "drinks!"

  "I will kill you later," Alice said to Jules under her breath.

  Jules grinned again. "No you won’t. Who cares about this lot, we’re free. At least that bitch finally got it. And from Becky too."

  It was probably true that there wasn’t really any damage left to be done. Alice’s parents already knew, the Headmaster knew, what did it matter if the whole world knew? Someone would probably see them out on the town sooner rather than later anyway. After all a teacher had already spotted them the one night they had gone out together.

  "I owed you one," Becky said. "You got a detention for my sake."

  Alice thought back to the clean-up. "I probably owe you for that, given how it turned out."

  28. Leaving party

  Gas was a thick fug of sweat, cigarette smoke, beer and bodies when the three of them arrived for the leavers’ party. The music pounded so loudly that conversation was nearly impossible from the moment they were through the door.

  At Becky’s suggestion they were all dressed up. Half the people there were in jeans and Doc Martens and half in club wear. "We might be able to queue jump if we look really glam," she said.

  "I don’t think the bouncers will care tonight, given it’s all school leavers and ticketed," Jules pointed out.

  But Becky was right. The queue stretched around the block by the time they arrived so they marched up to the door. "Priority tickets," Becky announced.

  "Let’s have a look," the bouncer said, but he paid more attention to Becky’s skin-tight dress than the regular ticket she held out to him. He waved them through to the scowls of some gothic looking people still waiting at the front of the line.

  "What has got into Becky? What a score," Jules said.

  But Alice knew why Becky had changed. It was Brett. She was happy and secure and it made her more confident. Becky had also got used to being given priority entry to places when she was with him. Being county cricketers made them minor celebrities in the places they tended to frequent.

  "To the bar then. We get one free drink with this ticket."

  There was a real spirit of camaraderie in the club that night, both with people from school that they’d not really been friends with before, as well as with people from other schools. Old differences were forgotten. Everyone was upbeat. Everyone was celebrating. It reminded Alice of the euphoria at Castlemorton.

  The rave scene had cooled sharply since the illegal festival had eventually been broken up. There had been several arrests and some people were talking about moving over to Europe, according to Kate.

  Glastonbury was in a couple of weeks but many travellers were complaining that it was getting too commercial. This inclined Jules to go, since it meant Leafy wouldn’t be there, but fifty quid for a ticket was a bit heavy when they were saving for their overseas trip.

  "I wish you were coming backpacking with us Becky," Alice said, not for the first time.

  "I almost would, I think, except for going to Australia with Brett."

  "We could all meet up for Christmas. We should be in Australia by December," Jules said. "Brett can get us tickets for the Boxing Day test. My dad would never forgive me if I was in Melbourne and didn’t go."

  Alice thought about Stewart. Would she still be with him then? She hoped so. They might be taking things at a more cautious pace than Becky and Brett but she didn’t think her feelings for him were any less than Becky’s were for Brett.

  "How did it go when Brett first met your parents?" she asked. She was still feeling hugely nervous about her own family dinner on Thursday.

  "It was great. They got on really well, my mum and dad really liked him," Becky said.

  "They weren’t worried about you moving over to stay with him so soon?"

  "No, my dad always wanted me to travel and I’ve still got the choice of coming back here if I don’t like it over there."

  Becky meant if she and Brett didn’t work out, but of course didn’t want to put that into words. "But what about you and Stewart? He’s asked you over there too hasn’t he?"

  Not like Brett had asked Becky. It was a much more casual proposition. "Sort of."

  "It’ll be so great, all of us meeting up over there. Christmas on the beach too!"

  Alice ended up hanging round with Becky for most of the evening as the two of them weren’t on the pull. Jules was having a wild night, flirting with everyone in sight. Alice eventually saw her locked into an embrace with Mike Jackson on the dance floor.

  "I didn’t see that coming," she said to Becky.

  "Me neither. He’s not bad looking though is he? Honestly though she’s had so much to drink she probably doesn’t know what she’s doing."

  Alice wondered. Thinking back, she could remember Jules admiring Mike in the past. And she had even encouraged Alice to go for it with Joe Jackson. Maybe she had been hiding a secret crush?

  She saw Maddy Pullen a couple of times, but Maddy carefully avoided them. Amazing to think that with all their lengthy and bitter history with her, she’d finally met her match in Becky.

  * * *

  Feeling extravagant Alice grabbed a taxi to Stewart’s place. The night air was freezing compared to the thick, hot atmosphere of the nightclub and she was glad of her jacket even though it was summer. A couple of years ago the three of them used to suffer and freeze to save a quid on the cloakroom fee, but thanks to earnings from her vet job Alice could splash out on a ticket these days.

  She felt strange going up to his flat by herself. But once she was inside it was just amazing to be with him again. In private, just the two of them.

