In turn, he kissed his way down her stomach, giving her almost unbearable tremors of pleasure and anticipation. He took her lacy thong in his teeth and tugged it over her hips and down her legs, managing a lot of highly arousing kissing of very sensitive places on the way.
She took him by the shoulders. ‘Josh. No more. I want you inside me. Now. Please.’
He reached for protection from his wallet and obliged.
‘Yes,’ she moaned as he pushed inside her body. Josh. He felt so hard, so powerful, so right. Almost immediately, she shattered into a climax and then another followed when he came.
‘Oh, my gosh, what happened there?’ she said, flushed and satisfied, with post-orgasmic tremors still rippling deliciously through her. The best sex of her life. ‘I couldn’t wait.’
He pushed her hair away from her face where it was falling out of its pins. ‘There’s a time for fast and furious and now there’s the time for a slow exploration,’ he said.
She shimmied her body under him. ‘That sounds very good to me. Shall I start by exploring you?’
‘Let’s explore each other,’ he said. ‘There’s still more to learn about pleasing you.’
He was a fast learner.
Afterwards, she fell asleep in his arms. Some time later they both woke, very early—near dawn, judging from the light in the room—and wordlessly they made love again, as she let her body say what she couldn’t say in words.
* * *
Josh woke to the morning sun streaming through the French doors. He and Eloise had had more important activities to occupy themselves with the previous night than to draw the curtains. Naked, she lay close to him, one hand resting on his shoulder, a long, slender leg resting across his. The sheets were rumpled across her hips, leaving her beautiful breasts bared. Her hair glinted blue-black in a shaft of sunlight that fell across her face, the same shaft he suspected had woken him.
She looked...different. Then he realised her face was free of cosmetics. He vaguely remembered her getting up at some stage to go and wash her face, saying she never slept in her make-up.
Her skin was ivory pale and smooth with a smattering of light freckles on her cheekbones, her natural lashes dark and luxuriant, her mouth an unadorned pink. Her fingernails painted red were the only artifice, short and neatly shaped. He imagined it wouldn’t be so easy to negotiate a sewing machine with long nails. She’d taken off the ruby ring. This Eloise, without her props of attention-getting vintage-style clothes and careful make-up was lovely, a natural beauty. But he liked both looks. He liked Eloise, period.
Aware, perhaps, of his gaze on her, she stirred and opened her lovely blue eyes. She blinked. ‘Josh?’ Then smiled. ‘Josh,’ she said, this time with warmth. She stretched with unconscious grace then rested on her elbow to face him. ‘Last night. We broke every rule. And wasn’t it wonderful?’ A slow, sensual smile spread across her face.
Her hair had tumbled down from its style of the night before, and he pushed it back from her face. ‘It was indeed wonderful. You were wonderful.’ He dropped a kiss on her bare shoulder. He had kissed practically everywhere else on her body last night.
‘Thank you. It goes without saying so were you.’ She paused. ‘It...it wasn’t just sex for me.’
‘No. Not for me either.’
‘I wish—’
‘I want—’
They spoke at the same time.
‘You say what you were going to say,’ she said.
‘No, you go first.’
‘I was going to say, I wish you didn’t live in Boston.’
‘And I was going to say, I want to find a way we could continue to see each other after I go back.’ He’d been thinking of nothing else since they’d first made love. That, and how he could explain why he hadn’t told her about Tori, and that their meeting hadn’t been accidental. Fact was, the more he’d got to know her, the harder it had been to tell her because the more there was at risk in terms of him and her.
‘You mean long-distance dating? I’m not sure that—’
‘We can try and make it work. If we want it enough. And I do, Ellie—’
‘I like it when you call me Ellie.’
‘I’m glad,’ he said. ‘But don’t change the subject. I want to try to keep something going between us. At least try and see how it pans out.’
She traced a finger down his nose and over his mouth. He caught it with his teeth. ‘I like that,’ she murmured as she took it away. ‘It’s not just the long distance. I... I’m frightened of liking you too much.’
‘Why is that?’
‘The more I like you, the more I open myself to hurt.’
‘I wouldn’t hurt you.’
‘Not intentionally, perhaps.’
‘Certainly not intentionally. Have you been hurt before?’ He felt a rush of anger at the thought of anyone hurting her.
‘Hasn’t everyone?’ she said.
‘That’s not what I asked,’ he said. He had to know what he was up against.
‘I’ve been hurt. Of course, I’ve hurt people too. Men I never should have dated.’
He didn’t give a flying fig about the men she had hurt. Although maybe he should. She could have the power to hurt him too—there were definite fissures in that shield around his heart, chiselled by each kiss from this wonderful woman. ‘I don’t care about them. It’s you who interests me.’
She sighed. ‘I started off a romantic, totally believing in happy-ever-after. My parents had a wonderful marriage—classic love at first sight, totally devoted to each other. I honestly thought it would be as easy as that for me too. Meet Mr Right in a shower of moonbeams, fall in love, glide up that aisle. The realities of teenage dating soon beat that delusion out of me. Me, all starry-eyed; him willing to gabble I love you as many times as it took to get what he wanted.’
