Revenge of a Chalet Girl: (8 page)

He crushed the instinct to go to Amy and wrap his arms around her. He had to play fair by Juliet.

“If you’ll excuse me,” Juliet turned to Amy her words laced with sarcasm. “I want to talk to
my
fiancé and Mrs Hamilton about your shocking behaviour.”

Amy met Josh’s gaze, cheeks flushed and eyes wide and pleading.

“If I were you I’d start checking the flights back to the UK.” Juliet practically spat out the words. “Because you won’t have a job by the end of the day. Good luck with that, I hear Christmas Eve is a bitch of a day to travel. I’d like to help you but I’ve got a wedding to prepare for.”

“Holly isn’t here,” Josh said, his eyes scanning Amy’s face, flushed pink, crimson spots burning in her cheeks. He knew that look; she was furious, equally as furious as Juliet but containing it, just about.

“What exactly is the matter?” Josh added, perplexed. What on earth had Amy done to make Juliet so angry? Instinctively he wanted to protect her. “Shall we sit down and talk about this like adults?”

Juliet snorted. Amy ignored her and walked over to a deckchair close to Josh, slumping gratefully down into it, ignoring the narky glare cast her way by Juliet.

Amy turned towards Josh, hands clasped tightly together in her lap.

“I got you your proof,” she said calmly. “I got you the evidence that you shouldn’t marry her.”

“You little…” Juliet surged forward towards Amy, hand raised. Josh blocked Juliet’s arm and grasped it firmly. She glared at him. “So, how long have you been having an affair with that piece of…”

“I haven’t,” Josh cut in calmly, although he felt anything but calm.

Juliet snorted again. “Why else would she be creeping around and trying to record my private conversations? You must think I’m an idiot.”

“We used to be an item, at university. Amy is just looking out for me. What’s all this talk about evidence? Evidence of what?”

If he had evidence of an affair, no one could blame him for calling everything off, surely? What should he do?

Call off the wedding, find out what’s up with Amy, really talk to her and find out if things can be rekindled.

His heart was quite sure of what he wanted to do. But calling off the wedding would be a big move. What if this was simply a case of classic cold feet?

It’s not, you know it’s not.

“Show him your evidence then,” Juliet sneered, trying to jerk her arm out of Josh’s grip. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt your girlfriend. How touching of you to defend her.”

He let go and turned his gaze to Amy. She stared up at him from her deckchair, her fingers interlaced tightly, her eyes wide and pleading.

“I don’t have it. Juliet dropped my phone in the Jacuzzi,” Amy admitted. “I think it’s pretty much had it. Maybe it will dry out but I doubt it.”

Juliet smiled smugly. “She shouldn’t record people without their knowledge. I wonder what the privacy law is in Switzerland. I’m pretty sure it’s illegal. I could get her into a whole lot of trouble.”

“Come on Juliet, let’s not make this even worse than it already is. Let’s have a bit of dignity, okay?” Josh replied, flashing her an angry look.

“I’m sorry Josh darling,” Juliet’s voice became wheedling. “It’s just all been so unbelievably stressful, trying to tie up all the wedding loose ends and then having your deranged ex-girlfriend stalking me. If you say nothing has happened between the two of you I’ll believe you.”

Juliet had pulled out a tissue and was dabbing delicately at her eyes. “It’s all been so emotional. I was going to wait until our wedding day to tell you but I may as well…I’m pregnant Josh, isn’t that amazing?”

Josh felt like he’d been punched. He stared at Juliet, momentarily stunned by her change of tack. She believed
him
that nothing had been going on. God, she was good at turning the tables.

What if she really was pregnant though? Although nothing was ever one hundred per cent effective, it still seemed unlikely, considering how careful he was. Could Juliet really be pregnant?

“She’s lying.” Amy jumped to her feet, her small hands curled into fists. “Josh, she’s lying, don’t listen to her.”

“Amy, I think I need to talk to Juliet alone. Could you leave us for a minute?” Josh stared at Juliet, suddenly filled with absolute certainty.

He knew what he had to do.

Amy staggered back as though he’d slapped her, her face draining of colour, turning almost as white as the snow surrounding them. He wanted to reach out and reassure her but he had to do this properly. She turned and walked stiffly to the Chalet entrance.

“You heard him,” Juliet smirked as she called out after Amy. “And don’t think you’ve heard the last of this. I’ll be having words with Mrs Hamilton. I’m not having you anywhere near
my
wedding.”