  His reaction to her outfit was also what she’d hoped for. She had deliberately chosen one of her shortest, most closely fitting dresses that she’d bought for a dare on a shopping trip some time ago.

  It had won admiring glances in the nightclub but she was only interested in his response.

  "Is that what I’ve been missing all night?" His gaze was thick with lust.

  "All yours now." She smiled as she stood before him. The dress had a zip all the way down the back and she wanted him to open it and feel his hands down her spine.

  "I was going to offer you coffee but that can wait." He came over to her, and instead of putting his arms around her body straight away, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. He was surprisingly tender. She was expecting him to crush her against him and ravish her.

  But he stroked her hair and ran his hands down her shoulders and arms. She wanted to be pressed against him but he was standing back from her. Then he kissed her shoulder, moving across to her collarbone and the sensitive hollows by her neck. She shivered.

  At the same time she felt his hands tug on her zip, and draw it down slowly. So slowly. He turned her around so her back faced him, and he pushed her dress apart and let it fall to t
he ground.

  Still he didn’t run his hands all over her. Instead he kissed her down her spine, from her neck to the curve of her lower back, unclasping her bra and pushing it off her.

  He turned her back to face him and his fingers slipped beneath the sides of her underwear and drew it down over her hips, letting it slip to the floor as well.

  She was now entirely naked in front of him. She had been naked with him before but not quite like this. He was gazing at her, drinking her whole body in with his eyes.

  She felt oddly vulnerable but also cherished. Worshipped.

  He seemed more silent than usual. The air between them held tension: it was sexual, but there was something else. Alice felt he wanted something from her but she wasn’t sure what it was. She longed to touch him, so she reached for him and he helped push his own clothes off when she went to unbutton his shirt.

  Now they faced one another, both naked. Once again she marvelled at his body: the athleticism of it, the masculine definition. And his hardness. He was so hard and ready for her.

  She lifted her arms up to draw him down to kiss her, but he scooped her up and carried her onto the bed. He kissed her from her mouth to her breasts to her stomach and lower still. Finally he was touching her properly and she was moaning with relief at the feel of his hands on her body, while hers explored his.

  His head was between her legs, suckling her. Somehow he had discovered exactly what worked for her: what place, what pressure, what rhythm. She was helpless beneath him.

  Just as she was about to go over the edge, which he must have known from her gasps and the movements of her body against him, he stopped and broke away.

  He drew himself up over her and looked into her eyes.

  As ever she was mesmerised by his chiselled looks and how she felt about him. How he made her feel in both her body and her mind.

  For a moment he was still. Intense. Grey blue eyes burning into her own. He brushed a strand of hair back from her face.

  "I love you, Alice."

  As he spoke he moved her legs apart and drove into her. The shock of what he had said and the sensation of him inside her made her cry out. Suddenly she found herself climaxing, spasming in intense, helpless waves as his mouth came down on her own, kissed her cheek, her neck.

  Just as the waves were ebbing into a warm, dizzy glow she felt him come too, pressing into her as hard and close as possible, grinding the two of them together as one person.

  Alice was half sobbing, she was so overwhelmed. "I love you too. So much."

  She couldn’t see his face because it was buried in her neck but he held her even more tightly to him. He didn’t leave her body even though he was fully spent. She clung to him in return, exhausted, ecstatic.

  * * *

  Alice must have fallen asleep immediately. She didn’t remember anything else until she woke to find him draped over her, still unconscious himself.

  There was a faint grey light seeping around the edge of the blind. It must be dawn.

  She remembered what he had said last night. Had he meant it? Did he really love her, or was he just carried away by the moment?

  She tried to close her eyes and fall asleep again but he stirred and she opened her eyes once more to see him looking at her. She couldn’t read the expression on his face but it was as though he was studying her.

  He bent his head to kiss her good morning. She snuggled happily against him.

  "Last night, what you said, did you… I mean did you mean it?"

  "Do I love you? Of course I do, I wouldn’t have got into this if I didn’t feel this way about you."

  She felt her stomach flip. He actually loved her. Stewart Walker loved her.

  "It’s ok if you aren’t sure though," he said. "If you’re not ready, or you don’t feel the same, it’s no problem."

  "I do feel the same. Very much."

  He caressed her body, running his hand over her breast and down her stomach. "You are so beautiful, Alice. I didn’t expect anything like this to happen. I certainly wasn’t planning on it."

  "When did you first feel it? Or know that you did?" She wanted to hear everything, every detail.

  He traced his finger around her nipple, making her writhe in pleasure. "Very early on, looking back. But I first knew for certain at that party in Gloucester. I’ve never felt more violent than when I saw that brute attacking you. My girl. I might have killed him if Chris hadn’t pulled me off him."

  His girl. She was his.

