Holiday with a Stranger

by Christy McKellen

  He knew there was no future in this. She was too work-focused and he wasn’t going to be around for much longer. But that hadn’t stopped him kissing her. There wouldn’t be enough time for an affair with her to become a problem, he assured himself. Anyway, perhaps he was doing some good here? The emoting had already yielded spectacular results.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, her voice tight. Sitting up and pushing her shoulders back, she looked him directly in the eye, as if to challenge him to defy her.

  ‘Why?’

  Josie’s discomfort was evident: her fingers drummed against the ground and she scuffed her toes through the grass. She clearly needed a little push in the right direction, but logical argument was his only option.

  ‘You know why,’ she said.

  He sat back on his haunches and ran a hand through his hair, gaining a moment to collect himself. ‘Okay, Josie, listen. Let’s cut the bull. We can dance around each other for the rest of the week, or we can be honest and stop wasting the little time we have together. I like you. You’re a bit strange and uptight, and far too wrapped up in your career, but, hell, everyone’s got their down sides.’ He waited until she caught his eye, and then grinned.

  Josie reluctantly smiled back. ‘Thanks,’ she said dryly.

  ‘Seriously...’ He took a breath. ‘We’re totally wrong for each other, but I reckon we both understand what’s going on here. We don’t have a future. We live in different worlds. But we do have a connection.’

  He put his hand out to rub his thumb gently along her jawbone and felt her quiver beneath his touch.

  Vindicated.

  ‘The whole point of this holiday was for you to step away from reality, right?’ he said, dropping his hand down to her waist and moving his thumb in gentle circles around her hip bone.

  ‘I guess.’ Her breath came out in irregular gasps. She didn’t seem to be able to meet his eyes.

  ‘So go with it.’

  * * *

  Josie couldn’t look at him. She didn’t want him to see how weak she was, how very near the edge. Instead she watched her own hand as she moved it to Connor’s chest and felt his heart beating against her fingertips.

  It picked up its pace, mirroring her own.

  She knew this was a dangerous game she was playing, but something inside her had taken over. Her heart flipped. What was she getting herself into?

  He moved forward, his eyes capturing hers, and raised his hand to tip her chin so her mouth was lined up with his own. She felt the vibration of his breath on her lips.

  ‘I think you’re cheating yourself, Josie. I think you want me as much as I want you.’

  The truth was she was terrified she wouldn’t be able to handle the heartache that was sure to come with any sort of emotional attachment to Connor. And she would get attached to him. So easily. If she let herself. He’d already made her feel things she hadn’t experienced before, things she couldn’t even begin to explain.

  It was decision time.

  Her body gave a throb of longing, as if trying to tell her which way to go. She thought about how long it had been since she’d been so attracted to someone and how few treats she’d allowed herself in the past few years. How hard she’d worked for very little return.

  To hell with it. She’d let events take their course. She could handle a fling with him—she’d have to. The prospect of not having him now seemed so much worse than anything a short fling would do to her. At least she knew that was all it would be; she was going in with her eyes open. After all, she deserved some excitement in her life. She had nothing left to be afraid of. He already knew the worst of her and he was still here; that had to count for something.

  ‘You want this too,’ he said, his gaze raking her face. ‘Don’t you?’

  ‘Yes.’ She was shocked by how forcefully the word left her mouth.

  ‘Good. Come with me.’

  Standing up, he offered her his hand and she put hers inside it, gripping him tightly in her excitement. He pulled her to stand as if he was lifting a feather. Without another word he walked quickly back to the farmhouse, towing her with him, his long strides eating up the distance so she had to take two steps to his every one.

  As soon as they made it inside he dragged her upstairs into the bedroom, slamming the door closed behind them.

  Josie stood there, unsure what to do or say next, the blood pounding in her ears, her body humming with expectation. The air between them hung heavy with promise.

  ‘So, Josie...’

  His deep voice cut through the fuzziness in her head.

  ‘You’re sure you can handle a fling with me?’

  Taking a ragged breath, Josie drew herself up to her full height. ‘Of course I can.’

  Before she registered what was happening Connor moved towards her, pushing her against the wall and trapping her within the cage of his body. He looked down at her, searching her face, his eyes alive with lust.

  ‘You sure you’ve got time for me right now?’ His voice was low and smooth and resonated through her bones.

  Josie tipped her chin to look at him with as much poise as she could muster—which wasn’t much. She was in over her head here. He was the quintessential man: powerful, self-contained and in control. And he knew it.

  ‘I think I have a window.’ Her words came out a little breathlessly, as if she’d just run a mile. His nearness was making her body react in strange ways. Her chest squeezed at her lungs, reducing their capacity and making her feel light-headed, and the space between her legs throbbed in anticipation of what was to come.

  She gasped as his hand cupped her chin firmly, his thumb gently stroking against her mouth, causing it to open against the pressure of the movement.

  ‘Let’s see if we can’t distract that big brain of yours for a while.’

  Bringing his lips down hard onto hers, he forced her mouth open, his tongue sliding firmly against hers. Stating his intent.

  She let herself go and moved her mouth instinctively against his.

