Freya pulled her dress back on as Rome quickly got dressed. Although no one could see them from the street as they were hidden in the darkness, she didn’t want any late-night dog walkers or fishermen to suddenly come across them. She had never had sex outdoors before and wasn’t entirely sure what had possessed her to instigate it but to hear Rome say all those wonderful things made the whole risk factor worth it. Making love to Rome was always going to be wonderful and exciting, she still couldn’t quite believe that it was happening after all this time, but maybe she would stick to indoor sex from now on.

Rome picked up her jacket and draped it round her shoulders, kissing her sweetly on the forehead. God, this man. If it ended, if he decided that he didn’t or couldn’t love her after all, would she ever get over him?

Suddenly there was a noise which sounded like someone falling over behind the rocks close by, followed by a soft curse.

Her heart leapt as she and Rome froze. ‘Oh god, someone’s there,’ Freya whispered. ‘They must have seen us.’

‘I’ll handle this, bloody perverts,’ Rome said, leaving her side and climbing over the rocks towards the noise.

Freya hugged herself, feeling shaken at the huge invasion of her privacy.

‘Dad!’ Rome said from behind the rocks. ‘What the bloody hell are you doing here?’

Rome’s dad? Freya felt her cheeks burn. It had just got a hundred times worse.

‘I was fishing, son, you catch some absolute beauties at night. You don’t need to worry, I didn’t see anything, I had my eyes closed the whole time.’

Freya watched as Rome helped Finn over the rocks and onto the sand.

‘Hello Freya dear, it’s lovely to see you again. I’ve been telling everyone about your heroic deeds the other day with Sammy the seal. Everyone is very grateful. You might even get some kind of medal,’ Finn said, clearly as embarrassed about the whole thing as she was.

‘You… you were there the whole time?’ Freya said. ‘You saw me naked?’

‘Oh no dear. I never saw that. I didn’t even realise you two were there, until I saw you swimming. I thought it might have been Sammy at first, my eyesight isn’t what it used to be, and when I realised… um, what was happening, I closed my eyes straight away and put my fingers in my ears for good measure. You don’t need to worry.’

‘Why didn’t you tell us you were there?’ Rome asked.

‘Well I didn’t want to interrupt. The whole island has been rooting for the two of you to get together and now you finally have, well I think it’s simply wonderful. I didn’t want to be responsible for stopping it before it started. So I thought it best that I just stay out of the way and keep my eyes closed until it was over. I didn’t want to embarrass you.’

‘Oh god, it’s safe to say I’m embarrassed,’ Freya said.

‘There’s nothing wrong with it my dear, nothing to be embarrassed about. Me and Lucy used to have sex outdoors all the time when we were younger,’ Finn said, desperately trying to make Freya feel better. ‘You’re not hurting anyone and it’s not technically illegal, providing you don’t get caught. Me and Lucy were caught having sex in the park once. The police had got some tip-off that someone was selling drugs in the park and a whole squad of them turned up ready to bust some illegal drug ring and there was Lucy and I, stark naked. She was on her hands and knees and I was—’

‘Dad, for the love of god, stop talking,’ Rome said.

Finn blushed. ‘Yes, quite. Maybe you don’t need to know the full story. But my point is, there’s no harm in it, two young, single, healthy, consenting adults, why shouldn’t you have sex whenever the mood takes you.’

‘Dad!’

Freya let out a little giggle.

‘Well, why don’t I leave you two love birds to it and get off home,’ Finn said, clearly deciding to stop making a bad situation even worse.

‘We’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell anyone about this,’ Rome said and Freya felt another little kick of disappointment. Of course she didn’t want the whole island to know about her and Rome’s late-night naked swim but she also didn’t know why Rome was so reluctant for people to know about them being involved either.

‘Of course, I’ll be discreet,’ Finn said. ‘I mean, I’ll have to tell Lucy, she’d have my guts for garters if I kept that from her, but we won’t tell anyone else, I can assure you of that.’ Finn turned away and then immediately turned back, embracing Rome in a big hug. ‘I’m happy for you, son, you deserve to be happy and find love again and I can think of no one finer to do that with than young Freya here.’

Rome patted his dad awkwardly on the back, probably not wanting to tell him that this thing between Rome and Freya wasn’t love. She wasn’t sure what it was, but it wasn’t love and Rome knew that.

Finn pulled away from Rome and grabbed Freya into a big hug too. ‘We always have the children round for dinner every Friday, we didn’t last week because we were away, but we’d love you to come round for dinner this week.’

Finn pulled back to look at her.

‘Oh thank you, that’s so kind, but it wouldn’t be right to intrude on your family dinner.’

‘Don’t be silly. You’re family now too. Isaac will be there and Dougie always comes whenever he is in town. You must come.’

‘Thanks Dad, we’d love to,’ Rome said.

Finn nodded and walked away. Rome slipped his hand into hers and started walking towards his house.

Freya looked up at him in surprise. ‘You didn’t want to tell anyone and now you want to go to a family dinner and be outed as a proper couple in front of your parents and sisters?’

