Treat her Right: A New Zealand Sexy Beach Romance (Treats to Tempt You Book 2)

by Serenity Woods

  This was hopeless. He couldn’t keep trying to avoid thinking about her. Clearly, that wasn’t going to work.

  He leaned back in his chair, put his feet on the desk, crossed at the ankles, and stared up at the ceiling. What was the issue here? It wasn’t often a beautiful young woman offered hot sex with no strings attached. When he was younger, he would have jumped at the chance and not given it a thought afterward. So what was he worried about now?

  Okay, so Maisey was a friend, but she’d hardly phoned him every five minutes asking to see him again. He’d texted her on Saturday to say hi and thanks, and she’d texted back with a smiley face, and since then they’d texted a few more times like they often did with their usual chit-chat about their day.

  As she’d promised, it appeared to have been just mutual gratification, so apparently he didn’t need to concern himself their friendship could have been destroyed by the act. He hadn’t been disrespectful. He’d been mindful of her needs, and afterward he’d been careful not to be all “Wham, bam, thank you, ma’am.” Well, providing he could count the brief hug and kiss they’d exchanged as being enough to round off the evening. He scratched his nose. Perhaps he should have insisted on taking her home? But Kole would only have grown suspicious, and besides, Maisey had agreed to Kole’s offer before Joss had been able to say anything. Maybe she hadn’t wanted him to take her home.

  So what was his problem exactly?

  He stared at the strip lighting above his head.

  The problem was that he wanted to see her again.

  He studied the dead flies in the plastic casing over the light. What did he mean, “see” her? He most definitely did not want a girlfriend at the moment. He didn’t have the time to devote to a partner, and he wouldn’t be able to cope with a girl demanding his attention all the time. He had Hayley and the kids to think about, as well as his parents, plus he was trying to make a good impression on the partners at the surgery. There were no slots left on his busy schedule for wooing a girl.

  Wait, wooing? Where had that word come from? 1852?

  He chuckled. There probably weren’t many women in the twenty-first century who expected to be wooed. Sometimes he thought romance and even marriage had become outdated nowadays.

  But anyway, he wasn’t interested in taking a relationship further with Maisey. She was fun, young, and sexy, but she was also nuts. She might drive him mad if they were together all the time.

  Still, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. He felt as if he’d been on a boat heading out to sea in the middle of the night with rocks all around, and she’d climbed the steps of a lighthouse and switched on the beam. She’d illuminated his life with her bright smile and girlish giggle, her generous offer to share herself and her blazing passion, making him realize there was more to the landscape than blackness, briefly showing him the stars in the night sky…

  Joss gave a deep, exasperated sigh. What the fuck was wrong with him?

  He tipped his feet off the edge of the desk and stood, turned off the desk lamp, and put his computer to sleep. Time to go home. Perhaps a couple of glasses of whiskey and a DVD of an action movie would numb his mind and give him some peace.

  He locked up the surgery and headed for his car, started the engine and drove out. Only then did he notice the tiny yellow light on the dashboard that indicated he was nearly out of gas.

  Sighing, he turned into the nearby petrol station, filled the tank with gas, and went in to pay.

  He was waiting for the assistant to finish serving the person in front of him when his gaze fell on the stand next to the desk. He rarely bought chocolate bars anymore as he attempted to eat healthily, plus if he did want chocolate, he always bought it from Treats to help the girls out. However, there was a new bar on the top shelf that caught his eye in the first instance because it was an interesting marketing idea. The bars were called Heartfelt and the wrappers were dark brown, reminding him of Maisey’s dress the night of the party. But the most interesting thing about them was the red writing under the central name of the bar. The wrappers bore different messages, including “Love you,” “Thanks,” “Forever,” and “Yours.”

  Maisey would adore those.

  He glanced up, and the woman behind the till and the other customer had turned to look at him, smiling as if to say, “Aaaah!”

  He cleared his throat and looked back at the bars. Not only would they give Maisey ideas for future products for Treats, the chance to please her, after she’d pleased him so much, was too tempting to pass up.

