Charlie was still standing in the doorway, and as she glanced back behind her, Holly caught a glimpse of that adorably shy boy he’d once been. There was something about the tilt of his head as he regarded her, as if he couldn’t quite believe he was standing there, in her bedroom, that took her back again to the night they’d met. In a way, she was comforted, but in another moment, as he moved towards her, the boy had gone, to be replaced by a man with hunger in his eyes, a bucket more self-assurance and the warmest hands.

‘Come here,’ she whispered as she wandered over to her bed. Reaching out a hand, she pulled him down to the mattress, on top of her, his weight both comforting and energising.

‘If you make any jokes about honourable members, I’m leaving,’ Charlie murmured between kisses.

Holly giggled. ‘Don’t worry, I promise to behave.’

Charlie raised an eyebrow. ‘I didn’t say I wanted you to do that.’

And so, after weeks of dancing around each other, and more false starts than were sustained at the annual Mendip cheese rolling contest, they began to explore each other. As Holly slithered out of her dress and pulled Charlie’s T-shirt over his head to reveal his finely toned chest, she felt the current spark between them as their bare skin touched. She was down to her knickers in a few moments more. She wanted to touch and explore every inch of him, and take her time in doing it, despite the haste with which she’d discarded her clothes.

Charlie gently pushed her back onto the soft, downy pillows and ran his hands down her body from her neck, over the curve of her waist, to her thighs. Leaning over her, he planted feather-light kisses from her jaw, down her neck and over her breasts, breathing warmly over a tautening nipple before taking it gently into his mouth. Holly arched her back in the sheer pleasure of it. Mouth occupied, his hands were still exploring, running over her body and up the inside of her thighs to the junction where her knickers were the last barrier to her warm nakedness.

Holly sighed in ecstasy, but, not to be outdone, she pulled Charlie down next to her, kissing his neck and working her own way down his body, kissing and caressing the tantalising line of hair that ran down from his navel and disappeared into the waistband of his tight jersey boxer shorts. Crooking a finger under the elastic, she gave a swift tug and Charlie’s full, erect and ready form was on display in all its glory. She glanced upwards and felt a sharp pinprick of desire hot and insistent in her core as, legs spread and a look of absolute pleasure and abandonment on his face, Charlie groaned as one of her warm hands wrapped around his generous length.