A Bed of Broken Promises

by Clare Connelly

  “Divorced.” She rolled the word around in her mouth, mentally filing it into the biography she was building of this drop dead gorgeous school teacher. “Any children?”

  “So you are allowed to keep your private life private and I’m not?”

  “Exactly. I’m glad you understand.” She eyed her guest carefully, and the butterflies in her stomach danced to a furious tune. She didn’t want this conversation to end. He was totally mesmerizing, and like a tiny bug, she was caught fluttering in his web. “Come with me.” She beckoned for him to follow and walked towards the kitchen, where she filled the kettle and placed it on the stovetop. “Tea? Coffee?”

  He shook his head. “Scotch, if you have it.”

  She raised her eyebrows. “I think I have some, somewhere. Hang on a minute.” She dragged a chair from the kitchen table towards the fridge. He watched as she placed it squarely on the floor and then climbed up so she could peer into a cabinet above the fridge. His first instinct – to help – was squashed by how stunningly attractive she was to watch, standing on tip-toes, her face all scrunched up and arms extended way back in the cupboard. His erection had been dancing like a yo-yo all night and he felt it spring back to life again now.

  “Found some!” She turned around on the chair towards him, her face victorious. But one look at his eyes, which he knew must have perfectly conveyed the direction of his thoughts, and she blushed to the top of her pretty little face. “Er…” She dipped her head, her dark hair forming a curtain that obscured her face from view as she carefully stepped off the chair. “You were telling me about your children.”

  He felt the familiar ache in his gut. “None.”

  “None?” She sloshed some scotch into a glass with Oscar the Grouch on the side and brought it over to him. He smiled at the cup, despite his dark mood.

  “My ex-wife, Veronica was her name, didn’t want children.” It amazed him how calmly he was able to say such a sentence.

  “I see.”A divorced man, in his mid-thirties, she guessed, with no children. Yeah, he was a commitment-phobe, and definitely worth steering well clear of. But that was the last thing she wanted to do.

  “You don’t see,” he contradicted quietly. “But like you, some things I prefer not to discuss.”

  Curious, and frustrated by this unexpected road block, she leaned unconsciously closer towards him. “I wouldn’t have put you down as a tit-for-tat sort of guy.”

  “So you want me to bare my soul to you when you aren’t prepared to do the same?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  He did laugh, in earnest now. “Witch.”

  The kettle began to boil noisily and Katie was just pushing up from the table when Marcus’s hand came down on hers. She was so surprised by the contact that she sat back down immediately, her eyes unable to look away from their hands, the way their fingers intuitively mingled.

  “I’ll make your tea. How do you have it?”

  “White, thank you.” She already knew how pointless it was to argue with this man.

  He was efficient, and quickly returned with a mug of tea. He set it down carefully in front of her, and in doing so, brushed his powerful legs against hers. She startled at the touch. She’d never experienced such a strong physical attraction and it scared her to pieces.

  “So you want to know things about me, and I want to know things about you. I think I have the perfect solution to our mutual curiosity.”

  “Oh? And what would that be?”

  “A simple game of truth or dare….”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Mid-way through lifting her tea to her lips she froze. “Truth or dare?”

  He ran a finger down the side of her face, lifting her chin so that her eyes met his. “I can’t believe you’ve never played it?” His voice was laced with meaning and she shivered in response. “The rules are simple. We ask each other questions, and if we don’t want to answer the question, we face a dare.” At the mention of the word dare, he let his thumb pad across her full mouth. She sucked in a breath unevenly.

  Liquid heat poured through her veins and she felt an unfamiliar ache deep in her core. “I…” She looked at him intently, trying to work out just how big a mistake this could be.

  Katie Collins was too sensible for this kind of thing. But damn it, Katie Collins had been a good girl since Maxie was born.

  So what if she wanted to act on a crazy impulse for the second time ever in her life? This man would only be staying at Wadeford House for another fortnight, then she’d never see him again. It would be criminal to pass up on the opportunity to get to know him better. Ah, who was she kidding? She wanted him. She felt moist between her legs, so turned on by the sexy two-step they’d been dancing all night.

  “Truth or dare.” He repeated again, leaning closer towards her, so that his breath caressed her cheek. “What do you say, Katie? Are you in? Or are you out?” And he emphasized those words with just enough huskiness to leave her in little doubt as to his double entendre.

  She shivered. It was time to fish or cut bait. They’d been flirting their asses off. He was giving her a chance to back away now, and keep things on a business footing. But the idea of not taking this further filled her with dread. No. She had to know where this could go. “I’m in.”

  He didn’t react to her words but inside, his heart was pounding with relief. He lifted her hand slowly to his lips and placed a kiss inside her palm, then closed her fingers over it.

  “Ladies first. Ask away.”

  She took a sip of her tea, trying to calm the knots in her stomach. “That’s easy. Why did you and your wife get divorced?”

  He didn’t skip a beat. “I’ll take the dare, thank you.”

  “You will?” She croaked. There was only one thing she wanted to dare him to do, but faced with it now, she shifted a little in her seat, suddenly paralyzed by nerves.