Once Amy was inside the chalet Josh turned his gaze onto Juliet. Her eyes had a malicious gleam to them, like a cat about to play with a captured mouse. She thought she’d won.

“There isn’t going to be a wedding Juliet,” he spoke as kindly as he could manage, after all they were both at fault here. He shouldn’t have rushed things when he barely knew her.

“Are you serious?” Juliet screeched. “You’re taking the word of that little… slut?”

“No, Juliet.” It became harder to control his voice but he kept it low. This was going to be hard for her to deal with, after all Juliet really cared about what people thought. “We should never had got engaged, it was all too quick and we barely know each other, as I think today has shown. Can we talk about this like adults, rather than resorting to a slanging match?”

She glowered at him. “You’re really calling it off?”

“There is no baby, is there Juliet?” He stared her down.

“Fuck you Josh,” Juliet hissed then turned around and stomped off back towards the hotel.

Josh watched her, thinking it was odd how little he cared. Juliet could blacken his name, say she’d ended it because he was sleeping with Amy and tell all kinds of lies and he didn’t give a monkeys.

Now he needed to find Amy.

Amy stumbled into the dorm room. At first she was glad the girls were out skiing but then she found herself wishing for a pair of arms to comfort her.

So. That’s that then.

She’d done her best and the now the fight had drained out of her. That Juliet would lie about being pregnant shouldn’t have surprised her, but it felt like a knife being twisted in her guts; she felt an actual physical pain in her stomach. She slumped down onto the floor beneath the window, drawing her knees up to her chest, vaguely aware of the tears streaming down her cheeks.

This wasn’t fair. But then life wasn’t, she already knew that. She’d have to suck it up.

And she would, once she’d worked out how to scrape herself up off the floor. Just as she’d clawed her way up out of the depression, getting better and better at hiding her sadness away from the world in general and her family in particular. She never wanted to put her parents through the stress of her illness again.

And now she’d have to find storage space for this pain too, find a way of containing it. She’d just have to work harder, run quicker and ski faster to keep the dark clouds at bay. Because she couldn’t go back to those bleak depression days with her parents faces creased with concern and the tablets that made her feel zombie-ish and decidedly un-her. She hadn’t liked taking them. It seemed pointless, after all you couldn’t take a pill to cure a broken heart or bring the dead back to life. She hadn’t wanted to pretend everything was okay because it bloody well wasn’t.

But over time she had to pretend, just to get everyone off her back. She’d missed a good chunk of the start of term for teaching training. They said she could defer her place a year but somehow she’d never wanted to go back. All the excitement about a career as a primary school teacher had been drained out of her. She’d also lost her confidence; how could she be in charge of small children if some days she could barely bring herself to shower?

The only way to keep depression at bay was to keep moving from job to job, relationship to relationship and even country to country. That had been particularly effective. Pretending and continually moving had been for her own sake too.

But now she wanted to press the pause button on it all. She needed to stop.

But she might’ve known that excavating the past would lead to this – crouching in a room, crying her eyes out, feeling lonelier than she’d ever felt before.

There was a knock on the door. Amy looked up, startled. The girls wouldn’t bother to knock and Holly wouldn’t be back until dinnertime.

“Ye…es?” she croaked, wondering if Juliet had come in to have another go at her. What if Juliet did get Amy thrown out? Given what she’d done to one of Holly’s clients, Amy had to be prepared. How much money did she have - enough to find accommodation on Christmas Eve in Verbier if she couldn’t get a flight?

Not a chance. She’d be reduced to begging for a space on someone’s floor or even worse, trying to find a hook-up for the night. She shuddered.

The door opened to reveal Josh, looking like a giant in the tiny room.

“Hi,” he said, warm brown eyes fixed on her. She wanted to drink him in, hit some sense into him and make love to him all at once. Confused just didn’t cover it.

“Hi,” she whispered back, hiccupping. Her hands trembled so she linked them around her knees, pulling them up towards her chest.

Unspoken questions hung in the air, emotional vibrations making the atmosphere heavy with tension. Amy wanted to scream.

How can it be ‘the right thing’ to give Ms Bridezilla the benefit of the doubt but not to trust me, not to be there for me? What about doing the right thing by me Josh?

She opened her mouth but the words seemed to stick in her throat.

“How could you believe her?” she asked, feeling raw and exposed.

“I don’t.” Josh said, coming into the room and closing the door behind him. He got down onto the floor beside her.

