‘Shan’t.’

‘Will.’

David dropped her at the front door of their house on stilts and they climbed the stairs up to the sitting room shushing each other noisily. Ah Heng looked down at them disapprovingly, holding her little backless slippers in her hands.

‘Good night, Master. Good night, Missie. Chil’ren sleep all night.’

She hurried away to her own quarters. ‘Now,’ David said. ‘Do I need a little nightcap?’ ‘No, you do not!’ Fleur said firmly. ‘It’s a good thing you’re not flying tomorrow…Come on, bed.’

‘One small whisky, darling…’

‘You’re going to have a hell of a head in the morning.’

‘Officers do not have hangovers. They merely feel the need to move extremely carefully the next day.’

Fleur moved towards him. He looked wonderful in mess kit, meltingly beautiful.

‘Just come to bed,’ she murmured, kissing his mouth.

He kissed her lightly back, amused. ‘By the time you’ve used the bathroom and hung up your dress, I’ll be there…’

She left him with the whisky decanter and by the time she came out of the bathroom he was sitting on the bed trying to get his boots off. Fleur bent and undid the spurs and then pulled at his boots so hard he fell off the bed. They both giggled.

‘I wonder,’ he said, ‘how many army wives have pulled their husbands’ boots off down the centuries.’

‘And the rest!’ Fleur said, helping him out of his jacket, undoing his braces and pulling his tight dress trousers with the stripe down the side over his hips and down his long legs.

‘What a lovely, capable girl you are!’ David murmured sleepily.

‘Get in!’ Fleur ordered. She poured him water from his jug and he drank two glasses gratefully and fell into bed. Fleur switched the overhead fan off and checked the coil Ah Heng had lit, and then she pulled the mosquito net down and got in beside him.

David scooped her to him and wound his arms around her, as he did every night. He was instantly asleep, but Fleur lay against his body, feeling the warmth of him with longing. Dinner nights were always a hopeless prelude to romance; sex was quite impossible, there was always too much to drink, but oh how she ached to be made love to. She closed her eyes tight, making herself slide into sleep before she sobered up and became maudlin.

She woke early, her back to David, his arm still thrown over her hips. She was unsure what had woken her but she was conscious of David and felt that he was lying awake too, very still. There was something tense in his body and with a surge of happiness Fleur realised he had an erection.

She turned sleepily to him, her body sliding to his, her head buried into his neck. He jumped slightly as if startled that she was awake, then bent to kiss her cheek and the curl of her ear.

Fleur arched, her body trembling as David pulled her small bottom to him and, slowly turning on his back, pulled her over on top of him. Her hair fell around their heads like a curtain, hiding them, locking them together. Fleur bent to his mouth, staring down into his face, his eyes fringed with those incredible black lashes.