As Timeless as the Sea Page 11

  She met his gaze, his words filling her with hope. “Really?”

  He just tipped his head to the side and gave her a look that said Seriously?

  She looked away, out of the window, at the kids playing on the playground. “I know I told you I didn’t want a relationship...”

  “Yes. So you’ve come for the regular sex?”

  She gave a short laugh and scratched at a mark on his desk. “I wouldn’t put it quite as coldly as that.”

  But what did she want? She was nearly thirty, and he must be around that age. In an alternate reality, she would be married with several kids, doing the school run, worrying about getting gray hairs. They weren’t childhood sweethearts, and they were too old to date like a couple of sixteen-year-olds, holding hands at the cinema and gazing sweetly into each other’s eyes. Getting nervous about kissing and meeting each other’s parents. Hers were dead, and she had no idea about his. They were adults, and she had no experience with how to conduct a relationship like this.

  Jace was watching her, and he must have seen the emotions passing across her face, because he pushed off the window sill, came over to her, and extended a hand. She looked at it for a moment, then slipped hers into it. He pulled her to her feet, placed one hand on her hip, and cupped her face with the other. Then, smiling, he lowered his lips to hers.

  Sandi closed her eyes and gave herself over to the kiss. His lips were firm and warm, and he started by pressing them slowly across hers, teasing her with soft, light kisses, before sliding his arm right around her and pulling her tightly to him. He brushed her lip with his tongue and she opened her mouth to him, and he delved his tongue inside, heat blooming between them.

  She gave a little moan, lifting her arms around his neck to bring her body flush to his. He was so tall, his shoulders so broad... Her thumbs brushed against a trace of stubble on his face, and then her fingers slid into the short strands of hair at the back of his head. This guy was one hundred percent male—one hundred-and-ten percent—and she felt herself reacting to him on a primal level, her heart pounding, her nipples tightening in her bra.

  His fingers slipped into her hair and clenched into a fist, and he pulled, forcing her head back. Her mouth left his with a gasp, and his lips seared down her throat, his mouth fastening over where her pulse raced in her neck. He covered a breast with his hand and rubbed his thumb over her nipple, and electricity shot through her as if she’d stuck her fingers into a plug.

  “Jesus,” he muttered, tearing himself away. “What do you do to me?”

  She leaned back against the window, breathing heavily. He could have lifted her skirt and taken her right there on the desk, and she wouldn’t have been able to say no. Part of her wished he had.

  They studied each other for a moment, their chests heaving. His eyes were dark with desire. Gradually, his lips curved up.

  “Siren,” he said. “Can’t a man work in peace anymore?”

  “You told me to think about what you said.”

  “I did.” He came closer then, and gave her a soft kiss on the lips. “Can you come back in about an hour? I’ll finish up here, and then, if you like, we can go out to dinner.”

  “Do you have any food in the fridge?” she asked. “I’d rather go back to your place.”

  He grinned. “I’m sure I can rustle something up, if you’d rather.”

  “I can’t stay the night,” she said, “Ally’s standing in for me at the B&B for the evening, but I need to be there for breakfast. But I can stay a while.”

  He nodded. “All right.”

  “One hour?”

  “One hour.”

  She gathered her purse and left.

  JACE WATCHED HER GO, then walked out into the reception area, seeing her disappearing around the corner. Hands on his hips, he pursed his lips, then looked across at his assistant.

  Martin smirked.

  “What?” Jace said sarcastically.

  “Nothing.”

  “She’s a potential client,” Jace explained. “So you can wipe that smile off your face.”

  “Sure.” Martin touched a finger to the side of his mouth. “Maybe you want to wipe that kiss mark off, though.”

  Muttering about how some smart-arsed assistants were getting ideas above their station, Jace went back into the office and took a tissue out of the new box on the table.

  As he scrubbed at his skin, he thought about the look on Sandi’s face when he’d teased her, So you’ve come for the regular sex? She’d replied, I wouldn’t put it quite as coldly as that. But then something close to fear, or maybe panic, had crossed her features. She wanted him. But she didn’t want to want him.

