by Tania Joyce
“I’ll do it,” Nick took the paper from his hand. “You get onto all that legal stuff. We’ve got two weeks until JLR submit their application to council. We have to find a way to stop it before then. Has Max come up with anything yet?”
“She’s going to join us at the council’s open meeting when JLR submit their application. That’s when we can present any information we have against the development.”
“Excellent. When’s that so I can put it in my calendar?”
“It’s in two weeks on Wednesday at 10.30 a.m.”
“Done.”
Troy returned his attention to the emailed information from Maxine. Opening up an attachment, he clicked the button to print off the document. JLR had months of preparation in their favor. Deep down, Troy knew a company like this would not be doing on-site studies if they didn’t think their development application was going to be successful. Was this an uphill battle that he couldn’t win? Frustrated, he jumped out of the chair, walked over to the printer and waited for the thirty-page document to print. He had to find a way to stop Larry’s place being turned into a golf course.
As Nick typed away at the computer, Troy started to scan the first page of the printout. All the legal jargon was enough to make his brain hurt from information overload. He rubbed at his temple with his fingertips, then brushed down the side of his face to his swollen cheek. Kelleigh had certainly left her mark on him, unfortunately not just on his skin.
A knock on the door made him jolt.
There she stood, but why?
“Kelleigh? What are you doing here?” he said through a strained jaw. After everything she said and did last night, how did she have the nerve to show her face here?
“Miss Johnstone.” Nick greeted her politely, before turning around on the chair and grinning up at him. “Looks like someone’s found you.”
Troy glared back at Nick, far from happy at his joke.
“Um …” Kelleigh paused. “I must have left my laptop cord in your office the other day and came to pick it up. There was no one in reception so when I saw the Landcruiser over here, I thought it best to come over. And … I’d like to talk to you please, Troy.”
Damn, she looked hot in hi-vis work gear and a pair of steel-caps. With her hair pulled back into some kind of braid, it exposed the soft skin of her neck. Where he’d kissed her. Tasted her skin. Breathed in her essence. No, damn it. He clenched his hand and dug his fingernails into his palms so he could control his thoughts. “About what?” he leaned back against the wall, folded his arms and crossed his ankles.
Her eyes darted to Nick and then back to him. “Any chance we can talk … in private?”
“Well, look at the time.” Nick slapped his hand down on the desk, pushed back from his chair and started for the door. “That storm’s going to hit soon and I need to get back over to the main office to help Maria.”
“Nick.” Troy stood his ground. “You don’t have to leave. Kelleigh won’t be staying long.” He remained glaring at Kelleigh. She could have easily walked into the restaurant where one of the staff would have assisted her to the office to get her cable. Why on earth did she come all the way over here to the sheds when she told him she never wanted to see him again?
“Nah, mate, I’ll leave you to it. We have guests arriving soon and I need to make sure the cabins are ready.” He waved goodbye as he shuffled out the doorway past Kelleigh and disappeared outside as the first raindrops started to fall loudly on the tin roof of the shed.
“You said you wanted to talk, so talk.” He closed his eyes momentarily and tried to think of something else, anything else, other than the scent of her perfume that filled the air as she stepped inside the office.
With a few cautious steps she came closer, hooked her finger under his chin and turned his face to the side so she could see the shiny mark emblazoned on his skin.
“Does it hurt?” she winced.
“Not really.” As if he’d ever admit to her, it hurt like absolute hell. “And you said you wouldn’t hurt a fly.” He pulled his chin free from her hold.
“I came to apologize. I’ve never hit anyone before and feel terrible about it. You took me by surprise when you kissed me and I reacted in every conceivable wrong way.” His breath hitched and his skin tingled when she placed her soft hand on his forearm. This was not good; she was standing too close to him. “You have to believe me when I say I truly am sorry.”
The desperate plea in her voice would have been convincing enough for her to get pardon from death row. He had to look away, opting for the view of the rain outside the window.
