Six Naughty Nights: Love in Reverse, Book 2 (29 page)

She sat up and shifted so she could rest her head on her chest.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

“Sweetheart, thank
you
for coming up with that brilliant idea.”

She giggled. “I’ve always wanted to try it.”

“Honey, if you come up with any other hypothesis you’d like to test, I’m always happy to oblige.”

She smiled, but she also lowered her gaze, and he cursed himself silently. Why did he keep putting his foot in it? Today was Wednesday—he had her for Thursday, Friday and maybe Saturday. Sunday she’d probably be gone. What was the point in talking about “always”?

She curled up next to him, and he rested a hand on her hip, stroking up her back. His heart went out to her. She was made of granite on the outside, but soft as cotton wool on the inside. He could see it now. She’d been different back in Fiji—hopeful, excited, completely open emotionally. She’d believed in them, thought they’d had a future. And what had he done? Taken her vulnerable heart and stomped on it.

And yet she’d still taken him into her bed again. He couldn’t believe that.

He stroked up her side, and she wriggled when he touched the sensitive skin beneath her arms. Raising himself up, he rolled her onto her back and looked down at her. Cupping her face, he ran his thumb across her lips. She kissed it, and he smiled. He couldn’t think what to say, so he just lowered his lips to hers, kissing her leisurely until she opened her mouth and welcomed his tongue inside.

He deepened the kiss until she was breathless, stroking her soft, damp skin and sliding his fingers into the heart of her. She didn’t protest, her cool green eyes watching him as he aroused her. He kissed down her neck to her breasts, took her velvety nipples in his mouth and teased them to hard peaks, fierce joy flooding him as she writhed and moaned. This time he wanted to watch her come apart, knowing he was the cause.
 

He moved on top of her, and she welcomed him inside eagerly. His erection slid easily into her moist, swollen flesh, and they both groaned. He began to thrust slowly, kissing her all the while, drinking in every erotic sigh she gave. Arousing her was like fine tuning an instrument, he thought in a delirious haze, knowing where to touch, to lick, to squeeze with his fingers to take her that step closer to fulfilment.

It wasn’t long before she bit her lip and her breathing grew irregular, and he lifted his head and watched the orgasm overtake her like a surfer tumbled by a powerful wave. He kissed the frown lines that appeared between her eyes and captured her cries with his mouth, at that moment so satisfied and complete that not even the arrival of his own climax could top his contentedness.

He’d
given her pleasure. Nobody else.

He couldn’t think of a better way to say he was sorry.

Chapter Thirty-Four

It was with some nervousness that Esther walked into Rusty’s high school at lunchtime the following day.

She signed in at the office, and the receptionist directed her to his classroom at the bottom end of the social sciences building. Luckily she didn’t have to walk all the way through the school—she found him outside the staffroom, talking to a group of students.

She stopped and waited for him to finish. They spotted her before he did and lost no time in pointing out he had a visitor. He looked over his shoulder at her, then sent the group of giggling girls on their way.
 

Esther smiled wryly. It didn’t surprise her that he should be one of the most popular teachers in the school. Tall, slender and with a casual sexiness he carried with ease, Rusty drew the eye of most of the senior girls he passed as he came over to her.

Much of her nervousness was due to meeting him. She couldn’t quite put her finger on why. It might be the vague sense of disapproval she’d sensed in him from the moment she landed at the airport. Why would he disapprove of her? Usually she would have asked a person outright if she thought they had a problem with her, but something about him made her bite her tongue and nibble a fingernail as he came toward her.

“Hey.” He smiled warmly, though.

“Hiya.” She smiled back. She was imagining it, she tried to convince herself. He didn’t dislike her.

He indicated a package he held under his arm, wrapped in a carrier bag. “All done.”

She had the grace to blush. Before she’d left Toby’s house the previous evening, they’d drawn the next Naughty Nights
card together, and he read it out to her.

