‘I have to go,’ the woman said breathlessly as he worked his way along her shoulders.
‘Not yet,’ Adam murmured. ‘I want to taste you … all over.’
What? Sienna’s eyeballs almost shot out. Oh, no. They weren’t going to… Help. Sienna dropped down as he pressed his mouth back to the woman’s and led her towards the berth.
Stunned, Sienna slid further down – to her haunches, trying unsuccessfully to look inconspicuous as a woman emerged from the chandlery to cross the marina. She couldn’t breathe. Physically unable to inhale past the tight knot in her chest, in her tummy, she panted out instead, short shallow breaths. She had to go. Now! Crawl, if necessary. Get out of … Damn! Sienna’s deliberations for tactical retreat were cut short as Tobias’ lead twanged tight. ‘Tobias,’ she whispered. ‘Tobias!’
The cat that sprang from the top of Adam’s boat hissed. With no intention of obeying, Tobias lunged forwards, his tail slashing manically, his lead stretching dangerously, then, ‘Woof! Woof! Woooof!’
The cat, a huge white furball of a cat, spat. Tobias strained. The cat turned tail, and … Splat. Sienna was face down on the quayside. ‘Tobias!’ she screamed, realising she’d lost hold of his lead. ‘Tobias!’ Panic-struck as she sensed movement behind her, Sienna scrambled quickly up to all fours.
Don’t turn around. She told herself firmly. Do not turn around, she willed herself, as an angry male voice shouted, ‘I don’t bloody believe this! Can’t you keep that dog on a leash?’
Her? Keep her dog on a leash? ‘Well, that’s rich!’ Shakily getting up on her feet, Sienna turned to face him, her cheeks flushing furiously. ‘Really rich, from someone who quite obviously needs to keep his penis on a leash!’
Sienna looked Adam over disparagingly, and then reaching up to tighten her lopsided topknot, she turned to flounce off.
‘Sienna! Are you all right?’ Panting and obviously out of breath, having bolted from the chandlery on hearing the commotion, Nathaniel stopped her outside her cottage.
‘Yes!’ Sienna said shortly, her eyes welling up, her knee smarting, her pride badly bruised. ‘No thanks to him.’ Holding Tobias firmly by his collar, she glanced over her shoulder to where Adam was helping the woman from his boat. Proper little Sir Galahad, wasn’t he?
‘Oh, no, not again … I bloody well warned him,’ Nathaniel growled as Sienna dragged a hand under her nose and limped on. ‘I’ll have a word,’ he called behind her.
‘You might have to shout,’ Sienna suggested huffily. ‘He probably won’t hear otherwise, above all the bumping and grinding! Come on, Tobias.’
Feeling very close to tears, Sienna closed her front door and unhooked her disobedient, but loyal, best friend’s lead. ‘Good boy,’ she said, bending to plant a kiss on the dog’s snout. ‘Not like him.’ She sniffed. ‘He’s very bad, Tobias. Very bad indeed.’
God, she was so angry. Hobbling to the kitchen, she topped up the panting dog’s dish with water, and then reached for some paper towelling, wetting it to press to her grit-pitted knee. But why was she angry? Because she’d wanted him to have some redeeming features? Despite her denials, had she truly been harbouring a hope that he might metamorphose from angry-man into Mr Perfect? That his eyes might be opened to his heart’s desire, his every fantasy fulfilled standing before him to the exclusion of all others, making her the only woman he brought to the heights of orgasmic pleasure at night? She really had, hadn’t she, gone quite barking mad? The man was a male prostitute, for goodness sake. Someone women paid to pleasure them. Yes, and he was obviously worth it.
Sienna gulped back an uncomfortable lump in her throat. She had been hoping to see another side to him, she realised, though preferably not his backside. And therein was the basis of her anger. He’d burst her bubble. Ruined her silly fantasy that his anger might only have been about the situation he’d found himself in, sopping wet and feeling foolish. That he might even fancy her. Hah! He’d been nothing but obnoxious to her.
She didn’t care. He wasn’t worth wasting a single second’s emotion on. Sienna swiped at a tear on her cheek. He could sell tickets for all she cared. He probably could too. He’d make a fortune. Ignoring her beeping mobile, which was obviously the ex with more frighteningly persistent, ‘Why are you doing this?’ texts, Sienna sat gingerly on a kitchen chair, then cocked an ear as she heard Nathaniel shout, ‘You are a complete prat, Adam, do you know that?’