  His hand hovered over the choice. Love you… Forever…

  He picked up the one that said “Thanks” and put it on the counter.

  The assistant grinned at him and gestured at the card reader, and he swiped his credit card.

  “For someone special, Dr. Heaven?” she asked sweetly. Presumably he’d seen her at the surgery at some point.

  “Just for a friend,” he replied, punching in the number. Although he loved the community feel of small town New Zealand, sometimes he wished he were a little more anonymous.

  He took his receipt and the chocolate bar, and went back to the car. Sat behind the wheel for a few minutes, fighting with himself. Then drove off toward Maisey’s house.

  Tasha would probably be home too. But that didn’t matter. He just wanted to see Maisey, to say hi, and to make sure things were all right between them.

  His heart lifting, he drove along the lanes, watching the sky flood with pink as the sun set, Venus already shining above the horizon. He started singing, caught himself and stopped, cursed, then started again. He was happy—the thought of seeing her made him happy. What was wrong with that?

  He pulled up outside her house, seeing Kole’s car parked out the front. Joss pocketed the chocolate bar and walked around the side of the house to the deck.

  He found them with their feet up, having a beer and a chat. Tasha was still dressed, but Maisey, sitting with her back to him, had changed into an endearing pink-and-grey onesie. As the others saw him and said hi, she turned, and her cheeks flushed.

  “Hey.” She stood, looking bemused. “What are you doing here?”

  “Just passing,” he said. Her flustered manner amused him. “Room for one more?”

  “Of course.” She popped the top of a beer and passed it to him, and he took a seat opposite them. Maisey curled back in her chair, sticking her tongue out at him when he looked pointedly at her outfit and smiled.

  “Good day?” Kole asked.

  “Not bad.” Joss stretched out his legs. “Relieved it’s done, though. You?”

  “Yeah, busy.” Kole reached to the side of his chair and picked up a large cardboard tube. “I brought the girls the first draft of the poster. What do you think?”

  Joss took the tube from Kole and extracted the rolled up piece of paper inside. He glanced at Maisey as he began to unroll it. She winked, her eyes sparkling. The result had obviously pleased her.

  Holding either end of the poster, he stretched out his arms and took a good look.

  “Huh,” he said. The middle part of the A3 sheet was taken up with the full-length shot of him she’d shown him on the camera. Kole had fancied it up a bit, darkened it down, and done something to make his skin shine as if he’d been covered in baby oil. Had Kole enhanced his abs? He hadn’t been aware he had abs, or certainly ones that looked as impressive as they did in the poster.

  He had to admit, it was a sexy-looking photo, and to be fair to Maisey, nobody would be able to tell he was the model as the hat covered most of his face. The phrase “Treats to Tempt You” she’d written on his chest with the chocolate icing stood out like a tattoo.

  About thirty smaller square photos formed a wide border around the edge of his central shot. Kole had done a fantastic job. The photos were fun and sexy and showed everyone enjoying the chocolates, coffee, and ice cream, and the poster did exactly what Maisey had wanted it to.

  He looked up and met Maisey’s gaze again. Her expression had take
n on a hesitant look. She was worried he wouldn’t like it.

  He smiled. “It’s fantastic. You’ve all done a great job.”

  Her hesitancy melted away, and her face filled with joy, making him want to lean over and kiss her.

  “I don’t know what Kole’s done to your torso, though,” Tasha said. “Talk about computer enhanced.”

  Joss gave her a mock-offended look. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “He’s given you muscles.”

  “I do have muscles, actually.”

  “Not like that, I’m sure.” Tasha glanced at Kole. “And I’m certain you’ve enhanced his crotch area too.”

  “Nah,” Kole said, “that was the sock he stuffed down his pants before Maisey took the photo.”

  Tasha and Kole laughed, and Maisey smiled, although her eyes looked wary. Joss looked back at the poster. It was true, that area of his jeans did bulge a bit. Shit, was it obvious he had a hard-on?

