Freya woke the next morning as Rome walked back into the bedroom carrying two mugs of tea. He was wearing only pyjama bottoms and she admired that glorious, huge smooth chest and those strong arms for a moment as he walked around the bed and placed her cup on the small chest of drawers next to her. Then he walked back around the bed and climbed in next to her.

‘Morning beautiful,’ Rome said, kissing her sweetly on the lips.

She sat up and leaned into him as he wrapped his arm round her shoulders.

‘What time is it, it feels really early?’

He grinned. ‘You just didn’t get enough sleep last night. It is a little earlier than I’d normally get up but, having had the last two days off work, I feel we have a lot to catch up on. The tent around where the mural will be is going to be erected today, so we can start putting it together on the wall without the prying eyes of the public seeing it before the big reveal. So we could go over there this afternoon and work for a few hours. I also have a meeting with my solicitor this morning.’

‘Oh, that sounds very official.’

‘Just a few things I need to get sorted out,’ Rome said, vaguely.

She slid her hand down his chest, heading towards his pyjama bottoms. ‘So we haven’t got time to hang around here for a bit longer.’

He laughed and extricated himself from her arms as he got back out of bed. ‘No, we haven’t. Don’t tempt me. Besides, I was thinking about what you said yesterday, about how you think this is only physical for me. I want to prove to you that this is a hell of a lot more than that. I want to have a proper relationship with you. So for one week, we’re going to talk and kiss and spend time with each other and go out on proper dates but no sex.’

Freya sat up as if she’d been electrocuted. ‘No sex?’

‘I want to do this properly. Paige and I never had a deep relationship. I’d like to think that when she eventually moved back here after her job finished in London we would have got married and things would have worked between us but if sex was the only thing keeping us together, I wouldn’t have fancied our chances. I don’t want to fall into that kind of relationship again where we are just tearing each other’s clothes off at every available opportunity.’

‘Why not, that sounds pretty good to me,’ Freya teased. She couldn’t believe after waiting for so long she’d finally made love to him and now he was slapping some kind of weird sex ban on their relationship before it had really got started.

‘I want to see if we work without it.’

She got out of bed and enjoyed the darkening in his eyes as he appreciated her nakedness as she approached him. She slid her arms round his neck and his hands immediately went to her waist. ‘You know we work without it, we have worked together and socialised together perfectly well for the last two years without the sex.’

‘But we weren’t in a relationship. We can still kiss and spend the night together but I don’t want it to be all about sex and I know you don’t want that either.’

Freya resisted telling him that she was quite happy for it to be all about sex. She was under no illusions that this was going to end with their happy ever after, happily married with four little children running around their heels. He didn’t love her. Real love didn’t appear slowly and take years to build. Real love knocked you off your feet, it was crazy and hedonistic and unstoppable. Bella and Isaac were proof of that. Real love wasn’t, ‘Let’s see how it goes over the next few months and I’ll try and fall in love with you too.’ Real love was falling head over heels with someone so much that they ask you to marry them after only a month, the way he had with Paige. And although he had asked for some time and Freya was quite happy to give him that, in her heart she knew that eventually this thing between them, whatever he wanted to call it, would come to an end. She wanted to make the most of what they had now and make love to Rome as many times as she possibly could before that day came. A sex ban was the very last thing she wanted.

‘I thought we could go to Envy again tonight, do the date that we should have had,’ Rome said. ‘And then tonight you can stay here again. I like having you in my bed. Having you sleep next to me… it made me feel complete.’

She stared up at him, emotion clogging in her throat. ‘You say the sweetest things sometimes. It makes me fall in love with you a little bit more.’

‘Hey, don’t go telling anyone I’m sweet, it’ll ruin my reputation as the grumpy sod on the island.’

‘Your secret is safe with me.’

He laughed and bent his head to kiss her briefly and then pulled back slightly to look at her.

‘Will you go out with me tonight?’

She smiled and nodded.

