Reluctantly In Love (Emerald Cove Romance Book 1)

by Siân James

  She nodded. “Yeah, this coffee is pretty good,” she whispered, then raised her voice. “Though I think Andy might need a little practice before he tries to sell this to the public.”

  “That’s it, I’m cutting you off, Hughes.” He pointed the porta-filter at me. “What’ll it be, Donovan?”

  I rolled my lips between my teeth to stop my laughter. I decided to throw him a curveball, “Macchiato?”

  “Latte? Done.” He swung the porta-filter to Camille, and I lost my battle with my laughter.

  “Et toi?” Even though Andy had said the French for “And you?”, he’d pronounced it with a horribly literal, Australian accent - “Eht toy?”

  Camille folded her arms gracefully across her chest. “Une noisette, s’il vous plaît?”

  Andy cocked his head as if he was hard of hearing, “A latte? Coming right up.”

  Camille fought with her smile and after a moment she turned away, hiding her amusement. Andy banged away at the coffee machine while Luke read care instructions from the manual.

  I pulled on Tash’s shoulder to get her attention, then leaned close. “Seriously, you want to go for a chat later?”

  Her eyes moved from her coffee to where Luke and Andy were working behind the counter and back again. Automatically I glanced at them too, but they were both focussed on their tasks. I wondered if Andy had said something to upset Tash or if something was going on with their parents.

  She shook her head. “Not tonight, I’ve got some stuff to do. Maybe in a few days?”

  I nodded. “Okay, whenever you need me. What are you doing here anyway, shouldn’t you be in class?”

  She nodded and downed the rest of her coffee, her hand shaking a little and clattering the cup back onto the saucer. “I had non-contact this morning and told my principal I’d be a little late due to personal issues. She was okay with it.” She checked her watch. “I have class in thirty minutes, so I need to scoot. Thank you for inviting me for the maiden service, I look forward to more and better cups.” As she spoke, she stood and moved back. Swinging her fringed handbag over her shoulder, she saluted and ducked as Andy threw a damp, dusty cloth at her.

  She laughed, giving a wave, and left.

  “Latte for you.” Andy distracted me with my coffee.

  It looked great and smelt amazing, but this was my second cup in half an hour, and I was already anxious enough at the thought of possibly seeing Matt today that I didn’t think I needed added stimulation. “I just drank a coffee so if I don’t drink it all, please don’t be offended.”

  “And a latte for you.” Andy handed Camille her mug before turning back to me. “If you don’t drink it all, I’ll be devastated. I’ve put a lot of hard work and effort into learning how to make a good coffee, and I’ve bestowed the first of them with our new machine on my closest friends.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Laying it on a bit thick there.” Despite the fact I knew he was joking, his hazel eyes did that puppy dog thing he perfected as a child—according to Tash—and successfully made me feel guilty. Damnit!

  I grumbled and took a sip as Luke excused himself, leaving through the same door as Tash.

  Holy coffee of the gods, Batman!

  “So?” Andy’s expression was cocky mixed with a hint of hopefulness. Before I could answer Camille gasped beside me. She’d just taken a sip too.

  “Andy, this is delicious.” He straightened and lit up at her praise.

  “Yeah?”

  She nodded fervently.

  “Yeah,” I agreed. ”This is amazing. How do you know how to make such good coffee?”

  “YouTube.” He spoke with pride, and I laughed.

  “But you can only make a latte?” I asked.

  “I haven’t watched the other clips yet.” He shrugged.

  “Well, you have two weeks to perfect your coffees, and you have willing pigs across the way.”

  “I think you mean guinea pigs.”

  She waved away my comment and focussed back on her coffee.

  Luke returned, his face a mask of melancholy.

  “Who stole your favourite toy, mate?” Andy asked and began to clean the porta-filter of coffee grinds while I stared. I’d never seen Luke anything but happy.

  “What?” Luke’s voice was sharp as his focus came back to the room.