  He sighed and rolled the poster up again. At least nobody would know it was him, that was the main thing. He’d never live it down at the surgery if everyone found out what he’d done.

  He inserted the poster back in the tube and gave it back to Kole. “Are you printing lots of copies?”

  “Yeah, we’ll get the poster up in Mangonui, and then the girls are going to take some to shops in other towns to spread the word.”

  “Cool.” He took a swig of his beer. “So what’s everyone been up to today?”

  They chatted for a bit as the sun went down and the cicadas tuned up their orchestra in the bush. Joss finished his beer and checked his watch. He had work to catch up on, plus he was tired and would probably fall to sleep as soon as he put his head on the pillow.

  Part of him didn’t want to go, though. In fact he wished he could stay captured in that moment of time forever, like a mosquito preserved in amber, with the deck bathed in orange light, the warm, humid air bringing a flush to the girls’ cheeks, and being with people he felt comfortable with. For a brief while, he forced his worries away from his mind and pretended he was a teenager again, young and carefree, with nothing better to do than drink beer and think about having sex with the pretty girl sitting opposite him.

  “Anyway, I’d better go,” Kole said, breaking the spell.

  “Yeah, me too.” Joss put down his empty beer bottle and rose reluctantly.

  Only as he stood did he feel the chocolate bar in his pocket. He hesitated, nervous about giving it to Maisey in front of the others, but then he got cross with himself. She was a friend—he wouldn’t have thought twice about buying her something before they’d had sex.

  “Oh,” he said, “I bought you something.” He fished out the bar and handed it over to her. “I hadn’t seen them before and thought they might give you some ideas for future products.”

  Maisey looked at it with delight. “Oh! No, I haven’t seen them either.” Her gaze flicked to her brother, but Kole had glanced at the bar, seen nothing that interested him, and was in the process of kissing Tasha goodbye.

  “Yeah, there are several different wrappers,” Joss said. “They say things like ‘Forever’ and ‘Love You’.” He smiled.

  Maisey’s cheeks, already pink from the warmth of the evening, tinged a bit further. “Well, thanks, I appreciate it.”

  “Sorry, it’s a bit soft,” he said.

  She met his gaze and bit back a laugh. “So not an issue.”

  Joss chuckled. “I’ll see you later.”

  He waved goodbye to Tasha, then walked back to his car with Kole, feeling light of heart. Today was a good day.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The week following the party saw a sharp upsurge in business at Treats to Tempt You. It was probably a honeymoon period, and it would almost certainly tail off, but Maisey was thrilled to think the action she’d taken to help promote the shop had been successful, even for a little while.

  It annoyed her though that Kole was getting all the credit. Whenever anyone saw the poster, they all said what a wonderful job the photographer had done, and didn’t seem to take into account the organization that had gone on behind it. Even the other girls couldn’t give him enough praise, cheering every time he walked into the shop, and he’d grown used to giving a theatrical bow in response, clearly loving the attention.

  Maisey sulked in private but smiled in public, knowing she was being childish. Kole really had done a great job with the poster, which had probably been the main reason for the upswing in business. But she couldn’t help feeling irritated her hard work wasn’t getting the praise it deserved.

  She tried to put it to the back of her mind, however, too busy to think about it too much. The four girls worked flat out all week and she didn’t get a break until Saturday, by which time she was ready for a rest. Tasha was off to Auckland with Kole for the weekend, and they’d hired a couple of friends to help Elle and Caitlin in the shop, so Maisey would have the day all to herself. She decided to have a long lie-in and a pamper day, followed by an evening watching a romantic movie while downing half a bottle of sauvignon and a handful of her favorite chocolates.

  However, first she had to drop by her parents’ house as she hadn’t seen them for a few weeks. She did lie in for a bit, but by ten she was on her way to Fiona and Glen Graham’s house, giving herself the usual talk in the car before she arrived.

  “Don’t let her wind you up. Don’t let her get to you.” She told herself this every time she was due to meet her mother, and it never did any good.

  Sure enough, as she sat at the kitchen table and Fiona boiled the kettle for a coffee, the topic of the shop came up.