  He was all around her, enveloping her senses. Every cell in her body wanted him closer, deeper, tighter. His hands grasped the back of her hair, holding her face to his. Escape would have been impossible. Not that she wanted that—now she’d finally surrendered to the inevitable she wanted it all.

  Snaking her arms around his back, she ran her fingers up under his T-shirt to find the taut muscles and soft skin underneath. She heard him groan as her touch traced the bumps of his spine, then ran along the dips under his shoulder blades. Connor dragged his lips away from hers and yanked the T-shirt over his head in one swift movement, dropping it onto the floor next to him.

  ‘Your turn,’ he said, taking a step back to watch her.

  She thought she’d feel self-conscious undressing in front of him, but his approving gaze made her bold. Slowly she slipped her T-shirt off, followed by her bra, until she stood there topless, mirroring him.

  His gaze ran over her face, then down her neck to her breasts, where he lingered for a moment.

  Josie’s body pulsed with hunger for him.

  Raising his hands to cup her breasts, he rubbed his thumbs gently over her nipples and she gasped as desire flooded her body, sending exquisite currents zinging to places she’d never realised could feel so turned on.

  ‘You know, orgasms are good for headaches too. Something to do with endorphins,’ he said, moving forward to kiss the sensitive spot behind her ear.

  ‘You’re offering to be my personal painkiller?’ Her voice came out in a throaty gasp.

  ‘It’s a double win,’ he murmured against her neck.

  Moving his hands to grasp under her bottom, he lifted her off the floor and against him as if she weighed nothing.

  Wrapping her legs around his waist, she pressed herself into his har
d body, delighting in the feel of his erection against her stomach. She moved herself up and down against him, desperate to get closer, aching to feel him inside her.

  Connor obviously wanted the same thing, because he spun around and carried her over to the bed, dropping her down onto soft pillows, his body pressing in on top of her. Their kissing was frantic now. It was such a release to be free of worry and to just let herself feel.

  Connor shifted his position so he was kneeling above her. He broke the kiss and sat up, pulling her remaining clothes away in one swift movement, before tearing off his own and returning to kiss her.

  ‘You’re so beautiful,’ he breathed against her mouth, dropping kisses along her cheek, onto her nose, across her forehead and closed eyes.

  His tongue drew gentle circles against the outside of her ear, sending new tendrils of longing straight between her thighs. His fingers worked magic on her skin, teasing their way down her stomach to the top of her soft mound of hair. She arched towards him, desperate for his touch to move lower. It did, parting her folds to find the sensitive nub of her clit. With infinite care he swirled the pads of his fingertips against her, the rhythmical motion causing spasms of sweet, almost painfully intense sensation to rip through her. She moved against his touch, wanting more, wanting him deeper. Finally his fingers slid easily inside her, discovering how ready she was for him.

  A groan erupted from her throat as he moved his fingers in and out, his thumb still circling the little bundle of nerves, the tips of his fingers massaging a sensitive spot of pleasure deep inside her.

  She was vaguely aware of him moving down the bed, trailing hot kisses across the sensitised skin of her neck and breasts and grazing over the tingling peaks of her nipples, before moving lower to the dip of her belly button. His breath, hot against her already burning skin, sent shivers of pleasure to where his fingers worked, heightening the buzz he was already creating there. He moved his thumb from her throbbing clit and the heat of his mouth took over, sending an increasingly intense throb of sweet agony through her body.

  His tongue flicked over and over the swollen nub while his fingers worked inside her, driving deeper and twisting inside to catch her sensitive G-spot on their way out.

  Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more he withdrew from her, bending away, leaving her startled and dismayed.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she nearly shouted.

  He turned back with a devilish grin on his face. ‘I’m getting protection,’ he said, holding up his shorts, then extracting a condom from the wallet in his back pocket.

  Josie exhaled hard in relief. For one awful moment she’d thought he was stopping, but Connor had no intention of doing such a thing. After rolling the condom on he was back with her, sliding between her legs, roughly pressing her thighs further apart. Their gazes locked, their faces only millimetres apart. The masculine smell of him invaded her senses, mingling with the sun-warmed scent of their skin.

  ‘How much do you want me right now?’ he teased.

  She felt the tip of his erection pressing gently against the slick opening to her. She wriggled, trying to push him inside.

  He moved down, away from her. ‘Answer the question, Josie.’ His voice was ragged, as though he was struggling to keep it together, and the mere thought of seeing him lose his cool made her body throb with arousal.

  ‘More than I’ve ever wanted anything.’ She wasn’t lying; she couldn’t remember a time when she’d been so desperate to have something. She certainly hadn’t ever wanted someone this much before.

  ‘I want you to remember that feeling when you’re back in your stuffy boardroom,’ he whispered into her ear as he entered her, driving in hard and taking her breath away.

  She had never fully connected with sex. She was too self-aware, too involved in her own head. Were the mechanics right? Was this the optimum position for a fast and satisfying orgasm? If she pressed this and tweaked that would it make her a better lover? The kaleidoscope of worries spinning through her head made her suddenly nervous. She so didn’t want to get this wrong.

