Autumn in London by Louise Bay Page A

to me.
    It was our last full weekend together. My flight was booked for the following Sunday. I had pushed it out until that last possible chance so I was taking the latest flight out despite the fact that I had a full day of meetings on the Monday. It wasn’t the smartest choice but I didn’t want a minute in New York that could be spent in London with her.
    Despite our agreement that we’d live in the present and wouldn’t worry about what happened when I returned home, I’d gently tried to bring up going back to New York with Anna a couple of times. First, I sent her a couple of emails setting out the date I was due back in New York. She hadn’t responded and so I hadn’t brought it up. It had been raised again this weekend. I could tell it was on her mind but for some reason she didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to push her, I wanted her to be happy and if not talking about it was going to to do that then I’d live with it, for now.
    I’d never been in this situation before. I wasn’t good at complicated, I just wanted to make things simple and to me, talking about it would make it simple. I wanted her in New York, with me. That was simple. And if she wouldn’t move then we could do the long distance thing until I could work out a way for us to be together. I’d tried to extend my stay in London but my biggest client was being a pain in my ass about it and New York had said no. They wanted my billable hours back in New York. I could change firms but building a client base in London would not be easy. But she was worth it. She just needed to talk to me about it, to tell me what she wanted. If she didn’t want me then I would go and she’d never hear from me again, but I didn’t think that was it.
    It was Friday night, I was home later than normal because I had things to tie up in London. Despite the time, I’d returned to an empty apartment. I checked my phone to see if she’d texted me. Nothing. I slung my jacket on the back of one of the dining chairs and went into the kitchen to make myself a drink. Her keys jangled in the lock and I grinned, reaching for another glass. I was looking forward to seeing her. Twice this week, when I’d had client dinners, I’d come home to find her asleep with a note asking me to wake her when I got in. I hadn’t woken her and had been chastised the next morning on both occasions. She looked so beautiful when she slept, there was no way I could wake her despite wanting to bury myself in her.
    “Hey, beautiful. I’m in the kitchen,” I called out.
    Her head popped round the door. “You’re back.” She grinned at me. “I have a gift for you.”
    “The last gift you gave me was the only gift I could ever want.” Jesus, I felt my cock stir at the thought of her perfect tits wrapped in that black silk bow.
    “That wasn’t a proper gift. That was my body. This, I bought. I have two.” She placed a shopping bag on the counter and pulled down the sides of the bag to reveal a pumpkin. She grinned at me as if she’d just bought me a boat. Fuck, she was cute.
    “I like the other gift better,” I said.
    She ignored me “You missed Thanksgiving so I thought we could make a weekend of it. We’re going to Jessica and James’ tomorrow afternoon and in the morning you could teach me to carve pumpkins and do whatever else you yanks do this time of year.”
    “Well, we carve pumpkins at Halloween, not Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving we fuck. We spend the whole weekend naked and fucking.”
    She smacked my arm. “You do not.”
    I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her toward me “We do. It’s a huge tradition.”
    “You’re crazy.”
    “Crazy in love with you.”
    That had the desired effect as she spun around in my arms and pressed her lips against mine. “Okay, we can carve pumpkins naked. How’s that for a compromise?”
    “You promise you’ll be naked?”
    She shrugged. “Sure.”
    “Deal.” Naked pumpkin carving. This would be a great