The Playboy's Redemption (The Mackenzies)

by Diana Fraser

  CHAPTER NINE

  Susie leaned against the window jamb, willing the slight breeze to cool her heated skin as she listened to the distant conversation, her ears discerning James’s low voice and thrilling to the sound.

  She tried to focus, tried to think clearly, tried to make herself move, to stop what was about to happen. But she couldn’t. All she could do was remember the heat of his lips pressed to hers and how good it felt. How right it felt. She raised her hand and touched her lips with her fingertips. Then she heard the prolonged noises of people shouting goodnight and doors banging. Then footsteps. She turned away from the window and watched the door.

  There was a quiet knock. She walked over and opened it. James stood there. No bottle of wine, no social prop to act as an excuse for being there. She took hold of his hand and pulled him inside.

  She pushed the door closed and slid her hands around his body, pressing her cheek against his chest. “James,” she whispered. She held herself tight against him, relishing the strength of his body against hers, his lips pressed against her hair.

  Then he lifted her chin with his finger so their eyes met. “Are you sure about this?”

  She swallowed and nodded. “For now. Yes. Only for now. I can’t give anything more. I can’t risk anything more.”

  His arms slid around her body and their lips found each other’s with a searing urgency that only ten years of separation could bring. As their lips, mouths and tongues tried to erase the years, Susie slid her hands under his shirt. Her fingers were tentative to begin with but, at the feel of his bare flesh, prickling with goose bumps despite the heat, her fingers pressed into his skin, easing over his muscle and sinew, wanting desperately to know all of him. But before her hands were satisfied, he suddenly stepped back and pulled down the figure-hugging dress, leaving her standing only in her plain white underwear.

  His gaze swept her body appreciatively as she stepped out of the dress. “Suse.” He shook his head. “Look at you. You are so beautiful. I’ve dreamed of seeing you like this but you’re more beautiful than I imagined.”

  “Come on, I’ve hardly got model looks.” She felt uncomfortably reminded that James was used to the company of glamorous women.

  He kissed her fiercely before standing back, stroking her cheekbones with his thumb, frowning. “You, Mrs. Henderson, are delusional. He nuzzled her neck and inhaled her scent. “God, you drive me crazy. I can see I’m going to have to show you how beautiful you are, if you can’t see it yourself.” Lazily, he looked her up and down, his hooded eyes revealing every indecent thought that entered his mind. Then he caught her gaze once more. “Where, I wonder, shall we begin?”

  His finger trailed down her neck and hooked under her bra strap. He continued to follow the line of her strap, dragging his finger against her skin, sending a rush of sensations deep inside her. He stopped when he reached her bra. He swept his thumb over the swell of her breasts as they rose and fell far too quickly. Then he looked up under lowered lids. “Here?”

  She licked her lips and nodded.

  He dipped his thumbs under the sheer lace of her bra and she caught her breath as his nail grazed her nipple. She clamped his hand against her chest. “Oh God, James!”

  He smiled, a sweet, soft smile and kissed away her exclamation. “I’ve waited ten years for this, I’m going to savor every moment.”

  She leaned in to him and kissed him, such a long, slow kiss that he was left in no doubt as to what she wanted and how quickly she wanted it. But it made no difference. James was in control. As he caressed her tongue, his hands moved slowly around her back, ratcheting up the tension inside her. She moaned and eased her hips against his, needing to feel his power and strength. He was hard and she wriggled against him, gasping at the intensity of the stimulation. She felt him smile against her lips as he lifted her up and laid her on the bed. He stepped back and she sat up.

  “Suse… lay down.”

  “But—”

  “I said I was going to take this slowly, show you how beautiful you are and I will. Even if it means I have to tell you what to do.”

  “Tell me.” She hardly recognized her own husky tones.

  “Lay down.”