‘Nate, I said I’m sorry.’ Adam sounded contrite.
‘Not good enough, mate!’ Nathaniel didn’t sound any less angry. ‘Just bloody well pack it in, Adam, or you can find somewhere else to moor up.’
‘Nate, for Pete’s sake—’
‘And if you’re thinking of going near either one of those girls in that cottage, just don’t, okay!’
Chapter Four
That hair was truly amazing, wild and fiery. Sienna. Adam mentally rolled her name around on his tongue. It was a beautiful name. It suited her. She blushed as he watched her, clearly flustered and not meeting his gaze as she struggled to pull him a pint that wasn’t all head. ‘Thank you,’ he said, as mission finally accomplished, she banged the glass on the bar in front of him.
‘My pleasure,’ she said shortly.
He tried a smile. ‘Obviously.’
Ignoring him, she held out her hand for payment, po-faced still, as she had been from the minute he’d come in, seating himself at the bar, rather than a table further back, where he usually sat attempting to avoid any trouble, particularly from the tyre slashing thugs, who were in tonight, he’d noted. No doubt they were watching him from across the lounge. Adam could almost feel their scorn burning into him. He had no idea what their problem was, unless … Was it possible one of them was related to someone he’d had an affair with? Could be. Adam dearly hoped not.
The landlord, who didn’t exactly welcome him with open arms, didn’t look too ecstatic to see him here either. Adam wasn’t worried about any of that though. If looks could kill, he’d have been six feet under long ago. His concern was for Sienna, who’d avoided him since the boat incident. Three times he’d seen her over the last two days. He’d almost bumped into her coming out of the chandlery. She hadn’t said hello as she usually did, hadn’t smiled. She’d just dropped her gaze and hurried on, and that concerned him. She’d obviously seen or heard something. She was way too close to his boat not to have done. How much he wasn’t sure. ‘Keep the change,’ he said, trying for some kind of dialogue as he handed her a five pound note.
She looked at him at last. Her eyes were green, forest green, and shining with an angry luminosity, not surprisingly. ‘That’s very generous of you.’ She glanced at the landlord and then quickly back to him. ‘Especially as you’re obviously so desperate for money!’
Oh, crap! Adam almost missed his mouth with his pint. She’d seen Sherry leaving the money! He looked after her disbelieving as she flounced off to serve another customer. Now he felt really bad for her, and not very proud of himself. Nate was right. He was a prat. She must have been shocked, to the core probably, and then he’d gone and humiliated her, again, yelling at her, like some kind of Neanderthal. In his own defence, he’d been pretty shocked, too, and he really hadn’t realised she’d fallen over as he’d stormed up on deck. He’d been too busy being annoyed because she’d been in the vicinity of his boat; because he’d guessed that she might have seen what had been going on inside, and it had bothered him. She bothered him. He’d felt something. Seeing her, looking at her properly for the first time the day he’d rescued her dog, he’d felt something more than sexual attraction, felt emotions similar to those he’d had when he’d first met Emily, and it had scared him.
Adam ran his hand through his hair, feeling thoroughly ashamed. She obviously thought he was pathetic. She was probably right. He should go, he decided, his eyes straying again to Sienna as she served someone else. Not sit here as if he was revelling in her humiliation.
‘Another?’ she asked, coming back a
s he finished up his beer.
‘No, thanks. I, er …’ Adam glanced at the landlord, who shot him a look of pure contempt. Adam supposed he’d every right to, having caught him red-handed in the car park with one of the female clientele, ‘… should probably go.’
She shrugged indifferently. Good riddance, Adam got the message. ‘Does it hurt?’ he asked, awkwardly, attempting to redeem himself in some small way. ‘Your knee,’ he added, when she looked at him, puzzled. ‘You grazed it when you fell.’
She shook her head vigorously, causing a spiral of her glorious hair to fall free. Adam badly wanted to reach out and run his fingers through it. ‘Tobias saw a cat. It sprang from the top of your boat …’ she started.
‘Look, I’m sorry,’ he said quickly, wanting to get his apology out there, whatever her reaction.
