Page 37 of Date Knight (Roll for Romance #2)

Phil

F ive years ago, and then again one week ago, I’d nearly kissed Amy Evans. I’d actually done it almost two months ago, but just for show. Now that I was doing it for real though, it was somehow better than I’d ever imagined it could be.

The moment our lips met, she pushed herself fully against me, wrapping her arms around my neck and pressing her hips into mine, making me groan into her mouth.

I felt her smirk as we kissed, which did me in even further.

Her lips were soft and warm, even though the kiss was rough and desperate.

A shiver went down my spine as her tongue met mine.

Fuck, was this really happening? I strained against my trousers, but for the first time, I didn’t try to hide it.

I nearly lost my balance trying to pull her in closer, feeling behind me for a wall to lean against, but there was nothing.

So I broke away from her reluctantly, looking around desperately for somewhere we could go.

But there were just flowerbeds everywhere, so I thought fuck it and ducked under the rope sectioning off the ruins from the path that led away from them.

Amy followed me, her fingers laced in mine, and as soon as we were around the corner, I pressed her to the other side of the castle wall, ignoring the sign that clearly said DO NOT TOUCH OR LEAN ON THE WALLS .

They had lasted hundreds of years so far; they could withstand Amy and me for a few minutes.

For all I knew, we weren’t the first in the castle’s history to use that exact spot for that exact purpose.

She smiled up at me wickedly, and god, I’d wanted this moment for so long.

I tried to savour it, leaning back to watch the way her chest heaved up and down as she panted beneath the bodice I’d hand stitched just for her– god, it was so hot to see her in something I’d made with my own two hands– but I couldn’t stay away long enough to fully appreciate it, bringing my mouth hungrily to hers again.

She brought her hands to my beard, running her fingers through it, and then to the back of my head, playing with the hair at the nape of my neck, and I could have sworn I was in heaven.

I pressed my hips harder into her, and she hitched up slightly against the wall; I felt her angling herself so she could feel me, and I couldn’t help but smile when I pressed against her and she moaned.

Then her hands were tugging at my shirt, dislodging it from my waistband, and I grabbed them, pinning them against the wall over her head with one hand and holding her hip with the other.

“Not here,” I said, between kisses to her neck and ear, somehow still aware of my surroundings.

But even as I said it, I couldn’t help but nibble at her ear, running my tongue along the back of her lobe.

I ran my free hand over the rough fabric covering her chest, and she arched her back to press herself into my hand.

She trembled as I rubbed, and I released her hands and kissed down the neckline of her stay, burying my face in her breasts, before she pulled me back up and kissed me deeply.

“Please,” she whispered against my mouth, and Jesus, I could have come just from that word alone. And fuck it, I needed her somehow. The rest could wait until later, but I needed something. She needed to know how badly I wanted her. Wanted this .

I brought my other hand to her hip furthest from the path and started bunching at her skirts, cursing all the fabric involved in cosplay, working layer by layer until my hands were on her bare thigh. Goose pimples covered her flesh, despite the heat, and I loved that I’d put them there.

Amy brought one hand between us, helping me push her skirts out of the way. She brought the other to my hip and pulled me into her, and even through my own layers, I could feel where all of her heat had gone.

I inched my hand towards that heat, and she tipped her head back against the wall and sighed.

Then she locked her gaze with mine, and I could see a flame burning behind her eyes that matched the one I felt, too.

The one that had been burning for her for years, threatening to torch every ounce of sense I had.

But I was done trying to keep it at bay.

I was ready to let everything go up in smoke for this one moment with her.

“You say the word and I’ll stop,” I said, before bringing another, gentler kiss to her lips.

The tiniest crease appeared in the middle of her forehead, making me chuckle.

“Don’t you fucking dare,” she said, and I didn’t need to hear anything else.

I ran my thumb over her pants, straining against my own even harder when I felt how wet she already was.

I reached up to the waistband and tugged them taut against her flesh, relishing the groan she let out at the increase in pressure.

I grinned, kissing lightly at her jaw, focusing as much as I could on what I was doing with my thumb.

I stroked it ever so lightly up and down her crease through the fabric of her pants, taking care not to use too much pressure at her apex, but every time I reached that spot, Amy’s hips bucked slightly into my finger, making her own pressure.

