by Anne Mather
‘Okay.’ Matt raked agitated fingers over his scalp. ‘First of all, has Sara been here?’
Rachel hesitated. ‘Ye-es.’
‘God, I knew it!’ Matt’s eyes had darkened again and his exclamation was bitter. ‘As soon as she realised what I would do, she high-tailed it back here—’ He broke off. ‘I’m assuming she told you—?’
He sighed, and, realising what he wanted to say, Rachel murmured, ‘If you’re meaning that I’m adopted, I already knew. I overheard my father and my aunt Laura talking. She was of the opinion that I should have been told years ago.’
‘Thank God for Aunt Laura!’ For the first time there was a trace of humour in Matt’s face. ‘I bet Sara was livid when she found out.’
‘Matt…’
‘Well…’ He was unrepentant. ‘When I think of what she’s put me through!’
‘What she’s put you through?’
Rachel looked confused, but Matt only shook his head. ‘I’ll get to that,’ he said unevenly. ‘Let me tell you why I didn’t come to find you before this, right?’
Rachel lifted her shoulders. ‘If—if it’s important.’
‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’ She’d forgotten the precarious state of his emotions. He scowled. ‘Of course it’s important, dammit. It’s the most important thing of all. What do you want to hear? That I can’t eat? Can’t sleep? That ever since you left I’ve been blaming myself for ruining your life?’
‘Ruining my life?’ Rachel stared at him in disbelief.
‘Well, okay.’ Matt conceded the point. ‘Perhaps that was too melodramatic. But, hell, Rachel, you know what I’m getting at.’ He paused, and then went on more calmly. ‘You were a virgin. You didn’t get that way by inviting jerks like me into your bed.’
‘Jerks like you?’
‘Yeah.’ Matt groaned. ‘I should have realised how innocent you were. I should have waited until we knew one another better. But—I couldn’t keep my hands off you.’ He gave a harsh laugh. ‘Ironic, isn’t it, when I criticised you for not trusting me?’
Rachel frowned now. ‘You don’t regret what happened?’
‘Don’t be crazy!’
‘Then I don’t—’
‘I thought that was why you left the island without seeing me again,’ Matt interrupted her harshly. He tipped back his head and stared up at the ceiling for a moment, as if he might find inspiration there. ‘Do you have any idea how I felt when I arrived back at the hotel and found you’d checked out that morning?’
He looked at her again. ‘Obviously not. Well, believe me, I was devastated. And the only reason I could come up with was that you regretted what I’d done and you didn’t want to see me again.’
Rachel’s jaw dropped. ‘But didn’t my mother—? Well, no, I suppose she wouldn’t.’
‘What?’ Matt’s gaze was intent. ‘Tell me that perhaps she knew why you’d left? Confide that she’d had a cosy little chat with you? Inform me that you thought I was your brother, even? Yeah, I think we both know Sara better than that.’
‘Oh, Matt!’ Giving in to the urge to be nearer to him, Rachel moved closer. ‘And I’ve been thinking you were glad you didn’t have to see me again.’
‘How could you think that?’ Matt reached for her then, his hands closing about the upper part of her thighs, pulling her between his legs. He leant towards her, pressing his face into the warm mound of her belly. ‘That night we spent together was the best night of my entire life.’
‘And—and mine,’ whispered Rachel shakily, and Matt lifted his head to look up at her again.
‘So, then, can I take it that you wouldn’t have left the island if Sara hadn’t spoken to you?’ he demanded.
‘Do you have to ask?’ Rachel was trembling now.
‘Maybe I just need to hear you say the words,’ said Matt unsteadily, and the sensual quality of his gaze made her knees go weak.
‘I wouldn’t have left,’ she admitted honestly. ‘Not without seeing you again anyway.’ She felt his thumbs invading the hem of her shorts and jerked uneasily. ‘But you should have told me that Sara was your mother.’
‘Yeah, I should.’ Matt’s eyes darkened. ‘Though with hindsight it’s probably just as well I didn’t, hmm? I mean—God, can you imagine how you’d have felt if I’d told you?’