‘Good, now get dressed. We’ve got work to do.’

He kissed her on the forehead and left the room.

If he wanted to date her, then she was more than happy with that, but this sex ban would have to go.

* * *

Rome was busy packing everything into boxes ready to go down to Buttercup Beach so he could start work on the mural that afternoon while Freya was busy copper foiling the last few pieces of the current batch of red glass that would be part of the school building in the mural. Things had ticked along at work that morning as they always had, with them both working seamlessly alongside each other, chatting and laughing as normal.

He’d been worrying about how it would be at the studio, whether it would be awkward after spending almost two days making love to each other, but nothing had changed. It made him wonder if they could really make a go of things. Most couples would end up killing each other if they had to work alongside each other all day and then spend all night together too, but they had never got frustrated or annoyed with each other in the past and he didn’t see why that would change now they were dating.

Freya glanced up and out the window and he watched as the smile fell off her face.

He turned to see what had made her sad and saw Kitty Lane getting out of the car and heading towards the shop.

‘Here comes the Rome Lancaster fan club,’ Freya said.

He turned back to look at her. ‘You don’t like Kitty coming round?’

‘Of course I don’t. It’s bad enough seeing her draped over the man I love and flirting with him, but now that you’re my boyfriend it makes it worse.’

He grinned as he stepped up to her. ‘Boyfriend?’

She looked unsure for a second. ‘Well if we’re dating properly then I’m not sure what else I could call you.’

He slid his hands around her waist and she responded by putting her arms round his neck. He bent his head and kissed her briefly on her lips. ‘I like it.’

He saw the delight on her face just as Kitty walked in. As Freya tried to shift back out of his arms, he held onto her and kissed her again, this time taking his time, enjoying the moment. Kissing Freya was so sweet, so wonderful, he could honestly do it all day.

A cough interrupted them and Rome pulled back slightly, kissed Freya on the forehead and then slowly turned and faced Kitty as if he’d only just noticed her.

He plastered on his fake smile. ‘Hello Kitty.’

She didn’t look pleased at all and he took a small amount of pleasure from that.

‘I’d heard the rumours that you two were together, I have to say I didn’t believe them.’

Freya pulled out of his arms and carried on working with the red glass, deliberately ignoring Kitty.

‘Why wouldn’t it be true?’ Rome asked.

‘Because…’ Kitty gestured to Freya and then trailed off, smart enough not to answer that question, but her intention was quite clear. Why would he have Freya when he could have Kitty?

He let the fake smile drop from his face. She could forget being polite.

‘Do you have glass in the car?’ he said coolly. ‘I’ll get it out.’

Kitty nodded and he walked past her and out onto the street. She tottered after him in her heels.

‘So you and Freya? That’s sweet,’ Kitty said, dryly.

‘Yes, I couldn’t be happier,’ Rome said, opening her boot and lifting out two boxes of glass.

‘Believe me, I could make you happier,’ Kitty said, cutting to the chase.

He lifted the last box out and placed it on the floor and then looked Kitty right in the eye. ‘I seriously doubt that. She gives me everything I need.’

‘What does she give you?’

Rome thought about how he could sum up everything that Freya gave him – from her kindness and patience, the way she made him laugh, how he enjoyed being with her every second of the day – and he smiled as he realised he could capsulate all that in one word.

‘Love.’

Kitty looked horrified at that prospect as that was the one thing she could definitely never give him.

‘Thanks for coming round, Kitty,’ Rome said, picking up two of the boxes and walking back towards the shop without looking back. Only to see that his solicitor, Jim, had arrived and was busily chatting away to Freya.

He hurried in, not wanting Jim to tell Freya why he was here, but he was already too late for that.

‘And what is it you’re here to see Rome for?’ Freya asked, curiously.

‘Oh, Rome wants to sell the flat upstairs,’ Jim said, clearly not realising that it was supposed to be a secret.

Freya’s gaze swung to him accusingly.

Crap.