  Would she tell him tonight why she was so scared of being with anyone again? It wasn’t just down to the fact that her ex had suffered from a sexual dysfunction, he was sure of it. Clearly, she was terrified of letting any man get close to her again. The Past Bastard, as he’d come to think of her ex, must really have done a number on her.

  Was she hoping to overcome her fear and have some kind of relationship with him? Or was she just looking for sex? Jace didn’t mind being the focus of Sandi Cartwright’s lust, but he surprised himself by hoping it would turn out to be more than that. Still, at least she’d taken the first step. He’d not been sure the flowers would work, and he’d expected to have to fabricate a reason to visit the vineyard.

  He thought of how heat had rushed through him when they’d kissed, how his heart had banged against his ribs when she’d slid her tongue against his and pressed up against him. She was special. She made him feel... different. And he couldn’t wait to take her home tonight, even if she couldn’t stay until morning.

  Sighing, he sat back at his desk—smiling at the thought of her sitting there just five minutes before—and pulled the phone toward him. The sooner he got his work done, the sooner he could escape for the day.

  HE FINISHED HIS CALLS, dictated a last parenting order, signed a bunch of letters, typed up some notes on Tim Baker’s case, argued with Martin over the location of a folder, discovered it was under a pile of his papers and apologized, and finished dictating a last letter. By then, it was nearly five thirty, and he hurriedly packed up his laptop and tugged on his jacket.

  “Don’t forget you’re in court with the Lyttle divorce case tomorrow,” Martin said as Jace strode out of the office.

  “I won’t.”

  “Ten o’clock sharp.”

  “Stop nagging. You’re worse than a fishwife.”

  Martin grinned. “’Night, Mr. Hart.”

  “Night, Martin.” Jace had asked him a hundred times to call him Jace, and Martin always replied with “Yes, Mr. Hart, whatever you say.”

  He walked along the corridor and rounded the corner, and there was Sandi sitting flicking through a magazine. He paused for a moment to admire the view, noting her long, bare legs and her feet in a pair of sexy red high-heeled sandals. And bam, just like that, he had a hard-on. Jesus. It was going to be a long night.

  “Hey, gorgeous.” He held his laptop before him, over his crotch. He thought he heard the two receptionists giggle, but he decided not to look their way.

  “Hey, you.” Sandi smiled. “Are you ready?”

  “Where’s your car?”

  “Just around the corner.”

  He led the way out the door and down the steps to the high street. “You want to follow me home?”

  “Sure.”

  He gave her a quick kiss, and then they went to their cars.

  It was only a ten-minute drive to his house on the banks of the Kerikeri inlet, but it seemed like an hour. Jace tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, his gaze repeatedly flicking to his mirror, making sure Sandi was behind him. At any moment, she could convince herself this was a bad idea and turn her car around. If she did, he thought he might cry. All he could see in his mind’s eye were her bare legs, and the thought of pushing up her skirt and sliding his hands up her silky thighs meant that his hard-on wasn’t disappearing a
nytime soon.

  He couldn’t leap on her as soon as she got in the door, though. He would have to offer her a drink, and sit and talk for a while, or he’d look like a fucking caveman. He focused on the road and tried to think of things to take his mind off sex. But every time he thought he was getting there, an image of her legs would pop into his mind, and lust would spiral through him again.

  Arriving at his home, he pulled into the drive, half-relieved and half-nervous about how he was going to calm himself enough to act like a normal guy and not a sex-craved madman. Sandi parked behind him, got out of her car, and walked across the drive to where he was unlocking the front door.

  “Hi,” he said, his mind whirring as he led her inside. “Right on the inlet, as you can see. Sometimes the herons stand just at the bottom of the steps, and you can—”

  He didn’t have a chance to finish the sentence. Sandi pushed him up against the wall, rose up on tiptoes, and then her lips were on his, and her hands were in his hair.

  He groaned, and as he opened his mouth, she plunged her tongue inside, sending his thoughts scattering like a handful of tossed confetti. He turned and thrust her back to the wall, and kissed her hungrily, sliding his hands beneath her top onto her bare skin.