‘That guy was a jerk. Not all boys were like that. Boys get their hearts broken too.’
‘Did you?’
‘Yes. Probably part of the reason I’m propelled by bitterness and revenge.’
She bit her bottom lip. ‘I’m sorry I said that. It was harsh.’
‘But true. You were right. Meeting you has made me think about how I’m living my life, that maybe it’s not, as you say, so healthy. I need to look forward, not trip myself up by looking backwards for my motivation. But that doesn’t explain why you’re frightened of liking me too much.’
‘When my father died, my mother fell to pieces. An intelligent, capable person like her was utterly lost without him. It took her years to get back on her feet, though she’s never remarried. I saw that and it scared me—the power of love, the pain when you lose it for whatever reason.’
‘So you anticipate the end before you risk the beginning? I’m sorry. But that was your parents. What about you?’
‘The first time I really fell in love was with a guy in Paris. He loved me too. But we couldn’t keep it going long-distance. I was heartbroken. Couldn’t look at anyone else for a long time.’
Jealousy, irrational but powerful, seared through him. He couldn’t bear the thought of her with any other man. It shocked him. He’d only known her a week.
‘How old were you?’
‘Nineteen.’
‘You probably couldn’t have afforded to keep it going. That wouldn’t be an issue with us.’
‘True. But you know it isn’t your wealth that interests me?’
‘If I thought that for even a second, I wouldn’t be here.’ He dropped a kiss on her mouth.
‘I value my independence and I’m frightened of giving over even part of my life for someone else to control. That last guy...the one I told you about who lied to me about who he really was? He made me distrust my own judgement.’
‘Why does it have to be like that? My father had to have everyone under his control. Your parents
were of a different generation. So were mine. When I turned eighteen, when she thought I didn’t need her any more, my mother went back to my father. Of course, I still wasn’t welcome at the house.’
‘Oh, Josh, no wonder you’re bitter.’
‘I haven’t got a great track record with relationships. As I told you, I’ve been a lone wolf. “He who travels fastest, travels alone.” That kind of thing. But meeting you...meeting you is making me look at things differently. Making me think it could be worth taking a risk.’
‘I seem to attract men who want to take charge of me. The last guy was like that too.’
‘What foolish men they must be,’ he said, smiling. ‘If I’ve ever seen anyone who is her own woman, it’s you. It’s one of the things I like about you.’
‘But would you want to change me?’
‘I don’t think so. I like you exactly as you are. But how would we know that, if we didn’t get to know each other better? It’s only been days, though it seems I’ve known you longer. I haven’t had much practice in making compromises, and maybe you’ve made too many. We won’t know unless we try.’
‘All I ask is honesty,’ she said. ‘I can’t forgive lies. Oh, I know we’ve fibbed our hearts out about the engagement, but that’s different; that’s—’
‘A targeted business strategy of purposeful evasion,’ he said.
‘You remembered?’
‘How could I forget?’
‘You’re laughing at me.’
‘I’m not. I think it’s brilliant. But there is something I have to tell you. There’s someone back in Boston.’
‘A girl?’
‘Yes, but it’s not what you think. She’s a very good friend and—’
‘I don’t think I want to hear about it.’
‘You should because—’
The phone in the room rang. He looked at Eloise and she looked back. ‘I suppose we’d better answer it.’
She got out of bed and walked over to the desk where the handset was. She was completely unselfconsciously naked, and utterly enticing. He lay back against the pillow and admired the shapely lines of her beautiful body. That feeling of being on shifting ground returned. He felt as if he was on the edge of something new and important and life-changing. Because of her.
She picked up the phone and listened. ‘Thank you,’ she said and hung up. She turned to him. ‘Breakfast for the house guests is being served in the conservatory for another hour. Do you—?’
‘I’d rather skip breakfast and have you back here in bed with me.’ Could he ever have enough of her?
‘Other appetites, huh?’ she said. ‘I couldn’t agree with you more.’
She slid back under the covers. ‘Thank heaven they gave us this great big bed.’
‘Oh, I don’t know,’ he said, pulling her close to him. ‘I think we could happily have found our way around any size bed.’
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
BY THE TIME he and Eloise had left Silver Trees, stopped for lunch in Bowral and driven the two hours back to Sydney, it was mid-afternoon when she dropped Josh back to his hotel. He’d arranged to spend a few hours there and then go around to her apartment to take her out to dinner. They planned to talk seriously about how they might be the couple who could actually make long-distance work.
But before he did that, he had to call Tori. He hadn’t been honest with her about how he felt about Eloise. But then, he hadn’t been honest with himself—fighting the fact he was falling for her. Right from that first meeting in the park.
Tori was pleased to hear from him. He realised how difficult it must be for her not to know what was happening on the other side of the world. But why the hell hadn’t she connected with Eloise as soon as he’d told her he was certain they were twins? It would have made it so much more straightforward for him. Now it was complicated. Too complicated.
‘How did the wedding go?’ Tori asked.
‘So you remembered that was yesterday?’
‘That you were my twin sister’s plus-one at some big society wedding? Well, yeah. That wasn’t something I’d easily forget.’