  Andy raised a brow, and Luke shook his head as if to rid himself of his bad mood. “Nothing, sorry. Got something on my mind.” He cleared his expression and gave Andy a chin lift. “My turn. Then we need to get ready for the white goods delivery.”

  “Roger that.” Andy replied, handing Luke the porta-filter as if it were a baton.

  “Izzie?” I turned at the sound of my name and saw Gary, my carpenter standing in the doorway of the café. “Need you over here.”

  “Okay, be right there.” I turned back to Andy, “Can I return the mug later?”

  “Sure thing.” He didn’t even look at me as he replied, instead staying focussed on Luke and the espresso machine.

  “Camille, you coming?”

  “No, I think I will stay and watch the show.” She gestured to the boys who were now arguing over the machine and I shrugged.

  “See you later.”

  Chapter 16

  I followed Gary back to the shop where he was waiting by the door.

  “What’s up?”

  He gestured towards the back room. “You’re needed in there.”

  I eyed the door to the workroom then turned back to the carpenter. “Who’s working in there today? Is Rod back?”

  Rod was the plumber, and he’d had a few issues with some measurements for fittings. He’d had to order in some parts and was due back on Monday with the pieces, but maybe he had them sooner.

  Gary shrugged shifting on his feet. “You need to go in there.”

  “Oh-kaaay.” I drew the word out because he was acting weird, and headed towards the back room, mentally cataloguing all the things I needed to get done today. I had to call the company I’d purchased the industrial refrigerator for the flowers from to confirm delivery for next Wednesday, make sure the paint for the back room was ready to go for the weekend, confirm delivery of the new till, and make the appointment for the installation guys to come and—

  “Hey.”

  I squealed and spun from where I’d entered the back room to where Matt stood just behind me.

  He laughed. “Sorry, didn’t meant to scare you.”

  “Holy-crap-on-a-stick. Why do you keep doing that?” I put my hand over my racing heart as I laughed too.

  He looked tired and rumpled. His hands were in his pockets and he stood as if he wasn’t sure of his reception. My chest warmed.

  “Sorry.”

  I waved away his second apology. “No, it’s okay, I was in my head. I should have been paying attention.” His smile, so genuine and happy, made me smile in return. I felt like laughing again but this time just because I was so happy to see him. “It’s nice to see you again.”

  Matt’s eyes ran the length of me, leaving a shiver of awareness in their wake. “Nice?”

  I nodded seriously. “Very nice. I thought you wouldn’t be back until this afternoon?”

  He nodded slowly, one hand lifted to rub at his cheek. “True, but I found I had motivation for getting back quicker.”

  “Oh?” Hope flared at his words but I tamped it down.

  His eyes sparkled with mischief, the corners crinkling. “I was hoping for a better reception than this.”

  “Oh?”

  He ducked his head to grin at his shoes before lifting his eyes back to mine, his expression shifted, like a curtain had been pulled aside and suddenly the weight of his desire shone through. I almost felt the need to take a step back, but instead I found myself taking a step towards him.

  He matched my movement, closing the distance between us.

  “What did you have in mind?” My voice was breathy, and I didn’t give him the chance to finish.

  I launched myself at
him.

  He wasn’t expecting my attack, but he was strong and had good reflexes. As my arms went around his neck and my mouth landed on his, he went back on a foot, his hands going to my waist and the kiss went from zero to a hundred in naught point two seconds.

  Our teeth clashed, banging against each other as we found our rhythm, tongues tangled, sliding sensuously in frenzied harmony. My hands were in his hair, pulling him closer to me, then I drew them down his chest and snuck under his tee to find the soft skin of his stomach over hard planes of muscle. I wanted to map every part of him with my tongue. To begin my plan, I broke the kiss to start tracing kisses along the underside of his jaw when suddenly I felt the hard wall behind me.

  While I’d been lost in exploring as much as I could, he’d been backing me up until he had me pinned. My mouth lost its purchase against his skin as my body involuntarily arched into his, my shoulders using the wall for support and our eyes met. His were blazing blue fire as his hands shaped my waist, slid down to cup my bottom and pulled me in to grind against his hardness.

