The Engagement Deal

by Kim Lawrence

  Holly gasped as one large capable hand tugged down the bodice of her slinky, shimmering gown. He gave a deep satisfied purr of pleasure as his eyes moved greedily over the flushed, heaving contours of her small bosom. Her heart pounded against the confines of her narrow ribcage as desire, hot and sweet, flooded through her entire body. The flood of heat between her trembling thighs made her weak and hopelessly needy. Did it matter that Niall didn’t love her? He needed her, didn’t he? And by God she needed him!

  ‘…since the first time I saw you wearing this. Sweet little witchy woman. Do you taste this good all over?’ he enquired, lifting his head from her neck and looking at her with passion-glazed, smoky blue eyes.

  His fingers brushed against the youthfully resilient firm flesh on the outside of her right breast before his thumb touched the aching, hard, rosy bud. Holly gave a deep anguished whimper of pleasure as the contact sent ripples of pleasure through her entire body.

  He pushed his fingers into the fiery nimbus of curls that covered her head and examined her dreamily aroused face with hungry eyes. ‘That’s it!’ he declared decisively. ‘There’s no way you’re sleeping on this thing tonight.’

  His arrogant certainty stirred the last stubborn dregs of her resistance. ‘Says who?’ The lustful thrust of his tongue into the warm welcome of her mouth destroyed any last shreds of sanity she had left.

  Mouth still attached to hers, he lifted her into his arms and walked towards the bed. They were inches away from their destination when he encountered the unexpected obstacle of one spikily heeled sandal she’d carelessly kicked off when she’d first entered the room.

  He let out a sharp curse as he tripped and they were both catapulted headlong onto the bed. The impetus drove them through the partly drawn drapes and straight onto the bed. Holly’s light body sank deep into the soft mattress. She was so lost to decency and consumed by lust that it flickered wickedly through her head that she wouldn’t have minded at all if it had driven Niall deep into her! It didn’t; at the last second, with a display of startling co-ordination and reflexes, he managed to take his weight on his braced arms.

  ‘Sorry. Are you all right?’ he asked anxiously as he pushed the thick curtain of copper curls from her face.

  ‘F-fine.’ Breathless didn’t begin to cover her condition. She made an ineffectual and, under the circumstances, deeply silly attempt to pull down the skirt of her dress, which had rucked up around her middle. How fortunate someone had thought to turn the bed down, she thought irrelevantly, when she realised she was lying on soft sheets.

  Niall rolled away from her, which she found was something she didn’t entirely approve of. She’d rather enjoyed it when, hands either side of her head, knees tucked snugly up against her thighs, her world had been dominated by a close-up view of his awesomely powerful body.

  ‘A shoe.’ He turned accusingly back to her.

  Holly propped herself up indignantly on one elbow, an action which caused the bodice of her dress to slither all the way down to her waist. ‘It’s not my fault you weren’t looking where you were going!’

  A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as amusement crept into his eyes. Looking at his mouth, all Holly could think of was how firm his lips had been, how velvety smooth and skilful his tongue had been; dreamily, she ran her tongue over her dry lips, still able to taste him.

  The sultry but artless gesture made Niall’s eyes darken. The inky blackness of his pupils expanded to almost obliterate the electric blue. He let his eyes drop to wander obviously over her semi-naked body. It made the ache in his groin intensify to critical levels to see the way her nipples hardened and swelled. And he was just looking: if he touched…She was so incredibly sensitive, the possibilities were endless…

  Her belligerent face was flushed and she was breathing hard and fast by the time his eyes reluctantly shifted from their lengthy contemplation.

  ‘You wouldn’t let me breathe, let alone look where I was going.’

  ‘Are you saying there’s something wrong with the way I kiss?’

  ‘Do I look like a fool?’ He saw her expression and shook his head. ‘Pretend I didn’t say that?’ he pleaded with a wry smile. ‘You kiss like an angel—the fallen variety,’ he reflected with a deep, very flattering sigh. ‘But you’re a bit of a slob on the neatness front. However, I’m prepared to take full responsibility, if it will make you feel happier,’ he offered generously.