  “I hear you had a party.” Fiona poured the water into the cups.

  Maisey’s heart sank. “Yes, that’s right. It went really well.”

  “I thought we might have had an invite.” Fiona smiled coolly the way she always did when she was annoyed with her daughter.

  “I didn’t think it was your sort of thing.”

  Glen turned over the next page of his newspaper. “It wasn’t. The young people don’t want us hanging around, Fi.”

  “Well, Jenny Green went and apparently there were people of all ages. I had to make some excuse as to why we were busy rather than admit my own daughter didn’t want me to go.”

  Maisey gritted her teeth. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want you to go,” she lied. “You don’t like loud music and you hate chocolate. I didn’t think you’d want to go.”

  Fiona lifted her chin in the air. “Jenny went on for ages about having her photograph taken, and it would have been nice to be part of the event.”

  Maisey couldn’t think of anything worse than trying to make her mother appear sexy for the camera. “Next time, I’ll bear that in mind.”

  Fiona waved a hand, brought the cups to the table, and took a seat. “I was busy anyway. It was the AGM of the sailing club, so I couldn’t have gone.”

  “Then why…” Maisey decided not to bother. “Oh well. Did you like the poster?”

  “I thought it was wonderful. Kole is such an amazing photographer.” Fiona sighed and sipped her coffee. “I wish you had some of his talent instead of playing around with food like a six-year-old. It’s such a waste of a life, especially with Harry not having the chance…” Her voice tailed off, and she dabbed a tissue theatrically to her nose.

  Glen lifted his head and exchanged a look with Maisey, rolled his eyes, and went back to his newspaper as if Fiona had merely criticized the color of her shoes.

  Maisey sat rigid with resentment. All her life, Fiona had put her down, and all her life, Glen had let her. Maisey wasn’t sure why. It must have been something to do with her being the youngest, because her mother wasn’t like it with Skye, who she adored, or Kole, who could do no wrong. And she’d never hear a bad word said against Harry. Her father wanted an easy life, so he turned a deaf ear to his wife and let everything she said ride over him.

  Maisey fought back tears, staring into her coffee and biting her lip
hard. If she argued with her mother, she would never win. She’d trained herself not to engage with her and not to care, because it was pointless, and it only made her frustrated.

  But this was a step too far. She’d worked damned hard to make the party successful, and she deserved to have some credit for it, from her parents if nobody else.

  “The party and poster were my idea,” she said quietly. “And it’s worked, because the shop’s done really well this week.”

  “Yes, well that doesn’t surprise me. The poster was absolutely fantastic. The camera work is magnificent. I’d have been shocked if it hadn’t had an effect on business.”

  “I worked really hard.” Maisey’s voice sounded hoarse with emotion, even to herself.

  Fiona waved a hand. “I’m sure sitting on your backside eating chocolates and doodling on a notepad counts as work in your world, Maisey dear, but not in mine. In my day…” She went on to treat Maisey to a lecture about how hard she’d worked back in the Jurassic period when typists had to use carbon paper and didn’t own the luxury of a backspace button—one mistake and they had to type the whole thing again! That was when women really knew how to work. They had a job and four children and still had enough time to bake a meat pie for tea, none of that supermarket pre-prepared rubbish… The speech went on and on.

  Maisey sipped her cheap instant coffee, put up with it as long as she could, then politely said she had to leave. She gave her father a hug, kissed her mother on the cheek, and left.

  Only on the way home did she give into the emotion she’d been holding back, clenching the steering wheel as tears ran down her cheeks.

  Angry at being weak, she tried to dash them away, but it was pointless because more took their place. In the end, she let them fall.

  Why didn’t she stand up to her mother? Maisey had watched Tasha argue with her own mother for years, sometimes having face-to-face blazing rows, and although it didn’t seem to help matters, Tasha always appeared to feel better afterward. Even if it didn’t fix anything, surely saying something to her mother about how much she continually hurt Maisey’s feelings should have been enough to make her fight back.