  My breath hitched. I was no longer in control, and to be fair, neither was he. And I was totally okay with that.

  His mouth crashed down on mine once more, capturing my lips, and I was lost. His hands continued to roam, one kneading the skin at the back of my thigh, fingers finding their way under the leg of my shorts to tickle and grab at my skin, deliciously close but not close enough. His other hand skimmed up my ribs, lifting my arm up and over my head until our fingers tangled as he pressed the back of my hand into the wall.

  His tongue swept inside, dancing with mine, distracting me as his hand at my thigh tugged and I shifted my leg. Immediately his knee slide between mine, wedging his thigh at the apex of my legs. His breathing ragged, he traced a line down my throat. “Is this okay?” His lips near my ear sent goosebumps along my skin.

  “Uh-huh.” I was so turned on, I could barely speak. All I could concentrate on was the delicious friction his thigh was creating as he moved gently back and forth, the tickle of his breath and beard on my neck, and his fingers threaded in mine.

  I gripped the back of his neck with my free hand, moving myself against him as the tension built. I gasped, throwing my head back to suck in more air. Matt lifted his head from my neck to watch my face before capturing my lips in a slow but deep exploration. He held his leg tight against me as I ground down on him, the fingers of his hand at the back of my thigh were now tracing the edge of my panties. If he just moved them to the side he could—-

  I moaned as the tension broke, the thought of Matt’s fingers touching me so intimately sending me over the edge.

  “Shhhhh,” Matt swallowed my moans with his kisses, then stroked the back of my leg as I came down.

  His hand clenched mine, his fingers flexing as if he was trying to get a better grip and he pressed his face into my neck.

  As I caught my breath, the post-orgasmic glow faded, blown away by the reality of what I’d just done. My cheeks, already flushed from my exertion burned with embarrassment though it was tempered as Matt’s lips moved on my neck.

  “Fuck, Izzie.” His words were low and spoken into my skin, and for the first time I noticed the tension in his body. “You’re so fucking sexy.”

  He lifted his head and peered at me, eyes burning with desire as he pressed his hardness into me. “You have no idea what you do to me.”

  “Well, you’ve just had a peek into what you do to me,” I mumbled, embarrassment now tinged with feminine pleasure at his words. They were a balm to my swirling emotions and suddenly what we’d done didn’t seem so crazy. What was happening to me? Was I losing all sense of proprietary?

  I studied Matt’s face, edged in tension and flushed with his own arousal. No, it wasn’t me, it was this man. He made me lose all sense.

  I moved my hand from his neck down his chest, making my way to the front of his pants, but he pulled away, twisting so I couldn’t reach him and grabbed my hand with his free one, wrapping both my arms around his neck.

  “Uh-uh. Not here. I think we’ve stretched the limits of luck enough, don’t you?” He pecked me on the nose, his arms wrapping around my back again and pulling my body flush with his.

  I cringed, thinking of Gary.

  “Don’t worry, no one was here. I asked Gary to give us half an hour—not that I planned this, but I figured a little privacy wouldn’t go astray.”

  I nodded at his words, relief coursing through my body “Good thinking. That was a very good thought.”

  He grinned, blue eyes shining down at me. “What are you doing tonight?”

  Matt. I wanted to be doing Matt tonight.

  I sighed. “I have a conference call with a client I really can’t miss; then, I have quite a bit of work to do.”

  He frowned. “No problem. How about tomorrow?”

  I cringed. “I have a wedding I need to prepare for in the morning, and we’ll be there until early afternoon.”

  “I promised my bother-in-law I’d help him with some landscaping in the afternoon but I’ll be free in the evening,” he added hopefully.

  My face fell. “Tomorrow evening, I have another conference call.”

  Frustration clouded his eyes. There was an urgency to the time we had together; he only had another two or three weeks until he was moving back to Sydney.

