8. Eight

Eight

Bo

S topping wasn't an option. Despite insisting that he should start browsing, and how desperate I was to be allowed to watch him exist in this space, seeing his eyes light up, I couldn't keep my lips off him.

Ollie slung his arms around me, plastering our bodies together, and let me indulge in his mouth.

"Your coffees are ready!" The shop keeper's voice made us both flinch apart. Then our eyes met, and we both started grinning like fools. Crossing the distance between us and failing to suppress my smile, I swiftly palmed his cheeks to get just one more kiss from this beautiful man.

"I'll get the coffee, you pick out books, okay?" I murmured against his lips.

Gods, his lids fluttered open, and I sank into his warm brown eyes, ready to stay there, to love him with everything I had. "You need to stop looking at me like that now or I'll never let you go."

It was Ollie who kissed me this time, a fierce, bone-deep, soul-crushing onslaught on my mouth. "Grab that coffee before it gets cold." His voice was so hoarse when he finally let go of me I was in half a mind to take him against the wall of shelves next to me. "Also, I'm looking at you funny?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow at me.

"Not funny. Like you want to eat me whole."

"I do apologise, Bo. I'm about to crack the worst joke of my life." He bit his lip. "But I would verra much like for you to eat me hole," he added in a broad Scottish accent. Pressing his lips together, he gave me a tiny wink and a peck on the cheek. Then he turned to browse the shelves, leaving me to wonder if I had understood him right and if he'd truly meant it.

I strolled back to the counter to get our coffee cups. Ruby had her lips pursed, and she grinned into her light scarf.

Shit. I bet ‘I kissed Oliver Bright' was legible on my face from miles away.

"Thank you," I muttered as I took the two cups.

"You're welcome. I know it's not my place to say," she added in a whisper. "You two are so cute together. I hope it's not weird, but seeing you so happy gives me hope." She dragged her wool cardigan closer around herself and gave me a sad smile.

"There is always hope." I didn't bother whispering. "I never thought I could find someone so perfect as Oliver. I still think I will wake up one day and realise it was all just a dream. It will be the saddest day of my life, but at least I will have that one beautiful memory to live off."

Ruby's smile turned wide and soft, her ‘Aw' almost audible.

When I returned to Ollie, he motioned to me to put the cups on the windowsill. Then he crossed the distance between us in two steps, wrapped his arms around my neck as I leaned down, and kissed me so deeply I felt it in my soul.

"Bloody hell, Bo," he mumbled into the kiss. "If this is just a dream, I never want to wake up."

While scouring the shelves for books he fancied, Ollie returned to where I lounged on the floor with my back against a shelf to take frequent kissing breaks.

We left the shop with five gigantic bags full of books, and I knew he could have gotten at least as many more but held back.

Once we had deposited them in the boot of his car and he'd shut the tail-board, I pulled him into a hug. "Next time, Ollie," I whispered, nuzzling his ear before burying my face in his hair, "I want you to not hold back."

"Next time?" He had his face pressed into my chest and spoke into my shirt.

"Yeah. Next time."

I held him for an age before I managed to let go. We had to make use of the time before we were back at the estate where I couldn't touch him.

Then we settled in our seats, but he didn't start the ignition.

"Can I have your number, Ollie?" I blurted out what I'd wanted to ask him ever since we'd met.

"Yes, of course." His eyes hung on mine for a minute before he wrenched his gaze away.

"And can I use it?"

"Yeah." Ollie huffed under his breath, palming the steering wheel with no sign that he planned to leave soon.

"What?" I asked him when he threw me a pained glance.

"I was trying not to be any more inappropriate than I already was today."

"Inappropriate? Ouch." I tried to make it sound like a joke but probably failed, because the next thing I knew was Ollie's hand on my thigh. Way too high up.

"Bo, I didn't mean that anything we did was wrong, yeah? You are a guest and I… Bloody hell, Bo, we kissed. I told you I would love it if you ate my ass." He cringed at his own words. "And I was so close to telling you that you could use me if you wanted."

He blushed furiously, and I needed to make use of the fact that it was just him and me one last time. Shifting in the seat, I leaned across the middle console to cup his chin.

"I want all of you, Ollie. Everything you are willing to give me, I gladly accept. I know I am a guest, but…" I ran my nose over his. "It feels like I have known you for years, not just days. You feel familiar, like—"

"Like?" he asked, inhaling a shuddering breath.

"Like home."

Ollie stared at me for a long moment, frozen in time and space, then his lips slanted over mine in a deep kiss. He slid his hands into my hair, fingertips pressing against my scalp, and devoured my mouth. When he backed away, his cheeks were that beautiful shade of red once more. "I'll let you do whatever you want to me, Bo."