I woke late to find the sun streaming through my windows. I yawned and stretched and reveled in the feeling of my body waking up. I looked about wondering why I felt like there was something missing. Phone? Check. Jewelry? Check. Naked man in bed with me... No.
I tried to stifle a strong sense of disappointment. He had already gone. No note, no "Hey, great shag," nothing.
Bugger.
Bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger, bugger.
I slapped myself back down on the bed and lay there. I closed my eyes and covered them with my hands, scrunching my eyes tight so that I started to see colors and stars.
Bugger.
I let out a tightly wound sigh and then breathed in deeply through my nose. Which twitched. What was that smell? Jesus it was delicious. Unbidden my body raised itself out of bed and dragged on my pearl gray cashmere tracksuit bottoms and a white Frette sleep shirt. I grabbed a black hair tie and quickly flipped my hair into a messy bun.
I padded quietly down the stairs, stopping in the bathroom to wipe off the worst of my makeup. I looked at myself in the mirror and saw that my skin was pale, my eyes looked unnaturally large this morning and my lips looked kissed and bruised. I touched my bottom lip and remembered the Captain kissing me. I touched my collar bone and remembered him kissing me there too. My arms rose goosebumps and I turned away to continue downstairs to the kitchen.
As I got to the ground floor, where the front door, lounge and access to the garden are, I stopped, listening to the strains of Classic FM coming from the kitchen in the basement and my Roberts Revival DAB radio. I continued down the steps and paused a few stairs from the bottom. The sight that met me was of my Captain pottering about the kitchen as if he belonged there.
On the table sat a jug of Bloody Marys and places set for two. The Captain was standing at the Rangemaster with his back to me. He was wearing his jeans which were low slung on his hips. I admired his tawny skin and the smooth long lines of his broad shoulders and strong arms. He must have sensed me because he turned then and saw me. Smiling he came towards me and pulled me down the last few steps and into the kitchen.
"You're awake then? I was just about to come wake you up for breakfast?"
"Breakfast?"
"Well, brunch. Do you like Bloody Marys?" He lifted the jug to pour me a glass.
"Ohhhh yes please." He poured it out and I took an appreciative slurp. Beautiful. Just the right amount of heat, vodka, pepper and horseradish. I stirred it with the celery stick and took another drink.
"This is great!"
"Thanks. I was a bartender at Dukes during my gap year and I like to think I've never quite lost the knack." He turned back to the stove and started plating up. "I hope you're hungry. I wasn't sure what you ate so I got a bit of everything."
"Starved. Don't worry, I eat a bit of everything."
"Perfect." The Captain came over to the table and put two plates down and slipped into the chair opposite. The plate was overflowing with grilled mushrooms, baked beans, buttered toast, grilled tomatoes, and, god my favorite, two beautifully poached eggs benedict, with its hollandaise spreading oozingly over the plate. I moaned in greedy rapture and stuck my knife into the quivering egg. The vicious yellow yolk poured out.
"God these are perfect. Don't tell me all of this was in my house. The house keepers a gem but doesn't spoil me this much."
"I spent a few months at Leiths during the day when I wasn't bar-tending during my gap year. My mother never cooked when I was a child. She simply never learned because her mother never learned and if you didn't learn you didn't have to. Plus I knew that cooking would help to encourage beautiful women to tumble into bed with me."
"Work often does it?"
"You should try my crème brûlée."
"I don't need to, this hollandaise is fabulous. You went out then, this morning?"
"I went to the farmers market on Ebury Street. I borrowed your key, I hope you don't mind."
I said I didn't and went back to eating my brunch. We chatted comfortably until our plates were empty and I sat back and rubbed my expanding belly. I asked him what his plans were today he replied,
"How about I help you with the dishes and then we take a drive in my car? The weather is beautiful and it seems a shame to spend the day in the city."
I blinked twice at him.
"You want to spend the day with me?"
"I do. Let's do the dishes then I'll cab home and change and get my car then we can potter off." I had a huge smile on my face and agreed quickly. We did the dishes together, I washed and he dried. He laughed at my marigolds and kissed soap bubbles from my nose.
I saw him from the front door and we kissed briefly on the front step. He walked up the road towards the Pimlico Road and I waited until he was almost out of sight before I closed the door and went up to have a shower with an absurd smile on my face.
Before I could shower of course, I would have to call Alpha.
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