“Oh?” It felt like she’d stepped into a lift, only to find herself falling down the shaft. Her heart beat wildly, hope, fear and desire pulsing through her.

He sat, his back against the wall, his body pressed up against hers, the warmth comforting her.

“I believe you Amy. And I was marrying Juliet for all the wrong reasons. I barely knew her. But it felt like the right time to marry, to make a family, create some ties…”

“Did you love her?” Amy broke in, letting her head fall to rest on his shoulder. The warmth from the underfloor heating thawed her out.

Where do we go from here?

“I persuaded myself I did but then I was in a bad place, after mum and dad, you know…” There was a catch in his voice and Amy reached over instinctively, taking one of his hands in hers and squeezing it.

“Is it off then? The wedding, I mean.” Amy’s heart seemed to leap up into her throat as she waited for Josh’s answer.

“Yes, definitely off.” He spoke decisively.

“Holly’s going to kill me.” Amy nestled her head closer into Josh’s shoulder. Even if this left her jobless and homeless she didn’t regret a thing. The vice-like grip around her chest loosened its grip and she could breathe easily again.

Her skin prickled with anticipation as he stroked the palm of her hand with his thumb, slowly, suggestively. Every hormone in her body screamed at her to throw away her objections, to let go of the pain and fear he might hurt her again.

To forgive him.

He hadn’t meant to be callous, she could see that now. He was a good man. What had happened had just been one of those things.

Josh bent his head down towards her, lips parted as though about to kiss her.

“I was depressed,” she blurted out before his lips could reach hers.

He paused and stared. “What?”

“I became clinically depressed after you left for your job in Saudi, that’s why I’m not teaching, why I didn’t go to teacher training college.” She stared down at their hands, still linked tightly together. “Grandad died of a heart attack, and that combined with you…well they think it triggered it. A reactive depression.”

“Why on earth didn’t you tell me?” He frowned, pulling her closer.

She shrugged. “What was the point? We weren’t in touch and you didn’t want to be. It didn’t change anything.

She looked up at him, tears rolling down her face and dripping off her chin. He lifted a hand and with his thumb gently wiped the tears away. Then his mouth followed where his thumb had touched her and he kissed her tears away, so tenderly she felt the hard lump of ice around her heart begin to melt.

Where had this tenderness been when she needed it? She shuddered, all questions receding as his lips trailed kisses down to her neck and he nuzzled her. Slowly the tears stopped falling and she let herself enjoy what he was doing to her.

“I’m so sorry I wasn’t there for you Amy,’ he said softly. “I wish I’d known. I really never meant to hurt you, I just thought it was the right thing to do, for both of us…”

“Ssh.” She put one finger on his lips, she needed his kisses more than his words right now. “Let’s put it behind us, I’ve had enough of being miserable, I want to say hello properly.”

She trailed one hand over his chest, suggestively, tentatively, asking him with her eyes, wanting so much to be one with him again her body ached. She felt sick of thinking about sad stuff. Enough. She wanted to live, to enjoy life.

She wanted to make love to Josh.

Josh smiled at her, the gleam in his eye telling her all she needed to know. They were always good at reading one another’s’ bodies. She climbed into his lap, straddling him, her mouth meeting his with a hunger that took her breath away. She pressed down onto his hard thighs and his growing erection.

Josh pulled her harder up against him, wrapping her in his arms, his mouth moving onto her neck and his hands moving up inside her top, pulling it up over her head. He lowered his mouth to her breasts, softly kissing each nipple through the fabric of her bra.

She pressed more urgently against him, desperate for all clothing barriers to be pushed away, to feel skin on skin with Josh again. This felt so long overdue, every frustration, every dream about him combining to make her sizzle with sexual tension. Her skin felt super-sensitised, she jerked beneath his kisses, as though he were charging her with each kiss, slowly bringing her back to life again.

She was finished with living life on her reserve battery, she wanted to feel fully alive again, to let herself feel.

Pulling at his long-sleeved t-shirt with one hand she lowered the other hand to tug at the button fly of his jeans. Frantically they pulled and tugged at clothing until they were finally naked except for Amy’s underwear, discarded clothes lying on the floor around them. They stood breathing hard, staring, remembering, wanting…

“Take off your knickers.” The sexy grin she remembered so well was back on Josh’s face. “You won’t be needed them.”