She gasped over and over, as if she was about to come from that alone, so I eased off. This earned me an agonised moan.

“You bastard,” she said through heavy breaths. “You’ve been edging me for the last five years.”

I grinned as I kissed the tip of her nose, even as my hand brushed ever-so-lightly against her again. I laughed as she strained to press against it.

“No chance I’m letting you come,” I whispered into her ear, “until I can feel you clench around me.”

“Then what the fuck are you waiting for?”

She was practically begging, and whilst I knew better than to get my dick out in public, I wanted nothing more in that moment than to hear her moan my name as she tightened around my fingers.

“As you wish,” I said, earning an ear-to-ear grin, and god, I wanted to make her smile like that every fucking day for the rest of her life. I felt my way to the edge of her pants, pulling them gently away from her skin, and she sighed in anticipation.

But just before I could press inside her, I heard a throat clear over my shoulder.

Amy and I broke apart so quickly that I nearly fell backwards trying to step away, and Amy desperately rearranged her skirts to disguise what we’d been doing.

I was suddenly grateful for all those skirts, since they’d hidden the worst of it – or at least I hoped.

I turned around to see a little old lady in a purple volunteer shirt glaring at us.

“Back in there,” she said, holding up the rope and waving us back through. “And if I see you pulling that again, you’ll be kicked out. That’s what your hotel room’s for.”

I made sure Amy was appropriately covered, then took off back into the gardens. Amy rushed after me to keep up, whispering my name louder and louder, but I just kept walking. I couldn’t believe I’d let myself do that.

“There you two are,” came Chloe’s voice as she came around the corner towards us, her headpiece in her hand, and I froze in place so suddenly that Amy ran into the back of me.

We must have looked as dishevelled as I felt, because Chloe narrowed her eyes at me and smirked. “What have you two been up to?”

“Nothing,” I said, probably too quickly, since Chloe pulled a smug face.

“Spoilsport,” she said. “Now come on, I need another mead!”

The way she nearly threw her headpiece as she flung her arms out excitedly told me she probably did not need another mead, but she walked off anyway, and I let out a sigh of relief.

But when we rounded the same corner she’d disappeared around, all five of the others were staring at us with goofy grins on their faces, and I could tell from the way Chloe covered her mouth that she’d just told them what she’d guessed.

So far this summer, the others had looked at me differently.

They watched closely as Amy and I acted the parts of boyfriend and girlfriend, which hadn’t bothered me, mostly because it was an act.

Or at least, that was what Amy and I had agreed on.

But suddenly, knowing that things had shifted between us, the others’ scrutiny felt new.

Heavier. I wanted to squirm beneath it like a bug under a magnifying glass.

“Hello, lovebirds,” Grey said, their own eyebrows bouncing up and down suggestively. “Good of you to join us.”

“I can always give you the key to the rental if you need it,” Fatima joked.

I tried to put on my most laid-back expression, actively relaxing my jaw and forehead and tipping my head back in laughter.

“Good one, guys,” I said. “Don’t worry, we were just trying to find a photographer.”

They all nodded pacifyingly. “Yeah, okay,” Chloe said. “Hope the pics turned out well.”

I felt Amy’s hand snake around my waist, and I saw Morgan tracking the movement. She didn’t look sceptical, or upset, or anything like that. But still, I instinctively shimmied away from Amy’s touch.

But then I turned back to see that she was looking up at me, her eyes wide and her jaw set, and my stomach sank. Shit .

“Got it,” she spat once the others had turned away, and her lip started trembling. She bit it between her teeth, and I looked down to see her squeezing her hands into tight fists at her side. “I see how it is.”

“Let’s just keep it chilled around the others,” I said, suddenly self-conscious of the hundreds of eyes we had on us as people milled around the reflecting pool, even as our friends walked back towards the festivities. “No unnecessary PDA, right?”

“Right,” she said, nodding, releasing none of the tension. “I wouldn’t want to embarrass you.”

I opened my mouth to correct her, but I had no idea what to say to make it better. So I just watched as she followed after the others, knowing that somehow I’d had everything I wanted in my hands and still managed to fuck it up. Again.

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