For the first time in her life, however, she felt a twinge of broodiness, a longing to hold a baby of her own. Wow. The fierceness of the yearning took her by surprise. Where had that come from?
If I have a boy, I’ll call it Harry. Her throat tightened, and she bent to place a kiss on the baby’s head.
She looked up, and her breath caught in her throat. Joss stood in the doorway, leaning against the post. He was watching her, and his eyes were filled with warmth that heated her up from the inside out.
“Maisey thinks you’re sexy,” Sammy announced.
That made them both laugh.
“Sammy,” Ethan hissed. “That’s rude.”
“It’s okay,” Maisey said. “I think he knows already.”
Joss grinned and walked in. “Liam’s getting dressed.” He looked at the baby in her arms. “It suits you.”
Maisey flushed. “You want to hold her?”
Usually, any mention of babies made the males in their group of friends hyperventilate and grab the nearest paper bag. Joss, however, nodded, and he bent and picked the baby out of her arms.
“Hello, Maggot.” He swung the baby up and planted a big kiss on her cheek, and she giggled, took out her pacifier and bonked him on the head with it. “Thank you.” He kissed her again, unperturbed, clearly used to being assaulted at close quarters.
Maisey smiled. Of course, he was used to handling all his sister’s kids, plus he must meet a lot of babies in his surgery. She’d never thought about him like that before. In her head, he was still eighteen, wicked and daredevil, riding skateboards, diving off the highest board in the pool, and playing console games into the early hours. She’d forgotten he’d grown up.
She wasn’t sure whether she was disappointed or thrilled at the thought.
Hayley came back in with what looked like a school bag. “That was Rachel’s mum. You left this in her car again,” she scolded her daughter. “Honestly.” She smiled at Joss. “Playing uncle again?”
“She’s gorgeous.” He handed the baby over to her mum. “Right, I’d better get Liam to the pool. It’s nearly time for his lesson.”
“Oh, he can’t find his trunks, I forgot.”
“It’s okay. I spotted them on the line.”
On cue, Liam came in dressed in his T-shirt and swim shorts. His eyes looked red, but his mother didn’t seem to notice and merely told him off for not brushing his hair.
“I’ll pick him up at seven,” Joss told his sister, and they said goodbye and went out to the car. Liam climbed in the back while Maisey slid into the passenger seat. Joss helped her with the seatbelt again, then started the engine. “Okay, got everything? Towel? Change of clothes?”
Liam nodded, and Joss drove away.
Maisey turned in the seat and smiled over her shoulder at the boy. He’d definitely been crying, she thought. “Do you take lessons at Fins and Flippers?”
“Yes,” he said.
“I used to as well. Is The Dragon still there?”
Liam grinned. “Yes. She’s about a hundred and fifty.”
“She was about a hundred and fifty when I was there. I can’t believe she’s still going. ‘Tumble and turn, Maisey!’ she used to yell at me.”
The boy laughed. “Yes, that’s her.”
“What are you doing tonight?”
“Survival skills, I think. We sit on a floating mat in the deep end and they tip us in, and we have to swim to the side.”
“Cool.”
He nodded. “I’m a good swimmer.”
“I know. Your uncle told me on the way here you’re the best swimmer he knows.”
It was a white lie, but it worked. The boy gave a nonchalant shrug, but he couldn’t stop a smile of pleasure creeping onto his face.
She turned back in her seat and caught Joss looking at her. “What?”
He shook his head and chuckled. “Nothing.”
The indoor pool was only a few hundred yards farther, and Joss pulled into the car park and took Liam inside. He came out a few moments later and got back in the car, sat there for a moment, and blew out a long breath.
“You okay?” Maisey rubbed his arm. “You look tired.”
“Nah, I’m good.” He smiled at her. “That was a nice thing to say to Liam.”
“Kid looked like he needed a compliment. Had he been crying?”
“Yeah.” Joss put the car in gear and headed down the road. “He’s finding it tough.”