  "I was giving up on you ever making a move. I felt like I was flinging myself at you all the time and you weren’t interested," she said.

  "You have no idea. Stopping myself that first time in the pavilion was one of the hardest feats of my life."

  "You were so angry that day." Alice remembered the way he had bruised her lip, and how much it had made her crave him even more.

  "Because I wanted you so badly," he told her. "And I thought you were messing me around."

  "I probably wanted it even more than you did."

  "More than now?"

  He moved her hand onto him, where he was already thick and hard beyond belief.

  "Maybe about that much," she said, smiling.

  "Good, because I have no plans to stop this time."

  He rolled on top of her and showed her just how little he planned to hold back.

  29. Dinner

  The doorbell rang. Alice summoned up her courage. "I’ll get it."

  She knew it was Stewart, arriving at the perfect time for dinner. But she wanted to get a few moments with him before he was exposed to the ordeal of her family.

  It wasn’t that she was ashamed of her parents but more that Stewart was in such a different sphere of her life. His coming to dinner felt like inviting Richard to a nightclub.

  He looked incredibly handsome when she opened the door. He bent to kiss her and she wished it could be just the two of them, doing their own thing, without the ordeal that lay ahead.

  Bracing herself for her parents’ reaction, particularly her mother’s, she led him into the living room. Richard and her mother were still in the kitchen so it was just her brothers with their toys scattered all over the floor.

  "They’ll be in bed soon," she said, feeling a need to apologise for their presence.

  "Do you drive a fire-engine?" the eldest one asked him and before Alice could hush them away they were plying him with vehicles and drawing him into their game. He had a way with people, she thought. Half the boys at school hero worshipped him - he was a good coach, admittedly - so perhaps it was no surprise that her brothers were drawn to him.

  She watched how he played with them. He seemed to find it easy and didn’t shrug them off like other visitors often did. Alice couldn’t remember if he’d said he had nephews or nieces but he was obviously used to kids.

  Richard entered the room and Stewart got up to shake his hand and give him the bottle of wine he had brought. He was taller than Richard and broader built, but Richard still looked very presentable, even stately. Alice felt weirdly proud of them both.

  She was racked with nerves over what Richard would think of him. But Richard was civil with everyone, always flawlessly polite and well-mannered. She would have to wait until afterwards for his verdict because it was impossible to discern from his reaction. She thought he seemed genuinely favourable towards Stewart.

  "He drives a fire-engine," her brother told Richard by way of introduction and Stewart laughed. Alice had no idea where her brother had got the idea that he was a fireman but it didn’t seem to bother him.

  Her mother entered, apologising for not greeting him earlier, as she had been held up in the kitchen. Alice suspected the delay was deliberate, and that her mother had wanted Richard to make his own assessment first.

  Her mother’s reaction was more interesting. She flushed slightly when Stewart shook her hand. She was less at ease than Richard but that was to be expected. No one was ever as unruffled and inscrutable as Richard.

&
nbsp; She doesn’t hate him on sight anyway, Alice thought. It was pretty impossible not to be impressed by Stewart physically: he was so incredibly good looking and his clothes always sat perfectly on him. He was smartly dressed but not overly formal. Just right. Her mother wouldn’t be able to find fault there anyway.

  The conversation had sprung up around the usual sort of small talk about how long Stewart had been in England, and whether it was his first visit, and what his impressions were. Alice was torn between wanting to escape for a few minutes and put the boys to bed, and not leaving the three of them alone without her. She found herself tongue-tied. It felt like her parents and Stewart were the grown-ups and she was one of the kids with her brothers.

  Stewart brought her into the conversation with ease, turning the subject to her own travels.

  "They’ve been planning it for a while, Alice and her friend Jules," her mother told him. "I get anxious, of course, about them travelling so far but they’re both quite sensible girls."

  Alice literally wanted to sink through the floor with embarrassment. She felt like she was being discussed in front of an elderly aunt. The only thing that could make this worse would be if her mother and Richard started referring to "young people".

  In the end Richard took the boys off to bed and when he returned they all went through to the dining room. It looked nice at least, her mother had put flowers on the table which suggested she was making an effort to be welcoming.

  Dinner went far more smoothly than Alice had dared hope. She still didn’t manage to say very much initially, but the conversation kept going and Richard and Stewart actually seemed to find various topics of common ground. World events, history, even sport.

  It fact it all went very well. There was no awkwardness between the three of them, however Alice herself might be feeling. Stewart and Richard continued to draw her into the conversation and it ended up being a very pleasant meal.

  Difficult subjects, such as how Alice and Stewart had met, were never raised. Alice went from being in a state of high nervous tension to actually enjoying herself. She could tell that both Richard and her mother liked Stewart. Whether they approved of her going out with him was a different matter but she’d passed the first hurdle.