Bookends by Jane Green Read Free Book Online Page B

and the opportunity to grab a few hours’ afternoon skiing on the pistes.
    Josh and Venetia were the last to walk into the chalet, mostly due to Josh struggling with both his and Venetia’s luggage, Venetia having packed for every eventuality, including, bizarrely, a bikini.
    ‘Let me help you.’ The chalet girl came bustling over and lifted up Venetia’s suitcase with ease, striding in front of them, turning her head back and throwing a beaming smile over her shoulder as she walked. ‘I’m Lucy.’
    ‘God,’ giggled Venetia in a stage whisper, as they followed her in. ‘She’s got bigger muscles than you.’
    ‘Shut up,’ hissed Josh, who was worried that the chalet girl would hear, and who didn’t want to upset her this early on in the trip. Plus, she seemed pleasant, she had a lovely smile, and he wished Venetia wasn’t quite so tactless.
    For the week the group stayed at the chalet, the City boys treated Lucy like a serf. They would, by turns, ignore her, insult her and, when very drunk, manhandle her, guffawing about what they could do with a bottom that size. Lucy, to her credit, merely smiled and brushed their hands away, calmly placing steaming casseroles on the table and clearing the plates away as if she hadn’t heard.
    On the fourth day Josh fell and twisted his ankle. Not severely, but severely enough to miss a day’s skiing. Venetia insisted on staying with him, but Josh wouldn’t hear of it, and reluctantly she left with the others, ski pass swinging jauntily from her ice-blue jacket.
    Josh settled himself in a large armchair with a good book, as Lucy built the fire and brought him endless mugs of hot chocolate. Within an hour the book was resting on his lap, and he was watching Lucy whirl in and out of rooms, a small smile playing on his lips.
    And astonishingly, as he watched her ample behind disappear into a bedroom, he found himself wondering what someone like Lucy would be like in bed. And he closed his eyes and set off on what he claims was a really rather raunchy fantasy involving Lucy checking his pulse, then peeling off all her clothes and leaping on him. He opened his eyes with a shock to find Lucy standing over him, smiling.
    When he tells this story now, they both roar with laughter. Lucy laughs about the guilty look in Josh’s eyes, the fact that she knew he’d been thinking something dirty, not to mention the sizeable erection that she did her best to ignore. And Josh tells of his heart pounding while for a split second he thought his fantasies were about to come true, and then the combination of relief and disappointment as Lucy said, ‘Penny for them.’ His nervous laughter as he moved the book on his lap to hide the physical evidence of thoughts that were, as far as he was concerned, worth significantly more than a penny, and the realization that not only was this woman incredibly sexy, but that there was (and he only understood this as he looked at her) something very different about her, quite unlike anyone he’d ever met.
    For one blissful half-hour in the afternoon Lucy came and sat with him, and they chatted. He found her funny, down-to-earth and refreshingly honest. She had an easy manner and an open smile, and, as she regaled him with horror stories from her cookery course, he found himself more and more attracted to her.
    After a while Lucy bustled off to get ready for her daily treat of a couple of hours on the slopes, but not without asking Josh if he wanted her to stay and keep him company.
    ‘Absolutely not,’ said Josh. ‘This is your free time, go and you can report back on the weather.’
    ‘Are you sure?’ Lucy hovered in the living room for a bit, and it was only years later that she admitted she was desperate for Josh to ask her to stay with him, that his appearance at the beginning of the week was like a shining light in a sea of dross, and that she had prayed for something like this to happen.
    And Josh, being Josh, was waiting for Lucy to tell him