“‘It’s Schoolgirls’ Night at the local nightclub. All the women there are dressed up in schoolgirl uniform. Pick one who takes your fancy, and spirit her off to your place. You can then give her extra tuition—and be as strict as you please!’”

“Where am I going to get a school uniform?” she’d asked him.

“Rusty’ll be able to buy a second-hand one in the school’s uniform shop,” Toby had told her.

She’d stared, horrified. “I can’t ask him!”

“I’ll do it then.”

And he had. So here she was, standing before the history teacher with cheeks burning at his obvious amusement.

She held out her hand. “Stop smirking.”

“I’m not smirking.” He grinned. “Okay, maybe I am.”

She flicked her fingers. “Come on, hand them over.”

He put his hands in his pockets, the parcel still under his arm. “Not yet. Come for a walk with me.”

Exasperated and embarrassed, aware she couldn’t just tussle with him and wrestle the parcel away, she fell into step beside him as he walked along the boulevard toward the field. Younger kids tore around them yelling and throwing rugby balls, but Rusty seemed oblivious to the mania, like a pop star walking through the crowd to the stage.

What did he want? And why did he make her feel so awkward?

“I should get going,” she protested. “Faith has Charlie, and she’s got a meeting at two.”

“We won’t be long.” He remained unperturbed by her nerves.

They exited the buildings and walked onto the fields. The warm March sun beat down on the students playing rugby and football, or lazing at the edges, talking. Clouds bunched along the horizon, and it had turned humid, promising rain.

He stopped and turned to her, and she fidgeted under his calm gaze.

“For God’s sake,” she snapped. “Stop acting like I’m one of your naughty schoolkids.”

“Sorry.” His lips curved. “I’ll leave that role for Toby.”

“Rusty!” She frowned, too irritated now to hold back. “What do you want? Is this about the uniform? If you didn’t want to do it, you should have said no to Toby.”

He laughed and handed her the package. “I couldn’t care less about the uniform.”

“So what’s up?” She tucked the bag under her arm and forced herself to meet his gaze. “I know you disapprove of me. You might as well come out and say it.”

A frown flickered on his brow, and his expression turned to sympathy. “Oh, Esther, I don’t disapprove of you—far from it.”

Her jaw dropped. “Oh.”

“Is that what you thought? I’m sorry. No, it’s just…” He sighed and looked across the fields, eyes distant for a moment. “I’ve been there. I can see what you’re getting into.” His gaze came back to her. “And I wanted to warn you—you’re making it terribly hard for yourself.”

“We’re only having sex,” she said boldly, trying brush aside the niggling concern. His question stirred the worry that had coiled in her stomach for a while.

He said nothing, but his eyes—green like her own—studied hers challengingly, and she dropped her gaze.

“Yeah,” he said. “I thought as much. I told you—I’ve been there.”

“Yes,” she protested, “but you and Faith were already good friends. It would have been impossible to stop seeing each other romantically when you were together all the time. It’s different for me and Toby. Soon I’ll be going back to Christchurch. Actually, maybe even Dunedin. So we won’t be able to stay together.”

“Dunedin?”

“My university will be shut for a while, and I’ve had my fill of earthquakes. I’ve applied for a job in Dunedin.”

“Does Toby know this?”

She flushed. “No.”

“So there’s no chance of the two of you getting back together again?”

“No. We are attracted to each other, but there’s too much water under the bridge. He didn’t want me, Rusty. He walked away from me. And he’ll never be able to forgive me for not telling him about Charlie.”

He smiled. “Oh, I don’t know. Toby has a pretty big heart.”
 

She didn’t return the smile. The urge to confide overwhelmed her. Rusty had been through a hard time—maybe he would understand. “He doesn’t know the whole story. He thinks I tried to find him when I found out I was pregnant, but I didn’t. And the messages he left me at the university—I did get them. I threw them away.”

“Ah.” He studied her for a moment.

“
Now
you disapprove of me,” she whispered.

“Not at all. We all have our reasons for doing the things we do. I’m can hardly lecture on How Not to Make a Mistake in a Relationship.” His lips twisted wryly.