Rachel let him pull her closer, until her knees were resting against the junction of his thighs. It was incredibly hard to think with the heat and the scent and the pure male strength of him surrounding her, so that all she really wanted to do was give in to whatever he asked of her.
In an effort to hold on to some semblance of normality, she said unsteadily, ‘You could have told me I was adopted.’
‘Oh, yeah.’ Matt had to smile at that, his lean face creasing into the attractive lines she knew so well. ‘How would that conversation have gone, I wonder? Look, sweetheart, Sara’s really my biological mother, right? But don’t be alarmed because you’re adopted, okay?’
Rachel felt a reluctant giggle stir in her throat. ‘All the same…’
‘All the same—what?’ He gazed up at her, his hands slipping inside the hem of her shorts to cup the rounded curve of her bottom. ‘Help me out. I’m dying here.’
Rachel quivered. ‘Well, you knew I was adopted, and obviously thought I knew it, too. So why didn’t you just tell me Sara was your mother?’
‘Oh, that…’
‘Yes, that.’
He pulled a wry face. ‘I didn’t deliberately set out to deceive you. But you were obviously looking for your mother, and I knew that as soon as you found her you’d probably leave.’ He leant towards her and licked the delicate skin of her midriff. ‘And I didn’t want that to happen.’
Rachel’s fingers lifted to curve around his face. ‘Do you mean that?’
Matt uttered a hoarse sound. ‘Dammit, of course I mean it,’ he said roughly. ‘Do you think I like the idea of you thinking I was involved with someone else?’
Rachel shook her head. ‘I was so jealous!’
‘Jealous?’
‘Don’t pretend you didn’t know.’
‘All I know is I’ve never felt this way before,’ muttered Matt a little harshly. With an impatient exclamation, he came to his feet and pulled her fully into his arms.
His mouth found hers almost of its own volition. With one hand behind her head, and the other pressing her close against his aroused body, he took possession of her lips with a heated urgency that betrayed his hungry need. Wedging one leg between hers, he let her feel his erection, drew one of her hands to him so she could shape its pulsing length.
‘God, I’ve needed this,’ he muttered at last, his breathing laboured as he sought the sensitive hollow of her throat. ‘Just tell me that you feel the same way, or I think I really will go crazy. This has been the longest three weeks of my whole life.’
‘And mine,’ whispered Rachel, winding her arms about his neck and lifting one leg to stroke her toes down his calf. ‘I thought—well, you know what I thought. And finding out Sara was your mother…’ She paused. ‘Well, I was sure she would convince you to stay away from me.’
‘Baby, a herd of wild horses couldn’t have kept me away,’ he told her fervently. ‘As soon as I realised what Sara had told you, I couldn’t wait to get on a flight to England.’
Then he was kissing her again, long drugging kisses that weakened her knees and inflamed her blood. The feel of his hard body, the clean male scent of his skin, the possessive touch of his hands, were all sending electric shocks throughout her body. Even the scratch of his night’s stubble caused a delicious thrill of awareness to feather her spine.
At last Matt released her mouth again, to say raggedly, ‘I want you.’ His hands were beneath her tee shirt, a
nd his thumbs were brushing the undersides of her breasts. Then he spread his palms over her nipples and added unsteadily, ‘I want you naked, in a bed, with me…’
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
RACHEL’S bed was still tumbled, the way she’d left it. The rosebuds on the pillowcases and duvet cover were typically her, and Matt gazed at the bed with a feeling of utter contentment. They were together, and that was the most satisfying thing of all.
It was easy to undress Rachel. Her tee shirt was soon tugged over her head, and the men’s boxers were too big for her anyway. Releasing one button had them pooling about her ankles, and Matt took a few seconds just to look at her. This was the woman he’d been searching all his life for, he thought incredulously. And he could hardly believe she was his.
Or she would be, if he had anything to say about it.