  An idea struck me though I was nervous to voice it. I focused on his mouth and smoothed his shirt over his shoulders, trying to gather some courage. “You could always come over after I finished my work …” My voice was breathy and flirty, and I had no idea when I learnt how to do that. Apparently, Matt made me into a sex kitten.

  His features softened, yet his smile morphed from gentle to wicked. “While I like your train of thought, I want to have a date with you before we take things any further.” He softened the blow of his words with a gentle kiss and while I felt the sting of humiliation at his rejection, I also felt a thrill of pleasure knowing he wanted to spend time with me and not just spend the next few weeks hooking up.

  “Okay.”

  The next few minutes were spent in more frustrated discussion as we tried to line our calendars up to find a window for a date, but by the time we’d made it to next weekend things were looking stark. And the worst part was it was mostly my fault.

  “Seems your life is booked solid.” Matt stood over my shoulder, contemplating the calendar on my phone, which had little coloured squares filling up most of my time over the next week.

  “Sorry. When I get home later, I’ll review some of my appointments and see if I can move something around.” Twisting my head around to see him, I smiled apologetically and he nodded.

  “I don’t want to get in the way of your business appointments,” he began, turning me to face him again, “but I’d be very flattered if you could find a little time for me in your schedule. I promise I’ll make it worth your while.” He said this last on an eyebrow waggle, and I grinned. He proceeded to kiss the grin off my face.

  Chapter 17

  “Hey, Mum.” I planted a kiss on her cheek and took my seat opposite her at the small corner table and glanced around. The café was busy, busier than usual for a Friday afternoon, but a storm had rolled in around lunch time and the residual rain was making any tourist or local beach activities questionable.

  “Hey, sweetie. I’ve already ordered you a coffee and I thought we could share some lemon and poppyseed cake.”

  “Yum! Thanks, Mum.” I pulled my wet hair back from my face and wrapped it in a messy bun on top of my head. On hot, rainy, summer afternoons the best I could hope for my hair was that I could contain it before the extreme humidity made it look like I’d stuck my finger in an electrical socket.

  She watched me over her cup of coffee as I settled in the seat and as usual, it made me feel like a bug under a microscope. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my Mum. We had a great relationship but there were times, such as now, where I knew something was on her mind and she felt the need to meddle
.

  I grinned at her, waiting for it to start.

  “So,” she began, “how’s the shop coming along? Need any help with painting or unpacking next week?”

  “Yeah, thanks that would be great. Not the painting—I think we’ve got that covered. We’re hoping to be done by Wednesday, Thursday at the latest. It’ll need a day to cure but we can obviously start moving stuff in, we’ll just have to be careful of the walls. I’d appreciate extra help unpacking and styling.”

  She waved her hand at me. “I’ll unpack but I’ll leave the styling to you and Camille. You girls have such beautiful taste. How is she?”

  “She’s good. She’s picked up some extra online contracts while we’re in limbo, so she hasn’t been around much. But she said she’ll be free from Sunday to get the painting done.”

  “What does she do again?”

  Just then, my coffee and our cake arrived, I thanked the waitress and grabbed a fork to have a taste. “Something technical. I can’t remember. She has a degree in computer science or something similar.”

  “Why doesn’t she do it full time?”

  I shrugged. “She said she needs socialisation or she’ll go insane.” I folded another bite of cake into my mouth and said around the food, “Plus, she loves me.”

  “You do have some very good friends—”

  “Oh! This morning Andy and Luke had the first trial run of their coffee machine.”

  Her face lit up. “Wonderful, how was it?”

  We talked about Andy and Luke’s businesses as well as some of the others that were moving into the smaller shops down the centre arcade. Next to me was a beach themed upmarket homewares and gift shop run by two sisters whose children had all left for university and whose husbands had told them to make themselves busy. Apparently starting a new business wasn’t quite what they had in mind, but they were supportive none-the-less. After peeking in some boxes they had moved the other day, I was excited to see the rest of their stock.

  Mum told me about some work Jim was doing in the garden and how he’d accidentally sprayed part of his veggie patch with turpentine instead of liquid fertiliser.