  ‘I’m perfectly capable of taking responsibility for my own actions,’ Holly told him, with a brave attempt at haughtiness. Anticipation was sliding through her, stretching each fine muscle fibre in her slender body so tight, it hurt—wanting to touch Niall hurt.

  Abruptly Niall dropped down beside her and hauled her towards him until they lay there, thigh to thigh; the similarity ended there. Her thigh was slim and softly rounded; his was hard and, even through the dark fine wool of his trousers, visibly muscled. She wanted badly to reach out and feel how hard his body was. Holly had never dreamt that such obvious contrasts could be such a major turn-on.

  ‘I’m glad to hear it.’ His eyes as they sought hers were unexpectedly sombre. ‘And you’re sure…about this…?’

  ‘It doesn’t sound as though you are!’ she responded, perversely annoyed by this display of caution. She was way past caution; she’d entered the realms of inevitability.

  He leant over and gently pressed his face into her burnished hair. ‘Oh, I’m sure.’ To Holly’s sensitive ears, he sounded pretty grim about it.

  He shrugged off his formal jacket and discarded this fine example of bespoke tailoring carelessly. Midway down his chest, the buttons of his shirt had come adrift; she could see the interesting sprinkling of dark hair against delicious firm, olive-toned skin.

  Holly tucked her tongue between her clenched teeth—it would look bad if she actually started slobbering. He flinched as she placed a curious finger against the bare warm flesh and then, taking her wrist in one hand, he used the other to impatiently flick the remaining buttons free. Spreading her fingers, he placed them flat against his chest.

  ‘Is that what you want to do?’ he grated.

  Want? Her vocal cords had seized up completely. She nodded her head vigorously. ‘Want’ hardly seemed an adequate description for the swirl of conflicting sensations that ripped through her as she touched his skin and heard the deep vibration of his steady heartbeat beneath her fingertips. She felt so much, it scared her; emotion brought a sheen of hot tears to her dark eyes as she gazed at her own hand, very pale against his darker skin. She was almost too frightened to move her fingers.

  ‘Among other things,’ she confided huskily, with a sly, sultry peek up at him from under the sweep of her copper-tipped lashes.

  Niall swallowed. ‘Other things,’ he purred. ‘You interest me greatly. Tell me more…’ he encouraged throatily, placing two strong hands either side of her narrow hips and drawing her hard against the straining swell of his restricted manhood.

  ‘Stop talking,’ she pleaded hoarsely, ‘and just kiss me!’

  Niall’s vibrant laugh was one of male triumph and delight as he did his best to obey her imperious command. His best was pretty good!

  ‘Oh, gosh!’ she gasped when he finally lifted his head. She felt well and truly ravaged—no, she decided wiping the sheen of sweat from her brow, beautifully ravaged! ‘I thought I was in love with you, when I was sixteen.’ Her tingling lips felt tenderly swollen as she ran the tip of her tongue along the outline.

  Niall exhaled sharply as his eyes followed the tiny gesture. He half levered himself up and ripped the shirt from his back. ‘I know.’

  ‘I knew you knew,’ she murmured in a distracted voice. His impressive rippling torso, all hard sinew, firmly sculpted muscles and smooth satiny skin, was deeply distracting. She didn’t need medical training to know she was looking at perfection. ‘It was very humiliating,’ she confided frankly. ‘Of course, I’ve been over it—you—for years and years.’ Now wasn’t the time to
reveal what a catastrophic relapse she had had—there probably never would be a good time for that!

  ‘Feel better now you’ve firmly established the fact you’re not in love with me?’

  Holly knew that the clipped tone in his voice was somehow significant, but the realisation slipped away from her as his hands began to move ever so softly over the rigid peaks of her engorged breasts. Her nerve-endings formed new and marvellous connections as her entire body came alive. The ache between her thighs became more acute.

  ‘No,’ she lied unselfconsciously. ‘Just ever so slightly in lust.’ She arched her back as he knelt over her and, threading one arm through the curve in her lower back, hauled her relaxed body upright until her face was on a level with his.

  ‘Your frankness, little one, could wound a lesser man.’

