Christmas at the Little Clock House on the Green. Eve Devon

candidate to be the one, don’t you?’

      Kate gave a tired smile. ‘You do realise how dangerous it is to pander to my quirk?’

      ‘What can I say, I live for danger.’

      Biggest fib, right there, Kate thought because while she knew Daniel thought nothing of taking calculated risks, she also knew the chaos he’d grown up with. Living for danger was not what he was about at all but she loved making him laugh and so she rose to her feet and did some over-the-top stretching motions.

      ‘Remember you asked for this,’ she warned and wafting her hands up and down like she was trying to take-off, she turned around in circles clockwise and then counter-clockwise chanting nonsense about positivity under her breath in a poor imitation of the dance she’d made up after one too many honey martinis had made her feel invincible. At the end of it she plonked herself back down in her chair, knackered. ‘That’s the next candidate for the job sorted, then,’ she said, trying not to worry that she didn’t actually have anyone lined up. ‘By the way, thank you for letting me book an office. Mine’s got a massage table in it that I’m certain wasn’t in there last night.’

      ‘So what’s the verdict on the tech?’ Daniel asked, with a nod to the set-up she was sat in front of.

      Kate swung her chair back to the computer in front of her and sighed appreciatively. ‘I’m appropriately jealous. Everything up here seems higher-spec than we put in downstairs.’

      ‘You don’t need clients geeking-out over the I.T. downstairs. You want them sighing with pleasure over treatments. You were right to keep the set-up on the lower floors unobtrusive. Doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the compliment though.’

      Kate grinned with pride for him.

      He’d done a fantastic job of matching the aesthete of the spa and hair salon without making Hive @ The Clock House feel too girly. The attic rooms had been beautifully converted so that they now housed an open-plan area for hot-desking, a kitchen area with a long table in, and five meeting rooms with full conference facilities. The original oak flooring had been sanded and re-varnished, so that it set off the white furniture to its best. The clock mechanism had been encased in thick glass walls and formed the centre-point of the cleverly-thought-out space. Throughout, Daniel had added potted trees to soften the look. He’d married the country-chic feel of downstairs with the industrial-loft look perfectly.

      ‘I thought the demented pigeon dance would get rid of some of these knots,’ Daniel said, lowering his hand to her shoulders to start rubbing at the tension. ‘But you need a good massage. Smooth out some of the stress-kinks.’

      Kate purred. ‘The problem with learning all these new skills is I can’t do them on myself.’ She thought of the half a dozen workbooks on her bed back at the cottage. Was she completely mad to be studying for her diploma in beauty therapy while opening her business? And, yet, she thought, taking Daniel’s advice and determinedly channelling positivity, the sooner she completed her qualification, the sooner she could add those skills to her business degree and ensure the spa ran as smoothly as possible.

      Daniel leaned down to whisper in her ear, ‘Hey, you know we’ve got time until our meeting. Forget those emails. I’ve an idea or two of how we can work out some of these kinks.’

      ‘You have?’ Kate’s grin turned sultry as she spun around in her chair again and lifted her arms to lace around his neck. ‘Oh,’ she said as her ever-working mind remembered something else she’d written on her list. ‘I meant to ask you, don’t you think maybe we should have put in some of those standing desks up here?’

      Daniel reached out and cranked a lever under the desk, laughing as the desk Kate was sat in front of, rose smoothly up into the air.

      ‘Wow, that’s—’

      ‘Impressive?’ he said knowingly. ‘Now this,’ he said picking her up with an ease that she found exciting and lowering her onto the higher surface of the desk, ‘is a much better height for what I have in mind.’

      ‘You mean for not putting your back out,’ she said with a laugh.

      ‘Practicality—’

      ‘Looks so sexy on you,’ she finished for him.

      ‘Thank you.’

      ‘Oh, did you decide what you wanted to do about asking your mother down for Christmas?’

      Daniel lifted his head. ‘Wow. Did you just ask about my mother while I was getting ready to unbutton your blouse?’

      ‘God, I think I did. I’m sorry. I’ve got too much stuff going on up here,’ she said pointing to her head. ‘As soon as I stop thinking about one thing, the next comes to the surface.’

      Daniel tilted her jaw and rubbed the pad of his finger across her bottom lip. ‘Perhaps if I occupy these for a while, the message that you’ve got to stop stressing about absolutely everything will get through.’

      She pretended to think before replying, ‘I suppose we could give your plan a go,’ and then her grin turned into a wince of regret as her phone alarm went off with another reminder that she should be doing anything else but sneaking a little time with the man that could make her heart beat crazy-fast. ‘We’ll have to wait until later.’

      The pout on Daniel’s face was comical. ‘Why did I have the feeling you were going to say that?’

      Kate’s mouth turned down to match Daniel’s. ‘Because I always seem to be saying that, lately? I know. It’ll get better.’

      Daniel chuckled. ‘You do know it’s actually going to get worse, right?’

      ‘I know. But—’

      ‘We’ll always have after hours.’ He leaned in to kiss the hollow of her left cheekbone.

      ‘Yes.’ Although to be fair, with all the work they both still needed to do to ensure they opened on time, the nights were getting shorter as well.

      ‘My place or yours tonight?’ he asked, playfully nipping at her lower lip.

      Kate hesitated and distracted him by kissing the underside of his jaw. His place was right next to hers so technically what did it matter? They both had the exact same size bed – the only ones that would fit into the size rooms their side-by-side cottages had. But hers…

      She really liked waking up in hers. Liked taking comfort from being unpacked and seeing her things carelessly dotted around.

      ‘Mine, I think. Is that okay?’

      ‘Hey, I’m happy anywhere you are.’

      Kate smiled. Of course if they moved in together he could be with her all the time.

      ‘You think we’ll still have the energy for “after hours” when we’re working even longer hours?’ Daniel asked.

      ‘We’d better. I refuse to let Mum and Big Kev outshine us in the romance department.’ Her mum had been seeing Big Kev who ran the corner shop for months now. Although for some reason she refused to give out the confirmation memo, so everyone still had to pretend he wasn’t romancing her after hours amongst the bakery goods. Oh, that reminded her … Kate still needed to ask her mum if she’d be interested in doing the baking for Cocktails & Chai when business slowed down at the B&B which she ran.

      ‘Rain-check, then?’ Daniel asked.

      ‘Til tonight.’

      ‘Tonight. Your place. And to tide us over—’

      ‘Kate, you up here? Oops. Sorry,’ Juliet apologised as she reached the top of the stairs and spied them mid-clinch.

      ‘Don’t be silly. It’s fine,’ Kate assured.

      Daniel cleared his throat and smiled. ‘Kate and I were just testing out the system.’

      ‘Right,’ Juliet gave a knowing nod. ‘Oscar and I