The Longest Holiday by Paige Toon Read Free Book Online Page B

I feel his erection pressing into my backside. When the hell did he get that? I scramble off him in shock.
    ‘For God’s sake!’ I squawk, my voice going up an octave. ‘I told you, I just want to go to bed!’
    He’ll probably take that the wrong way, too, I think hotly as I storm off towards the steps. I jog down them and hurry around to the pool, which is dimly lit by lights under the palm trees. There’s a gate at the far end and I push through it, finding myself in the car park. I hurry across it and out onto the road. I turn right and walk past a restaurant, which is dark inside, the lights turned off, and then I lean up against the wall and take a deep breath.
    I’ll go back and rest on a sunlounger in a while, but I want to make sure he’s buggered off, first. Why didn’t I simply tell him I wasn’t interested in so many words instead of saying ‘I just want to go to bed’? I may have drunk water for the last couple of hours, but I’m still not thinking straight.
    A dog barks near the fence and I jump. I hear a man call, ‘MAX!’ and whistle to the dog. Out of the blue I realise where I am. Peering through the leaves of a tree, I see the unkempt garden. The sofa and armchairs are empty. The dog continues to bark and I decide to walk on before I’m spotted, but when I turn I bash straight into someone.
    I gasp as two hands steady me, and then I’m looking up into Leo’s dark eyes, my heart pounding wildly.
    ‘What are you doing here?’ he asks accusingly, and I think he recognises me, but I can’t be sure.
    ‘I … I … I’m staying at the hotel.’
    More barking. I hear the man again shout: ‘Max!’
    ‘It’s okay!’ Leo shouts back. ‘It’s just me!’
    I glance through the leaves to see Jorge on the other side of the garden, near the house. He whistles once more and this time I see the sleek brown figure of a dog run towards him. He bends down and pats the dog. ‘Where are you?’ he calls to Leo.
    ‘Out here,’ he calls back, and then he looks down at me and I realise that his hands are still on my arms. He lets go abruptly, leaving a searing heat behind.
    ‘Go back to your hotel,’ he says firmly. ‘You shouldn’t be out here alone.’
    He turns to walk away, but I find myself blurting out: ‘I can’t!’
    His brow is furrowed with annoyance. ‘Why not?’
    ‘I can’t go back there,’ I mutter with embarrassment.
    ‘Why not?’ he repeats, more insistently this time. I have a feeling he doesn’t suffer fools lightly.
    ‘My friends are …’ My voice trails off.
    ‘Where’s your boyfriend?’ he asks bluntly.
    I shake my head. ‘I don’t … He’s not my boyfriend,’ I tell him.
    He holds my stare, his body partly turned towards the gate, half staying, half going.
    ‘I … I’m trying to avoid him.’
    Now he looks interested. ‘Why?’
    ‘He wants …’ Again I let my words trail off. ‘But I don’t want to.’
    ‘Aah.’ The way he says it, so knowing. He turns his body back to face me, crossing his arms. ‘So you’re hiding from him.’
    I don’t reply, but he knows.
    ‘Leo! Where are you, man?’
    Jorge.
    ‘I’m coming!’ he snaps back sharply. ‘This way,’ he says to me, jerking his head in the direction of the garden.
    My foot instinctively lifts to step towards him. What the hell am I doing? ‘Where?’ I ask, faltering slightly on the pavement.
    ‘You can’t hide out here,’ he calls over his shoulder, reaching down for the gate. He holds it open for me, and, taken aback by my own willingness to follow him, I find myself stepping through. Marty would kill me if she knew where I was right now. She’d think I’d lost my mind. Maybe I have. But I don’t care. She has other things on her mind, after all.
    I pause by the gate as Leo closes it, and then I follow him into the garden. It looks even more of a mess from down here, with its broken statues and rubbish claimed by overgrown grass.
    ‘There you are!’ Jorge exclaims from the