Joss went over and gave his mother a hug, and she gripped him tightly before he drew back. She looked pale, Maisey thought, and weaker than when she’d last seen her. The crippling disease had certainly taken its toll, and the emotional trauma of coping with the deterioration of her husband’s mental faculties had certainly not helped.
“No news yet?” Joss asked.
Sarah shook her head.
“And no idea where he might have gone—he wasn’t talking about anything in particular?”
“No. He was weeding the flowerbeds. I always have a nap at twelve, and when I got up, he’d gone.”
“Okay, I’ll go for a walk around first,” Joss said. He kissed her forehead, then glanced over his shoulder. “Maisey came with me. She’ll sit with you until I come back.”
Sarah smiled at Maisey. “Thank you dear. That was unnecessary but very welcome.”
Joss walked past Maisey and stopped for a moment, reaching out to hold her hand. “Thank you,” he murmured, although she wasn’t quite sure whether he was referring to what had happened at his house or her staying with his mother.
“You’re welcome,” she whispered.
He gave a little, reluctant smile, looking as if he wanted to say more, but then he glanced at his mother, turned, and went out, closing the front door behind him.
Sarah watched him go, concern written all over her face. As her gaze turned to Maisey, however, the corner of her lips curved up. “You were with Joss when I called?” she queried.
“Yes,” Maisey said. “I…um…dropped by to see him.”
Sarah’s smile broadened. Maisey blinked. Sarah couldn’t have known what they’d gotten up to, surely?
Clearing her throat, Maisey gestured to the kitchen. “Shall I make us a cup of tea?”
“That would be lovely, thank you.”
So Maisey went through to the kitchen and filled up the kettle, and busied herself with putting the teabags into the cups.
Sarah wheeled up to the kitchen table and rested her elbows there, studying Maisey while she pottered. “So how long have you been seeing my son?” she asked.
Maisey stopped, heat flooding her cheeks. “Oh, I’m not seeing Joss. I mean we’re not…” Her voice tailed off at the laughter in Sarah’s eyes.
“So it’s just sex then?” Sarah queried, clearly enjoying herself.
“Goodness.” Maisey’s cheeks burned. “Sarah, I, um…”
Sarah laughed. “I’m sorry, that was terribly naughty of me. But to be honest, I’m relieved Joss has found himself someone to have fun with. He’s such a serious boy, and he has such a lot on his shoulders at the moment. It’s lovely to think he still has the time to be a young man.”
Maisey smiled at her use of the word “boy”. Mothers must always see their sons as boys, she thought, even when they were grown up and had sons of their own. There was no point in lying, as Sarah had clearly picked up on what had happened, presumably when she’d rung Joss to tell him about his father. And besides, if she talked about Joss, perhaps it might distract Sarah from worrying about Noel.
“All right,” Maisey said, holding up a hand. “I admit. We have…been having a bit of fun.”
“I thought so!”
“But that’s all it is,” she added hastily. She dunked the teabags, squeezed them with a spoon against the side of the cup, added a splash of milk, and brought the cups to the table. “You’re right. He does have a lot on his plate, and I thought he needed cheering up.” Great. Now you sound like a right slut.
But Sarah nodded and sighed. “I wonder sometimes whether the worry about me and Noel contributed to his break up with Ana. I know she was pressuring him to settle down, and yet she didn’t want to move up here because it’s so out of the way. His loyalties must have been terribly torn.”
“I very much doubt that was the case,” Maisey said gently. “He told me Ana was very possessive and jealous, and he wasn’t ready for that sort of commitment. She probably pressured him too hard. If she’d really loved him, she would have followed him anywhere.”
Sarah smiled and sipped her tea. “Maybe.”
Maisey looked out at the garden. Noel spent a lot of time making it pretty so his wife could sit outside and look at the flowers, birds, and rabbits that came to visit. That was real love, doing anything for your partner to make them happy. Joss had clearly been in love with Ana, and although Maisey would never have said so to Sarah, she knew his desire to return to the Northland had probably played a part in his break up. But if she’d truly loved him, Ana should have been able to put aside her own selfish desires and realize what a predicament he was in.
