“Oh, I’m going to have you, Jas. Make no mistake about that.”
And have me he did. It was gone midnight by the time we peeled ourselves from the floor and dove into Laura’s casserole. “Are you going to the autumn fair next week?”
Kim glanced up from slicing the best-looking sourdough loaf I’d ever seen outside London. “I was supposed to be, but I don’t think I’ll make it now.”
“Why not?”
“I need every minute to make the barn opening.”
Guilt burned a path to my gut. I set my fork down. “Have we asked too much of you? It won’t be the end of the world if everything’s not entirely ready on the day. No one will have died.”
“Except me, of embarrassment. I made your dad a promise, Jas. Besides, he’s paying me a lot of money to get it right. I can’t let him down.”
I hadn’t paid much attention to how much anything in the barn was costing, least of all the furniture, because I knew my dad well enough to know he’d have paid Kim a fair price for his work. But in the same vein, my father was so laid-back that Laura often joked that he waltzed through life horizontal. Swinging jokes aside, it was hard to imagine that he’d get on Kim’s case about deadlines. Who cared if a few chairs turned up a few days late?
Kim cared, apparently . . . enough to push his food away and tug at his scruffy hair. “I’m on track, but the thought of falling behind keeps me up at night.”
“It shouldn’t.” I cupped his chin and gently forced him to look at me, taking in the suddenly obvious lines of fatigue on his face. “Trust me, my dad would rather cancel the whole thing than know you were working yourself into the ground.”
Kim’s scepticism was clear, and there was little I could do to ease the stress from him except coax him into finishing his dinner.
After, I washed up while he dried. “I’m taking a day off tomorrow,” I said. “Burnout, you know?”
Kim dropped cutlery into a drawer. “I thought we were done with that conversation?”
There was no malice in his tone, but I studied him anyway. “I’m talking about me. I’ve worked every day for weeks, and I’ll chuck my computer out the window if I don’t stop soon.”
“At least you can stop.”
“Only because I make myself, because I know the consequences if I don’t.”
“Yeah? Sent your PC flying before, have you?”
“It was a Mac, but yes. I’ve had a few expensive temper tantrums.”
Kim grinned, which was a relief, though part of me wanted to shake him into taking me seriously. “I can see that, actually. You’ve got a wild streak in you.”
The wildest side Kim had seen of me was with my trousers down, but I let him have that one, especially when I remembered that he’d seen what I’d done to my Hoxton flat. I’d let him have anything to see him smile. “Anyway, I know you’re busy, but do you want to do something? Lunch? A walk? A drive? There’s some shots on the moors I want to get now the weather’s gone all gloomy again.”
“Shots? Thought you were taking a day off?”
“I am.”
“Don’t sound like it.”
I poked my tongue out and flicked water at him. Soapy drops hit his face and clung to his jaw.
“Oh yeah?” He grabbed my wrists and spun me round, backing me fiercely against the sink, his face, his lips, barely an inch from mine. “Don’t tease me with that tongue. Drives me fucking mad, no matter how knackered I am.”
A shiver ran through me. I licked my lips, absorbing Kim’s low growl. “I won’t have to tease you if you give me a straight answer. Want to do something tomorrow, or not?”
“Man, I’d love to spend the day with you, doing all the shit you just said, and more, but I gotta work, Jas. I told you; I can’t stop.”
I can’t stop. Everything about those three words was so fucking unhealthy, but the sense of unease that had been so strong only moments ago was being fast eclipsed by Kim’s hips grinding against mine. In the haze of his lips on my neck and a growing boner, I struggled to blurt out a response before the power of speech deserted me. “Fuck it. I’ll come to work with you. Now, are you going to show me your bed, or what?”
The next day found me trailing Kim around his workshop, shoving my camera in his face, and asking him a million questions he clearly didn’t have time to answer. Though, to be fair, he put up with me with an easy smile.
Midmorning, I brought him some tea. “Am I getting in the way? You can say if I am; I won’t be offended.”