  Holly looped her arms around his neck and plastered her naked upper half against him, squirming to get maximum contact from the manoeuvre. She gave a gusty sigh of deep pleasure—he felt quite marvellous. ‘All right,’ she conceded with a sigh. ‘At this moment, a lot in lust!’

  The sombreness lifted from Niall’s face to be replaced by a fierce hunger as he laughed out loud. ‘You never say what I expect you to.’

  ‘Is that a good thing?’ she purred throatily. His eyes were incandescent as they scanned her aroused face.

  The fact that this perfect sample of rampant maleness was shaking—fine tremors were visibly running through his greyhound-lean frame—made her feel suddenly strong and in charge. I’m irresistible, men are putty in my hands: it was a very potent delusion. It lasted all the way up to his next kiss, which was frenzied and urgent, she felt the salty tang of blood on her tongue.

  ‘Let’s get you out of these, shall we?’

  Holly closed her eyes as he lay her down. She hoped he wasn’t expecting any help, because she was incapable—incapable of lifting a finger. Incapable too of rational thought, or any thought at all, save the blind mating instinct that told her this was the man she was meant to be with forever. Tragedy was, he didn’t know about the forever part, so she’d have to settle for now—and now he was hers!

  After he’d peeled the last scrap of clothing from her trembling body—fortunately, he hadn’t needed any assistance—he stopped…Stopped touching her, stopped talking: she might even have suspected he’d stopped breathing if she hadn’t been able to hear the harsh sound of his laboured exhalation.

  ‘You’re incredible.’

  It didn’t sound like a casual compliment; it had more bite, more guts to it. As her eyes flickered open, she didn’t doubt for one minute his husky sincerity. His eyes captured and held hers as he reached down and firmly parted her pale thighs. He slowly ran his fingers along the inner aspect of her legs from ankle to thigh, making her moan with pleasure. When he came to the damp curls at the apex of her legs and he touched her there, her low cry became sharp and feral and her arched body cleared the bed for that split second when every muscle in her body tightened and screamed out for fulfilment.

  His head was against her breasts, teasing each aching inch of flesh with long, tantalising strokes of his tongue. As he suckled, his hands slid between her aching thighs and she was just too stunned by the force of her own response, her own pleasure and need, to do anything but sob his name.

  ‘Niall…I…I need…’ Her hands clutched at his sweat-slick shoulders, sliding over ridges of hard muscle.

  ‘It’s all right, my lovely little witch.’ Despite the stamp of desire that drew the olive skin hard against his prominent cheekbones, there was surprising tenderness in his face as he caught her chin in one hand and angled her face up towards him.

  ‘I need the same…Feel.’ He guided her hand towards the proof of this claim. Her hand curled greedily over him. The zipper of his trousers dug into the bulging ridge of his arousal, making it hard for her to release. He made no attempt to help her and this somehow heightened her frenzied clumsy desire.

  ‘Oh, God!’ she gasped when she’d succeeded. ‘You’re…’ Her eyes felt hot and heavy and they were transfixed. It probably wasn’t the done thing to stare, but she couldn’t seem to stop.

  His grin had a wolfish cast as he kicked his boxers free. ‘Hurting. I’m hurting, Holly.’

  ‘I think I know a cure.’ Heart in her eyes, she held out her hand.

  Niall retained the grip on her hand as his body covered hers. Her fingernails dug into his palm as, with a powerful but controlled thrust, he slid inside her.

  ‘Don’t stop!’ she pleaded, as her body welcomed the extraordinary feeling of fullness.

  His laugh was strained as the taut line of his clenched jaw. ‘Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t!’

  Holly stared up at the elaborate hangings above her head. She was very, very glad he hadn’t stopped. There was still a deep warm glow where he’d been, low down in her belly, and tiny aftershocks that were faint echoes of that wild cascade of deep rippling contractions still fluttered every so often.

  ‘You’re not asleep?’ A hand lifted the heavy damp hair from the nape of her neck.

  It was the first time he’d spoken since he’d said her name. Even the memory of that wild triumphant cry could bring the fine downy hairs over her body erect.