“It’s such a lovely garden,” Maisey said, watching a fantail perch on the lemon tree outside the window and dance around, fluttering its pretty tail. “You’re very lucky.” She said the words before she thought about them, then could have kicked herself. The poor woman was confined to a wheelchair, her husband had dementia, and now he’d wandered off somewhere and they couldn’t find him. Nice turn of phrase, idiot.
But Sarah just nodded and followed her gaze outside. “I am. Noel has been a wonderful husband, and he loves me very much. When you find someone to love you like that, you have to hang onto them.” She looked back at Maisey, and smiled.
Maisey studied her cup of tea and scratched at a mark on the handle. She’d never been in love before, and had never had anyone love her in return. She’d had a few fun relationships, but they’d been very lighthearted, and she’d hardly been devastated when they’d ended. She couldn’t imagine having that kind of relationship with someone, where she could completely rely on them and know they were always on her side, and would always put her first.
She imagined Joss being in love with her. His eyes filling with fondness the way Sarah’s did when she thought of her husband. What would it be like to come home every evening knowing he was waiting for her, going to bed with him every night? Standing next to him at the altar, promising to love him forever. Feeling her body swell with his child.
She caught her breath. Oh my God. I am in love with him.
Then she closed her eyes. It was pointless to think about it. She was only going to get terribly hurt if she continued down that road.
The front door rattled, and she stood as it opened and Noel came through, closely followed by his son.
“Noel!” Sarah turned her chair and wheeled herself toward him. He went up to her and bent to kiss her on the cheek.
“He hadn’t gone far.” Joss closed the door behind him. “I found him looking for the garden center that used to be there a few years ago.”
“I wanted some pots for the tomato plants.” Noel looked confused.
“You can’t just go out, Dad.” Joss ran a hand through hair that was already sticking up, suggesting it wasn’t the first time he’d done it. “You didn’t have your wallet. Even if the garden center had been open, how would you have paid for the pots?”
Noel stared at him, and Joss put his hands on his hips and looked at the floor. His knotted jaw emphasized his frustration and worry.
Maisey went over to Noel, took his arm, and rubbed his shoulder. “Hey, Noel, do you remember me? I’m Joss’s friend, Maisey.”
He looked at her as if seeing her for the first time. “Yes, hello Maisey. How are you?”
“I’m fine, thank you. Would you like a cup of tea?”
“That would be very nice, dear.”
“Why don’t you come and have a seat over here by the window? I want you to tell me about your garden. I was looking at that pink climbing plant there—aren’t the flowers beautiful? What are they?”
“That’s bougainvillea,” he said, beaming. “You have to train the stems to climb.”
Maisey nodded and made two more cups of tea, aware of Sarah’s grateful glance before she moved away to talk to her son. The two of them spoke in low voices, and at one point she heard Joss say, “I know, Mum, but I can’t be there all the time, and neither can Hayley. We’ve got to do so
mething.” Clearly, he was either discussing them moving into a care home, or arranging for someone to come and look after them during the day. What a difficult situation. No wonder he was worried out of his mind. Luckily, her mum and dad were fit and healthy, but there came a point in every child’s life where they had to care for their parents. It was the natural way of things. It was just a shame it had happened to Joss when he was so young, before he’d had a chance to have a family of his own.
Noel chatted to her about the garden, and eventually Joss and his mother came over and joined them. They all sat and talked for a while, and as Noel relaxed, he seemed to become more focused. When they got up to go, he gripped Joss’s arm and said, “I’m sorry son. I don’t know what happened. I remember the garden center closing down now. I don’t know why I thought it was still open.”
“It’s okay.” Joss gave him a hug. “Just promise me next time you’ll talk to Mum before you leave the house without her, okay?”
