‘I couldn’t! I was too humiliated,’ she protested.

‘Well, I didn’t know what had happened. One minute everything was wonderful and the next you’d become an ice maiden. I felt a bit humiliated too. I got to feeling that you’d just used me to get rid of your virginity. I tried to put you out of my mind and got back into writing. Now I can understand why—’

‘Don’t.’ She took his hand again and held it tight. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly and they stayed like that for some time until he drew away once more.

‘I wanted to explain about the obsessive writing at the festival but you wouldn’t give me a chance,’ he said quietly.

‘I couldn’t bear the thought of you explaining that what we’d had was very precious but – I’ve read so many damn novels, I know all the expressions – but that you and Bridget were getting married or something.’ Even though she knew for certain this wasn’t going to happen now, the pain it would have caused her made her flinch inwardly. ‘And then there was the story.’

‘What about the story?’ He was confused.

‘I thought it was one of the most beautiful Dear John – or maybe that should be Dear Joan – letters ever written.’

‘Dear God, you’re a terrible one for getting the wrong end of the stick. The story was fiction! And if it was about anyone, it was about Bridget. I never knew how she felt about me until she came up to see me after you’d left.’

Laura sighed deeply, collapsing a little with the weight of her misunderstanding. ‘I just never thought you could really love me. As much as I—’

‘Well, I can,’ he cut in. ‘And if you’re not very careful I’ll prove it to you.’ He enveloped her again and then his mouth found hers and she heard him sigh before their lips connected. It was heavenly.

After a while, she said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t let you make love to me on the sofa in my parents’ house, when they’re probably not even asleep.’

He was breathing hard. ‘It’s OK, I knew you’d feel like that. It’s why I didn’t get undressed. We have the rest of our lives to make love to each other. I’ll go back upstairs to my room but first I need to thank you.’

‘Do you? Are you grateful to me for bringing you to England and to the attention of the literary world once more? You should be! It’ll make you rich and famous. Notorious maybe.’ She felt she could tease him now she definitely knew he loved her.

‘Well, of course I will give you a cut of my earnings – if not all my earnings – from now on in but that’s not what I meant.’

‘No?’