  “What’s my dare, Katie?” He lifted her hand to his mouth and placed a kiss against her wrist, feeling the way her pulse was fluttering furiously.

  She licked her lips. Be Brave, she urged herself. “I want you to kiss me.”

  “I was hoping you’d say that.” His eyes flared with desire. “Come here.” He pulled lightly on her hand, and she obeyed, standing from the table and coming to straddle him in his seat. “Sit.”

  “Oh!” She did as he said, but the dress she was wearing hitched up around her upper thighs, exposing the red silk underpants she wore. Their positioning also brought her inner most core into direct contact with his very hard penis. She groaned at the feeling of him between her legs, with only his jeans and her silky underwear between them.

  He shifted a little in his seat so that he ground against her and he longed to touch her all over, starting with her most private part. He dug his hands into her hair, applying just enough pressure to pull her head down towards his. Her lips were soft like satin, and perfectly full. He pressed his against them hungrily, invading her mouth with his tongue, wanting to own every part of her. He wanted to obliterate thought from her mind.

  He ran his hands down her back and cupped her bum, lifting her and rocking her against him in time with their kiss. His groin was strained beyond bearing and he wanted to rip their clothes off and make love to her on the kitchen floor. But he also wanted to be patient, to make this as memorable for her as possible. She deserved that. They both did. He slowly pulled away from their kiss and had the satisfaction of seeing the disappointment on her face.

  He laughed throatily. “Patience,” and it was a reminder to her as well as himself.

  Katie felt like her heart was about to burst, she was so turned on. “I know what my next dare’s going to be.” She said throatily, lifting her brows in sensual promise.

  She went to stand up but Marcus shook his head. “No, stay.” He moved his hands to her thighs and ran them along the length of her upper leg.

  “Your hands are calloused.” She said in surprise. “Strange for a school teacher?”

  “I
s that one of your official questions?”

  “No. Just an observation.”

  “I do a lot of work outdoors.” He said lightly, not wanting to think of the thick ropes he’d had to twist loose to break free of his captors. Nor did he want to remember the ropes he had not been able to loosen. Not while he had this gorgeous, vibrant, very alive woman in his lap.

  “Your turn, then.” She said smoothly, using every ounce of discipline she possessed not to lean down and kiss him again.

  “Does Maxie’s father support you financially?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Is that really what you want to ask, as one of your three questions?”

  “Yes. Will you answer it, or shall we try another dare?”

  “As tempted as I am by the dare, there’s no big secret here. Roberto doesn’t support us.”

  “Not at all?”

  “Not at all.”

  Marcus swallowed down the lump of anger. “But surely you could pursue him through the courts, make him pay?”

  “To what end?” She lifted her fingers and ran them over the sprinkling of hair at the base of his neck, visible above his shirt. “Roberto’s family is seriously wealthy. I was always worried that if they knew of Maxie, they’d try to take him away from me.”

  “I thought you said you’d told the father.” Fingers of dread had started to curl around his gut. He was used to women who lied and schemed, but he didn’t have Katie Collins in that column.

  “I did. But Roberto would chew through his own arm before admitting something like that to his parents. They seemed to scare the crap out of him. They were always on his back about being more responsible.” Her smile was humorless. “Though I can now concede they sort of had a point.” She took a sip of her tea. “So he flies under the radar and I do likewise, because there is no way on earth I am letting my baby go and be raised by strangers.”

  “That’s… outrageous,” he stumbled. And confusing as all hell, too. The price he’d offered her for the house was more than reasonable. If she’d inherited it from her aunt, it would leave her with enough money to start a comfortable new life for herself and the kid, even if the place had a mortgage. So why had she been so stubborn?

  “We do okay, Maxie and I. We’re flat out through Summer, and we live within our means through the colder months. It’s not glamorous, and it’s not what I thought I’d be doing with my life, but it’s fine. And Maxie loves the village. He doesn’t have a father, but he has a good group of friends, and we make it work.”

  He felt his respect for Katie treble. “I’m impressed,” he admitted honestly.

  She smiled brightly. “Thank you.”

  He let his fingers linger on the edge of her lace panties, and saw her pupils swell in response. “Your turn.”

  She thought long and hard, pausing to take another sip on her tea. Between her legs, she could still feel his rock hard penis and it made any kind of logical thinking difficult.

  “Did you want children?”

  He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them and stared straight into her direct, blue gaze. “Dare.”

  “What!” She playfully punched his upper body. “That’s not fair.” But her stomach was twisted in knots at the very notion of what she could dare him to do now. “Come on, David. I’m being more honest with you than I have anyone else, ever. Would it kill you to open up a little?”

  He sighed dramatically. “I did want children.” He raised his eyes to her. “Not immediately. But I’m thirty four now. I thought by now we would have… I suppose I just thought Veronica and I were on the same page.”

  “But you weren’t?” She asked shakily, secretly disappointed that she hadn’t got to set him yet another task.

  “That’s another question. Save it for the next round.” He said teasingly, wrapping his arms around her waist with all the appearance of sexy indolence. Only a sixth sense was bleeping in Katie’s brain, making her suspect that there was so much more he could have said on the subject; so much he was keeping from her. “Now, my turn. What should I ask this incredibly beautiful temptress in my lap?”

