The Next Season (novella)

by Rachael Johns

  Standing beside her like an ally, Eeyore pressed his big wrinkly face against her leg and she absentmindedly stroked his head with her free hand as she waited for Shaun’s reply. It felt like an age coming but eventually he said, ‘I’d kill for a beer but I need to have a shower first. Why don’t you make yourself at home?’

  Before she could reply that yes please, she would love to do exactly that, he stepped back slightly, pressing himself against the door as he opened it wider to let her in. Eeyore charged past them both and dashed ahead down the corridor.

  Zoe laughed and Shaun shook his head, a definite smile visible now. Maybe the night wasn’t going to be a complete disaster after all.

  ‘Don’t be deceived by that cute face,’ he said. ‘He’s gone ahead to get the best seat before you can.’

  ‘Clever dog.’

  ‘That’s not always a good thing.’ His smile looking more relaxed now, Shaun closed the front door behind them. ‘Shall I put the extra beers in the fridge?’

  She nodded and handed the pack to him. ‘Thanks.’

  He tore open the cardboard, extracted two bottles and handed them back to her. Then, before she could prepare herself, he pressed his palm into the small of her back, encouraging her down the corridor. ‘Take the door at the end on the right, I’ll be back in a moment.’

  Somehow, despite the heat that had spread like wildfire from her lower back to her extremities and other more tender parts, her legs got the message to move forward. She didn’t trust herself to look back at Shaun as she followed his instruction, all the while wondering what she was thinking coming here.

  To his house. On her own. At night. With alcohol.

  Surely that was a recipe for disaster.

  ***

  Resisting the urge to yank the top off one of the bottles and take a slug, Shaun tucked the four leftover beers into his fridge and headed back to the bathroom. This time when he turned the shower on, he bypassed the hot tap and went straight for the cold. He ripped off his towel and stepped into the cubicle, not even flinching when the icy-cold water hit. Zoe said she was here to share a beer and although his tastebuds couldn’t wait for that first mouthful, he didn’t know how long he could sit near her, pretending to be old buddies just sharing a cold one.

  They weren’t old buddies, they were ex-lovers. Although they had once been good friends as well—and might be again—he didn’t know if he could get past the sex thing. His cock certainly knew what it wanted, rock hard and raring to go as it was. Maybe it was because it had been over two months since he’d last done the horizontal mambo but right now, knowing Zoe was in his lounge room, in that fitted t-shirt and sweetly short skirt, he was a typical bloke with only one thing on his mind.

  Perhaps he should admit this when he went back out. Tell her she should take her beers and get the hell out before he forgot about his good intentions and pushed her up against the wall. Took liberties with her body while he did all the things that had been tearing through his mind since the moment he’d first laid eyes on her again, sitting in her car looking as if her world had ended.

  Ignoring the palpitations in her heart and the voice in her head telling her to leave the beers and make a quick escape while she still had her sanity, Zoe peered round the door to the room she guessed was the lounge. The sight of Eeyore sprawled atop a well-loved over-stuffed armchair—which was actually a little small to accommodate him—made her smile and helped bring her anxiety down a notch. She went straight over to the enormous hound and stooped to scratch his big, floppy ears.

  The feel of his soft, velvet fur and the sound of his contented breathing calmed her and she decided to take the chance to snoop before Shaun returned. Getting his address out of Hannah had been easy, but now she wished she’d asked his sister other questions as well. Like if he’d moved in here since the split or if this was the place he’d shared with Melissa. In the middle of this thought, the house’s old water pipes began to screech, signalling that Shaun had turned on the shower.

  Zoe gulped—a bolt of wanton heat shooting through her body at the thought of him naked only a few metres away. He’d been all hot and sweaty when she’d arrived, as if he’d just been working out, and she’d had to fight the urge to lean in and inhale his pure male scent. Had she gone mad? Since when had perspiration been such a turn on? That he’d only been wearing a towel hadn’t helped, because it had reminded her of exactly what he’d looked like without one. And those thoughts shot her temperature to the stratosphere.

