Catch (20 page)

Tamsen sat waiting for Matt in the courtyard garden - early as usual, wanting to soak up its energy.
 
It intrigued her the feeling of tranquility and positive energy this little space had.
 
She was touched and reassured that Matt enjoyed being here too. His home exuded the same harmony, which she found interesting.
 
How could someone who liked being here and had a home that oozed this kind of balanced energy work where he did?

She sniffed a piece of apple mint from the small herb garden, the fuzzy leaves tickling her nose.
 
The scent of fresh, pungent citrus and mint was overwhelming.
 
It amused her that it was called apple mint when it so reminded her of oranges.

"Hey.
 
It's nice to find you admiring the fish and enjoying the garden."

His voice flowed through her, cool and soothing, running down her spine like the water down the small waterfall she'd been watching.
 
She could listen to him all day.

"Hi."
 
She looked up. The light - was it playing tricks, or was it his aura she’d glanced upon?
 
She looked into the black wells of his eyes and felt a connection, a sensation so severe and sudden it took her breath away.
 
He was in pain and unsure of himself - she could feel it.
 

"I'm not mad at you."
 
She held out her hand, coaxing him closer.
 
She wanted to touch him, to feel the physical manifestation of the dance their emotional bodies had been doing.
 
He took her hand and she sensed him relax.

"Why is it that when I'm with you everything feels right in the world?"
 
He had a puzzled look on his face.
 

Her heart soared just hearing the words. "Probably because it is."
 

She realized she'd been waiting for this man for a long time and she'd be damned if she'd let a minx like Gina stuff it up for her. "I've ordered coffee for you," she told him.

"And some sort of herbal crap for you, I suppose."
 

She knew his gentle dig came from a loving place. "You know me, I get a big enough kick out of life without having to resort to chemical enhancement."

He bent and kissed her.
 
She loved the feel of his lips on hers.
 
She had an instant desire to tear his clothes from him and make love to him, right there in the courtyard.
 
His ability to arouse her at a moment's notice bordered on terrifying.

"Stop it, you horror."
 
Her words came out in ragged gasps.
 
"I hate the way my body reacts to you sometimes.
 
I feel like a slut."

He grinned.
 
"I feel like a bit of slut.
 
Want to head home?"

She felt her temperature rise. All decorum flying out the window, she had a sudden vision of him naked and wanting.
 
What the heck, she was sick of being a good little girl.

"Hell, yes!"

The drive back to his home was hideous.
 
He wanted to touch her, rip her clothes off her, take her in every way possible and then some more.
 
He was grateful traffic was light and the journey took no more than twenty minutes.
 
Twenty minutes that could have been a lifetime as far as his dick was concerned.

They hadn't talked much. He'd expected things to be difficult over Gina - but Tamsen, he discovered, much to his surprise, didn't seem to think he was the problem.

"Matt, when are these people going to be finished with your driveway?"
 
Tamsen picked her way around a large mound of scoria that had appeared since he left for work that morning.

"Who knows?"
 
He scratched his head.
 
"Hard to believe that God could've created the world in six days. Good job these guys weren't contracted to Him - " he threw his arms out " – or we'd still all be floating round in space waiting for it to happen."

She laughed.
 
He loved the sound of her musical laugh. He noticed he seemed less nervy around Tamsen, and he liked that too.
 
She had an almost unflappable quality he envied.

"So is your mother likely to be around?"

Hell.
 
In his haste to get Tamsen home he'd completely forgotten about his mother.
 
What to do?
 
Ah, stuff it.
 
He'd just brazen it.
 
He could bring home whomever he liked.

"I've no idea."
 
He grinned an evil grin.
 
"We'll just have to front up and see if she's home."
 

He pulled her to him; she was soft and compliant in his arms, and wore a fragrance that reminded him of the sea.
 
"Hmm - " he nuzzled into the warm spot behind her ear " - you smell almost nice enough to eat."
 
He tickled her neck with the tip of his tongue and felt an immediate surge of lust when she shivered in response.

"I love it when you do that."

"What, this?"
 
He couldn't help doing it again.

"Yes.
 
That."
 
She rubbed herself up against his rapidly hardening cock, the movement cat-like, her entire body almost wrapping itself around him.

"Mother’d better be out or we're in serious trouble."

"Well, we’d best be on our way then."
 
She untangled herself from him and made for the front door.
 
"Unless, of course, you'd rather take me out here?"

"I'm tempted." The wrap-around skirt she wore exposed a tantalizing glimpse of her milky-white upper thigh every time she walked.
 
She was the most sensual creature.
 
Even her gait was unhurried.
 
Matt had never met anyone who appeared not to be in a hurry to get anywhere, yet was always on time.
 
An intoxicating mixture of paradoxes.

He found himself fantasizing about tearing her skirt away from that taunting thigh, rolling her in a pile of dirt and fucking her until their combined sweat created a sweet mud bath.

"Come on, slowcoach."
 
She looked across at him, an evil glint in her eyes. "Stop dreaming about having me outside and let's get in before I'm tempted to tie you naked to the nearest tree."

He felt himself blush; how the heck had she known what he was thinking?
 
And what's more, why was he blushing?

"The front door's locked. That's always a good sign."
 
He fumbled through his keys, visions of her tying him to a tree flitting through his mind.

"I'm pleased to her that news."
 
Her voice sounded low and soft. He could feel her breath on the back of his neck, never mind what she was doing with her hands around his backside.
 