Curiosity made her ask, “Was it easy—the decision to marry Faith after the problems you had?”

“Yes…and no. Yes because, well, she’s everything,” he said simply. “She filled a hole in my life I hadn’t even realised was there. But no, it hasn’t been plain sailing. Sometimes, when I’m grumpy or being an ass, I want to yell at her for marrying me, because I don’t want the responsibility of having to be a good husband, and I don’t want to feel crap when I’m not. I have to fight the feeling that she deserves better than me—that I don’t deserve her.”

Compassion flooded her. “Aw Rusty, you’re so sweet. How can you possibly think you don’t deserve her?”

He shrugged, smiling. “Low self-esteem, I suppose.”

She would never have guessed he suffered from low self-esteem. He acted so confident, and he was such a clever, handsome man. Why would someone like him have low self-confidence?

“So I know where you’re coming from,” he said. “And it’s a shame you think you don’t deserve him, because he’s clearly crazy about you.”

She opened her mouth to contradict him. But the words didn’t come. Did Rusty speak the truth? Was the main problem that because of what she’d done in keeping Charlie a secret, she thought she didn’t deserve to end up with Toby?

He’s clearly crazy about you.
Eve had told her a similar thing. Was it true, then? Toby fancied the pants off her, and he hadn’t passed up on the chance of some free, no-strings-attached sex, but what red-blooded male would have?

However, it wasn’t all about sex. The memory of the way he’d worshipped her body the night before, spending ages telling her exactly what he loved about each part of her… It had excited and saddened her in equal measure. It was as if she were a diabetic and someone had taken the time to make a delicious cake in front of her, filled with jam and icing that she couldn’t possibly eat.

Despair swept over her. Oh jeez. What were they both getting into?

She thought about it all the way back to Faith’s house, the parcel growing warm under her arm. Palm trees and rustling lush greenery filled the gardens on either side of the pavement, making her think of Charlie’s observation of it being like Jurassic Park. Her lips twisted wryly. The only monster threatening to overwhelm her at the moment was the fear that Rusty had conjured up.

As she walked, she attempted to keep the tide of panic from washing over her. What the hell did Rusty know? Toby had told her enough about Rusty’s relationship with Faith for her to understand that he was hardly an expert on emotional matters. He’d nearly screwed up his own future with Faith. She couldn’t rely on him to know Toby’s state of mind.

And anyway, so what if he was crazy about her? She was crazy about him too. He was gorgeous, and she loved his boyish vulnerability. She was enjoying spending time with him. He was great in bed. Why wouldn’t she be crazy about him? And when it came to an end, she’d be sad. But after Fiji, she’d learned a lot about expectations. And basically, she didn’t have any now.
 

At the weekend, or at least very soon after if her interview came through for Dunedin, she’d be flying back. Maybe in retrospect, it hadn’t been the greatest idea to indulge in the Naughty Nights. Yes, it was going to make it harder. But not impossible. She wouldn’t be lying there the nights leading up to leaving wondering if he would ask her to stay. There wouldn’t be that desperate hopefulness, followed by the mind-numbing, heart-wrenching, painful disappointment when he said no. She wouldn’t ever put herself through that again.
 

It would only ever be Charlie and her. All the time she could keep that in her mind, this current affair would be easy to manage.

Rain started to spot on the pavement, and she increased her pace. She’d come to realise that in the Northland it would be hammering down within minutes.
 

She thought of what the parcel held and sighed as her heart rate increased.
Yeah, yeah. You’re totally in control, Esther Tyler. No worries at all.

Chapter Thirty-Five

Toby lay on the sofa, eyes closed. Outside, heavy sub-tropical rain hammered on the decking and streamed down the windows, almost drowning out the music playing in the background. The temperature had risen by a few degrees, and his shirt stuck to his skin. He was used to the Northland weather, but it had been refreshingly dry in Christchurch even though it had been the height of summer, and he’d enjoyed the crisp mornings and scorching afternoons.