The air around him filled with warmth as she leaned in toward him. Before he could turn, her lips pressed ever so gently against his swollen cheek. Lingering for what seemed like an eternity on his skin.
When she stepped back, he looked at her. Confusion swirled through his mind. “What was that for?”
“Part of my apology. Last night was all a mess and my actions were uncalled for.”
He dropped his arms down to his sides. “I’ll be fine.”
She didn’t look convinced.
“I never anticipated meeting someone like you and never expected the odds to stack against us. The night we spent together was the most amazing time I’ve ever had in my life, but my work has put us in opposition. My past hangs over my head. My time here is only temporary. In consideration of all these factors, I thought it best to stay away from you. I didn’t want to lead you on, didn’t want to get hurt and didn’t want to like you as much as I do. My frustrations got the better of me last night, but that’s no excuse for hitting you. I mean it when I say I’m sorry.”
What was that? She liked him?
“I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving and you thinking I hated you. Because that’s not the case. Not at all.”
She stepped closer, her eyes penetrating deeply into his. Unable to look away, his mouth ran dry, making it hard to swallow. She reached out toward him and started to snake her hands around his waist, but he grabbed her wrists in time and stopped her advances. “What are you doing?” Lord, give him strength.
She tried to nudge closer, but he held her at bay. “I want to show you how sorry I am.”
His mind swirled. What was she doing to him? What was he supposed to do when he could feel his resolve starting to crack?
She edged her way out of his hold, rested her hands on to his chest and inched her lips toward his. He closed his eyes and tried to make sense out of all this. Feeling her breath on his face had an inexplicable effect on him, causing his pulse to rise along with his want. When he opened his eyes, he couldn’t fight it any more. Grasping the back of her neck, he drew her in to him and slammed his lips against hers. Her tongue shot into his mouth and he tasted it with hunger. His lips seared against hers as he gasped for each breath of air.
Fuck!
His ears pricked up when he heard one of the work vehicles pull into the shed. He released his clasp on Kelleigh and stepped away from her as Jimmy, his field assistant and laborer, ducked his head around the doorway.
“Hey boss. Oh shit! Sorry to interrupt.”
Troy rubbed at his arm, not knowing where to look. “No, you’re fine.” Riddled with guilt and unable to hide the color he felt flaring in his cheeks. “What’s up?”
“I’ve got to head into town to the doctors. Think I might need some stiches in my hand. Cut it open on my secateurs.” He waved his wrapped-up hand.
“Wait up a sec and I’ll drive you?”
“Nah. I’ll be okay. You look kind of busy.” He waved as he walked out the door.
Troy hesitated, torn between doing his duty as a boss and want for Kelleigh. “I need to make sure he’s okay.” Kelleigh nodded, still looking flustered from their kiss. But before Troy could make it out into the shed, Jimmy sped off in the car. Damn it!
As Jimmy disappeared down the driveway, the heavens opened up even more and torrential rain pelted down onto the ground. The sound of the heavy down
pour on the tin roof was near deafening.
He turned back to see Kelleigh standing awkwardly in the middle of the room.
Placing his hands on his hips, he pondered on what to do. His dick was semi-hard. His body ached. His mind full of Kelleigh and that kiss. What could he do in the rain, in the middle of the wine production shed while it was bucketing down rain? Nothing. Then he smiled as an idea brewed inside his head.
“Guess you won’t be working out on-site in this weather?”
She shook her head.
“Got any other plans?”
She shook her head again.
“Good.”
He walked over to the desk, picked up his security card, grabbed Kelleigh by the hand and led her toward the back of the shed.
Chapter 15
“Where are we going?” Kelleigh asked as Troy guided her past all the production equipment—conveyers, vats, steel bins and other contraptions. All she wanted to do was lock the office door and continue where they left off.
“I thought you might like a tour,” Troy said, coming to a halt in front of a large sliding door at the back of the shed.
“A tour?” If it involved his naked body, yep, she was in. “A tour of what?”