  ‘Relax,’ he murmured, obviously sensing her new tension.

  Wiping her mind, she softened her muscles and let him take the lead, not allowing herself to think about how it was happening, only knowing that it was.

  As Connor increased his pace they moved frantically together, each trying to draw out the ultimate amount of pleasure from the other, their bodies slippery in the heat.

  Josie was lost in sensation like nothing she’d ever experienced before. The feel of his hard body pressed to her, trapped between her legs, was driving her wild. He smelt so good—so earthy and hot. His muscles moved under his soft skin, twisting and stretching beneath her fingertips, proving his strength to her over and over again.

  Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the rasp of his stubble against her cheeks and the driving hardness inside her. His body was hitting sensitive spots over and over, until she couldn’t have stopped moving against him if her life had depended on it.

  Connor’s increasingly powerful thrusts finally tipped her over the edge. Exquisite sensation spiralled out from within her, rushing through her body, sending a surge of blood through her ears and behind her eyes, turning her world black. She was only semi-aware of Connor reaching his own climax, before collapsing across her, holding her hard against him in a possessive embrace.

  * * *

  Connor lay with Josie beneath him, their limbs entwined, his body throbbing from the aftershock of his orgasm. It had been such an intense build-up with her that his body had thrown everything it had at satisfying his desperate need.

  She wriggled beneath him and he levered himself up on his elbows to move his weight off her.

  ‘Sorry, am I squashing you?’

  She smiled up at him, a hazy look in her eyes. ‘Squash away. I was quite enjoying being trapped here under you.’

  He laughed, but pulled himself away from her into a sitting position, tugging off the condom. Josie reclined back against the pillows, her arms splayed above her head, her breasts rising gently in front of him. He wanted to kiss them, to take her rose-pink nipples in his mouth and gently bite them until she moaned.

  So that was what he did, straddling her body and sliding a hand down to tease the soft skin of her thighs.

  His body was ready for her again in an instant.

  Somehow he’d known they’d end up like this. What he couldn’t have guessed was how incredible it was going to be. Just how much he’d want her even now.

  A vague discomfort pushed at the edge of his consciousness, but he ignored it in order to concentrate fully on Josie and her magnificent body.

  She writhed beneath him, her pelvis tipped up, arching her back to try and make contact with him again.

  He raised his head to look at her. ‘So, was it worth it?’

  ‘What?’ Her voice sounded guttural after their exertions.

  ‘Giving in to your instincts for a change?’

  ‘So worth it.’ She smiled and pulled his face towards hers, kissing him hard on the mouth.

  She tasted so sweet. He could happily lose himself in the taste of her, the smell of her skin, the softness of her touch.

  ‘I’m so glad I let you stay,’ he said, stifling her laugh of protest with a kiss. Pulling away, he looked her in the eye. ‘How’s your head now?’

  She gave him a quizzical frown. ‘Are we talking about my pain level or my sanity?’

  He laughed. ‘Your headache.’

  ‘Gone, thanks to your miracle cure.’

  She snaked her arms around him, running her fingertips over his back, making the skin tingle where she touched him.

  ‘Glad to hear it.’

  She closed her eyes and exhaled sharply through her nose. ‘This is not at all what I expected from my ho
liday when I arrived here.’

  ‘It’s turning out to be a pretty good break after all, huh?’ He pushed a stray lock of hair off her forehead.

  She opened her eyes and looked at him. ‘I can’t complain,’ she said, her smile more relaxed than he’d ever seen it. Wriggling up the bed, she extricated herself from the cage of his body and moved to sit up.

  ‘I don’t know if my legs are going to hold me.’ She grinned sheepishly at him.

  ‘Where are you going?’

  That couldn’t be it, surely? The thought of being packed off downstairs to sleep made his stomach sink. He’d hoped this had only been the prelude to a long night of exploring Josie’s remarkably responsive body.

  ‘Bathroom.’

  ‘Well, hurry back,’ he said, flipping onto his back. He smiled as her gaze slid down his torso and she raised an amused eyebrow.

  ‘As you can see, I’m not finished with you yet,’ he said. ‘Not even close.’

  SIX

  When Josie woke the next morning it took a few seconds for the events of the previous day to rush back. Heat swept through her, bringing with it a crushing mixture of embarrassment and lust.

  Had she really yelled expletives across the calm French landscape and then shagged her business partner’s estranged brother? She wouldn’t be surprised to find she’d dreamed it. It was all so surreal.

  Sitting up, she took a slow breath before turning to look at Connor, sleeping soundly next to her. He was lying on his side, facing her, his top arm slung forward across his bare chest. In the semi-darkness she could only just make out the contours of his face, his strong jaw and high cheekbones, the slash of his eyebrow.

  He was quite something to look at.

  She allowed herself to imagine for a second what it would be like to wake up next to him every day. The thought made her tremble. He unnerved her. He definitely wasn’t the type of guy she usually went for. He was too unpredictable, too unstable. She liked men she could feel secure around. Men she could control. And that wasn’t Connor by any stretch of the imagination.