Touch of Love Read Free

‘Anyway, I have borrowed this phone from a lovely lady here who decided to give me the benefit of the doubt before alerting the police, so I need to make it short.’ He glanced up at her, his eyes twinkling with amusement. ‘If you can come and pick me up, I’ll be grateful. I’d rather not walk all the way home looking like this.’ As he described the meeting point, an unexpected sense of loss knocked the air out of her lungs. He would be gone in a second, and they would never meet again. She would never know why he’d spent the night in the park—or the identity of the mysterious woman whose mere mention made him defensive.
    None of it was her business at all. The sooner they parted, the better. She could imagine Brad’s face if he found out she’d chatted with a total stranger in a secluded part of a park. He was big on safety and responsibility, so he would probably think she was crazy.
    ‘Here, thanks,’ Adam’s voice interrupted her thoughts , and she looked up only to see him watch her. ‘All set. My friend will pick me up ASAP. I’m in your debt, Elly.’
    Hearing him say her name felt weird. Her name was actually Elvira, but she preferred Elly. Only her parents insisted on the full version, which felt too grand and serious, as if she were some exotic beauty and not a totally average twenty-five-year-old girl with brown hair and eyes that couldn’t decide if they were grey or blue.
    ‘No problem,’ she mumbled, busying herself with her bag. Suddenly , she felt shy. The short encounter had made her painfully aware of how awkward she had become around men. Especially young, handsome men. Ever since she’d started dating Brad, Elly hadn’t as much as stopped to notice other guys. Her friends teased her about it mercilessly, claiming she was taking her loyalty to her fiancé too far.
    ‘Why were you crying?’ His question took her by surprise, and she should have come up with a plausible lie.
    Instead, she blurted out, ‘I got into a fight with my fiancé.’ She froze, horrified by her own stupidity. Why on earth would I talk about it to this stranger? Not as if he cares, either way…
    ‘The guy from the phone pic?’ He nodded matter -of-factly, as if that was exactly what he would expect from Brad, and the gesture irked her beyond belief. She wanted to tell him that her fiancé was wonderful and that the whole fight was just a big misunderstanding, but she couldn’t. She was suddenly tired of pretending that everything was wonderful. Her family and friends expected it to be perfect. Her mother’s happiness that she was getting married was matched only by her future mother-in-law’s. This Adam guy knew nothing about her—or her life—so she didn’t have to pretend. For once in her life, she could say exactly what she wanted and not worry about the consequences.
    ‘Yeah, he wants us to have sex with my friend .’ She shrugged, trying to sound blasé. ‘A perfect threesome, as he says.’
    ‘ Interesting.’ He nodded again, his face perfectly straight. If he burst out laughing, she would kill him. But he didn’t. His eyes were pensive as he watched her heated face. Well, she was probably all red and blotchy. She didn’t cry prettily, and she knew it.
    ‘ Very interesting,’ she agreed. ‘He got mad when I said no and left to fetch us some coffee and give me time to cool off, I guess.’
    ‘ But you don’t want to cool off.’ He smiled, seemingly unimpressed by her militant tone. ‘You came here to lick your wounds and ran into me.’
    ‘ Something like that. Plus, I really wanted to have him wait at the door with no keys in sight.’ She turned to walk away, abruptly embarrassed to talk about her private life with this stranger. The moment of cathartic release was over, and she wanted to disappear. ‘Look, I’d better run now. Your friend will pick you up, right?’
    Being gracious was much easier since the park had begun to fill with more and more early joggers and dog