He’d known Tori since he was sixteen, but he wasn’t sure how to voice this. ‘It was good. Very good. But I haven’t been completely honest with you.’
He could sense her frown through the phone. ‘What do you mean?’
‘About Eloise. And me. Remember you told me not to develop a thing for her? It was already too late. It’s more than a thing. I’m in love with her.’
There was an indrawn hiss from Tori. ‘Josh. That wasn’t meant to happen.’
‘I know. But it did.’
‘You’ve fallen in love with a woman who looks just like me? Don’t you think that’s a little weird?’
‘Not weird at all. She’s actually nothing like you. I mean that in a good way. You complement each other. You’d see that if you met her. What I’m saying, Tori, is that you have to get in touch with her. I can’t keep lying—to her or to you.’
‘Are you serious, Josh?’
‘Serious about Eloise?’ He paused. ‘Yeah. I am.’
‘I’ve never heard you say that before. Finally he meets the right woman. And it has to be the twin sister I’ve never met. In Australia. You should have told me earlier.’
‘I wasn’t sure. But I’ve told you now. Call her. Please.’
* * *
It was corny, he knew, but Josh arrived at Eloise’s apartment building that evening bearing flowers. It wasn’t something he remembered ever having done since he’d bought a corsage for his prom date back in high school. The florist in the lobby of the hotel was open and on impulse he bought a huge bunch of voluptuous deep pink roses that he thought she might like. A gesture, perhaps, of how different he intended his life to be now. All part of him embracing ‘the kinder side of life’. A life with Eloise in it.
He still firmly believed that her connection with Eloise was Tori’s secret to tell, and the truth of their sisterhood should only be revealed twin to twin. And yet there had to be total honesty between him and Eloise for their fledgling—so new the feathers were still damp and crumpled—relationship to have a chance. Tori had had a few hours to call Eloise. He hoped like hell she had. Because he couldn’t move forward with Eloise until she knew about Tori. And about the part he’d played in the discovery of the twins. How he’d seen that magazine article and pointed it out to Tori; how he’d offered to help by looking up Eloise while he was in Sydney—and why he’d had to evade the truth.
As he waited for Eloise to buzz him through the security door to the block, he tried to put a name to the way he was feeling. Finally he settled on elation. Elation at the prospect of seeing her again. Of being able to explain what had happened. Elation at the prospect of her becoming someone significant in his life. He hadn’t felt like this about a woman for a long time. In fact, he’d never felt like this about a woman because he’d never met a woman like Eloise.
However, the second she opened the door of her apartment to him he knew something was amiss. Her face seemed drained of her usual vivacity, her mouth set in a grim line. She seemed, in a way, diminished. When he lowered his head to kiss her, he really knew something was wrong.
She averted her face, shrugged him away. ‘Don’t touch me,’ she said coldly. She looked at the flowers with an expression he could only describe as scorn.
‘What’s wrong?’ he asked, perplexed. How fleeting had been that feeling of elation. It had come crashing down to smother him.
Eloise stomped away from him into the living room, as if she couldn’t bear to even breathe the same air as him, then whirled back to face him. ‘I’ve just spent the last hour on a video chat with Tori. My twin sister Tori. The sister I had no idea I had, but of course you did.’ Her cheeks were flushed.
Good. Tori had delivered. But her call didn’t seem to have had the effect h
e’d hoped for.
‘She called you.’ He put the flowers down on a side table.
‘She did. Can you imagine what it was like for me? First to find out I had a twin sister. And second to discover you’re a friend of hers and have known about this all the time. That you’ve completely misrepresented yourself. And let me...let me get to like you. You played games with Tori too, with our fake engagement. I had to sort her out about that.’
‘But how—?’ What had Tori said?
‘Funnily enough, Tori follows @lindytheblonde. I told you, millions do. So what does she see but a post mentioning our engagement? With a photo of us dancing very close and looking as though we wanted to tear each other’s clothes off on the dance floor.’
‘Which we probably did.’
‘That’s beside the point. For me, you are now beside the point.’
Her words felt like a kick to the gut. There were no words of his own he could summon up in reply.
‘You’d know better than I do why she hadn’t contacted me earlier, but apparently seeing us “engaged” put a bomb up her. I suspect she wasn’t at all happy about it.’
‘No,’ he said. He had omitted to tell Tori about the fake engagement. He should have. She didn’t know it was fake. It hadn’t seemed important. Not as important as Tori contacting Eloise and telling her the truth. But it must have been a shock. And to see him looking so intimate with Eloise when she’d only just found out they were together.
Tori would be furious he hadn’t told her he was engaged. Even though he actually wasn’t. And that was on top of him not telling her about his feelings for Eloise until today. But his attraction to Eloise had been a force of its own. What had happened with Eloise had developed completely independently of Tori. It had been too private, too personal to share with anyone. It had overridden even his loyalty to his friend. Quite frankly, his intimate time with Eloise was none of Tori’s business. Being lovers, a couple, meant sharing their own private, special world with no one else but each other. He’d found that magical world with Eloise, and now he could see it slipping away.
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