His own clothes were less easily discarded. But with Rachel’s help he was soon as naked as she was. Then, just for the hell of it, he lifted her into his arms and let her wrap those long legs about his hips.
It meant his erection was close against her bottom, and that was painful. But he could wait, he told himself. They had the rest of their lives together.
‘D’you know how much I’ve wanted to be with you?’ he demanded, resting his forehead against hers. He could feel her breasts crushed against his chest, her sweet scent surrounding him. ‘I don’t think I’ve had a moment’s relaxation since you left.’
Rachel smiled. ‘I thought you wanted to go to bed,’ she murmured provocatively, and Matt growled deep in his throat.
‘I do,’ he told her huskily. ‘I’m just prolonging the moment. And anticipating what I’m going to do to you.’
‘And that would be…?’
‘You’ll find out,’ he assured her, his tone thickening, and, stepping forward, he tumbled her into the bed.
Rachel giggled then, and scrambled away from him. But he crawled onto the bed after her, catching her ankle and turning her onto her back.
‘Come here,’ he ordered, imprisoning her wrists above her head with one hand. Then he allowed his free hand to stroke a sensuous path from her throat to her breasts and beyond.
She bucked when his fingers slid into her cleft. But she remembered the pleasure he’d given her and spread her legs in innocent provocation.
‘Rachel,’ he groaned, his arousal not proof against such sensual seduction, and he moved to lie between her legs. Now she could feel his erection pulsing against her stomach, and knew that any control he had was rapidly being eroded.
His mouth covered hers with an urgency that confirmed her suspicions, his tongue thrusting eagerly between her lips. Hot and demanding, it twined with hers, its plunging possession imitating, in so many ways, that other possession he intended to take of her body.
‘You’re mine,’ he muttered, against her mouth. ‘And I’m never going to let you go.’
‘Promises, prom—’ she began, but her teasing words were stifled by his kiss.
Not that she cared. Freeing her hands, she clutched his neck, her fingers tangling in the damp hair at his nape. It was the purest kind of delight to be this close to him again, to know that, whatever happened now, they were together.
He straddled her then, and she levered herself up on her elbows to look down at him. With a confidence she’d hardly known she possessed, she took him into her hand and allowed her fingers to slide along the velvety length of his shaft.
There was a pearl of moisture on its tip, and she knew instinctively what would please him. She used her thumb to remove it and then deliberately put her thumb in her mouth.
That was when Matt lost it. Bearing her back against the pillows, he buried himself in her slick sheath, his laboured breathing an indication of how hard it had been for him to hold back for so long.
‘I love you,’ he said in a shaken voice, and Rachel’s nails dug possessively into his neck.
‘I love you, too,’ she whispered brokenly, and heard his groan of satisfaction as he buried his face between her breasts.
When he started to move again, Rachel needed no encouragement to move with him. And, although their lovemaking was curtailed when Matt’s body convulsed with his release a moment later, Rachel was only seconds behind him.
‘I’m sorry,’ Matt groaned when he could speak again. ‘I’ve wanted you for such a long time.’
‘Me, too,’ said Rachel unsteadily, winding her arms around his neck. ‘But we have all the time in the world…’
* * *
They made love again, and then took a shower together and made love in the shower. Matt’s soapy hands made a mockery of any attempt Rachel might have made to resist him, and by the time they tumbled back into bed again they were both exhausted.
They must have slept for a couple of hours, because when Rachel opened her eyes Matt was climbing into bed again, a tray containing two mugs of coffee and a thick ham and cheese bread roll in his hands.
‘Hey,’ he said, leaning down to kiss her. ‘You hungry?’
Rachel dimpled. ‘Are you?’
‘I’m always hungry—for you,’ he appended wryly. ‘But we have to satisfy the inner beast as well as the outer one.’
Rachel smiled. ‘Are you a beast?’
‘You’d better believe it,’ he said, setting the tray on his knees. ‘I’m your beast, so you’d better get used to it.’
‘I can’t think of anything I’d like more,’ she murmured, wriggling into a sitting position.
