Page 37 of You Had Me At Pumpkin Patch

Rosie spotted Zain sitting in one of his pumpkin patches, silhouetted against the indigo night sky, a solar lamp at his side.

He looked peaceful under the stars, resting on the rugged earth between his vines.

It was the field where he grew his Prizewinner pumpkins.

The huge ones, like he’d been hulking on that first day she’d seen him.

He’d since admitted that he’d always held back from fighting for life’s prizes.

She hoped she was helping him to change that.

She took in the sight of him, leaning back on one hand, a bottle of beer in the other, facing away from her. She’d been taking an evening stroll as she often did, when the weather was gentle, and she had things on her mind. Though she’d guessed he might be somewhere out here.

Zain’s dark hair was tied scruffily, and Rosie had a craving to go over and set it free, run her hands through it, use it to pull his face towards hers...

Their kiss in Agnes’s back kitchen earlier had signalled a new shift in their relationship, although neither of them had suggested taking things further on their boss’s laminate worktops.

And as mind-altering as the kiss had been, there had been something unspoken between them that they needed to retreat and think about their next actions, rather than getting swept up in the moment and going on to regret it.

It all seemed more complicated, with them having to work together and live across the lake from each other.

And the fact that their last physical encounter had ended with Zain fleeing and Rosie feeling rubbish, even if he’d apologised and had sworn it wasn’t about her.

If she was going to let things go further, she wanted to know she could trust him.

That he was all in, if he wanted more too.

And they would only find that out by talking, so she resolved to disturb his peace.

He didn’t seem surprised when she crouched near him on the hard mud, and he pulled off a few large leaves and made ground cover for her to sit. He was wearing dark jeans that pulled tight around his firm thighs, as if they wanted to burst free.

She resisted the urge to touch him.

‘I’ve been waiting for you.’ He signalled to an open beer bottle next to him. ‘I know you often walk this way.’

‘Confident,’ she said, taking it and sipping. ‘What else have you already prepared for?’

‘Nothing.’ He shrugged. ‘But after earlier...’

‘You guessed I’d be back for more?’

‘I’m not that self-assured.’

For a man who was so virile and hotly mysterious, he probably should have been.

‘I guessed you’d want to talk,’ he said.

She did. And so much more.

An owl hooted in the distance, taking her right back to their night in the treetops, when they’d trembled under each other’s touch. If she was ever going to feel that way again with him, he was right about the talking.

‘I’m falling for you,’ she blurted out, before taking another swig of her beer. ‘And I can’t make it stop.’ She hadn’t meant to lay her cards on the table so easily, but she was bored of this metaphorical poker. Life was precious and they’d been wasting too much of it.

For the first time since she’d sat down, he turned to look at her. His deep brown eyes seemed to weigh her up.

‘So don’t stop,’ he said quietly.

‘And risk getting hurt again?’

His beautiful, usually strong face crumpled.

‘I’m sorry I backed off like that, after that night.

It meant something to me too. I was cowardly.

Stupid. I was scared of so many things, and.

..’ He put down his beer and ran a hand through his hair, his black band pulling free.

His hair fell in dark waves. Even though Rosie had never usually been into the untamed mane look, its mirror-like shine was mesmerising in the moonlight.

He was mesmerising. It was getting harder not to touch him.

‘What’s changed?’ she asked. ‘Aren’t you frightened anymore?’

He studied her face for a long moment. ‘I’m terrified. I’ve made mistakes and I’ve not always been myself, and some days I wonder who I am at all. I’m sorry for that.’

‘You have nothing to be sorry for.’ She put down her own bottle and grabbed his hand.

‘Well, a few things.’ She gave a small grin.

‘But you don’t have to apologise for being human.

We all mess things up once in a while.’ She thought back to earlier in Agnes’s back kitchen, when he’d seemed as though he wanted to say something, then didn’t.

‘Whatever you want to share, I’m listening. ’

His sigh left warm breath on her cheeks.

‘In answer to your question, nothing’s changed.

I’m pretty sure I’m still the same person who’s made the same messy mistakes.

As much as I’ve grappled with the guilt of things, I can’t go back and change them.

So maybe we could... start again? From right now, in this moment.

Because I’m falling for you too. And I don’t want to make it stop. ’

She smiled at him softly and he took it as a cue to continue.

‘God, Rosie, I love everything about you. It makes no sense.’

‘Why, thank you,’ she joked.

‘No, I don’t mean that. You see how bad I am at this?

I mean, I love being with you, even when we’re just dragging logs around, or making lists about toilet roll, or grating sodding cinnamon sticks.

’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘And I love your funny dungarees , and the way you encourage me, and support my extremely weird pumpkin obsession.’

‘I love your pumpkins.’ She treated him to a wry smile. ‘I can’t get enough of being with you either, and understanding how you see the world, and even catching scary spiders so that you don’t have to. And I love how you make me feel safe to just be me .’

He nodded slowly. ‘Me too.’

She squeezed his hand, brought it gently to her lips for a kiss and then let it go.

‘Do you know what I also love?’ she asked quietly. ‘When we stop talking and let our bodies speak.’

‘Mmm hmm,’ he agreed, as if words had once again escaped him.

There would be a time when she’d confess her niggling secrets. But it wouldn’t be before they got through their launch event and saved this farm. And it wouldn’t be tonight.

Then slowly but steadily, she began peeling off her clothes, one layer at a time, right there in the dirt like she’d fantasised about more than once. Her eyes didn’t leave his as she relished every minute of the look on his face, like he was hungry for her.

