Marriage: For Business or Pleasure?

by Nicola Marsh

  He sat beside her, his aftershave teasing her to lean closer, to fill her senses with it, as she had earlier when she’d lost herself in the wonder of his kiss.

  ‘I don’t like it when women natter in corners. They’re usually planning trouble for us mere males.’

  His frown didn’t work when accompanied by a slow, sexy smile that notched up the heat between them in a second.

  ‘Safety in numbers, I guess.’

  Leaning towards her, he crooked his finger. ‘Looks to me like numbers are dwindling, and you know what that means?’

  ‘What?’

  He sent her an exaggerated wink. ‘It means we’ll have to spike the band’s drinks so we get rid of the rest of the revellers pronto.’

  She laughed while her heart stopped its jumping around and settled with a resounding thud.

  For at that moment, she knew.

  His promised ‘soon’ had arrived and with his bow tie askew, his dark hair rumpled and light brown eyes blazing with an emotion she daredn’t analyse, she had as much chance of not falling in love with Nick again as flying solo back to London.

  And the knowledge he still held that kind of power over her scared her beyond belief.

  ‘How much longer?’

  She needed him to hold her, to erase her thoughts, to banish the yearning to be with him for ever. Surely they would make love tonight, would assuage the tension strumming between them? ‘Soon’ couldn’t come quick enough as far as she was concerned.

  Sensing her eagerness, he slid an arm around her waist and cuddled her close.

  ‘I’ll get the band to announce this is the final number. How’s that?’

  ‘Perfect.’

  ‘Don’t move. I’ll be right back.’

  Feathering a kiss across her lips, he strode away, leaving her to deal with her newly awakened feelings and how much they terrified her.

  The time would come shortly for her to sort them out and she wasn’t looking forward to the wake-up call she knew was inevitable when she had to leave, not one bit.

  CHAPTER TEN

  BRITTANY paced the kitchen, waiting for Nick to see the last reveller off the property.

  She shouldn’t be this nervous.

  It wasn’t as if she’d never made love to him before.

  Though as she watched him stride towards the house, broad shoulders squared, long legs eating up the distance, a full moon casting shadows across his face and glinting in his dark hair, she knew the man he was today was a far cry from the boy he’d been ten years earlier.

  If she’d loved that Nick unreservedly, unashamedly and unabashedly, what hope did she have of holding back her emotions this time around?

  As he neared the door she quickly dropped into the nearest chair and picked up a magazine from a messy stack in the corner, pretending to flip through it without a care in the world.

  When he entered, she took a peek over the top of the magazine, confused by his wide grin.

  ‘Everyone gone?’

  So much for casual. Her voice came out a high-pitched squeak and she cleared her throat, rustling the magazine, ready to duck behind it.

  ‘Uh-huh.’

  He stalked towards her and she gulped, wanting to be in his arms so much it hurt, yet petrified once she was there she’d never want to leave.

  ‘A bit of light reading?’

  ‘Mmm.’

  His muffled guffaw said he hadn’t bought her ruse for a second. ‘That’s interesting. I’d never have pegged you for a girl interested in cattle mating seasons.’

  Heat swept her cheeks as she slapped the pages shut, flung the magazine back on the pile and folded her arms.

  ‘Because if you are, you can have those magazines. They were Papa’s and I’m in the process of doing a major cleanout before the sale, so be my guest.’

  Seeing the funny side of it, she shook her head. ‘Thanks, but I’ll pass. Leave the cows and bulls to it.’

  The twinkle in his eyes intensified as he held out a hand to her and gently pulled her to her feet. ‘You know, you don’t have to be nervous around me.’

  ‘I’m not.’

  A quick rebuttal easily belied by her tumbling belly and wobbly knees and hands that shook ever so slightly.

  He sent a pointed glance at the magazine and raised an eyebrow. ‘Really?’

  She sighed, placed her palms on his chest to anchor her before she wobbled any more and embarrassed herself further.

  ‘Okay, okay, I’m a tad nervous. Aren’t you?’