“I bet. It must be difficult if your parents have an acrimonious breakup like that.”
“Yeah.”
She scratched at a mark on her skirt. “Joss? Who’s Ana?”
He glanced across, surprised, and then his lips curved. “You’ve been talking to Hayley.”
“She did happen to mention it in passing. But Kole also said you came back to Mangonui because of ‘ex troubles’. Is Ana your ex?”
He looked back at the road. “Yes.”
“What happened?” She touched his arm again. “You don’t have to tell me. But I’d like to know.”
He drew a long breath in, let it out slowly. For a moment, Maisey didn’t think he was going to answer her. Then he began to talk. “I met her when I was working in South America. She was a doctor too, from Brazil, although she travelled a lot—her parents were quite wealthy.” He indicated and turned onto the main state highway, heading for Maisey’s house.
“What was she like?”
“Gorgeous, sexy, clever.” His distant gaze remained on the road, but he was obviously picturing Ana. “I’d dated lots of girls, but in many ways she was my first real girlfriend—the first that had lasted longer than a few months, anyway.”
“How long were you together?”
“We lived in Brazil for a while, then went to Australia. It was fun in the beginning. I wanted to be with her, so I didn’t really notice any problems, you know? Life was busy and exciting. When it was time to return to New Zealand, I asked her to come with me, and she said yes. I was ecstatic.”
He’d slowed the car as the road meandered. “We rented a flat in Wellington, and I took a job at the hospital. I hadn’t brought her up here to meet everyone… I don’t know why. Life was intense, and I suppose I wanted to keep her to myself a bit longer. I was…I don’t know…consumed by her. She was all I could think about.”
Maisey said nothing, struck by a peculiar jealousy. Not necessarily for Ana, just for the intensity of their relationship. She’d never experienced anything like that.
He sighed. “But after a couple of months, I began to feel constricted. She wanted to be by my side all the time. She rang me constantly at work. Every time I was five minutes late or went out with a friend for dinner, she threw a fit. She was like plastic wrap that stuck to me with static, impossible to shake free.” He stopped and glanced at Maisey. All amusement had faded from his face now. “That sounded terrible.”
“It’s okay, I know what you meant.”
He smacked the steering wheel with uncharacteristic temper, startling her. When he was young, he’d been terribly hot tempered, but since he’d come back home he’d appeared to have lost all his passion. Clearly, it was still there, though, even if it was buried well beneath the surface. “It’s not okay,” he snapped. “It was a fucking awful thing to say.” He ran his hand through his hair and cursed. “This is why I don’t talk about it.”
“It’s okay to get angry, Joss.”
He said nothing. His jaw worked as if he were chewing a toffee. Eventually, however, he gave a deep sigh of surrender. “I loved her,” he said. “Or at least, I thought I did. And I felt terrible when I broke up with her because I knew she loved me. And I felt bad because I knew the fault was with me, you know? Because I was impatient with her wanting to spend time with me. She was away from her home, lonely, and maybe even a little scared. I should have been more patient, more understanding.”
“Everyone’s allowed a life, Joss. You don’t have to be joined at the hip to prove to someone you love them.�
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Chapter Nine
Joss signaled as Maisey’s road approached, slowed and took the turn, and covered the last few hundred feet to her drive in silence.
Her words resounded in his head. You don’t have to be joined at the hip to prove to someone you love them. He appreciated her attempt to make him feel better, but it was the sort of platitude he’d tried to explain to Liam. The truth was he’d hurt Ana, and he felt bad about that, because he’d damaged both of them in ending their relationship. The break-up had scarred him. Instead of fading, the wound had only become more visible as time had passed. Why was that? Because he missed her? Or because he missed what she represented—the opportunity for lasting love?
Maisey hadn’t said anything else either. He turned into her drive, drew up in front of the house she shared with Tash, switched off the engine, and shifted to face her.
She surveyed him with her large hazel eyes, looking thoughtful, maybe even sad, similar to the way she’d looked when he’d walked into the kitchen and seen her sitting there holding the Maggot.