Taking out his security card from his shirt pocket, he swiped it through the scanner and the door released with a loud click.
“Why do you need security out here for?”
“This.” He slid the huge door open wide enough for them to walk through.
“Wow!” Kelleigh gasped as she stepped through into the huge cellar. Three long rows of wine barrels, racked up to the ceiling, stretched out before her.
“We had to install security because there was too much theft going on. Guests, seasonal harvest pickers, local kids thinking it’s fun stealing—who knows.” Troy flicked a switch that threw a soft ambient light throughout the cellar and a shimmered golden off the oak barrels before he closed the door behind them.
She looked around in awe. This was definitely taking her focus off what happened back in the office. Was that his plan? He needed a distraction too? Had she overstepped the boundaries and blurred the lines of their relationship, when no such thing could ever exist?
“It stinks in here.” Kelleigh said, wrinkling her nose at the musty smell in the air.
“Really? I must have grown accustomed to it, I don’t smell a thing.” Crow’s-feet etched at the corner of his eyes as he smiled. “Watch your step around this pallet.” He held out his hand to help her. “This is all the wine for the festival tomorrow.”
“That’s a lot of wine.” She eyed the stack of cases. “Are you going?”
“Yeah, Jessica’s roped me into doing a session tomorrow afternoon on vineyard management.”
“Who’s Jessica?”
“Um …” She didn’t think that was such a difficult question. “She’s the event organizer.”
Hmm. She detected there was more to Jessica, but didn’t pursue the subject. Being alone with Troy was all she could think about at present. She ran her fingers over the edges of the oak barrels, feeling their smooth texture beneath her fingertips as she followed him along one of the aisles.
“The left side is our shiraz, the right side is our verdelho and chardonnay and the middle row is my favorite—our semillon.” Pride was evident on his face as he patted the belly of a barrel. “Here, this is what I wanted to show you.” He stopped at a cleared area halfway down the cellar where four bar stools sat next to a table. On its surface sat a box of glasses, several bottles of wine and few weird-looking utensils.
“What’s all this for?” She picked up a bottle from the table and admired the Gumtrees Vineyard label—a tall eucalypt tree emblazoned in bronze with the words either side of its trunk. An elegant yet simple logo.
“If you’re up for it, I thought I’d give you a personal wine tasting.”
“Oh!” She placed the bottle back down. Him. Alone in a cellar. Alcohol. What a tempting combination. All this was great, but he hadn’t said anything about their kiss and it was sending her mental, not knowing what he was thinking. Was that it? Just a kiss and time to move on? No one could kiss like that and not be affected by it. “That sounds nice, but are we going to talk about what happened back there in the office?”
He reached for her hand, drew her hard up against the plane of his chest and whispered in her ear. “Oh, I have every intention of continuing our office discussion.” She closed her eyes. His deep voice, with a promise of so much more, resonated throughout her entire body. His warm breath shot down the side of her neck, giving her goosebumps all over. His lips lingering beside her ear made her head dizzy. All of this before touching a drop of wine.
Placing his hands on her arms, he guided her backward and helped her to sit up on one of the bar stools beside the table. She shuffled around, side to side on the seat, to find a comfortable position.
He placed his hands down, one on either side of her hips; seriousness drew across his face as he leaned before her. “You have caused me a great deal of grief since I met you. You’ve threatened me with a tire wrench, threatened to buy my home, threatened to leave me alone. Yet here you are again today with another story. I’m usually an easygoing type of bloke, but with you, I never know what to believe. You certainly know how to confuse a man. One minute I never want to see you again, the next I want to get you back into bed. Shall we work out what I should do with you while tasting a few samples of wine? Are you up for a little game?”
“What kind of game?” Her stomach fluttered, her mouth ran dry.
“A wine-tasting game. Correct answers will earn you a point toward taking you to bed. Get something wrong; that’ll be a point toward sending you home. First to five wins.”
“But I’ve never done a wine tasting before. I know nothing about wine so I don’t think that’s very fair. How about something easy? How about if I just like the taste or not?”
