Thank you so much for such lovely reviews - they have really pushed me to try and finish this!
Richard woke to an assault on his senses. The sunlight streaming through the crack in her curtains, the feel of her hair against his cheek, the smell of her perfume and the sensation of her skin against his. He studied the back of her head, his eyes moving over the tight curls from tip to scalp, memorising the way it fell on the pillow and the vague scent of her shampoo . He had been too preoccupied with the excitement of waking up with her yesterday morning to take any of it in. He placed a soft kiss behind her ear causing Camille to stir and press herself into his warmth. She murmured but didn't wake. He smiled to himself, relishing the feel of her body against his and the reaction she had on it. He gently slid the arm covering her away and propped himself up in bed to get a better look at her. He thought he knew every inch of her, her skin tones, the dimples around her mouth, the line of her eyebrows. He could recreate her perfectly when he closed his eyes, indeed her image had been tormenting him for months now, both day and night. But he'd never been as free to study her as he was now.
Her eyelashes, beautiful and dark, were still coated with a small amount of mascara which had clumped together a little forming tiny blobs to sit on the lashes themselves. They fluttered against the hollow of her eye, and he saw for the first time, the beginnings of small laughter lines that were starting to crease their way on to her skin. He raised his eyes to her forehead and noticed the lines that also lightly brushed her brow. He had seen her frown at him often enough but never really realised that the action aimed so specifically at him would mark her skin. Not that they were deep. Not yet. The corners of his mouth twitched when he thought about how much deeper they would get, how much aggravation he would cause her over the course of their relationship. The thought of her laughter lines caused him to look at her mouth. More recently he had found himself watching her lips as she spoke, wrenching his eyes back to hers before she noticed that he wasn't paying full attention to her. Her lips were beautifully full. He wanted to wake her so that he could kiss that tantalising pink blush that lay almost hidden from view but instead consoled himself with tracing the outline of them with his eyes unable to break the spell of sleep just yet.
He wondered what she was dreaming of and as he watched she began to stir, her lips parting a little. He thought of what those lips had done to him over the past couple of days and was on the verge of kissing her when she emitted the smallest of snores.
Richard tried desperately to keep himself from laughing, but his muted giggles began to manifest themselves as shakes. His body wracked with them. In an effort to stop them he took deep breaths and rolled onto his back, planting his hands prayer like over his mouth before it was too late. If he hadn't been watching he would have been certain that Camille would have been incapable to making a noise like that. But she was human after all! He suddenly became intensely aware that from now on he would be privy to her every foible and was profoundly grateful for it.
As time ticked by he began to grow bored. It felt un-gentlemanly to wake her, especially after the way she had fallen asleep, almost immediately after they had finished making love, practically mid sentence. Instead he lay there for a moment revelling in the simple pleasure of feeling alive again before an idea suddenly struck him and he slid quietly from her bed and padded out of the bedroom.
Camille woke to feel cold air on her back where Richard had left the sheets sagging around her. In her grogginess she tried pushing herself back a little to find him, hoping to find the comfort of an arm, a leg or chest. Grogginess turned to confusion when she realised he wasn't there. She sat up to see that his clothes were still on the floor and expelled the breath she didn't realise she was holding. He hadn't left. Her eyelids were still heavy, she could quite easily have fallen back to sleep again content in the knowledge that he would come back to her, but some part of her brain was active enough to highlight the fact that the house was silent, that she needed to investigate his whereabouts.
Rising, she picked her way through the detritus that they had created the night before, stopping in the corridor. She was beginning to worry a little when the sound of water drew her to the bathroom. She paused outside the door, debating whether to disturb him or not, or even if she wanted to. Now that she knew where he was she could easily return to bed and wait for him. She knocked, resting her knuckles on the door, waiting.
"Yes?"
"Can I come in?"
There was a long pause where she wondered if she should just go in before he finally replied. "If you like."
She put her head around the door. He was lying in a bath with his eyes closed. "What are you doing?"
"Isn't it obvious?"
If he had bothered to open his eyes, he would have seen the familiar sight of her arms crossed and eyebrow crooked at him. "I thought you didn't want to have a bath at mine."
"I changed my mind."
"Do you want some company?"
He sighed. "Camille, there are some things which are sacred, and a man's bath is..." His protest trailed off when he heard something fall on the floor followed by the water splashing. As his eyes opened the more coherent part of his brain told reminded him that there was a very beautiful and very naked woman getting into his bath. As far as views went he thought it was a pretty good one for an early Sunday morning and had to restrain his hands from moving of their own volition to steady her as she clambered in.
"Move up Richard!" He was admonished for his gawping and mumbled his apologies trying to shift backwards. But his skin stuck to the bottom of the bath, making the process stuccatoed and slow. She wriggled into position between his legs and leant back against his chest which was now out of the water. Any sudden change in temperature that he felt was tempered by the warmth of her back against his skin. His hands found hers automatically over the top of her shoulders creating a protective v around the front of her neck.
The water swirled then settled around them. The drip of a tap punctuated the silence, but still neither spoke, wallowing in the echoed quiet of the bathroom. Camille pushed back into him further relishing his contact, not seeing the initial brief frown at the further invasion of his space dissipate into a small smile of acceptance.