“What were you thinking about when you were holding the baby?” he asked. “You looked sad.”
She glanced out of the window at the mandarin trees bordering the drive, the fruit hanging like baubles from the branches. “I was thinking about Harry. It makes me sad to think he never had the chance to grow old and have a family. He’d have made a great dad. Not that he particularly liked babies or anything. Sometimes I wonder whether I actually miss him, or I miss the idea of him, you know? And then I feel bad.” Her lips twisted wistfully.
It mirrored what Joss had been thinking about Ana, and he stared at Maisey in surprise. A few weeks ago—no, days ago—he’d never have thought the scatter-brained eternal schoolgirl could have been so thoughtful. He felt ashamed to think he’d underestimated her so.
She reached out and touched his arm. “Sweetie, don’t look so serious. I know you have a lot on your mind. But you’re not going to solve anything by fretting over it. You know what I do? Every day, I think to myself: just for today, don’t worry. And, just for that day, I don’t. It’s surprising how well it works.”
“What a pair we are,” he murmured.
She grinned impishly. “We are quite well suited.”
He smiled, but felt another twinge of guilt at her statement. All day he’d regretted the way he’d pressed his lips against hers in the surgery. It was completely unprofessional—he would have got into big trouble if the nurse had walked in on them—and it was unethical too, and not just because he was supposed to be treating her. She was his friend, and she was his best mate’s little sister. He hadn’t been laid in about eight months, which was a record for him, and he also missed having company. But that didn’t mean he should make a move on Maisey. It wasn’t fair to her, to Kole, or to him.
“Maisey…” he began.
She cocked her head and arched an eyebrow. “I feel a speech coming on.”
“Seriously, I shouldn’t have done that this morning.”
“Fixed my wrist?”
He smiled. “Kissed you.”
“I don’t remember complaining.”
“That’s not the point.”
“And the point is..?” Her eyes were wide, clear, and questioning.
“It wasn’t right,” he tried.
Now it was her turn to sigh. “Joss, we’re both single, and we’re not hurting anyone.”
“Kole—”
She blew a raspberry. “Screw Kole. This is nothing to do with him.” She shifted in her seat and leaned her back against the door, showing no signs of getting out. “Listen,” she said. “Tell me you don’t fancy me, and I’ll shut up right now.”
Joss opened his mouth to deny it. Then shut it slowly again.
The truth was, he did fancy her, and it would be stupid to sit there and say he didn’t. The way he’d reacted to her in the restaurant and again in his surgery had been obvious enough to make a denial frankly ridiculous. That was the trouble with being a guy—he couldn’t hide his interest very easily.
Maisey’s lips curved in a sexy smile. “Then what’s the problem?”
“Sex has a way of complicating matters. I don’t want to spoil our friendship.”
“Nobody’s talking about making things complicated.”
“You say that now, but it’s easy for someone’s feelings to get hurt. And I’d hate that to happen to either us.”
For the first time, exasperation showed on her face. Uh-oh.
“Joss,” she said.
“Yes…”
“Do you think it’s possible for a girl to like sex?”
His lips curved. “Yes, Maisey Graham. I know girls like sex.”
“Do you think it’s possible for a girl to enjoy sex without being in a relationship?”
“That’s not the point…”
“I like sex,” she said. “Very much. I haven’t had any in a while. You’re incredibly gorgeous. And I think you like me too. So where’s the problem, exactly?”
His right brain was struggling to remember. “Um… Look. We’re not teenagers anymore—we can’t blame our hormones or the fact we don’t know any better. We’re old enough to be more responsible than we used to be, and…” His voice tailed off at the look on her face.
She stifled a fake yawn. “God, you are so dull nowadays.”
That stung a little. “I’m not dull. I have a lot on my mind, and as I said, I don’t want to complicate things any more than they already are.”