  She lay down, feeling completely exposed. He came and sat on the edge of the bed, his hand briefly caressing her foot before trailing it up her leg with frustrating slowness, smoothing his thumb and index finger along her shin bone up, over her knee, until his fingers spread out around her thigh. She caught her breath as his fingers caressed the inside of her thigh. She shifted so he could reach where she wanted him to reach. His hand immediately pulled away.

  “Suse,” he said warningly. “Move back to where you were.”

  Her sex throbbed with need but she shifted.

  “That’s better.”

  She watched as his eyes followed the trail of his fingertips, up to the edge of the lacy elastic, with one finger straying to the soft fabric between her legs that she knew betrayed her need.

  “You’re wet,” he said, licking his lips, his gaze drifting up to hers. He narrowed his gaze. “You really do want me.”

  She pressed her head back against the pillow, trying in vain to quiet her thumping heart, her rapidly rising breasts and the desire that centered the other side of the damp fabric that he still stroked, teasing her with random, glancing caresses.

  “Oh God, yes.” She reached out for him and gripped his shoulders, urging him to come to her.

  “I said slowly, Suse. And slow it will be. We’ve waited a long time for this. You can wait a little longer.”

  She closed her eyes and gasped as he pushed a finger under her panties and curved round, sinking it deep into her soaking flesh. She gasped again and spread her legs wide. “James, come to me, now.”

  “No.” He withdrew his finger and climbed onto the bed above her. He drew in a ragged breath and tasted his finger, closing his eyes in appreciation. “You taste delicious.” Then, with a rapid movement he grasped either side of her panties and tore them off her, throwing them aside. His hands slid under her bare bottom and he knelt in front of her body. His hands were strong and sure as they held her in a tight grip from which she couldn’t have escaped, even if she’d wanted to.

  She looked at him from below heavy-lidded eyes, all feeling and thought on the same area he concentrated on: his eyes, then his fingers and then… she gasped as his mouth descended on her.

  She flung her arms open wide, gripping the sheets into tight balls as his tongue lapped her sex, tasting her, swallowing her, exploring the full length of her, before moving upwards. He pulled away, his fingers playing with her, opening her wider, before he plunged his tongue as far as he could go. He groaned and she shifted her foot so it caressed him, molding her foot to his hard form. He pressed down onto her momentarily before he lifted himself up, pushed back her legs flat against the bed.

  “Naughty, Suse. I said not to move. I’ll have to punish you now.”

  She tried to angle her sex up to him, but he kept his hands pressured on her knees as he lowered himself once more to her. Except this time he breathed on her clitoris, flicked it a few times with his tongue before sucking it hard, followed by quick, stabbing movements which caught her in bursts of near orgasms before stopping and starting again. By now she was in a state of constant, mind-obliterating arousal. She struggled in his arms, wanting him inside her. Not wanting to be so exposed, so manipulated, so kept on the edge of orgasm.

  “Christ, James, I want you, inside me, now.”

  Instead he shifted his hand to her mouth and covered it. She could smell herself on his hand, could feel her hard nub respond to the barrage of sensation as she gasped harder and harder against his hand. His hand pulled away and her mouth grasped his thumb sucking it, her hips shifting against his mouth, again and again until suddenly his other thumb pushed inside her, his palm cupping and pressing against her and she came, shouting out his name in a violent orgasm that continued to roll through her body as he continu
ed to stimulate her.

  Then he made a mistake and looked up at her and in that moment she knew she had him. She wriggled from under his grasp and pulled down his fly, releasing him, and pushed down the trousers. She wrested him free of his clothes with both hands and smoothed her thumbs over his moist tip. He rolled onto his back and she sat astride him, hovering over him, taking her time to deliberately taste her thumbs, one after the other.

  “Tastes delicious.” She grinned as she echoed his words. If she’d thought she’d be in control now, she was wrong. So swiftly she was hardly aware of it, he’d gripped her hips and she slid straight onto him as if she was coming home. She cried out as he angled himself to give her another explosive orgasm. As the sensations rolled through her body she continued to move, short, sharp movements, up and down.

  “No, Suse.” He lifted her off him and strode away to fetch something from his jacket.

