Glancing up, he smiled and went straight back to his phone, then looked up again. His tongue trailed over his bottom lip as his eyes travelled over her. Just as she’d thought, he wasn’t taking any notice of her hair. It took an immense effort not to fidget as he stared at her. And even more effort not to crack jokes about how inappropriately dressed she was.
“How long does it take to get to the pub?” she asked, taking steady strides to the window and looking out at the lane in front.
“I … um … You …” He shook his head. “What did you say?”
“How far is the pub?”
“Far.” He shook his head again. “I mean not far. Over there.” He pointed randomly across the room. “Across the island … Hugh Town.”
“Thanks for clearing that up for me,” she deadpanned, while keeping her focus out of the window.
“Do you know what … I just need to do something … I’ll be two minutes.”
Keira turned in time to see him disappear up the stairs. Sighing, she perched on the arm of the chair. Some people could make wearing a sophisticated dress and high heels look effortless, but she was going to be exhausted by the end of the evening.
At the sound of Noah’s footsteps on the stairs a few minutes later, she stood up again. He’d put a dark blue shirt on and had styled his hair.
“You look nice,” she said.
“You too. You look really great.” With a bashful smile he came and put his hands on her hips. “You’ve made it really difficult for me to wait until the end of the evening to kiss you.”
“Hopefully I’ve made it impossible,” she said, hooking her arms around his shoulders.
It was already difficult to keep her balance on the stupid heels, but the way he kissed her made her legs feel like jelly. She leaned into him, partly to satisfy her need for contact and partly to keep herself steady.
As he kissed her, he stroked her jaw, then grazed his fingers over her neck and sent goosebumps shooting up her arms when he traced a line over her collarbone.
An insistent knock at the window interrupted them.
“Sorry to break up the party!” Trystan called. “Did no one ever teach you to keep the intimate stuff away from windows?”
“Sorry about him,” Noah said.
“To be fair, he’s got a point.” She winced as Noah led her quickly towards the door. Clearly he didn’t realise that tottering on high heels took concentration. Thankfully, she managed to keep her balance as they stepped outside.
“I bet you’re glad it was me and not Mum.” Trystan did a couple of slow blinks as he took in Keira’s outfit. “Wow!” he said loudly. “That’s quite a dress.”
“Thank you.”
“Where’s Mum?” Noah asked.
Trystan kept his eyes on Keira. “Who?”
“Stop being creepy.” Noah stepped in front of Keira, blocking Trystan’s view as he gave him a playful shove.
Trystan tilted his head to look around Noah, then cracked up laughing when Noah shoved him again. “Sorry, my brain scrambled for a bit there. What were you saying?”
“Where’s Mum?” Noah asked again, following Trystan along the path.
“She went ahead to the pub. Lowen’s coming and she wanted to make sure she was there when he arrived.”
“Nice of him to put in an appearance.”
“To be fair, he usually does come along, he just never stays long. Which is why Mum wanted to be there early. Did you see him last time you were over?”
“I met him for a coffee but he could only spare me half an hour.”
“You could always go over to Bryher. At least he made the effort to come over.”