Six Naughty Nights: Love in Reverse, Book 2 (17 page)

She closed her eyes as the ecstatic feeling began low in her belly and thighs, long and drawn out. She gave repeated,
oh, oh, oh
’s, the pleasure focusing on the pulses that seemed to go on forever and left her exhausted and limp in his arms. Only as she opened her eyes did he shudder and come, spilling inside her. She clutched her fingers in his hair and brought his head down to capture his groans, loving the way his whole body tightened, his muscular arms taut where he’d braced himself over her.

The blissful feeling died away gradually, like the last remnants of a storm. He rested his head on her shoulder, and she revelled in his heavy weight and the way his skin gleamed damply in the moonlight that fell across the bed.

Eventually, he raised his head and studied her with a smile. “Am I squishing you?”

“Yes, but I like it.”

He chuckled and withdrew, lifting off her to the side, but immediately pulled her into his arms.

“It’s so hot in here,” she protested, resting her head on his shoulder.

“That’s your fault.” He kissed her hair. “You’re hotter than nuclear fission. If scientists could harness the heat you produce, they’d be able to run a small country for a fortnight.”

She pushed herself up to look at him, puzzled by his words. “It’s a lovely thing to say, but I don’t get it. You’ve had so many women, and I’m so inexperienced, I know it can’t be true.”

He looked affronted. “Well, firstly, I haven’t had
that
many women.” He rolled his eyes as she raised her eyebrows. “I swear. You make me sound like a right tart.”

“If the cap fits.”

“You’re the whore here, remember?”
 

She smacked him on the shoulder, and he grinned.
 

“I think we can end that little charade,” she said.

He studied her affectionately and with more than a little warmth in his gaze. “Honey, I will forever think of you as a whore in the bedroom. It doesn’t matter that you haven’t been with many guys. You are naturally slutty.”

Her cheeks burned. “Toby!”

“I meant that in a nice way.”

She sat up, hugging her knees to her chest, and studied him with a frown. “Why do you like shocking me so much?”

He rolled onto his side to face her, propping his head on a hand. “Dunno.”

“You admit you do, though?”

“Oh yeah.” He laughed at her glare. “You’re fun to tease. You blush so easily. It’s fascinating. I like to make you blush. It amuses me.”

“I’m glad I can be such a great source of entertainment for you.”

He smiled and reached out a hand, tracing a finger up her arm. “Thank you for today. It was great fun.”

She met his brown eyes, her indignation melting at his gentle appreciation. “Yes, it was.”
 

Her heart began to beat faster at the heat in his eyes, and she moved her gaze to the window. Outside, cicadas sang loudly in the bush. Moths fluttered at the window, attracted by the lamplight, and a morepork gave a low, mournful hoot.

“I wonder if Charlie’s asleep yet,” he said.

She looked back at him, touched that his thoughts had turned to their son. “I expect so. He usually crashes by seven and it’s nearly nine thirty now. It was good of Faith and Rusty to have him tonight.”

“Do them good,” he grunted. “Make them realise even perfect people can’t control a two-year-old.”
 

She rested her cheek on her knees, studying him. “‘Perfect people’? Why did you say that? Is that how they make you feel?”

He sighed and lowered his gaze, brushing at a mark on the duvet cover. “No, not really. That was unfair. I mean, now they seem like the perfect married couple, but they had a hard time of it at the beginning. Rusty didn’t want to settle down—he thought the alcoholism that runs in his family meant he was a bastard deep down, even though it’s like he was adopted at birth, you know? He’s completely different from his brother. But he thought it ran in the blood, and he didn’t want to pass it on to his kids. He seems to have got over that.”

“I guess being in love means you’re more able to cope with problems.”

He raised his gaze back to hers. “I suppose. I’ve never been in love, so I don’t know.”

“Never?” She found that difficult to believe. “Not even with your hundred-and-one girlfriends?”