  ‘No.’

  He slid his arms around her waist, creating a welcoming cocoon she could quite happily snuggle in for ever.

  ‘We’re not strangers. This is you and me, Red.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘No buts. Unless it involves this one.’

  He gave her backside a playful pinch and she laughed, her nerves dissipating as he’d intended.

  ‘Tonight is about you and me. No second guessing. No overanalysing. No regrets. Okay?’

  It all sounded very logical when he put it like that, but she knew come morning she’d be analysing every single second.

  She’d always been this way around him, off course and off kilter, and now the moment she’d been anticipating had arrived she couldn’t quell the bundle of nerves knotting her resolve.

  She wanted him. It should be simple, right?

  But nothing was simple about her relationship with this dynamic, enigmatic man and the moment she started underestimating the power of his hold over her was the moment she’d lose control.

  Not a bad thing entirely, but she was scared, terrified in fact, by the depth of emotion for a bad-boy rebel who still cradled her heart in his powerful hands.

  ‘You’re thinking too much.’

  She nodded, her mouth kicking up in a wry grin. He knew her so well, knew she’d be analysing every angle of this momentous step.

  ‘Well, I’m done thinking.’

  Before she could blink he covered her mouth with his, his commanding kiss obliterating every doubt, every thought, she’d just had.

  As his tongue duelled with hers she lost herself in the mindless passion instantly ignited between them, the frantic flurry of eager hands and low moans and hot, bare skin.

  ‘I didn’t want it to be like this, not here—’

  ‘Don’t stop,’ she panted, arching into him, her pelvis melding to his, so hard and ready. ‘Please, Nick, now.’

  His low, guttural groan raised goose bumps along her skin as his hands bunched her skirt up around her thighs while he plundered her mouth again.

  Sensation after sensation bombarded her, from his mouth ravaging hers with fierce intent to his hands stroking her thighs and brushing against her mound.

  Endless, mindless pleasure, which built and receded and built again until she could barely stand any more and when his fingers finally delved beneath the elastic of her thong and circled her clitoris she came apart on a long, drawn-out cry.

  ‘Nick, that was—’

  ‘Just the beginning.’

  His wicked grin sent a tremor of excitement through her sated body and she gasped when he spun her around, his arm pinning her waist, her back in delicious contact with his front. His very aroused front.

  ‘Let me please you—’

  ‘You already have, sweetheart, by hearing you come,’ he whispered in her ear, his teeth grazing the lobe, nipping, nuzzling until she could do little but sag against him, boneless with longing and pleasure. ‘But just so you know, I’m calling the shots now.’

  ‘Ah…my forceful bad boy is back.’

  With a faux growl, he hugged her tighter. ‘Then it’s time I showed you just how bad I can be.’

  Her body shuddered as he slid his hands up her ribcage to cradle her breasts, his thumbs teasing her nipples until a veritable flood of mind-numbing need drenched her.

  He didn’t stop there, oh, no, making good on his promise of being ‘bad’ as one hand braced the wall over her shoulder while the ot
her played over her wet core.

  Desire tightened within her, her hips rocking of their own volition as her inner muscles spasmed again and again as she threw back her head in absolute abandonment.

  ‘Nick…’

  She cried out his name as a part-plea, part-warning; she couldn’t take much more of this, needed him inside her now.

  ‘I’m right here.’

  With a swift rip of unzipping metal and a rustle of tearing foil, he was back, pushing against her, holding her hips and angling them forward as he nudged against her entrance.

  ‘Nick, please…’

  He drove into her, hard and fast and heart-stoppingly long, the exquisite pressure filling her, tantalising her.

  She’d waited so long for this, had dreamed about it, and when he started to pull out and thrust back into her, again and again and again, the sheer intense beauty of it robbed her of breath, of reason.

  ‘Britt, my Britt.’

  His possessiveness thrilled her as much as his hands gripping her hips, tilting them to increase the tempting friction as he plunged into her repeatedly, his rhythm driving them both towards a shattering climax.