Rome shrugged. ‘We probably have twenty-four hours until the whole island knows. Finn will tell Lucy and Lucy will just have to phone my aunt Cassie and she will tell everyone whether they want to know or not. I’m pretty sure Bella and Eden already know from the looks they were giving us all night and if they don’t I’m sure you will tell them, I know how close you are. Dougie definitely knows. There doesn’t seem much point in trying to keep it a secret any more.’

Freya frowned slightly. It sounded like he was resigned to his fate rather than happy about being outed. While Freya wanted to shout it from the rooftops. And if he really did love her, wouldn’t he want that too?

She sighed. She had said she would give Rome time and she knew she had to do that. This was so new to them both and just because she had been in love with Rome since she met him, it didn’t mean that he felt the same way yet. Up until the day before he had been quite happy being friends with her, it was her that had changed things between them. She couldn’t expect him to suddenly fall in love with her overnight just because they’d slept together a few times. She had to remind herself that Rome had slept with several women since Paige died and although he insisted this was a lot more than just sex, it would take time for him to make that transition between friendship and something more.

‘So now I’m part of the family?’

Rome grinned down at her. ‘Seems like it.’

‘Does your dad make that kind of fuss with all the women you date?’

‘I don’t date.’

‘Sleep with then. Do they all get invited round for dinner?’

‘No, Dad knows how important you are to me, that’s why he’s inviting you round and practically organising the wedding already. No one else has ever been invited round. You’re the only one… Apart from Paige. But she only met them a few times,’ he quickly clarified. ‘She was away in London a lot and when she was back up here for the weekend we’d spend pretty much the whole time in bed.’ He looked down at her. ‘I’m making this worse, aren’t I? You’re my best friend and I have spent two years talking to you about everything, it’s hard for me to get my head around that I need to censor my thoughts from now on.’

Freya shook her head. ‘Don’t censor your thoughts. I never want you to do that. Paige was a big part of your life, you loved her, you were going to get married to her. I’m not expecting you to just forget all about her because we’re sort of seeing each other.’

‘Not “sort of”,’ Rome muttered.

‘Well, whatever this thing is between us. If this relationship goes the way I want it to, this will be the first relationship you’ve had since she died and I know that will be hard for you, so talk to me about what you’re thinking and feeling, it’ll help me to understand. Just because we’re lovers now, doesn’t mean we’re no longer friends. So your relationship with her was very physical?’

He looked down at her in confusion. ‘You really want to know?’

She nodded, even though she didn’t. But she needed to know whether she actually stood a chance with him. Was the relationship she had with Rome anything like the one he had with Paige?

‘Sex with Paige was… frantic, a desperate need for each other.’

Freya looked away over the moonlit sea. She was wrong, she didn’t need to hear this. But Rome showed no signs of stopping now.

‘I’ve never had that with anyone since. I often wondered whether our relationship would last when it was only built on amazing sex. We didn’t have a lot of time to talk. She was in London all week, so we’d only see each other at weekends. I worked as a glazier during the day and she was out working at night so we barely had time to catch up over the phone during the week either, and the only catching up we did at weekends was purely physical. We rarely talked and actually I was always quite thankful for that. I was always afraid that once she got to know the real me, she wouldn’t want to be with me any more. Thank god we had amazing sex.’

Freya felt a bit sad about that, that Paige had never got to know the real Rome. ‘You talk about the real you as if there’s something wrong with you, when I don’t see that at all. There’s a lot more to you than your ability to make a girl scream in bed. I fell in love with you long before we had sex. I fell in love with your kindness, the way you really listen, your protectiveness, your intelligence. I fell in love with your humour, you genuinely make me laugh. I fell in love with how easy it is to talk to you, your wonderful talent for working with stained glass and the way you taught me with so much patience. You are a wonderful man, Rome Lancaster, and if you and Paige had ever married, then she would have been the luckiest woman in the world.’

At the foot of the steps that led up the hill towards Rome’s house, he stopped and pulled her into his arms, kissing her sweetly. ‘What did I do to deserve you?’

‘Well, I’m guessing the god of love or Cupid, or whoever is in charge, looked down and saw how many women you made happy in the bedroom and decided you needed a bit of happiness yourself. I could make you happy, Rome. I know our sex is probably nowhere near as amazing as the sex you had with Paige but—’

He frowned. ‘Wait a minute. I’ve never said that. And I want you to know there is something incredible about making love to your best friend, that intimacy of knowing each other so well is something really special. I never had that with Paige.’

He took her hand and led her up the steps towards his house as she digested that. Was he saying it was better with her? She didn’t dare ask that question for fear of the answer but it gave her hope.

He let them into the house and immediately pinned her to the door as he kissed her again.

She moved her hands over his chest and started working on the buttons of his shirt then slid it off his shoulders and let it drop on the floor. She ran her hands over his arms and shoulders and then round his bare back.

‘Make love to me in your bed,’ she whispered against his lips.

‘Is that all you think about?’ Rome muttered, sliding his hands under her dress and then pulling it over her head. He filled his hands with her breasts, kissing her again. She moaned against his lips, she was never going to get enough of him. His hands slid back to her waist and then down to her bum and he lifted her. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and, without taking his mouth from hers, he carried her up the stairs.