She looked at him, her lips slightly parted in surprise. Fabulous, full, gorged pink: they were infinitely kissable and wouldn’t need any enhancing with make-up. She was naturally pretty. Very pretty. ‘About what happened on my boat,’ he tacked on, clumsily. ‘I’ve been a bit of an idiot, haven’t I?’
Sienna folded her arms. ‘A lot of one,’ she assured him.
‘And that.’ Adam smiled, embarrassed. ‘Anyway, I just wanted to say I’m sorry. I know you don’t think much of me. I don’t blame you. I wouldn’t think much of me either.’ He paused and considered. ‘Actually, I don’t think much of me, but that aside, I’m truly sorry.’
Sienna eyed him sceptically. ‘Truly sorry?’ she repeated, after a second.
‘Truly.’ Adam dipped his head apologetically. ‘I’ve acted abysmally. Upsetting beautiful young women isn’t something I’m proud of.’
She searched his face and then nodded, blushing again as she did, exquisitely in Adam’s eyes. This was one girl he really would like to get more intimate with. Damn! He needed to stop thinking like that. There was no way on God’s green earth a girl like her would come near someone like him anyway. ‘I’d, er, better go.’ He glanced again at the landlord, who was eyeballing him with open hostility now over the glass he was polishing.
‘Right.’ She continued to study him, her head tilted to one side, as if trying to work him out. She’d succeed where his psychiatrist had failed, if she could.
‘Can I ask you something?’ she said as he made to leave.
‘Ask away,’ he replied, hoping it wasn’t going to be anything too personal in public.
She beckoned him closer. ‘Do you really charge for sex?’
What? Adam glanced quickly around. That was definitely too personal in public. ‘Erm …’ he laughed self-consciously. ‘No, not always.’
She studied him. Curiously? Suspiciously? Adam wasn’t sure. ‘I need to talk to you,’ she said.
Adam scanned her face. Her expression, aloof now, didn’t bode well. ‘About?’ he asked, apprehensively.
She held his gaze. ‘Your activities.’
‘Ah, right.’ Adam dropped his. Obviously she was about to ask him to move his boat to somewhere his ‘activities’ would be a little less troublesome. That wouldn’t surprise him. He’d been asked to move on before. ‘I, er … Fine, but do you think we could maybe not do it here?’
Sienna followed his gaze to where the landlord was still staring at him. ‘I’ll come to your boat tomorrow.’ She nodded determinedly.
Definitely about to tell him to sling his hook, Adam decided, which might just give Nate the perfect opportunity to claim he hadn’t got another mooring spot and tell him to do the same. Served him right, he supposed.
‘No problem,’ he said despondently, pushing himself away from the bar. ‘I have an appointment around noon.’
‘Oh.’ Her gaze went back to curious.
Obviously she was wondering what kind of appointment. ‘A lawn to mow,’ Adam elaborated, with none of his usual blasé amusement. ‘Any time before then is good.’
‘Fine.’ She nodded. ‘How about nine-ish?’
‘I’ll make sure I’m out of bed and fully dressed,’ Adam joked half-heartedly, and then, noticing her gaze hit the floor, dearly wished he hadn’t.
Sienna watched him head for the door, not making eye contact with anyone, as was his tendency. Well, he was definitely an enigma, wasn’t he? She pondered his apology as she pulled a pint for a waiting customer, the spark of vulnerability she’d seen in his eyes. He didn’t like himself. He’d said as much, meaning his Lothario image, she assumed. The fact that he had apologised, come in especially to apologise, seated himself right at the bar, which couldn’t have been easy – the landlord seemed to hate him – meant that he did have feelings beyond his sexual urges. Sienna felt her face heating up at the thoughts that conjured up. But then she’d known there was more to him under the lady-killer façade, despite his best efforts to convince the world there wasn’t. Would a man who had no feelings dive spontaneously into a freezing cold river to rescue a dog? Sienna still thought not.
‘Oi, Sienna, watch what you’re doing,’ the landlord called, jolting her out of her Adam contemplation.
Sienna followed his gaze down to the pint, which was now spilling spectacularly over. ‘Whoops, sorry,’ she said, hastily retracting the glass.
The landlord eyed the ceiling and walked over to her, with a sigh. ‘He’s a bad lot, you know, that one.’ He nodded towards the door through which Adam had just left.
‘I gathered.’ Sienna glanced down and then quickly back as the door swung open again and Adam reappeared, a carrier bag in his hand.