He gave her an exasperated look. “I’m not even close to a quarter of that figure. And no. I’ve never been in love with any of them. You?”

She picked at her fingernails. He hadn’t asked about her previous sexual experience while on holiday in Fiji, but she’d told him anyway. Two partners, both of whom she’d only slept with less than half a dozen times. He’d nodded, but she knew he had no idea just how different an experience it had been going to bed with him compared to having sex with the others. They had been like having ice cream for dessert. Nice enough, and she wasn’t going to turn it down, but not exactly haute cuisine. Sex with Toby, however, had been like a beautiful sundae, full of different flavours of expensive ice cream, exotic fruits, liqueurs, chocolate sauce
and
marshmallows. He’d be top of anyone’s menu.

It wasn’t surprising she’d fallen for him within days—no, probably hours—of meeting him. He was so full of life, enthusiastic, vibrant, fun. He’d taken her to dizzy heights of pleasure she’d never known existed.

No wonder the fall had been so hard.

“No,” she said. “Never been in love.”

Their gazes met, and they studied each other for a long, long time.

She turned and got up. “Better get going,” she said. “Are you okay to drop me back?”

“Of course.”
 

Suddenly it was all very formal. She went into the kitchen and found her clothes, squeezed herself into the skimpy dress and slipped on her sandals. He came out in shorts and a black T-shirt, looking just as gorgeous as he had in the dress shirt.

“After you.” He held open the door, and followed her out to the car.

They didn’t say much as he drove her the short distance to Faith’s house. When they arrived, he accompanied her to the front door.

“Well,” he said as she turned to face him. “Thanks for a lovely evening.”

“You’re very welcome.” She hesitated. He’d shoved his hands in the pocket of his shorts and looked suddenly young and uncertain. Her heart went out to him. He hadn’t asked for any of this. For all his experience, he was no more skilled in relationships than she was. She smiled. “Want to come in and see Charlie?”

His face brightened. “Sure.”

She opened the door with the key Faith had given her and they went in. Faith and Rusty were in the living room, curled up together on the sofa watching a DVD, but they paused it as Esther and Toby entered.

“Hey, you two.” Faith grinned at them. “Had a nice evening?”

“Yes,” Toby said, “we’ve had sex. Stop smirking.”

Faith and Rusty laughed. “Good to hear,” Faith said. “I expect a report shortly.” Her eyes twinkled. “Although of course, the more data I have, the better.”

Esther’s cheeks burned. Faith was implying they should give the game another go. But that would be a big mistake. She could convince herself once was a blip. More than once was a pattern, and that wouldn’t end well.

Toby gave Faith the sort of look Esther imagined she’d given Charlie when he’d told the kindergarten teacher that his mummy had dropped a plate on the floor and said “Fuck”. Faith pulled an
oops
face and then winced as Rusty gave her a surreptitious kick.
 

That made Esther laugh. “Don’t worry about it,” she said, turning to leave the room. “It was a one-off, Faith, but I’m glad you gave Toby the game.”

She walked along the corridor to the spare room and paused in the doorway. Charlie lay in bed on his stomach, covers rumpled around him, cheeks rosy from the warmth of the summer evening. He looked so beautiful she caught her breath.

“Wow.” Toby stood behind her. He didn’t touch her, but the heat from his body radiated through her. “I can’t believe we made him.”

“I know. Me neither.”

“You are so clever.”

She said nothing but couldn’t stop a smile creeping onto her lips.

They stood there for a moment, afraid to break the perfect moment. Her son content, quiet, dreaming of Thomas Tank and Lego and the swings, and Toby standing with her, such an example of strength and masculinity that she ached.

And suddenly she was glad they’d slept together for the last time. Because she could very easily fall for him all over again. And she didn’t know if her heart would survive another break.

Chapter Twenty

“Wow,” Dan said as Charlie tripped over his feet and sprawled onto the grass. “He’s so like his father.” The others laughed.

