Milly nodded again, and he kissed her properly this time. The taste of her filled him. This is what he’d been imagining. The way she felt, the way she tasted. The warmth, the softness.

This time her response came as quickly as it did under the canopy, the quick drawing in of breath, the soft warm welcoming mouth, the hands through his hair.

Then he lifted her up and she giggled, her arms tightened around his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist. He carried her the three steps to the big tree and rested her against it. This time the kiss went as deep as he could take it. He felt her tighten her legs around his waist and force herself even closer, trying to get more. He slid his mouth along her jaw line and her head tipped back against the tree trunk.

He looked up at her face, her eyes closed, lips apart.

He needed to solve the wet grass problem before they both fell over.

He carefully lowered her so she was standing again, leaning back against the tree.

Slowly he tapered the kiss and pulled away a little.

Her eyes opened, dark and smoky.

She ran her hand down his t shirt and looked puzzled. “Cole?”

He slid her jacket down her arms, then dropped it beside them. She shivered as his hands moved back up and cupped her face. He kissed her, deeper and more urgent this time, her response overwhelmed him again.

He pulled away and shrugged out of his jacket.

“I need to sit down.” He spread it over the damp grass under the tree, then spread hers out beside it. “Room for two,” he said.

“I didn’t think of that.” Milly smiled in the dappled light and pushed her hair back off her face. Her cheeks pink and warm. She had that just kissed, red-lipped, slightly breathless look.

He took her hand and led her to the makeshift bed. The horses munched on the grass and the river rumbled.

He sat down on his coat and tugged her hand to join him.

“Come here.” He leaned back on one elbow.

But when she did join him, she kneeled just out of reach, with her hands resting on her thighs.

What the hell? It felt like everything she did this morning was to make this as bloody awkward as possible.

She tipped her head to one side and gave a little half smile. “Very smooth, Mr Davies.”

There she was in jersey and jodhpurs, still just out of reach, laughing at him now. He nodded at the long riding boots, tucked under her.

“Nice boots,” he said. The boots fitted like a glove. They looked like they’d be hard to get off and the jodhpurs too.

“Would you like to take them off?”

“A bit hard to figure out how to do it with you sitting that way.”

“I can change that.” She moved enough so she half sat and half lay down, like he was. She rested on her elbows, but was the wrong way around still. His head near the tree trunk, hers the other way, the only things touching were their legs.

She stuck a boot, all black leather and zips and elastic, onto his lap. “Go on,” she said.

Okay, he could rise to a challenge. He felt at the back of the boot. Unzipped it and got rid of it.

“Next one?” Got rid of that one too, and then knelt up.

At least Milly seemed to have got over her shyness, and her worry about the wet grass. She lay there in the damp, resting on her elbows, and waited.

“Now, where were we?” he said, and Milly giggled. “Sit up.”

She sat up, and nothing seemed awkward any more. He lifted her jersey and t shirt over her head. She had a bra on this time, all white and lacy. He unhooked it and it went the way the boots had gone.

Milly had stopped talking.

“Lie back.” And she did and stretched her arms above her head offering him her body as a present.

He took his time, touching and tasting, lips, throat, breasts and stomach. She just ran her fingers through his hair or stretched and arched into his mouth and hands.

He moved to the dome on the jodhpurs and looked up at her.

“Time for everything else to go?”

She nodded, so he slowly removed them, no problem, as smooth as silk, then the lace that matched the bra. She moved just enough to help when he needed her to.

“What do you want me to do now?” she asked, when she lay there naked on the jackets.

“I still get to choose?”

Milly nodded.

“Okay.” He studied her naked in the soft morning sunlight. Milly lay there quiet and passive. It wasn’t the way she’d been under the canopy. The small breasts, the flat stomach, the wisp of hair. He could just keep going with his hands and mouth. She’d liked that under the canopy. He had too.

The sun filtered through the leaves of the tree and made patterns on her skin. Her hair fanned out on the grass, messy and slightly damp. Her eyes were darker, her lips redder, her body white, except for the bikini lines. She looked perfect.

And he knew exactly what he wanted her to do.

He rolled onto his side, so they were facing. He rested his cheek on his palm.

“Show me what you do when you’re alone,” he suggested.

“Really?”

He nodded.

“Why?”

“I’m interested. Have been since you told me.”

“That I can make myself come?”

He nodded.

“And you want to watch?”

He nodded again. As fantasies go it was a good one. He didn’t know how long he’d watch for, but he suspected he wouldn’t get bored.

“You won’t laugh?”

“I won’t laugh.”

She nodded then hesitantly lifted her hand and touched her fingers against her lips.

She opened her mouth enough to lick them, still watching him.

He watched intently as she slid her hand down her body until her fingers were between her legs. Her eyes closed as she stroked gently. Then her head fell back, and her lips parted, slowly her breath became harsher.

Then one hand clutched his thigh, as the other stroked between her legs. Mesmerised, he watched her back arch and her knees bend and part. Now he could see the hand stroking the flesh, much harder than he would ever have dared.

She looked spectacular and lost to him somehow.

He’d never seen anything as amazing before.

After a while, he saw a change convulse over her, her hand moved harder and faster until she shuddered, and she sank back into the jackets.

Then she reached for him, still touching herself, gently now.

He pulled her close and she curled up into him. Her eyes still closed. Her arm around his waist.

He held her, and she seemed to slowly come back to him, as he stroked her hair, lost for words.

She drew in a breath like a sigh.

“I can’t believe I did that with you watching,” she murmured.

He held her tighter. “You were beautiful.” That seemed a good safe word to use.

She’d done what he’d asked her to. Now he owed her something in return. “Tell me what to do, boss,” he said after a while.

Milly slowly uncurled. “Make love to me.”

She sat up and touched the hem of his shirt. He wiggled enough to help her get it off. She dropped it, stroked the bare skin of his chest, then ran her fingers down his arm.

“Tessa is right. You should go on stage like this.”

“That right?” He stood and got rid of the rest of his clothes.

She curled on her side and watched.

When he lay down beside her again, she tangled her legs with his and dug her hands in his hair. Then dragged his head down to hers and kissed him.

They both rolled enough that he was on top of her, and he pushed himself back to go down on her. His mouth moved between her breast, then lower. But she stopped him.

“No, not that.” She reached for his cock. “This.”

He was ready. He wasn’t sure if she was. Didn’t know how that worked. But if that’s what she wanted. He entered her moving slowly at first.

Yep, she was ready. He moved back and then she gasped as he went deeper, her thighs tightened around him.

Again, and again until he felt her body stiffen. He went with her, found his release, then collapsed. After a while, she wrapped her arms around him.

He pushed the hair off her face. “Good?”

“Yes,” she said breathlessly. She raised her head to kiss him, and he ran his hands down her back.