  She stepped away from Eeyore and tried to distract herself by investigating the CD and DVD collection—they’d had similar tastes in their teens, liking anything scary or action-packed, and it looked as if those tastes had matured along the same lines—but nothing would divert her one-track mind. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t block out the sound of the water and as long as she could hear the water, her imagination conjured up images of him beneath it. And that only led to thoughts of joining him.

  She flopped back onto the couch opposite Eeyore and squeezed her eyes shut, harbouring some deluded notion that this would stop this nonsense, but of course it only made matters worse. With none of the trinkets and photos and empty takeaway wrappers in her vision, the picture of a naked Shaun grew stronger.

  The beating of her heart grew fast and the need between her legs grew so intense, she had to clench her knees together and sink her teeth down into her lower lip. Was it really possible for a woman ever to be just friends with a man like Shaun Elliot? Once upon a time they’d been much more than friends and these past few days she’d been struggling to remember why she’d severed that connection. The old too young for a lifetime commitment excuse didn’t seem that strong now and more than once she’d wondered what her life would have been like if she’d married him. Would they have built a house? Would they have kids yet?

  Zoe’s thoughts of mini-hims and mini-hers running around this house ran away with her until she heard footsteps coming down the corridor and sat bolt upright on the couch as if she’d been sprung looking at porn on the Internet. The truth didn’t feel far off.

  ‘Hi,’ she said, far too chirpily, as he sauntered into the room.

  ‘Hey?’ He gave her an odd look then glanced over to Eeyore, who was fast asleep and snoring loudly. ‘I see he failed dismally at playing the host while I was gone.’

  Zoe hadn’t noticed—she could barely concentrate on anything but Shaun. His dark hair was now damp, little tendrils curling up around his neckline and the aroma of sweat replaced by some kind of manly shower gel. She liked it, whatever it was. And his simple outfit of faded jeans and a navy blue Hurley t-shirt only enhanced his special brand of delicious. Suddenly it felt too long since she’d been with a man. And far too long since that man was him.

  He crossed the room, fiddled with his stereo system and within a few seconds Dire Straits’ Money For Nothing wafted softly towards her. Shaun seemed so cool and calm and she felt anything but.

  ‘So…what did you get up to today?’ she asked, hoping conversation would fix things. It was the first thing that came into her head. She’d heard every member of his family grumble about his sudden departure. Hannah and his sisters-in-law were mostly understanding, but his brothers were mad he hadn’t been there. Troy had made it clear he thought it time Shaun get over himself, and Melissa.

  ‘I worked.’ He shrugged and took a step towards the two-seater couch, making Zoe realise that the only seat in the room was right next to her. And calling it a two-seater might be an exaggeration.

  ‘Oh. Great.’ She shuffled along as far as she could as he sat down beside her and picked up one of the bottles from the handcrafted oak coffee table. ‘Make anything good?’

  He chuckled and hit her again with that curious expression, as if she were a puzzle he couldn’t quite work out. ‘Now we’ve finished Hannah’s fit-out, we’re working on a couple of big jarrah tables for a boutique in Subiaco.’

  She should have commented on the tables, asked
questions about the wood, the style, whether they’d sold to this particular boutique before, maybe even asked what it was like working with his brothers and his dad, but with his thigh only inches from hers she was flustered and so she said something stupid instead.

  ‘I thought you might want someone to talk to after seeing Melissa today.’

  The moment the words left her mouth, she knew they were the wrong ones. Shaun folded his arms across his chest and his dark expression of earlier returned. ‘Why would you think that?’

  She gulped. ‘Well, you hightailed it out of the café pretty damn fast. Seeing her there must have felt pretty awful for you.’

  He took a swig of beer and looked at her hard. ‘I’m surprised you noticed.’

  She blinked at what sounded like an accusation. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘Toby.’

  ‘Hannah’s chef?’ Now she really was utterly confused. ‘What about him?’

  ‘The way he looks at you, the way he flirts and kisses your cheeks, touching you at every tiny opportunity… I thought you might be too distracted to notice anything else.’