  ‘Wow,’ she breathed on a sigh, her entire body humming and thrumming and sated as she sagged against him, her head lolling against his shoulder.

  His barely audible oath had her head jerking up as she spun around to face him. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘This. Here.’

  He gestured around the kitchen before dropping his gaze to her bunched skirt and thong around her knees, shaking his head. ‘You deserve more than this.’

  Mustering what little dignity a woman with her knickers around her knees could have, she wriggled back into her thong before jabbing him in the chest.

  ‘Don’t you dare apologise for the best sex I’ve ever had. It was perfect. Better than perfect, it was stupendous.’

  The corners of his wickedly sexy mouth kicked up. ‘The best, huh?’

  She nodded emphatically. ‘The best.’

  His grin widened. ‘So you like a guy so out of control he can’t make it to the bedroom?’

  Grabbing his lapels, she hauled him close until their noses almost touched.

  ‘Not just any guy, I like you, Nick Mancini. Every delicious bad-boy inch of you.’

  ‘I love it when you talk dirty to me.’

  ‘I didn’t mean—’

  ‘I know.’

  He chuckled, rubbed noses with her as he stroked her back, long, languid strokes that relaxed her, and she rested her cheek on his chest, inhaling his seductive scent.

  ‘Do you think it’s ironic we’re back here where it all started?’

  She pulled away, glanced up at him. ‘You mean my first time?’

  He nodded, caressed her cheek with a tenderness that stole her breath and warmed her heart.

  ‘I wanted to make it special for you then too. So what happened? The oven was on the blink so the pizza was cold, the dessert wouldn’t defrost and I sprayed cola all over you.’

  She smiled at the memories. ‘That night was special, and it was all because of you.’

  Her fingertips skimmed his jaw, savouring the faint prickle of stubble before hovering over his lips, tracing their outline. ‘You were incredible, and I’ve never forgotten that night.’

  Or the few months after it, when they’d sneak down to the river to make love underneath the towering eucalypts or beneath the beautiful jacarandas.

  To this day, she couldn’t walk past a jacaranda without blushing, its unique fragrance a poignant reminder of Nick laying her on a carpet of purple blossoms and taking her to the heavens and back.

  ‘I say we recreate the magic. Though this time, we might even make it to the bedroom. You in?’

  Excitement trickled through her body, fast becoming a raging torrent as she nodded and he swept her into his arms and headed for his old bedroom.

  ‘I’m definitely in,’ she said, laughing out loud when he twirled her around a few times before bumping the door open with his hip.

  ‘Good, because if you’d said no I would’ve dropped you.’

  Nipping the skin beneath his jaw, she nuzzled him. ‘You wouldn’t dare.’

  ‘Never dare a rebel,’ he said, dumping her on the bed before joining her, their laughter surrounding them in lovely warmth.

  ‘Oh, wow.’

  She glanced around the room, at the wooden shelves stacked high with trophies, several motorbike helmets in one corner, old leather jackets in the other.

  ‘This room hasn’t changed.’

  He shrugged, somewhat embarrassed. ‘I never stay out here. My life’s in Noosa now. I guess Papa was too busy running the place when he was alive to worry about changing the bedrooms.’

  Did he know his voice changed when he spoke of his father? Deepened? Softened? As if caught up in good times.

  She envied him that, had always envied him the easy, close relationship he’d shared with his dad. It was one of the reasons she’d liked hanging out here so much; that and the mean lasagne Papa used to cook.

  ‘I love this place. Do you really need to sell?’

  A momentary shadow clouded his eyes before he blinked and it vanished.

  ‘It’s not fair to let it run down. And I just don’t have the time to do much out here.’

  ‘Why don’t you hire a manager? Farm hands? Get the plantation up and running again?’

  He shook his head, the tiny indentation between his brows a sign she was butting into business that was no concern of hers.

  ‘You know what this place meant to Papa.’

  He didn’t have to add ‘and to me’. She could see his reluctance to sell in his clenched jaw, in his rigid neck muscles, could hear it in his tense tone.