  Her mind wasn’t functioning. All she could think of was that he wasn’t where he should be. “James…what?” He turned and she saw he was rolling on a condom. “Oh… okay.” She grinned and lay back on the bed again.

  He opened her legs and pushed deep inside her, deeper than she’d felt before. Her hands slipped around his bottom and she felt the indentation of his taut muscles, the tension as he held himself deep inside her, claiming her, pushing as far as he could go, as far as she could take. He was pressing at the very core of her—physically and mentally—filling her body and mind with nothing but him.

  He pushed his hands up her body, unclipping her bra and sweeping his thumbs over her nipples, while he continued to thrust with a slow rhythm that took her to the edge with each deep thrust. While he moved slowly in and out, with devastating effect, his mouth gently claimed her face. First her forehead with a sweeping kiss, then each of her semi-closed eyes, then her cheeks, her nose, down to the top of her lip and her chin. “Susie…” he breathed against her cheek before pulling away. She could see the increased tension in his face as if his body was being too rigidly controlled, as if was insisting on what it wanted.

  “James!” She exclaimed fiercely between gasps. With her legs now free, she wrapped them tightly around his waist, pressing her heels against him and his rhythm intensified until they both came together in a burst of intensity that annihilated everything except their connection.

  James scooped her up in his arms and they rolled over, side by side, Susie totally wrapped up in his arms, her legs entwined with his. He rested his hand on her breast and curled it underneath, his fingers stroking while his thumb rose and lifted with the fall and rise of her chest, slowing as her heartbeat calmed.

  And as her breathing returned to normal, so did her brain. What the hell had she just done? She squeezed her eyes shut. She must have been mad. She tried to move but his arms were tight around her. But he knew.

  “I hadn’t planned this, you know, Susie. I had no intentions of doing anything like this.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  “But I can’t regret it.” There was a long pause. “Do you?”

  “I should do.” But how could she, lying in his arms, feeling so right? She shifted her head so she could see his face. He continued to play with a strand of her hair. “ But I don’t.”

  “Good.” His hand stretched down her belly and further, playing with her until she fell back against the bed, writhing under his caresses. “Because I intend to have a repeat performance. Except this time… I really will go more slowly.”

  “You go,” she said before inhaling sharply as his fingers found their target, “as slow as you like.”

  As the light began to creep in through the open windows, Susie shifted from under James’s embrace to see him better. He was fast asleep. God, he looked so young when he was asleep. Serious. And sweet. That was her James.

  Her James.

  She swung her legs to the floor and pulled on her robe. She tied the sash and walked to the open window, suddenly needing to breathe. She felt enclosed, claustrophobic. She stepped onto the private terrace and clutched the rail. Fear. That was it. He’d driven through her defenses and she was scared she’d disintegrate and let go of the tight hold she had on the world. She’d given him the power. She needed to keep the power.

  She closed her eyes as she heard him approach her.

  “Morning, beautiful.” He nuzzled her neck.

  She shouldn’t, she knew she shouldn’t, but she leaned back into his embrace. His hands slipped around her body, one sliding under the fine fabric of her gown, and embraced her. Whenever he was close to her, her fears dissolved into the ether.

  “How come you smell so divine? How come you always smell so divine?”

  “Soap.”

  She felt his laughter against her neck. “Don’t tell me,” he murmured, his breath causing her skin to peak in goose bumps, sending shivers of excitement coursing through her body. “Supermarket brand.”

  “Exactly.” She twisted in his arms, placing her hands on his shoulders, meaning to push him away, as she struggled with her need to retain control. But, instead, his lips found hers and she melted into his kiss. His hands slipped down to her bottom and he pulled her to him and she could feel his arousal pressed hard against her body.

  She had to move away. “James… I—”

  But her words were stopped by a placement of his finger against her lips. “Susie. Give me some credit. I know what you’re thinking.”

  “How can you?”

  “I spent my days with you as a kid, watching you as you reacted to the world, marveling at your courage and strength. I know what makes you tick.”

