Chapter 10

The time had arrived for the household to gather in the kitchen for their evening meal.

Flora stayed in bed, but Owen had made her some soup to keep her energy up.

Jamie had been cleaning herself up in the bathroom, but a night of passion, yesterday's clothes, and a day of hard work couldn't really be erased. She felt dirtier than dirty!

"Alright!" she said as she sauntered in.

Dani's eyes shot to her, the warm sound of Jamie's northern accent was like a comfort blanket to her. She beamed her a smile, which was affectionally mirrored.

Jamie headed round the table to sit next to Dani, sliding her hand across the au pair's back as she passed her. "Alright?" she said, "Hows the rest of your afternoon bin?"

"Yeah… Ok, thanks." Dani replied, "No luck with… you know who," she said, darting her eyes to Miles briefly, not wanting him to overhear Henry's name. Jamie rolled her eyes and shook her head, "Maybe I should go down there… give him what for!" she said boldly.

Dani smiled earnestly, Jamie's adorable protectiveness making her heart sing.

"Well as much as I would love to see that…" she said sarcastically.

"Err… I can be preeet-ty scary when I need to be ya know…" said Jamie, eyebrows raised.

Dani rolled her lips inwards to suppress the smile that was ever growing. She just wanted to kiss her cute little extremely non-scary face!

"Here we go," said Owen, forcing his arm between them to put a plate down in front of Dani.

"Wow, Owen, this looks amazing!" she said, her eyes roaming around the plate.

"Bon appetite!" he replied, as he brought over the next.

The evening whiled away, with good food, and good company. Owen was on form, and they all found themselves laughing their way through the evening.

"I don't think I could eat another thing!… Owen!... Top man!" Jamie said as she slumped herself down in her chair patting her belly.

Dani chuckled at her. She found herself hanging on everything she said and did, like she couldn't get enough of her, even though she was right there next to her. She instinctively reached out and poked Jamie's food baby, mainly because she just wanted to touch her. The gardener looked over at Miles and gave him a subtle nod. Suddenly she jolted and made an explosive sound as though Dani had popped her.

"Waaaaa!" jumped Dani, holding her chest and shouting out in fear.

The whole table burst out laughing. "Every time!" said Miles, looking to each face with glee.

Dani playfully hit Jamie's forearm, squinting at her in the process. "Why do I feel like I've just had some sort of initiation?!" she said jovially.

"Sorry Miss Clayton, it just had to be done, right Miles," she said with a wink to the young boy. He beamed at her nodding. Despite their differences, Jamie was great with him, when he was in the right mood of course.

Dani looked to Jamie, her eyes smiling at her in such a way that the young au pair almost missed a breath. The gardener, still slumped in her chair, moved her leg slightly and nudged Dani's foot with her own, just wanting to be close to her. Dani closed her eyes momentarily before resting her elbow on the table as a stand for her chin to rest on her hand. She looked to the rest of the household, trying to tune into their conversations, but her mind was solely on Jamie and her touch. She pushed back with her own foot as Jamie slowly glided her own up Dani's calf. The au pair was in a fog. She could hear everyone talking, but her desire was starting to drown them out. She tried to snap herself back into reality with a sip of her drink, not wanting people to notice. She turned her head to look at Jamie who's eyes were unhelpfully firmly fixed on her. The gardener coyly smiled at her, but Dani turned away again quickly, needing to stop this desire rising.

The brunette was in a completely relaxed position, legs apart. No finesse or etiquette, just completely herself, and all Dani could think about was staring into those eyes and kissing her all over. The more she tried to fight it, the worse it got. All her mind was doing was imagining everything she would do in this moment if there were just the two of them in this room…