“I’ll be able to tell that by your reaction. After everything that’s happened, this mark on my face, what you said before in the office—I need a little more convincing about which outcome to take.” He inched closer to her. His gaze lingered on her lips before he looked into her eyes. “You’re going to have to trust me. For what I have in mind, I think you might enjoy it.”
Her lips parted, rendering her speechless as Troy’s eyes hinted at mischief. How could she refuse? Before she could ask any more questions, he pressed his lips to hers, taking the air from her lungs as he did so. Exploring her top lip, then her bottom lip; all sending shivers up her spine.
He stopped and the smile reached his eyes. “So what do you say?”
She would happily taste anything he put in her mouth right now. Skipping the wine tasting all together sounded like a better option, but she was intrigued. Here she was alone with him in this beautiful cellar. Work cancelled because of the teaming rain. Nowhere to go. Nothing to do. Temptation standing before her. Uncertainty flickered through her mind, but curiosity got the better of her. Sure, she would play this game. “I’m up for a little adventure.” She nodded. “Does that kiss count as a point towards going to bed?”
He shook his finger playfully in front of her as he took a step back to the table. She observed his every move as he prepared and poured two small glasses of wine.
“We haven’t started yet. First, you need to know there are four main areas to taste a wine: sight, nose, palate and finish. I’ll talk you through each step and keep it simple. See how you go. This first one is a sauvignon blanc.” He handed her the glass. “First, swirl the glass around gently observing the color, then inhale its aroma, followed by taking a sip.”
Holding the stem of the glass, she did as he instructed and took her first sip, before drinking down the remaining contents in one large gulp.
His eyes widened as she licked her lips. “Sorry, wasn’t I supposed to do that?”
He shook his head, a broad grin touching his lips. “Strike one. That’s a point toward sending you on your way.
”
She gasped. Was he serious? “Well then, better pour the next one,” she said, screwing up her nose as the aftertaste of the wine hit her. “Because I didn’t like that one at all. It’s too light and fruity.” As she placed her empty glass on the table, he stepped toward her. His hands cupped the side of her face and he leaned in to kiss her. Opening her mouth, she breathed him in as he flicked his tongue, laced with the sweet taste of wine, against hers. His fingertips glided across her skin, traveled down the side of her neck, across her shirt, and opened the top two buttons of her shirt. Her heart rate pumped faster as he slowly exposed her flesh. A gentle moan deep within his throat shuddered through her before he retreated back a couple of steps.
She licked her lips, savoring the taste of him. “I think I just changed my mind. I do like the aftertaste of that one after all.”
His sapphire blue eyes blazed. “I think that is a point toward bed.”
Oh, this was getting interesting.
“That makes the score even, so you better bring on the next one.”
The second tasting of a verdehlo was just as bad, or good, if you take in the kiss and the fact that her shirt was now completely undone. Another point toward bed.
“What did you think of that one?” Troy asked about the third wine, yet another verdelho.
“Hmm. Let me see.” She grabbed the bottle and read the wine label on the back. “A sweet, fresh flavorsome wine with a well-balanced fruity palate.”
“Hey,” he grabbed the bottle from her hands and placed it on the table. “We can’t have you cheating. That’s not allowed.” He glanced at her and pondered for a moment before he opened a small drawer underneath the table and drew out a black satin sash. Kelleigh gulped at the sight of the silky tie as he smoothed it through his hands. “This is an old Award ribbon we no longer have on display. To avoid any more of your tricks and so you can truly appreciate the wine, I’d like to cover your eyes. Is that okay?” The desire burning in his eyes sent a wave of heat straight between her legs. She’d never been blindfolded before. This was unchartered territory. She liked looking at Troy, seeing his reaction, knowing what he was doing and where he was. But blindfolded? He held up the ribbon before her. “All you have to do is follow the sound of my voice and enjoy the wine. Taking away one of your senses will enhance your sense of smell, taste, and hearing. Okay?”