  She shook her head. “I’ve changed.”

  “No.” He brushed her lips with his own. “Not so much.”

  “A lot of time’s passed since then.”

  “Time in which I’ve thought of you, of what you did, wondering what you’re doing, thinking about you…” He sighed. “I know you’re scared. You’re probably planning the fastest way you can get back to Waiheke, back to Tom, back to your life.”

  She looked at him, amazed.

  “I see I’ve surprised you. But you’re easy to read, so straight up, so straightforward. You’ve worked hard to gain your independence, to be not as vulnerable as your parents were to others. And it’s worked. And you’re not going to lose that now.”

  “It’s scary, James, trusting someone again, giving myself to someone again. We’re so different, you and I, from different worlds. What if you leave me again, maybe not now, but at some point in the future. I don’t know if I can handle that risk. I mean”—she shrugged—“what do I really know about you and your life in the States?”

  He stopped stroking her head and she noticed a slight frown appear between his eyes. Then he started stroking her head again. “That world, it’s irrelevant to us.”

  “But it’s your world.”

  “Was my world. I can’t go back to it, not now. What I want is here.”

  She swallowed as she let his words sink in. She waited for the panic to begin but there was none. She looked at him. “Here? In New Zealand?”

  He grinned and reached for her hands. “Here, with you, Susie. It’s you I want.”

  She looked down, shaking her head as she felt laughter bubble up. Once she’d started laughing she couldn’t stop. Where it came from she didn’t know. But she fell against him and he joined her, holding each other, in helpless laughter. Eventually it faded and he pulled away, lifting her chin as she wiped away her tears, whether of laughter or emotion, she didn’t know.

  “I hope that the laughter is in agreement, rather than not?”

  She nodded. “James… I, you’re all I want too. I trust you.”

  He nodded, his grin spreading wide across his face, his eyes shining. “Good, good. We’ll go back to Waiheke and make a life for ourselves.” He closed his eyes sharply and frowned, turning away. “But I have to go to the US tomorrow, I have… business to tie up.”

  She slipped her arms around his wai
st and leaned her cheek against his back as he reached for his phone. “I don’t want you to go.”

  He slid around, putting his arm around her, even as he rang a number. “And I don’t want to go but I have to.”

  She looked up at him brightly. “I know! I’ll come too. Tom will be more than happy to stay at my aunt’s for a few more days and play with his mates and we’re not busy at the winery until next month. How about it?”

  James frowned. “I’ll be busy. There’s the winery’s annual winter party I’ve organized. Other things I have to attend to.”

  “Party? Sounds good fun.”

  He hesitated only a moment—a long moment in which she was beginning to wonder whether he really did want her—before he nodded. “Okay, Suse. A few days there to sort out business and then back to Waiheke. For both of us.”

  “Both of us.” She sighed as she sank back into his arms, against his lips and his body as he tossed the phone on the table and rolled back onto the bed.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Twenty-four hours later, Napa Valley, California

  “We’re nearly here, baby.”

  Susie felt the softest of touches on her cheek and turned and kissed James’s finger. She stretched and looked out the window at the moving countryside, softly blanketed by a mist through which the bare branches of tall birch trees rose like giant feathers dividing fields of gnarled vines. But it was neither of these that made her gasp. The entire ground was carpeted with the brightest yellow flowers.

  “Mustard blossoms. They always surprise people. It’s not what you imagine in winter.”

  “Nor is the fog, to be honest, but it’s all beautiful.”

  “Looks like the fog will burn off soon. We get a lot of clear blue skies in winter too. We also have great food, great red wines, roaring fires, hot pools… and when we’ve tired of that, there’s bed.”

  Susie sighed. “Bed… Yes, I like the sound of it all, but especially bed.” She turned to face him, tracing her finger down his shoulder, his arm, to his hand, firm on the steering wheel. She followed the undulations of his knuckles and shook her head in disbelief at the shivers of need that her touch inspired. “But not to sleep.”