“And as I said, I’m not talking about making things complicated, about commitment, or forever.” A naughty glint appeared in her eye, and she moved forward in her seat. “I’m talking about a quick…fuck…” She emphasized each consonant as she said the words, then moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. “Now tell me that doesn’t sound appealing.”
Her words genuinely shocked him. “Maisey! Good grief.” He didn’t know whether to be turned on or alarmed by her words.
Their eyes met for a long, long moment.
Then, like the sun coming up and flooding the sky with color, her cheeks tinged first with pink, followed closely by a dark red. That surprised him after her outrageous suggestion. She obviously wasn’t used to being so outspoken. She liked to think herself shocking and wicked, but as far as he knew, she didn’t sleep around, and she obviously wasn’t used to coming on to guys.
She’d closed her eyes and looked as if she might be dying a little inside. Slowly, his lips curved. How delightful. He ran his gaze briefly down her, noting her generous breasts, her tiny waist, her shapely thighs, then back up to where the skin had flushed from her cheeks to her long, bare neck. She’d previously pulled her hair around and over her right shoulder, and it had exposed the left side of her neck so he could see the vulnerable, delicate spot behind her ear that begged a man to plant his lips there.
Any moment now, she was going to say she had to go, and race out of the car to the front door.
Joss made up his mind.
This could be a bad move. It certainly wasn’t responsible, careful, or sensible.
But at that moment, he didn’t care.
He raised a hand, put a finger under her chin, and lifted it. Her eyes met his, wary and mortified, as if she thought he was about to tell her off like a big brother. But as she saw his smile, her embarrassment died, and her eyes widened.
He leaned forward and touched his lips to hers.
Her mouth was incredibly soft, her lips warm. He slid his hand to cup her cheek, put his other arm around her, and concentrated on kissing her.
She smelled of vanilla, and as he moved his hand into her hair, it curled around his fingers like silk ribbons. She sat still, almost frozen, and he was pretty sure she was holding her breath. Had he shocked her by taking her up on her offer? Perhaps she’d expected him to refuse? He pressed his lips against hers a few times, but when she still didn’t react, doubt filtered through him, and he lifted his head.
Maisey’s l
ips were slightly parted, her eyes closed, her head tipped back a little. As he looked at her, her eyelids lifted, and she examined him with her hazel eyes.
Half of him expected her to apologize, half to giggle like a fourteen-year-old experiencing her first kiss.
She did neither. Instead, she raised her left hand and touched his cheek, brushing his stubble with her thumb. She moved her hand to the back of his head and slipped it into his hair. And then she pulled his head down, and kissed him properly.
She opened her mouth, and he brushed his tongue inside. In response, she gave a small, sexy murmur that fired all his cylinders. She melted against him, and heat roared through him as if she’d blasted him with a flamethrower. His heart raced, and his erection sprang to life. Her tongue played with his, stroking across his lower lip, delving into his mouth, and she tasted of chocolate, sweet and rich. He’d never be able to look at a truffle again without thinking of Maisey. He felt as if he’d bitten through a crisp shell, and warm caramel had come flooding out.
She felt soft in his arms, curvy and womanly. If only they were indoors and he could push her back and feel the whole of her. He wanted to run his hand up her legs and stroke the silky skin of her thighs; release her breasts from the cage of her bra and feel their weight in his palms; kiss down her neck and take her velvet nipples in his mouth and suck until they tightened. He wanted to graze his lips down her stomach, then down even further, and see whether she tasted sweet there, too.
He tightened his arms, crushing her to him, and without warning her body jerked and she gave a muffled exclamation against his mouth.
He pulled back, realizing he’d trapped her damaged wrist between them. “Shit. Sorry, honey, I forgot.”
“It’s okay.” She looked disappointed. “You don’t have to stop.”
He chuckled and stroked her cheek, which was still flushed, although this time possibly from some emotion other than embarrassment. “You need to rest.”
Treat her Right: A New Zealand Sexy Beach Romance (Treats to Tempt You Book 2) Page 6