  She lifted her head from his chest and smiled, a sleepily content look. ‘No.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Not sleepy.’ Holly gently teased the dark hairs across his chest, before she rolled onto her back and stretched, a smile of smug complacency on her full lips. She had something now that nobody could take away from her; her lips firmed into a defiant line. ‘How about you?’ she challenged recklessly. What am I asking for, she wondered, marks out of ten?

  Niall grinned and rolled onto his belly. Head on one side, he subjected her to a thoughtful look which made the colour start to bloom hotly in her cheeks. Why did I ask that? The man had probably lost interest. That’ll teach me to get pushy!

  He traced a line from the base of her flat belly up through the gentle valley between her breasts, until it came to the pulse spot at the base of her neck. The fascinated expression on his face suggested he’d not lost interest, after all.

  ‘It just so happens that I’m not tired either.’

  ‘It makes me very happy to hear that,’ she confessed with a sultry smile of approval.

  ‘I’m about to make you a lot happier,’ Niall predicted confidently.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘THEY can’t have gone far, Jude,’ Chris Appleby reassured his wife with a comforting air of certainty.

  ‘They obviously got tired of waiting for Niall when he didn’t come down to breakfast.’ Her face white with anxiety, Jude’s words were addressed to her brother, but her glare and likewise her animosity were reserved for Holly.

  Jude’s attitude had made it quite clear the second Holly had entered the room, blissfully unaware up to that point that Tom and his cousin hadn’t been seen for two hours, that she blamed Holly for her brother putting his personal pleasure ahead of his paternal responsibilities.

  Holly didn’t think it could have been much more humiliating if they’d been asked to give a detailed account of what had been important enough to make Niall forget his promise to take the boys fishing this morning. To her guilty eyes, it seemed that everyone was looking at her with varying degrees of the same reproach.

  How Niall must now regret carrying her back to their still-warm bed earlier. Suddenly, their early morning love-making had been transformed from something spontaneous and rather special into something grubby and sordid.

  ‘Leave it alone, Jude,’ Niall put in harshly.

  Holly couldn’t decide if he was actually defending her from his sister’s wrath or just impatient that Jude was distracting them from the task in hand. He probably agreed with Jude! Why else did he seem to be avoiding her eyes?

  ‘They were last seen in the stables, right?’

  ‘Yes, your mother had just come back from exercising Blue Boy.’ George Wesley clapped hi
s son on the shoulder. ‘Chris is right, you know; the little devils can’t have gone too far. I think half the problem,’ he reflected, ‘is that youngsters are just too coddled these days, wrapped in cotton wool. They need a bit of freedom without adults breathing down their necks. Why, when you two were young, you ran wild…wild! Do you remember the time when Niall here cracked his skull climb—?’

  Maeve Wesley, whose memories of the occasion were composed almost entirely of sitting by her eldest child’s hospital bedside, waiting to see if his brain had survived the accident unscathed, didn’t share her husband’s rosy view of the occasion; she nodded warningly.

  ‘Yes, well, as fascinating as your ideas on childrearing are, my dear, I don’t think now is quite the time.’ She took hold of her husband’s hand and pulled him firmly back to her side.

  ‘We’ll divide up to search. If we don’t find them in the first half hour, we’ll fetch in reinforcements. You take the stables, Chris, and I’ll…’

  Holly stood quietly to one side as Niall divided up the family and willing household staff into search parties. A surprisingly calm Tara was asked to keep a distraught Jude company; it seemed that Holly was the only one that hadn’t been included.

  ‘What can I do?’ She caught hold of Niall’s sleeve as he was about to sweep from the room. ‘Can I come with you?’

  Holly winced; the breathless request smacked uncomfortably of entreaty. His eyes didn’t light up at the prospect of her sticking to his side like superglue—had she really thought it would? she asked herself derisively. It was obvious his thoughts were elsewhere. The rejection hurt but Holly didn’t resent his preoccupation; she understood it. His child had disappeared, so the man was bound to be a bit distracted. She ached to help alleviate his anxiety, but it was pretty obvious it hadn’t occurred to him to look in her direction to do anything of the sort.

  ‘You don’t know the area, Holly. It’s probably better if you stay here.’