‘It’ll be okay.’

He stops. Pulls her back. ‘If she finds out she’ll hit the roof. She told me not to come back. Told my mum and sister to keep away. She doesn’t want any of us around.’ He remembers her face at the window. Her eyes thick with malice. ‘I think she saw us earlier.’

‘She did and I don’t care. I mean, what can she do? I’m not a child anymore. She can fuck off to hell and stay there for all I care.’

Talk of Eleanor, the thought of her discovering them, dulls the moment. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his tobacco pouch, opens it and retrieves a ready-rolled cigarette. He straightens it, brushing off the stray strands of tobacco, then puts the end in his mouth and lights up.

‘Seriously. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter to me whose son you are or what job you do or don’t do,’ she said. ‘Fuck her. So it pisses her off? Good. I’m done giving a shit what she thinks.’

He draws the smoke into his lungs and exhales slowly.

She holds her hand out for the cigarette and takes a drag when he passes it to her. ‘Her opinion is literally meaningless.’ She passes it back to him. ‘And anyway, they won’t see us, they’ll be asleep by now.’

He takes a last smoke of the cigarette then drops it. The ember glows in the dark and he treads it out with his boot.

They duck down, keeping low to the bramble hedge that runs along the front wall of The Cliff House. She smothers a laugh and he tells her to hush and she laughs again. They pause at the gate. Peer over the top.

‘I told you,’ she whispers. ‘They’ve gone up.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘The living room lights are off and the one in his study. Their bedroom too.’

‘But what if we wake them?’

She stands on tiptoes to kiss him. ‘We’re not going in the house,’ she whispers. ‘We won’t wake them.’

She walks through the gate and he follows, reaches for her waist, rests his fingers against her and feels the heat from her body running into his. His body aches with longing. When they reach the terrace, she pulls him over to the pool. She stops and undoes her skirt. Steps out of it. Then takes her shirt off. She giggles softly as she sits down on the edge of the pool. Her legs dangle in the black water. He glances up at the house. Searches the windows for watching faces.

He walks over to her and she reaches up and pulls gently on the waistband of his jeans. Desire fires through him. His fingers clench and breath comes in shorter snatches.