  ‘All the more reason to keep it, bring it back to life—’

  ‘It’s time to let the place go. You of all people should understand the power of memories and the need to move on from the past.’

  Oh, yeah, she understood the need to move on all too well. As for memories, her good ones were all focused on Nick and, rather than push the issue about the farm, she needed to start creating new ones.

  ‘Yeah, I get it.’ Her gaze caught a flash of silver hanging off the mirror. ‘Hey, is that the medallion I gave you?’

  He followed her line of vision, the slight pink staining his tanned cheeks a dead giveaway he’d rather forget the fact he’d kept a girly trinket.

  ‘Maybe.’

  She rolled off the bed, evading his arms as he made a lunge for her.

  ‘It is! I can’t believe you kept it all this time.’

  ‘Like I said, this room has been untouched since I left it.’

  Her heart expanded as she slung the delicate chain on her finger, tracing the outline of the star on the medallion with her finger.

  ‘You know why I chose a star, don’t you?’

  He shook his head and she dangled the chain on her finger a second longer before rehanging it on the mirror.

  ‘Because you hung the stars and moon for me back then.’

  He came up behind her, slid his arms around her waist and held her close.

  ‘And now?’

  ‘Let’s find out.’

  She turned in the circle of his embrace, ready for his kiss, every cell in her body crying out for him, only him.

  His mouth moved over hers, hot, challenging, and she matched him, their kisses deep and long and luscious, the type of kisses to melt a body and sear a soul.

  If they’d kissed like this all night long she would’ve been happy, but she didn’t want to settle. Not tonight.

  Tonight she wanted those stars and that moon.

  ‘I want you so much,’ he murmured, trailing his lips down her neck as his thumbs nudged the underside of her breasts, toying with her, teasing her, before drifting upwards to circle her tight nipples through the silk.

  Her head fell back on a moan as he deftly flicked the clasp on her shoulder and the Grecian dress slithered down her body
in a rustle of silk, its caress almost as erotic as Nick’s hands.

  ‘Jeez,’ he muttered, his gaze raking her from head to foot before resting on her breasts, the naked need in his eyes sending a tremor of unbridled lust shooting through her. ‘You’re even more gorgeous now, if that’s possible.’

  Smiling, she tugged on his jacket. ‘Still the sweet talker.’

  He shook his head, his dazed expression vindication he found her mature body just as appealing as the lithe teenager she’d once been.

  Sliding the jacket off his shoulders, she started working on his bow tie. ‘But for now, less talk, more action.’

  ‘You want to see some action?’

  His scorching kiss had her grateful for the edge of the bed bumping the backs of her knees as she collapsed onto it, happily watching as he shucked off the rest of his clothes in record time.

  ‘I like those,’ she said, pointing to the black boxers that had been haunting her dreams ever since she’d glimpsed them on their wedding night.

  ‘And I like those.’

  He toyed with the top of her white lace thong, sending a river of heat straight to her core.

  ‘But not enough to keep them on.’

  He whipped them off and tossed them over his shoulder, his eyes glazing as his gaze roamed her.

  ‘Come here.’

  She held her arms out to him and he entered her embrace in a second, the touch of his bare skin against hers sizzling hot.

  He kissed her, laved her, delved his fingers into her until she was panting for release, clutching at him, crying out his name, sobbing her need when the mind-numbing tension climbed and spiralled and shattered into a million shooting stars.

  She couldn’t think, couldn’t speak, and she whimpered when he left her for a moment to rip off his boxers and roll a condom on.

  ‘I’m right here, sweetheart.’

  ‘Where you belong,’ she said, a second before his mouth claimed hers and he lay on top of her, sliding inside with a smooth, powerful thrust that made her gasp.

  He filled her, completed her and she wrapped her legs around him, tilting her hips to encourage deeper contact.

  Then he moved, sliding in and out, every move sending shards of exquisite pleasure firing through her, making every nerve ending sit up and cry for more.