"You know, I haven't had a bath for ages." Richard made the appropriate noise of interest, too comfortable to enter fully into the conversation. "I'd forgotten how nice it is." As way of a response Richard bent his head forward and settled a kiss in her hair. She turned his hand over in hers in response, studying his skin. "You're getting wrinkly."
"Thanks very much."
"I mean your fingertips."
"I know."
She was half way through asking him why he would be deliberately obtuse when she was shushed from behind. She sensed that this was his moment of calm and although determined to allow him to enjoy it knew that it also presented an ideal opportunity for a discussion, especially one he couldn't run away from given that she was holding him prisoner in the water.
"Richard?"
"Camille." Her name was a resigned sigh. All hopes for a peaceful bath had now vanished, he was idly beginning to entertain thoughts of asking her to leave, he was here first after all, when she cut into his thoughts again.
She paused before thinking better of it. "Nothing."
He sighed. He had enough experience with women to know that when one of them said the word "nothing" then it was definitely something. It had just been a long time since he had cared enough to get anyone to open up to him.
"Tell me."
"No. It's just...I just. I was just thinking about the future." For someone that was usually so forthright about her feelings she was having difficulty expressing them.
"Ok..."
She interpreted his curt reply as lack of interest. "It doesn't matter."
"Come on, of course it matters." He pulled her closer.
Buoyed up by his concern she tried again. "I was just wondering what you think Dwayne and Fidel will say."
"I'm not sure they'll say anything to me." Even with her back to him she could tell he had that crooked smile on his face. "There might be a couple of raised eyebrows and Dwayne might insinuate something, but otherwise I think they'll leave me alone." He realised somewhere along the way that that wasn't really the answer she wanted to hear. "Do you want them to make more of a fuss?"
She shrugged. "It's just...this is a big deal for me. For us. I don't know what I want but I know I'll be annoyed if they make a big deal out of it because I don't want to draw attention to us for work. And I also know that if they don't acknowledge it I'll get annoyed too. I just feel I can't win.
He scrunched up his nose in contemplation. There didn't really seem to be anything that he could say. Thankfully she seemed to realise that. He opted for the tried and tested method of massaging her shoulders.
"I'm sorry. I know I'm rambling."
"I'm used to it." She pretended outrage and pinched his leg lightly making him chuckle.
They both fell into contemplative silence again, mulling over the different scenarios that the future and their colleague's new knowledge presented. Nearly all of them involved some sort of embarrassing situation for Richard and it was this that made him speak up. "You know, if it all gets too much we can always run away to London together."
She couldn't work out if he was serious or not. "To Croydon?"
"If you like."
"Where else would you take me."
"Clackton if you're lucky."
She mulled Clackton over as a possibility, her top lip hitching up as she dismissed it. "And what if I don't like Croydon?"
"Tough. I'm still paying off the mortgage."
She giggled. "What's Croydon like?"
He wasn't sure how to describe normality, or if it even was normality any more. "Pretty boring really. Houses. High streets. Grey skies. Everything runs on time. You wouldn't like it." Even as he said it, the wishful idea of everything running on time brought an unbidden smile to his face.
"Well maybe you can show me this miracle of timeliness sometime."
"I might when we're over for Jamie's wedding."
"You know you haven't invited me yet..."
"That's because we don't know when it is yet." He paused, debating whether to tease her or not. "And because I'm keeping my options open." He earned himself another hit. He smiled and kissed her again. "And if I'm not mistaken you've already invited yourself..."
She pursed her lips together in guilt remembering the previous night and wondered if she'd pushed for too much too soon. He said nothing more though so she raised one leg in front of her and then the other in response, examining them in the muted bathroom light while she mulled over another question.
"Where will they get married?"
He was finally beginning to relax again his voice sounding drowsy. "Probably at Jules' parents. They live near us in Leicestershire."
"So, will we stay at your parent's house?"
"I should think so. Is that ok?" He was beginning to think that actually that wasn't the best idea he'd ever had. There was too much there that he would rather Camille not see; the pictures and memories from his childhood; not to mention the general clutter that liberally littered his parent's house. His eyes widened in horror as he remembered the hoarding that he had left behind. He frantically tried to backtrack. "Or we could stay in a hotel..."
She roundly ignored his last comment, also thinking of his parent's house, imagining his childhood bedroom. There might not be anything to find there that would help her learn about the closed off man she now knew she loved. Perhaps his parents had moved his possessions out entirely, but she somehow doubted it after meeting his mother, even if his room was clear it was probably all stored in the attic. She subconsciously pulled him closer, holding his hands against her, unaware of the effect the feel of her wet skin was now having on him, until -
"Richard?"
He knew what she was going to say and pre-empted her sheepishly. "Sorry. If it's any consolation I can't help it. You're naked, wet and on top of me."
She half turned her head to look at him. "I'm not saying I mind, I was just thinking about the logistics..."
He too was thinking of the small space that they were currently sharing. "Well, I mean, you're very welcome to try whatever comes to mind..." She didn't respond in the way that he had hoped. Instead she got out of the bath and he started to panic at her sudden departure. "Or you could just leave me in here. On my own..."
She had already grabbed a towel and was almost out of the door trailing it behind her. "Relax Richard, that's just too small for what I have in mind."
He almost slipped on the wet floor in his haste to follow her.