  Still, he told himself that he should wait... he should be polite and show her some respect, that he could control himself...

  But then she grasped the hem of her top and lifted it over her head, and that was pretty much the end of any sane thought going through his mind.

  Chapter Fifteen

  SOME KIND OF SUMMER madness had seized Sandi, and there was nothing she could do about it. They were still only in the hallway, but she didn’t care. Her body felt alive with energy, hungry with need. The man in her arms was hot and hard and hungry too, and when she took off her top, he gave a deep, sexy groan that only added to her insanity.

  She unclipped her bra and tossed it on the floor, then slid her hands up her skirt, tugged down her panties, and stepped out of them. Why she didn’t remove her skirt she had no idea, but Jace’s mouth was hot on hers, and his hands were soon sliding up her thighs, his murmured comments telling her how he’d been thinking of doing this since he saw her bare legs.

  “I want you,” she whispered, clenching her hands in his hair and pulling his head down so she could kiss him. He tasted of chocolate—he must have had a sneaky chocolate cookie with his afternoon cup of coffee—and she slid her tongue against his and enjoyed the sweetness of him, feeling an answering tightening in her nipples that sent shocks down between her legs.

  “Girl, you’re driving me from naught to sixty in seconds,” he said as she pushed at his jacket, trying to get it off his shoulders.

  “Is that a complaint?” She managed to get it over his shoulders and he let it slip to the floor.

  He looked down as she started to undo his shirt buttons. “I’m wondering if you’re only after me for one thing.”

  She paused and looked up at him, suddenly guilty. She’d assumed he’d be up for sex, but maybe she’d misunderstood. If it were the other way around, she knew that a lot of women would be incensed at the assumption that they would be interested in going straight to bed without any romancing or conversation. He had asked her out to dinner, after all.

  “I... I’m sorry,” she stuttered, her face flaming.

  He laughed. “If you’re going to spend more time with me, you’ve got to be able to tell when I’m kidding.” He lifted her chin, and she saw that his pupils were dilated, and his eyes were filled with desire. “I’m going to fuck you until your teeth rattle,” he declared.

  She inhaled sharply, and he gave her a sexy grin. She wrapped her arms around his neck again. “Thank God,” she murmured against his lips, and he laughed.

  “I’m relieved,” he whispered, kissing around to her ear and nibbling the lobe. “All the way home, I was wondering how I was going to hide my hard-on.”

  “Don’t do it on my account.” She pressed her hips to his, loving the feel of him, fully erect and hard as concrete. It almost made her cry with wonder. “I want you inside me,” she said, running the nails of one hand lightly across his scalp, making him shiver. “I don’t think I can wait, Jace.”

  He needed no further prompting. He picked her up, wrapped her legs around his waist, and carried her along the corridor and into the living room. She had a brief glimpse of a large room with kauri wood flooring, huge windows overlooking the inlet, and thick bush leading down to the sparkling water, then she was on her back on the sofa, and Jace was crushing his lips to hers again.

  “Mmm.” She wrapped her arms around him, reveling in the feel of him in her arms. His skin was hot beneath the cotton shirt, but he was kissing down her body, cupping her breasts and smoothing his tongue over her nipples, so he didn’t seem bothered about taking it off.

  Sandi flopped onto her back on the sofa and gave herself up to the pursuit of pleasure. The room was warm, the slowly turning fan above her head feeling like the brush of a feather over her skin. Jace’s mouth was hot, and it seared over her breasts, teasing her sensitive skin, taking her closer to the edge with every soft suck and luscious lick.

  She squirmed beneath him, wanting him inside her, but he placed kisses all the way down her body, until his lips reached the waistband of her skirt. He kissed down over the material, all the way to her knees, then even further, his lips grazing the bare skin of her calves.

  “You have fantastic legs.” He kissed to her feet, his tongue teasing the ticklish instep. He removed the red sandals carefully, laced his tongue around her ankle bones, then kissed back up her calves. When he got to her skirt, he pushed the material slowly up, gradually revealing the paler skin of her thighs. Sandi held her breath as he bent and touched his lips there. “Like satin,” he whispered, and he kissed all the way up, pushing her thighs wide, so by the time he reached the top, she was lying there open for him.