“Yes, yes of course.” Noel’s brow furrowed, and he kissed Maisey’s cheek. “I’m so sorry if I worried you.”
“It’s okay. I had a lovely chat with Sarah,” Maisey said brightly.
They left the house, and Joss closed the front door behind them.
In silence, they walked back to their cars. When they reached his, Joss stopped and turned to her, leaning on the car. She shoved her hands in the pockets of her jeans and smiled. He was about to say he was tired and wanted to go home, and that was fine. She was ready for that.
Instead, however, he said, “Thank you. It was really good of you to sit with Mum for a while.”
“You’re welcome. She’s a lovely lady, and it was nice to chat.” She met his blue eyes. He looked tired and sad, and her heart went out to him.
Maisey moved a bit closer, lifted up on tiptoes, and pressed her lips to his cheek. “Thank you for a nice morning.”
She wasn’t sure what she expected him to do. Nothing, probably—just stand there awkwardly, or maybe even pull away from her. Make it clear that whatever they’d done, they weren’t intimate, and she had no rights on him, no insight into his personal life.
But he didn’t. To her surprise, he caught her around the waist with one hand and slipped the other behind her neck, holding her in place. Startled, she pressed both hands against his chest to steady herself and looked up at him, shocked at the intense look in his eyes. Instinctively, she tried to pull back, but he held her tightly, refusing to let her go, and as she opened her mouth to say something, he lowered his head and kissed her.
Maisey gave a muffled exclamation, but he didn’t pull away. He plunged his tongue into her mouth, and he tightened his arms around her, crushing her to him. Electricity shot through her as if she’d stuck her fingers in a plug, and even though Sarah was probably watching them through the window, and they were in the middle of a street with cars going past, she gave in to his demands. She let him kiss the living daylights out of her, until she was aching for him, her breasts tingling, her panties growing damp.
When he finally lifted his head, she’d lost the power of speech. She waited for him to apologize, to laugh, to turn away, but he didn’t.
“Come home with me,” he said, his voice hoarse. “Spend the night with me.”
Her jaw dropped. “Joss!”
“I need you.” His gaze searched hers, desperate, hungry. “You’re so real, Maisey, so alive. Come with me. You can leave your car here. I know we shouldn’t, I know it’s reckless and stupid and there’s Kole to think about, and neither of us is ready or wants to think about anything serious. But my life is full of gray storm clouds at the moment, and you’re like a ray of sunlight. You make me feel good, and I need that right now. Say yes.” He fixed his hot gaze on her mouth. “Please.”
She should say no, because she was wading out of her depth into this ocean. She had no experience of venturing this deep into unchartered waters, and she was frightened of being promised some beautiful tropical island, only to be dumped when she’d lost sight of the shore.
But he was looking at her the way she looked at a chocolate caramel when she hadn’t had one for weeks. She couldn’t have said no if her life had depended on it.
“Yes,” she said, and dived in.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Joss drove back home in silence. Maisey didn’t try to engage him in conversation, and he didn’t bother to talk either, mainly because he couldn’t think of anything to say. His stomach boiled like a pot of stew left too long on the stove. He gripped the steering wheel, and he knew he was driving too quickly, but he couldn’t have said why he was so angry.
Maisey sat quietly beside him, looking out of the window, and as they neared his house, he began to wish he hadn’t asked her back. Of course she hadn’t refused him. He must have looked pathetic, and she wouldn’t have wanted to turn down a friend when he needed comfort. But this was supposed to be a fun fling. The last thing the flighty chocolatier would want was doom and gloom and his depressed manner dragging her down.
He pulled up outside his house, turned off the engine, and sat listlessly for a moment. He saw her look over at him, and he scrubbed at a mark on the steering wheel. Should he offer to take her back? That seemed insulting though. He closed his eyes for a moment. Fuck, he was really screwing this up.
He opened his eyes and went to say something, but to his surprise she was already half out of the car. He followed her to the front door, opened it, and let her precede him in.
“I just need to visit the bathroom,” she said, walking toward the en suite in his bedroom. “Go and sit down.”