‘And I love it when you touch me,’ she said, when she was down to her underwear, which this time didn’t match.

He began pulling off his clothes too, to make a bed for her in his Prizewinner pumpkin patch. The look on his face said he was ready to claim his prize.

‘And I love touching you. Just show me where.’ His voice was almost a growl.

In a different world she would have worried about her body, or being almost naked in a field, or the fact she fully hoped to have shuddering, muddy sex right here, under the stars. But her time with Zain, in this wild and incredible place, had dissolved some of those fears away.

He knelt near her, swallowing hard, his eyes taking her in.

They roamed over her curves as she lay back on his nest of clothes, his pupils dilating.

She used to have hangups about her thighs, but now she just wanted to wrap them around him.

He was still waiting eagerly for her direction, and after a deep kiss that left her whole body trembling, she pushed his head gently downwards.

She wanted his full lips between her legs, like she’d imagined in many a wayward daydream. She was throbbing for him already.

His tongue worked its way down her body, caressing and kissing her nipples like he was tasting her. Then he descended, his tongue trailing a slow, sensual line down her centre, flicking her bellybutton, teasing her stomach, passing the spot where she wanted him, then nuzzling her inner thighs.

‘If you don’t get there soon,’ she gushed, pulling his hair and guiding his face between her legs.

‘There?’ He pulled her panties aside, his breath warm against her soft, intimate skin. The tip of his tongue found the perfect spot, as though he already knew her.

Her deep groan of pleasure told him that was exactly the place.

She raised her hips to him, pushing into him, slowly at first, then more insistently, finding her rhythm.

He murmured his encouragement, his lips vibrating against her tingling flesh, sending tiny ripples of pleasure through her.

His fingers pulled at her underwear again, to make more space for himself.

‘Oh gosssssshhhhh .’

She didn’t know what he was doing with his tongue, other than it was exploring wildly, his mouth sucking, her skin pulsating, her mind getting ready to explode. She had never felt anything like this. She wanted a lifetime of it.

But tonight, she wanted to reach her ultimate pleasure when he was inside her. She wanted to move as one with him, feeling every twitch of his lust for her. And she’d come prepared for exactly that.

He looked surprised when she wriggled out of her underwear, motioning for him to do the same and pulling out a condom from the pocket of her thrown-aside jacket.

‘Another thing I love about you is that you make me feel like anything is possible,’ she said as she raised her eyebrows about whether she should open the packet. He nodded. ‘Even my pretty weird pumpkin farmer fantasies. Do you mind a bit of trampling of your fields?’

This time he was shaking his head.

She slipped the condom onto the end of his penis, which was now harder and huger than she’d ever seen it – and she’d yet to properly touch him. She savoured the way his eyelids fluttered shut as she unrolled the rubber down the length of him. It felt good for her too.

‘What do your fantasies look like?’ he asked, his voice a low rumble.

She beckoned him down to her, whispering a few of her wildest ones into his ear. She could feel him nodding against her.

‘But first, I just want you to take me here.’

He lowered himself over her, her legs parting, more than ready.

His naked chest was solid, his black, twisting tattoos sweeping up his biceps and across his sun-kissed torso, winding around etchings of vines and all things nature, like his bare body was a map of him.

Her hands reached out to them. She heard his sharp intake of breath as her fingers traced his chest, touching a hard nipple, trailing downwards through the firm grooves of his abs, teasing the line of black hair that led to his erection.

He closed his eyes. His deep groan was unmistakable.

She pulled him down further towards her, their arms wrapping around each other, their hands gripping flesh.

Hers was raging. Their lips came together greedily, urgently.

He tasted of sweet beer and deep longing, their tongues moving in a way that felt so right she could almost cry.

His mouth was rhythmic and sure, an excruciating tease of everything that would surely come.

Her heart screamed. If kisses could leave an imprint on a person’s soul, Rosie knew this one would mark hers forever.

Her hands rode up Zain’s firm back, memorising every curve of him.

His muscles were tense, and so was his penis, which was pushing against her leg.

She used her hands to guide it inside her, pushing her hips upwards, making him groan.

His hands slid under her buttocks, clenching her rear and tugging her up to him, as though she was the most incredible, addictive thing.

With one more exquisite push, he was fully inside her.

Ohhhhh. It was everything she’d fantasised about and so much more.

They moved together, gasping into the night, the ground blissfully hard against her back, dustings of dirt kicking upwards as Zain thrust deeper inside her. It was as rousing and animal as all of her imaginings.

His hot mouth moved to her neck, tasting her, groaning into her, tormenting her skin with his tongue.

Having him inside her was electric. She was burning and shivering all at once, and the depth of emotion that was flowing through her was almost too much to bear.

His head moved to her nipples and his mouth was on them, sucking them carnally until she could have sworn that would be the end of her.

Oh wow.

The moon shone over them and animals called in the distance, but none of it mattered, compared to the feeling of being under Zain’s body, his desire pulsing through her.

She wrapped her legs around his back, thrusting herself up to him, desperate to feel him deeper and deeper. Frantic for her throb to be satisfied but longing to feel this way forever – with him – balancing on the edge of pure, exquisite bliss.

And then she was coming and coming in the most sensuous waves, and so was he, hot and fast, desperate and feral, pushing himself into her and gasping into her hair. She felt alive. So very, intensely alive. And she never wanted to stop feeling like this.