  ‘What?’ Hannah didn’t know what to say. Sure Toby was a little bit flirtatious, but that was just his way. With everyone. He certainly hadn’t singled her out for any special attention, and Shaun would have known that if he’d watched the way Toby interacted with Hannah’s other waitresses.

  Shaun raised his eyebrows and put his beer back on the table. ‘I’m just saying maybe you should be careful. We both know you’re tender at the moment and I wouldn’t want him to break your heart.’

  ‘Whoah!’ This conversation was getting weirder by the second. ‘What have you got to do with my heart? It sounds like you’re—’

  But before she could finish her sentence, before she said the word jealous, he leant over and kissed her.

  Shock overwhelmed her consciousness for maybe two seconds before her hormones kicked in and her body took over. She melted against him as his hard chest pressed against her breasts and his hands gently drew her closer. She opened her mouth, tasting the beer on his lips, and he took the opportunity to deepen the kiss. She welcomed him in, loving the feel of his tongue dancing with hers as memories and feelings from the past flooded through her.

  It had been years since they’d been intimate but the flick of his tongue against hers brought it all back. The heat and the passion of adolescence, that crazy need they’d once had for each other. She supposed all teenagers felt that kind of intensity with their first love—they’d been able to kiss for hours and hours, the kind of foreplay most adults never bothered with—but that didn’t explain what was happening now.

  She felt alive for the first time in weeks, maybe even years, as if Shaun had flicked a hidden switch. Instinctively she reached out to grab onto his shoulders—whether to steady her sudden dizziness or to stop him coming to his senses and pulling away, she couldn’t say but she didn’t want anything to come between them.

  While his lips and tongue continued to work magic, his hands loosened their hold on her head and travelled slowly down her neck, then over her décolletage. Her skin lit up in the wake of his fingers and she squirmed against him, her need intensifying and her breathing becoming an effort with her mouth plastered to his and her heart gone psycho. Her breasts swelled and she felt as if she would die if he didn’t touch them.

  Then Eeyore barked and Shaun jolted. His hands dropped to his sides, his mouth pulled back from hers and she opened her eyes to see him blink, an expression of horror plastered across his face.

  Zoe couldn’t help but smile, her chest heaving with the effort of breathing as she leant back against the couch.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Shaun said, leaping to his feet and dragging his fingers through his still wet hair. Why hadn’t she thought to do that when she’d had him close? Eeyore leapt off the couch and went to stand beside him like some sort of guard.

  ‘I’m not sorry,’ she replied honestly, ignoring the way the dog looked at her. He obviously thought she was trying to maul his owner or something. ‘No one’s kissed me like that in…forever.’

  ‘Yes, but here I am warning you to watch your heart with Toby, and what do I go and do but cross the line?’ He said this all without looking at her.

  ‘I don’t see any line, Shaun.’ And if there was one, she’d happily take to it with a giant eraser if it meant having his lips back on hers.

  He turned to look at her again, his eyes serious, which only made him sexier. ‘I’ll be honest with you, Zo-Zo. My head’s all messed up at the moment. That’s why I did a runner today when I should have been there supporting Hannah. I don’t know much, but I do know that you still blow my mind and I want you in a way I’m not sure I should right now.’

  The raw intensity of his words went straight to her heart. She swallowed, ignoring the voice in her head calling her insane. ‘Well, that’s enough for me, because my feelings pretty much echo yours.’

  ‘What are you saying?’

  She smiled, cocked her head to one side and lifted a shoulder. ‘Maybe I’m saying we should have a summer fling? A bit of fun without any promises of more while we both get our heads and lives in order.’

  ‘It’s almost March,’ he said dryly. ‘There’s only a few more days of summer left.

  She felt a pang at the thought of only a few nights in Shaun’s bed. Flings aren’t meant to be forever but she wanted to get her money’s worth, so to speak. ‘So how about we do things differently, make it an autumn fling?’

  Her heart stopped beating as she waited for Shaun to reply. Although seducing him hadn’t been on her agenda when she’d come to his place, she wondered now if subconsciously it had been. She certainly couldn’t think of anything she wanted more.