He watched her go, threw his keys tiredly on the table, and went down the few steps into the large open living room. It was about six o’clock, and although it was still light, the sun had flooded the sea with orange, and in the distance he heard a kiwi bird call, long and mournful.
You’re just tired, he told himself, but it was more than that. He sat on the sofa, leaned his head on the back, and closed his eyes.
After a few minutes, he heard Maisey come into the kitchen and move around, opening and shutting cupboard doors. The scrape of glasses. The chink of ice and the glug of liquid being poured. Then her footsteps again, bare feet by the sounds of it, coming down the steps and around to the front of the sofa.
He opened his eyes, not quite sure what to say to her. And stared. She was naked except for one of his shirts that she hadn’t buttoned up, which hung open, exposing her ripe, round breasts, the swell of her stomach, and the strip of hair between her legs. She’d let her hair down, and it fell around her shoulders in sleek dark curls.
Meeting his gaze without smiling, she offered him one of the tumblers of pale amber liquid, and he took it and swallowed a mouthful of the whiskey, grateful for the sear of it into his stomach.
Maisey moved closer to him, bent to place her left knee by his right hip, and straddled him, settling comfortably on his thighs. Joss leaned his head back, letting out a long, slow breath. Yet again, this beautiful girl knew what he needed and was willing to provide it.
She took one of the ice cubes from her glass into her mouth and circled it a few times. Then, eyes dancing, she lowered her head, placed her lips against his, and pushed the ice cube into his mouth.
Joss sucked it, lips curving in response to her smile, then passed the cube back to her. They did this several times, slowly and sensuously, until the ice cube had melted and he was hard and ready for her inside his jeans. He wanted her, but equally, once again, he wanted this to last. And as Maisey seemed intent on playing with him, he was happy to go along with her, for a while at least.
She dipped a finger in her glass and smeared it across his lips, then ran her tongue along them before moving it into his mouth and sharing the whiskey with him. She kissed him deeply, returning to take another small mouthful of the spirit before returning to his lips, and she let the liquid flow over them, down his chin, giggling as he tutted and gave her a remonstrative look.
Sitting ba
ck a little, she took a large mouthful, deliberately leaving only a little left in the glass, coughed a little as she swallowed, and then to his surprise, tipped the glass up and spilled the rest down her front.
She squealed, and he laughed and pulled her toward him, lapping at her neck and licking up the drips before moving to her breasts. It was warm in the room, and her large, pinky-brown nipples were relaxed like soft velvety flowers that had opened in the sunshine. He sucked them, feeling smug as she groaned and dug her fingers into his shoulders, and he stroked them with his tongue and teased them until they tightened to firm buds in his mouth.
Maisey tipped back her head, pushing her nipples toward him, and he swapped from one to the other, alternating between flicking with the tip of his tongue and sucking hard as she ground her hips against his. How far could he push her? He grazed his teeth on them and tried sucking firmly, and to his delight she exclaimed out loud, buried a hand in his hair, and yanked his head back.
Her hands fumbled at his jeans, and he helped her out, undoing the belt and button, pulling down the zipper. Only then did he remember he didn’t have a condom, but even as he went to tell her to stop, she pulled a foil packet out of the top pocket of the shirt. She must have retrieved one from the bathroom.
She ripped the packet open and took the condom out. Joss watched her, gripping her hips as she took time to roll it down his length carefully.
“Fuck,” he said when she reached the bottom, gritting his teeth so hard his jaw hurt.
“Yes, sweetie, whatever you say.” Laughing, she lifted herself up and moved until the tip of his erection sank into her soft, moist warmth. She paused for a moment, moving her hips and teasing him, chuckling at his wry look, then all of a sudden pushed down her hips and enveloped him in hot wetness.
Joss groaned and closed his eyes, reveling in the sensation.
Treat her Right: A New Zealand Sexy Beach Romance (Treats to Tempt You Book 2) Page 15