Holly's Intuition by Saskia Walker Page B

locked the car. “I wish you were my date . I’d appreciate you so much more than he does.”
    I do appreciate her, jerk . Josh’s thought ran around her mind and Hol y suppressed a laugh. Josh shook his head, but he was amused.
    Hol y couldn’t help smiling. To think she’d been nervous about this evening. She straightened her outfit—a new slinky red dress that she’d gone out and bought especial y, and a contrasting black bolero—squeezed his arm, and chuckled. “I have to make a confession…even though it’s not real it feels as if I’m having a date with both of you. You’re gorgeous men, how lucky am I?”
    Was she being naughty? Hel , yes. She did feel like that, but there didn’t seem any harm in saying so.
    Stewart responded by linking her arm. He reached in to kiss her cheek, breathing her in as he did so. “Mmm, you say al the right things.”
    That sparked her libido.
    Joshua stared at the pair of them. Hol y could feel the wave of pride and longing that took hold of him. He rubbed at his head, then shrugged and got on the other side of her, linking her other arm.
    “This does feel good,” Stewart commented.
    Hol y nodded, feeling it too. A decadent sense of fun was loosely in her veins. It was dangerous and she knew it. Her sanity and her affections were at risk. Forty-eight hours earlier she’d been worried about al owing herself that one dinner with them both, and now she’d gone several steps further. But being with them felt too good, and the fact that she was doing Josh a favour made it so much easier to ignore the risks. It was a risk, though. She was a secret voyeur on their private love life, and touching them like this made her crazy. But it was a good kind of crazy, a crazy that made her toss back her hair and savour the feeling of liberation that coursed through her.
    “Come on,” Josh said, “let’s party.”
    Hol y couldn’t stop smiling, which meant she entered the Dawson family home on a wave of tremulous anticipation the likes of which she hadn’t experienced before.
    It won’t last.
    Where did that thought come from? Hol y wasn’t sure any more, but she hated the rude interruption to such a great moment. She glanced at Joshua.
    He felt that way too, but she would have anyway. He glanced at his companions from under hooded eyes, watchful and protective. His doubts were being pushed down, but they ran deep and they were indelible. Hol y stepped into the house with her chin lifted, determined to support him.
    Everyone they encountered embraced Josh and he could hardly get the introductions done. Mrs Dawson was apparently on the look-out, and they’d barely made it halfway down the hal way when she popped her head around the door from the room beyond and darted out to greet them.
    Mrs Dawson embraced her with genuine warmth. “It’s lovely to see you again, and to see Joshua with a girlfriend,” she said, “you’re very welcome my dear.”
    “Just friends, Mum,” Joshua stated, with a warning glance at Stewart.
    His mother waved her hand at him as if he was talking nonsense.
    Even though he’d clarified, his mother’s welcome made Hol y feel like an impostor and that level ed her mood somewhat. As if that wasn’t bad enough, she started to get vibes from Joshua immediately. He’d been hit by the realisation that Stewart was right—pretending to have a girlfriend was only going to make it worse for him in the long run. Guilt weighed heavily on him.
    Stewart, who instinctively seemed to be aware of the shifting tides of emotion, stepped in and shook Mrs Dawson’s hand. “Lovely to see you again, and might I say how radiant you look.”
    Josh’s mother beamed.
    “Many thanks for inviting me,” he added.
    She embraced him fondly. “Nonsense, it’s lovely to have you here, and you must both come to the wedding as wel . I insist on it.”
    Joshua’s head lifted and he looked at his mother with an inquiring glance.
    Obviously sensitive to his concern, she