Page 33 of All Mine (The All Mine #1)

‘That went well,’ Fox said, watching the children slam into the inflatable walls like mini cannonballs. ‘George has had a great day.’

‘Four already. Can you believe it?’ Rosie said, watching Riley and George jump together, holding hands.

‘He’s a lovely boy,’ Isabella said.

‘And that’s all down to you, Fox,’ Wren said. ‘You should be proud.’

There was a short silence while everyone thought about the fact that he had raised the boys on his own. Meg’s sudden death had been such a shock.

‘Did George ask about Meg this year?’ Walker asked.

Fox took a swig of his beer before shaking his head. ‘Nope.’

Etienne put a hand on his shoulder.

‘But I told him she would love to have celebrated his birthday with him and that she’s blowing kisses from heaven.’

‘That’s lovely,’ Rosie said, rising from the blanket to give him a hug. Wren wiped a tear from the corner of her eye.

‘The good thing is that the boys don’t remember her to miss her.’ Fox laughed softly. ‘It’s just me that does that.’

George torpedoed across the lawn and sprang into Etienne’s lap, narrowly missing kneeing him right in the nuts.

‘Let’s play hide-and-seek!’ he yelled far too loud and far too close to Etienne’s ear.

Riley and Reggie stopped mid-bounce and turned like meerkats, awaiting the next words.

Maybe it was on the back of what Fox had just said, but at that moment in time Etienne would have done anything in his power to make George happy.

‘Go on then!’ he said, tickling George’s ribs and making him squirm. ‘Everyone playing?’ He saw Wren pull Rosie to her feet and then extend a hand to Isabella. Walker’s eyes were already scouting the garden for hiding places.

‘I’ll seek first,’ said Fox, making the most of an extra minute in his deckchair.

‘Count to fifty!’ George shouted and took off, arms pumping like pistons, towards the house.

‘The office is out of bounds!’ Fox shouted back, before closing his eyes and counting out loud, ‘One, two, three. . .’

‘No peeking, Dad,’ Reggie warned before legging it round the corner.

Walker was already halfway up a tree, Rosie and Wren ran off holding hands and Isabella disappeared into the house.

Etienne mentally scanned Fox’s house, thinking of best spots.

Deciding that behind the sofa was a good option, he padded through to the living room only to find Reggie already lying there.

‘Taken!’ the boy said, looking surprisingly fierce, pointing at the door for Etienne to leave.

‘Okay, okay.’ Etienne raised his hands and backed away, laughing.

‘. . . thirty-five, thirty-six, thirty-seven. . .’ Fox shouted from his deckchair.

Heading through the lounge, Etienne saw Riley’s purple trainers poking out from under the coat stand and heard Wren and Rosie giggling in another room and hushing each other.

Glancing out the window, he saw Walker pull his legs up into the canopy of the tree and disappear from view. He was running out of time.

‘. . . forty-five, forty-six, forty-seven. . .’

He jogged past the cupboard under the stairs– too obvious by far– and through the hall to the big wardrobe where he knew they kept coats and skateboards.

He only had a few seconds left as he pulled open the door.

Isabella, standing inside surrounded by raincoats and woolly hats, blinked at the sudden light.

Eyes wide, she wagged her finger at him fiercely. ‘No!’ she exclaimed.

‘Coming, ready or not!’ Fox shouted and Etienne stepped inside and pulled the door shut behind him.

‘What are you doing?’ Isabella hissed.

‘Shhhh,’ he replied and slid in beside her in the dark.

‘Go and find your own hiding place,’ she whispered, and he felt her breath on his face.

‘Shhh,’ he urged again, as they heard footsteps approach the hall and then pass by, taking the stairs above their heads two at a time.

He could hear her breathing as they listened, and her body was pressed against his in the cramped space.

She smelled of lemons, but he wasn’t sure if it was her shampoo or just her .

She shifted, as though trying to put some distance between them but it was impossible.

He grinned in the darkness as they followed Fox’s searching from room to room, punctuated with the odd floorboard creak and stifled laughter.

‘Found you!’ Fox suddenly shouted somewhere upstairs, as George’s giggles rang out.

A second later the two of them passed the cupboard door again, talking about who they might find next.

Isabella wriggled and the floor creaked.

Etienne put his hand on her thigh to still her so that they wouldn’t be detected.

He heard her sharp intake of breath at his touch but she didn’t remove his hand.

As they listened to the seekers disappearing on their mission, he started to move his hand slowly, fingers spread wide, pushing it down her thigh to her knee and back towards the side of her hip, feeling the shape of her leg under the denim.

She was strong and slender. He pictured her thighs wrapped around his waist.

‘Found you!’ Fox and George shouted together from a room nearby and Rosie and Wren’s laughter rang out, followed by exclamations and chatter and noises of furniture being moved.

Etienne had played this game hundreds of times with the boys, but the act of hiding had never felt so delicious than standing here, in the dark, with his hand on Isabella’s leg. It was exciting in lots of ways that were nothing to do with children’s games.

‘So, why have you been avoiding me?’ he asked, his voice low, as his hand once again brushed down to her knee and squeezed.

‘I think it’s probably for the best,’ Isabella replied quietly.

‘Because of your sex ban?’ He drew delicate circles on her thigh with his thumb.

‘Because of my promise ,’ she breathed into his ear.

‘Have you at least looked at the photograph?’ he teased and she growled, low in the back of her throat, a sound so sexual that he immediately wanted her to repeat it.

‘I’m taking that as a yes,’ he whispered, moving his hand millimetre by millimetre to her buttock.

The seeking troop made a discovery outside in the garden, and there was a round of applause, no doubt for Walker up the tree.

His lack of vision seemed to heighten Etienne’s other senses and he swallowed, smelling Isabella’s scent, feeling the tremor in her thigh.

‘Surely we don’t have to avoid each other, though?’ he said. ‘Do we, Isabella?’

‘It’s not that I want to exactly. . .’ Isabella’s voice trailed off and he heard her lick her lips.

His whole hand spread across her bum and squeezed.

‘What do you want then?’ he asked, thinking he knew exactly what he wanted. Her. Now. In this cupboard if needs be.

He heard the hitch in her breath.

‘This,’ she said, turning towards him, and then her mouth was on his in the black.

Momentarily stunned, it took him a split second to respond to her full, parted lips.

Her hand on his chest, gripping the front of his polo shirt, pulling him closer, deeper in.

But then they crashed together, his hand winding into her hair, her curls tumbling over his arm.

His other hand on her tightened and she made a sound into her kiss, a moan.

The feel of her body drove him on. Her tongue searching his, he pressed her to him and she met him with every move.

The door opened without warning. As the light streamed in they turned as one, still entwined. Etienne blinked, disorientated. Isabella pressed the back of her hand to her swollen mouth.

The seekers stood as a surprised group in the hallway. Fox and Walker raised their eyebrows and nudged each other like kids. Rosie and Wren put hands over each other’s mouths to stop the other laughing out loud. Reggie, George and Riley stood straight-faced in the doorway.

‘Wrong game, Uncle Et,’ said George, obviously disappointed with his godfather. ‘It’s not kiss chase!’