She saw Matt looking at her breasts, but this time she made no attempt to cover herself as she reached for one of the mugs. ‘Mmm, you’re going to love this. Instant coffee!’
‘Sweetheart, I’d drink salt water if it would mean I could be here with you,’ he said huskily. He paused. ‘Did you mean what you said?’
Rachel arched one brow. ‘What did I say?’ she asked, but she knew exactly what he meant. ‘Did you?’
‘When I said I loved you?’ Matt didn’t prevaricate. ‘Yeah, I meant it.’
‘So did I,’ she whispered, her breathing quickening automatically. But when he would have moved the tray aside, she added, ‘May I share your sandwich?’
‘Is that all you want to share?’
‘For now,’ she said teasingly. ‘Do you realise it’s nearly two o’clock?’
‘So what? As you say, we’ve got all the time in the world.’ He broke the roll in half and handed it to her. ‘I make a pretty good sandwich, though I say it myself.’
‘I can vouch for that,’ agreed Rachel, after tasting it. ‘Among other things.’
‘What other things?’
‘Matt!’ She gave him a reproving look. ‘Not now. We have to talk.’ She bit her lip. ‘I have the feeling my—your mother isn’t going to be too happy about this.’
‘Tough.’ Matt was unsympathetic. ‘She’ll get used to it. What about your father? What will he think?’
Rachel took another bite of the roll. She chewed for a moment and then she said, ‘I don’t think he’ll mind at all. He’s only ever wanted my happiness.’
‘I think I’m going to like him.’
‘I hope you do.’ Rachel took a sip of her coffee. ‘I just hope he and Mum can resolve their differences.’
‘Well, that’s their affair.’ Matt pulled a face as he tried his coffee, but he didn’t put it down. ‘I guess it was hard for your father when Sara insisted on keeping in touch with me.’
‘Yes.’ Rachel nodded. ‘Particularly as he suspected your father still cared about her.’
‘Oh, God!’ Matt laughed now. ‘Well, I can certainly reassure him on that score. No one regretted the incident with Sara more than Jacob. Oh, don’t get me wrong. He never hesitated when it came to taking responsibility for what had happened
. And when I was born he’d have moved heaven and earth to gain custody of his son—me. The fact that Sara didn’t want to keep the baby made everything so much simpler.’
‘So how did you feel when Sara started visiting you?’
‘Honestly?’ Matt grimaced. ‘Weird.’ He paused. ‘I met her in New York the first time. She’d found out I was going to Princeton, and I guess she regarded that as neutral ground.’ He shook his head. ‘But, man, although I knew Diana wasn’t my mother, she’d always been there. Sara was a stranger to me. And when she started criticising my father I didn’t like that much either.’
‘You must have got quite shock when she turned up on St Antoine.’
‘You’d better believe it.’ Matt put his coffee on the bedside table and relaxed back on his elbows. ‘I’d honestly never thought she’d come there. She knew how Jacob felt about her. It was really bad taste, particularly as he’d been ill and wasn’t really equipped to deal with her.’
‘She stayed with you, didn’t she?’
‘Yeah.’ Matt gave Rachel a rueful grin. ‘I mean, I didn’t want her there, but she couldn’t stay at Jaracoba, and I didn’t particularly want her talking about our relationship at the hotel.’
‘So tell me about your house,’ said Rachel, deciding they’d said enough about Sara for the time being. ‘Is it on the ocean, as—as my mother said?’
‘Mmm.’ Matt nodded. ‘But you’ll see it soon enough.’
‘Will I?’
‘I hope so.’ He was solemn now. ‘I want you to come back with me.’
‘To St Antoine?’
‘Well, it’s going to be your home,’ said Matt reasonably. ‘I have no intention of leaving you here for Sara to corrupt you again.’
Rachel finished her coffee and put it back on the tray. ‘She didn’t actually corrupt me,’ she ventured, but Matt was having none of it.
‘She let you think you’d been having a relationship with your own brother,’ he retorted grimly, turning to imprison her beneath him. ‘I think that qualifies.’