  Breathing heavily, he placed his thumb at her entrance and pushed it gently inside. She moaned, as turned on by the simmering heat in his eyes as by his delicate touch. Gathering up the moisture she knew would be there, he brushed his thumb up through her folds to her clit and circled it over the swollen button.

  Sandi was almost self-combusting by now, and she stretched out and closed her eyes, quivering as she felt his lips on her inner thigh. Then she felt the hot wetness of his tongue lick right up before his mouth fastened on her clit.

  “Aaahhh...” She shuddered and arched her back as white-hot heat spread through her. His fingers dug into her thighs as he sucked and teased her with his tongue, and it was only half a minute before she came, gasping with every pulse.

  He continued to brush his tongue gently through her folds, and she moaned and clenched her hands in his hair. “I need you,” she said, her voice husky with need. “Jace, please...”

  Lifting up, he unzipped his trousers, pushed down his boxers, produced a condom, and tore off the wrapper. He rolled the condom on an erection that put her in mind of Auckland’s Sky Tower, and then he was guiding the tip into her. With agonizing slowness, he pushed forward until he was sheathed inside her, right up to the hilt.

  “Argh...” He closed his eyes and tipped back his head. “Jesus. That feels fucking amazing.”

  “Mmm...” She tilted up her hips and rocked to meet his slow thrusts while unbuttoning the rest of his shirt. Pushing the sides apart, she laid her hands on his warm skin and smoothed over his ribs. “You feel so good...”

  He leaned over her and kissed her, stroking her bottom lip with his tongue. Feeling as if she were drowning in caramel, she murmured her approval, slipping her hands around to his back and then down under the elastic of his boxers and onto his firm muscles. They flexed under her fingers with each thrust, and she sighed, enjoying the experience of being with a guy who was so... manly.

  “Why aren’t you married with six kids?” she wanted to know, her gaze blurring at the sensation of him sliding through her wet, sensitive skin.


  “Waiting for the right girl.” He lifted his head and gave her an amused look before kissing her again.

  She didn’t reply, not sure if he was just being funny or whether he was saying he thought she might be the right girl. It was far too soon to say things like that, obviously, but it was a pleasant compliment while they were in the middle of lovemaking.

  What a glorious way to start the evening, with the late sun streaming over them, the stir of the fan, and the slow, inexorable seed of pleasure deep inside her that Jace seemed to know just how to cultivate. He obviously felt the approach of her climax again because he murmured, “Oh yeah,” and deepened his kisses, sending shocks to her nipples and between her legs.

  Pushing up her knees, he pressed them close to her chest, allowing him to thrust down. The feeling of him so deep inside, filling her all the way up, soon sent her spiraling to the edge, and as he ground his hips to hers, arousing her clit with every thrust, her orgasm began, and she clenched around him.

  He groaned. “Yeah, come on... Jesus, Sandi, you’re so fucking amazing...”

  She gasped through the tightening of her muscles, then fell back on the sofa, moaning at the feel of her body slick with sweat and loose with pleasure.

  “Don’t go to sleep—we’re not done yet,” he promised, and he pulled her up into his arms and then shifted, falling onto his back on the furry rug by the TV.

  Sandi squealed, but he was holding her tightly, and she found herself sitting astride him, with him somehow still inside her. She sat upright, laughing, then stretched her arms up, enjoying the new position and his ability to keep going.

  He cupped her breasts and tugged on her nipples, teasing the soft peaks into tight buds. “Come here,” he demanded, pulling her forward so she was leaning over him, and he fastened his mouth over one nipple.

  Sandi closed her eyes, drifting away into a sea of molten pleasure. She rocked on top of him, conscious of the hypersensitivity between her legs, and the feel of him stretching her as he pushed up. His suction on her nipple was agonizingly erotic, and when he swapped to the other one and continued to tease the first with his fingers, she knew another orgasm wasn’t going to be far away.