  Katie didn’t care what he asked. She knew she wasn’t going to answer. She wanted the dare.

  “Have you ever thought of moving? You said your mum is in London. Surely you’d find it easier with more support…?” He hated himself for asking, but he was being eaten up by curiosity. Selling Wadeford House would give her so much more freedom than she had now.

  “Dare.” She said breathily, her pale blue eyes extending a challenge to him.

  The flicker of frustration that she didn’t answer the question was quickly engulfed by the flame of his rampant need. He knew what he wanted to do. “Let me kiss you.” He moved his hands to between her legs and grazed his knuckles against the flimsy fabric of her underwear. “Here. Let me kiss you here.”

  “Ohhh…” she moaned, and tilted her head back. The lightest touch had charged her whole body with an electrical current, and all common sense evaporated immediately. She heard her whisper, low and hungrily, “Yes. Yes, please.”

  He scooped her up and lay her down on the large timber table. He locked his eyes with hers as he slipped his fingers into the waistband of her underpants and slid them down her long, shapely legs, not looking away. He eased her dress up to expose her beautiful bare body, letting it pool around her middle.

  He dipped his head and pressed a kiss insider her thigh, right near the entrance to her being, and he felt her jump a little at his light touch. He slid one hand up, under her dress, to find a nipple, and he flicked it, judging by her little moan that it had released a hit of sensation. Good. He squeezed it between his fingers, rolling it with just the right amount of pressure so that her mind was focused on that feeling. Then, he moved his mouth to her entrance and pushed his tongue forward, to taste the very essence of her being.

  “Oh, David!” She squealed, her hands frantically pulling at his hair as he got very intimately acquainted with her body. He moved his hand to her other nipple and squeezed it firmly, knowing she was going into over-drive and wanting to give her more pleasure than she’d ever known. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” And yet she could. Nothing had ever felt so right.

  She was so wet, so beautifully responsive. He felt her body start to shake and held her while she climaxed, beautifully, sweetly. God, he needed more of her.

  She pushed up on her elbows, her face clouded with confusion as she looked down at the sight of total relaxed sexuality she made.

  “That was… amazing.” She said honestly, shaking her head with a small laugh. “And a total first.”

  He felt a surge of power at her admission that he had been the first man to kiss her so intimately. “Do you have a question for me?” He asked, but instead of moving away from her, he crept his fingers up to the top of her legs and slowly strummed her soul, watching as arousal was stoked anew inside of her.

  “That’s…not…playing…fair!” She said breathily as her whole body danced to his tune.

  “Is that a complaint?”

  She shook her head urgently and he laughed. “Good girl. Now. Do you have a question for me?”

  She bit down on her lower lip. “Give me a minute. I’m struggling to think, here.” She tried to focus her mind. “I know. When did you get divorced?”

  “Four years ago.”

  She let out a shaky breath. She was pleased it was so far in the past. She didn’t like the idea of a recently divorced David Trent hitting on her just because he was on the rebound. It was the last thing she thought of before he increased his tempo and once again drove her over the edge. He pulled her up as she climaxed and sat her gently onto his lap. “This is madness,” she exhaled contentedly. She collapsed her head onto his chest and waited for her breathing to return to normal. “You have one last question. You’d better make it a good one.”

  He didn’t even need a moment to think. “Do you want me to make love to you?”

  God, she did. She did. She needed it.
It had been years since she’d been with a man, and she’d never met someone like this. “What do you think?”

  His eyes flashed triumphantly, but he linked his fingers through hers. “Katie, I know you’re not someone who does this often. I’m not an idiot.”

  “Gee, do I come off as that inexperienced?” She joked to hide her embarrassment.

  “It’s not that. You’re just not the one night stand kind of girl.”

  “And that’s what this is,” she said quietly, for her own benefit. He wasn’t making any promises to her.

  “Well, a two week stand.” He thought of the mountain of work sitting on his desk back in New York guiltily. “I have to get back to work at some point.”

  Of course he did. What had she thought? That they might actually fall in love and get married? She wasn’t after a commitment from him any more than he was from her. She despised men who treated women like property, but that’s not what this was. He was being honest from the start about his intentions. He was leaving it up to her. No lies. No nasty surprises. And she respected him all the more for his raw honesty and dedication to the truth.

  “I can’t let this go any further if I think I’m going to hurt you like that bastard ex of yours. If we both know where we stand, then that’s one thing. But I need to know you and I want the same thing from each other.”

  “And what is it you want from me? What do you think I want from you?” She must have been a glutton for punishment. She really wanted him to spell it out to her.

  “Probably the best sex either of us has ever had, with no expectation of anything else.”

  She looked at his chocolate eyes, and his tanned face; his leanly muscled physique and the cleft in his chin. He was so handsome, but there was something about him she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Something dangerous and dark that made her shiver a little now.

  “So, Katie? What do you think?”

  Who was she kidding? There was only one answer. “Yes. I want you to make love to me.”

  CHAPTER FOUR