Her touch was electric, the energy around her intoxicating.

"Stop that, you tart."
 
He could feel beads of sweat starting to form on his body and he knew it had nothing to do with the air temperature.

"You going to open that door so I can get inside and ravage you or am I just going to have to take you on the doorstep?"

"If you'd get your hands off me I might have a chance of finding the right frigging key."
 
She turned his brain into mush.

"My, my.
 
Typical man.
 
Can't do more than one thing at a time, huh?"
 
Her tone was teasing.

He practically fell through the door, pulling her in after him, their combined force slamming it shut.
 
Sandwiching her against the rimu panel, he savaged her mouth with his, sorely tempted to strip her naked and have her on the spot.

She came up for air, gasping, "Oh, God, you turn me on."

"Babe, you have no idea how mutual it is."

"I think I might."
 
She was stroking him through his suit pants, and all he could do was lean his head on the door over her shoulder and moan.

She giggled. "I presume Mommy's not here then?"

"Stop it, you wicked woman."
 
He'd forgotten about his dreaded mother again.
 
Where the hell could they go where he'd be sure to hear her if she came back and it wouldn't look too obvious what they'd been up to?
 
Though the way he was feeling at the moment he was sure he'd end up with "just been shagged" running across his forehead in bold neon letters.

"Come with me."
 
He took her hand and led her downstairs.

"Ooh, down to the dungeon."

"I'll really give you dungeon if you're not careful."
 

She lifted his hand to her lips, the touch sending shivers up his arm. "I can hardly wait.
 
Lead on."

After unbolting the slide lock, he threw open the door at the bottom of the stairs to reveal a fully equipped workout room.

"My, no wonder your body's in such a delectable shape."
 
Tamsen grinned.
 
"How many hours a day do you spend down here getting sweaty?"

"Not too many."
 
He pulled her toward him again and closed the door behind them.
 
"Now, you over here so I can get hot and sweaty with you."

"Can't say I need asking twice."
 
She pressed herself to him with an intensity and passion that surprised and excited him.
 
He felt himself growing hard against her.

"Bet this doesn't usually get much exercise down here, does it?"
 
She rubbed her hip backwards and forwards over his cock.

"Not usually.
 
But for you, pretty lady, I'm even prepared to make an exception to my no-women-in-the-workout-room rule."

"Ooh.
 
I am honored, aren't I?"

"You are." He pushed her toward the bench press and obediently she dropped herself across the bench, the inviting full view of her inner thighs making his head spin.
 

"You're an enticing creature," he almost moaned.

She smiled and the innocence of the smile touched him.
 
There were no pretensions about her – and that was what he found so alluring.
 

He joined her, astride the bench, facing her.
 
Taking her face in his hands, he leaned forward and touched his lips to hers.
 
Another surge of something – though what, he wasn't quite sure - rushed to his head.
 
She was like a drug and he couldn't get enough of her.

"Hmm..." she moaned softly, then opened her eyes and looked straight into his.

He felt as if he were naked under her stare.
 
She reached forward, running a long fingernail down from his hairline, in front of his ear, and stopping to circle the sharp point of his jaw just below his earlobe.
 
The sensation was a cross between arousing and annoying; if anyone else had touched him in this way he'd have been infuriated, but with her it ratcheted up the tension.

"You know, I've never been had on exercise equipment before.
 
You're just full of surprises."

"Oh, you have no idea."
 
The fire in his belly warmed to her words and he pulled her toward him, her skirt falling further away from her thighs, exposing the small pair of apricot satin panties she wore.
 
He traced his finger down the silky material.
 
Her responsive moan told him all he needed to know.

"You like that, don't you?"

"I like it very much."
 
She mirrored his action, drawing her finger across the bulge in his trousers.
 
"See, you like it too."

Tamsen was desperate for him to touch her again.
 

He had this way about him.
 
Intense patches of activity, and then he'd slow down.
 
He was driving her nuts, but whether intentionally or not she couldn't be sure.
 
The mere thought of being taken by him in here, the place he spent hours sweating over himself, made her almost orgasm on the spot.
 
Yet he'd scarcely touched her, just kept making promises with his eyes and his body.

His body.

Now she knew why he was in such great shape.
 
All she wanted to do was rip his clothes off his back and here he was, vacillating between animal and chaste. Frustration fueled her lust.

"Come here, you heavenly creature, you."
 
She clasped her hands around the back of his neck and shimmied herself up onto his lap.

Tamsen sought out his mouth and plundered it with hers.
 
He had a wicked way of nipping her bottom lip between his teeth; it turned her on no end and she felt the beginning of her wetness.
 
Grinding herself into the hardness beneath her, she felt his hands find her hips and assist with the rhythm.

"Hmm, that's so nice."
 
She whispered the words beside his neck.
 
She loved his neck, especially that little patch just behind his earlobe.
 
She drank in the scent of his skin, his essence and energy rising to meet hers.

"I want you, Tams."
 
Roughly he pushed her hair aside, the declaration aimed at the cleft between her shoulder and collarbone.
 
He traced the dip with his tongue, then blew his way back to her throat.

"I want you too.
 
Take me.
 
Please.
 
I don't want to wait anymore, just take me."

Matt didn't need asking again, but she would have begged if necessary. He struggled with the tie on her skirt, and - way past pretending she needed to be seduced - she pushed his hands away.
 
This was about getting them naked in the fastest possible time.