  ‘Are you sure?’ he asked eventually.

  She licked her lips and nodded, trying to keep her reply light when she felt anything but. She shouldn’t go there, because nothing was ever as good as you remembered it and she didn’t want to spoil those memories. But right now, the idea of not going there seemed an even bigger sin. ‘If I’m to have a rebound fling, wouldn’t you rather it be with you than Toby?’

  He grinned. Then, ‘Hell yeah.’ And with those two words he closed the gap between them again, pulled her to her feet and yanked her against him.

  She smiled again as he bent his head and kissed her again, this time—if it were even possible—more intensely, more ferociously than the last. Her body, which had not nearly recovered from their pleasurable couch encounter, sparked to life again and this time she was ready. As they devoured each other with their tongues, Zoe slipped her hands up between their bodies, sighing as she stroked the hard planes of Shaun’s chest. He’d been built well in high school, but the years of surfing and plying his trade had only enhanced his muscles.

  In contrast, her legs felt like jelly and her knees quivered as Shaun tore his mouth from hers and started dropping kisses down her neckline. Behind them Eeyore arced up again, barking furiously to get their attention.

  Zoe giggled and Shaun growled, ‘Shut up, dog. Go chase a cat or something.’

  But Eeyore was persistent. He pressed his nose between their legs in his efforts to come between them.

  ‘Is he trying to protect you or get in on the act?’ Zoe asked. It was impossible not to be amused.

  ‘Who knows?’ Shaun nudged him with his leg. ‘But if he doesn’t let up, he’ll be a dead dog.’

  ‘Aw, poor baby,’ Zoe cooed, as she slipped her hands beneath Shaun’s t-shirt.

  He sucked in a breath and she felt his six-pack tighten. Nothing had ever felt so good but she had a feeling it was going to get a whole lot better.

  Eeyore barked.

  ‘That’s it.’ Shaun pulled away, breaking their connection and it was all Zoe could do not to cry out. He grabbed hold of the dog’s collar and started towards the door, but didn’t get far before Eeyore planted his paws on the carpet and refused to budge.

  Zoe tried to s
mother her giggles. Even though her body raged with desire, she couldn’t help finding Shaun’s interactions with his mammoth mutt amusing.

  ‘Damn dog, I’m beginning to regret rescuing you,’ Shaun said, glaring at Eeyore. Then he looked back to Zoe. ‘Can you do me a favour?’

  She nodded. Right now she’d do anything he asked.

  ‘In the kitchen, in the pantry, there’s a bag of dog treats. Can you grab the biggest one you can find and bring it back?’ He kept his grip firmly on Eeyore’s collar.

  ‘Sure.’ Knowing they needed to distract the beast if they were to get any alone time—and boy did she want alone time—Zoe all but sprinted into the kitchen and ransacked the cupboard. She returned thirty seconds later and upended a bag of treats onto the carpet.

  Shaun laughed and Eeyore—no doubt thinking all his Christmases had come at once—dropped to his haunches and began to devour the snacks. Just like a man when it comes to his stomach. Zoe grinned, victory sweeping over her as Shaun let go of his dog, stepped over his massive form and came towards her.

  ‘I like your style,’ he said, taking hold of her hand, ‘but he’s a glutton and a fast one at that. Let’s get out of here.’

  He tugged Zoe towards the door and she followed down the hallway to his bedroom, her heart racing in anticipation of the pleasures she knew were just around the corner.

  Eight

  Shaun tugged Zoe into his bedroom and kicked the door shut behind them, feeling like a little boy about to have ice-cream for main course. She laughed her beautiful, contagious chuckle as he pushed her back towards his bed and tumbled on top of her. Inside his head a voice told him to get a grip, to use a little finesse, but he’d been in a permanent state of arousal since the petrol incident and all he could think about was getting his end away and making her scream in the process.

  Luckily, it appeared that Zoe and he were on exactly the same page. As he laid his hands upon her hips, she reached out and tugged at his shirt. Within seconds they’d rid each other of all clothing; stolen kisses punctuating the removal of each item.