Her insides went into free-fall again, as she slipped her fingers into the knicker elastic and edged them down her thighs, eventually stepping out of them. She unclasped her bra and threw it up onto her bunk, drinking in the appreciative gleam in Josh’s eyes.

“I’ve missed you,” she whispered.

“Me too.” Josh stared back, eyes dark with desire. “What do you say, do we give it another go?”

She gazed down at his erection and raised an eyebrow. “I think we should.”

Seized by a desire to be as intimately close to Josh as possible she knelt down, taking his erection in her mouth. He groaned as her mouth formed a tight ring around him and her tongue darted out to lick and tease him. When he’d stiffened even more, she knew she needed him inside her, wanting to be truly reunited.

She stood up again, kissing and licking up to his chest to his nipples and neck, every bit of flesh she could reach. Wanting to finally believe this might be true, to drink him in and to make them one again.

Josh put a hand on her shoulder. “Turn around, it’s your turn.”

He bent her over the bunk bed, his hands stroking inside her thighs as he pulled her legs apart to position her. She shuddered as his fingers slipped up inside her and dipped in and out, rubbing her clit. He’d always been good at this and he knew exactly what she liked, knew this was her favourite position as he could thrust more deeply.

She moaned and writhed against his hand, loving what he was doing but needing him inside her. She could feel him pressed up against her and felt deliciously exposed. He teased her into a delicious release, her orgasm rocking her body, piercing her in two before sending her floating. But still she ached for him inside her, she felt empty.

“I need you inside me now,” she begged. “I’m, um… on the pill so…no need for, um…”

She hoped he couldn’t see her flushed face but she had to tell him, wanted so much to feel him inside her without the barrier of a condom.

“Okay,” Josh whispered.

Josh stood back and pulled her legs even further apart, exposing her to him. She felt the cool air against her sex. He must be able to see how wet she was for him but she felt no embarrassment, she felt totally comfortable and very, very turned on.

Amy’s breasts ached, pressed hard into the mattress. She was ready for him, oh so ready.

“Please,” she begged again as he rubbed the tip of his erection against her sex, spreading the wetness.

Then he plunged inside her, deep and hard, making her gasp. This had always been their favourite position, the thrusts so much deeper. She met each of his thrusts and once they found their rhythm they moved in time, a hot molten wetness swelling inside her.

“Amy,” Josh groaned as he jerked inside her, shuddering as he rode the wave of his own orgasm. She rode it with him, coming together.

They both slid to the floor and Amy climbed onto his lap, sitting sideways, arms around his neck.

“Where do we go from here Amy?” He planted a soft kiss on the top of her head.

“I don’t know,” she replied, her head resting against his chest, listening to the reassuring sound of his heartbeat. Thud, thud, thud… “But I hope we can work something out. I don’t want to be apart from you again.”

“Me neither,” Josh agreed. “I’m going to find some accommodation here in Verbier for the New Year. How long are you contracted here for?”

“Just until February half term time. Then I’ve got nothing planned. Well unless Holly fires me, that is.” Amy exhaled slowly; could she summon any sympathy for Juliet?

It was a stretch.

Although she did feel some guilt at the chaos she’d caused, she suspected she’d get over it. There were consolations. She nestled against Josh, feeling the tension seeping away.

“They’re always looking for classroom assistants at the British and American schools in the Middle East and there are lots of job opportunities out there for engineers. There’s one I’d like to go for in Oman, it’s very different to Saudi. You’d be able to work and drive and we could go to the beach or wadi bashing in the desert. Would you like that? We could always stay in the UK if you’d like, only I don’t feel ready to go back to Exmoor.”

“I understand,” she replied, finding his hand and squeezing it. “And I think that sounds like fun.”

“So.” Scott looked quizzically down the table at Amy and Josh. “We’re not having the wedding today then, it’s all off?”

“No.” Josh shook his head. “No wedding. But as we’ve already bought the food and drink and your lovely wife has put so much effort into the planning, I thought we could turn the reception into a Christmas Eve party. I think we all could do with a bit of chilling out.”

He had wondered about seeing if he could marry Amy today instead but there wasn’t enough time to sort out the legalities and anyway, it was too soon.

Holly smiled weakly. “Amen to that.” She looked pointedly at Amy. “When you said you were willing to help out I had no idea you were planning to take the whole event off my hands.”

There was humour in her tone though.

Amy smiled wryly. “Sorry about that. But I sort of had to, sometimes you just know, don’t you?”

“Yes,” Holly replied softly. “You do.”