Me-Before-You-by-Jojo-Moyes

‘It’s a hard place to leave.’
‘I didn’t think places like this existed outside films,’ I said, turning so that I
faced him. ‘It has actually made me wonder if you might have been telling the
truth about all the other stuff.’
He was smiling. His whole face seemed relaxed and happy, his eyes crinkling
as he looked at me. I looked at him, and for the first time it wasn’t with a faint
fear gnawing away at my insides.
‘You’re glad you came, right?’ I said, tentatively.
He nodded. ‘Oh yes.’
‘Hah!’ I punched the air.
And then, as someone turned the music up by the bar, I kicked off my shoes
and I began to dance. It sounds stupid – the kind of behaviour that on another
day you might be embarrassed by. But there, in the inky dark, half drunk from
lack of sleep, with the fire and the endless sea and infinite sky, with the sounds
of the music in our ears and Will smiling and my heart bursting with something I
couldn’t quite identify, I just needed to dance. I danced, laughing, not selfconscious,
not worrying about whether anybody could see us. I felt Will’s eyes
on me and I knew he knew – that this was the only possible response to the last
ten days. Hell, to the last six months.
The song ended, and I flopped, breathless, at his feet.
‘You … ’ he said.
‘What?’ My smile was mischievous. I felt fluid, electrified. I barely felt
responsible for myself.
He shook his head.
I rose, slowly, on to my bare feet, walked right up to his chair and then slid on
to his lap so that my face was inches from his. After the previous evening, it
somehow didn’t seem like such a leap to make.
‘You . … ’ His blue eyes, glinting with the light of the fire, locked on to mine.
He smelt of the sun, and the bonfire, and something sharp and citrussy.
I felt something give, deep inside me.
‘You … are something else, Clark.’
I did the only thing I could think of. I leant forward, and I placed my lips on
his. He hesitated, just for a moment, and then he kissed me. And just for a
moment I forgot everything – the million and one reasons I shouldn’t, my fears,