Toby smiled good-naturedly. It was Sunday evening, and at six o’clock he’d picked up Esther and Charlie, along with Rusty and Faith, and driven to Paihia, where they’d met Dan and Eve at The Seagull for dinner. The weather was gloriously warm, so they’d taken a seat in the garden overlooking the beach, the bay glittering enticingly in the background.

His gaze slid across to Esther as the others continued to talk. She’d smiled at Dan’s joke, but it looked more like a smile of politeness than genuine amusement at his gag. Was something bothering her? She’d seemed happy enough when he picked her up. In the morning, he’d taken her and Charlie into Kerikeri to explore the shops, and then Faith and Rusty had joined them for a snack lunch in McDonald’s. Charlie had wolfed down a six pack of chicken nuggets and then spent a pleasant half hour playing on the slides in the indoor playground while they chatted about this and that.

He sensed that Esther liked Faith, and also that she was unused to the sort of friendship Faith was offering her. She must lead a very lonely life in Christchurch. What a shame they had to live on different islands. Things might have been very different if they’d discovered in Fiji that they came from the same town, or at least the same area. Perhaps he would have made more of an effort to continue the relationship. Although would he have been ready to be a father? He was hardly ready now, but he’d grown up a lot over the last couple of years. Maybe the time just hadn’t been right then.

She met his eyes, and a flush spread slowly over her cheeks before she tore her gaze away. He smiled, amused at how easily she blushed. It was difficult to stop his mind flicking through scenes of the previous night. Her beautiful, soft body moulding and opening to his, her delicious gasps of pleasure that had turned him on so much, her wide green eyes, intense and hot with desire. In spite of her reticence and obvious worry about how her body had changed, and being nervous about stripping in front of him, she’d loved him with an abandonment that had blown him away.

She wasn’t the most sexually aware girl he’d slept with. And yet she was the sexiest by far, although he couldn’t put his finger on why. But she did something to his inner thermostat and sent it rocketing every time she lost her shyness and gave him one of those looks that made his blood boil.

She was also the cleverest girl he’d been with. He liked that she was smarter than him. Her brain was sexy, and he loved the way she seemed to enjoy listening to his opinions and encouraged him to speak the kind of thoughts he’d never have voiced to anyone else for fear of being laughed at.

“Toby!”

He jumped, only then realising the others were all looking at him, waiting for him to answer a question. “What?”

Rusty smirked. “Mind elsewhere, was it?”

Eve sighed. “You’re such a Neanderthal, Toby. Don’t you ever think of anything else?”

For once, he didn’t return with a wisecrack. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten embarrassed. As he was so clumsy and walked into doors and knocked vases over three or four times a day, he was used to looking an idiot. He was also used to the others teasing him. But for some reason Eve’s comment stung.
 

Maybe it was because Esther was listening, and he didn’t want her to think badly of him. Or maybe it was because that
was
what he had been thinking, but it hadn’t been lewd or base as Eve had suggested. He hadn’t just been thinking about sex. He’d been thinking about sex with Esther. That was something entirely different, and not something he wanted made fun of.

At that moment, Charlie fell over again, and this time he must have bumped himself because he wailed. Esther put down her knife and fork, but Toby had already finished his fish and chips, so he pushed himself to his feet. “I’ll get him.”
 

He ignored the looks they exchanged, picked up Bear and walked across the grass to where Charlie sat, tears running down his chubby cheeks. Toby dropped to his haunches beside him and handed him Bear. “Hey, fella. What did you do?”

“Hurt my hand.” Charlie clutched Bear to him and showed Toby the hand that bore the minutest of grazes. “Kiss it better,” he demanded. Toby did so. Charlie stretched his arms to be picked up.

A lump formed in Toby’s throat, and he slotted his hands under the boy’s armpits and stood, bringing Charlie with him and balancing him on his hip. Charlie cuddled up to him and rested his head on Toby’s shoulder as he sucked his thumb.

“It’s okay,” Toby murmured, turning to face the sea. “All better now.”