Nodding at the landlord, who folded his arms across his chest and eyed him beadily, Adam walked back to the bar. ‘I didn’t bring it in earlier because I wasn’t sure you’d want to talk to me, but …’ he shrugged with embarrassment and placed the bag on the bar ‘… I got you this. And no, I’m not trying to buy your affections, in case you’re wondering.’ With which, he gave the landlord another short nod and sauntered back out.
But possibly not all bad, Sienna decided, smiling delightedly as she peered in the bag to find a dog-sized life jacket.
‘Are you decent?’ Sienna called through his cabin door, bright and early next morning.
‘As I’ll ever be,’ Adam assured her, hastily stuffing motor magazines and papers under one cushion on the seating area and straightening another, and then deciding it looked too straight and squashing it down again.
He was decent, too. Clean T-shirt and jeans. He’d shaved, tidied up. He had no idea why. Yes he did, because he was hoping he could dissuade her from suggesting he move his boat. He’d made a spectacularly bad impression. He really did feel bad about that. He wanted her to know he was genuinely sorry, for what it was worth. He liked her, he conceded, which was crazy when he didn’t even know her, but there it was. He’d never be someone she’d entertain going out with … Adam paused to ponder that. He hadn’t considered ‘going out’ with anyone in the proper sense since Emily, nor had he thought he ever would. Whatever the outcome of this meeting, though, he’d like to be able to talk to her, if only over the bar at the pub. Apart from Nate and the odd woman who felt safe to be seen with him, he generally sat on his own. His own fault, he guessed.
‘Is it all right if Tobias comes in?’ Sienna poked her head around the door. Her hair was loose again, Adam noticed immediately. Reflecting a thousand iridescent flecks of gold and red, tumbling over her shoulders to her creamy full breasts, it completely took his breath away.
‘Er, yep.’ He smiled and shook his head, feeling definitely disorientated. And then shook it again, as she bent to lift the dog into her arms. She was carrying it in?
‘He’s got bad hips,’ Sienna explained, puffing her hair from her face as she struggled through the door, dog in her arms.
Adam rolled his eyes. He was all for kindness to animals. He loved dogs. He’d been considering getting one himself since Snowball, the fluffy white Chinchilla cat, who’d actually been Emily’s, had died. Wasn’t carrying the dog down the steps taking it a bit far, though?
&n
bsp; ‘He doesn’t do steps very well,’ Sienna enlightened him, negotiating the first step into the boat, ‘so I …’
‘Be careful,’ Adam warned her, moving to lend her a hand. ‘Those steps are slip—Crap!’ Adam got an armful of dog, a face full of dog-tongue, but was unfortunately too late to save the lady.
‘Oo-ouch!’ Sienna sat with a splat, cracking her head on the steps behind her as she landed.
Dammit, he just knew she was going to do that. Setting the dog down, Adam turned quickly back and eased an arm around her to help her to her feet. ‘You okay?’ he asked, worriedly, helping her walk the short distance into the cabin area.
‘Nothing bruised but my pride.’ She smiled, a bit of a wobbly smile, Adam noted. ‘The boat’s swaying,’ she said.
‘It’s not, it’s you. You gave your head an almighty crack on the way down.’ He scanned her face and then looked intently into her eyes, searching for contracted pupils. Beautiful, he thought, even when slightly crossed.
Instinctively, his hand went to the back of her head to check for damage, the other he threaded around her waist, holding her up, holding her to him. Adam breathed in the sweet scent of her as she looked up at him. Her pretty green eyes locked on his, she seemed to be looking right into the depths of his soul. Too close. Adam’s breath hitched in his chest. ‘I, er …’ He swallowed hard, his gaze now on her full, pillow soft lips, which were only inches from his. ‘You need to sit.’
Adam stepped quickly back, putting a safe distance between them, and steered her towards the seating area. ‘Can I get you anything? Tea? Coffee?’ he asked, shoving his straightened, squashed cushion aside to give her some room.
‘Aspirin,’ she suggested, sitting gratefully.
He looked back at her, concerned. ‘Really?’
‘No, I’m fine, honestly,’ she assured him, offering him another smile. She had a nice smile, natural. God, those lips were tempting. ‘Tea would be lovely. Thanks.’
The Rest of My Life Page 5