Kissing down her neck, he fastened his mouth where her pulse beat frantically and sucked, hard enough to make her squeal, but not enough to leave a mark. Probably. A small part of him hoped he had.
“Danny!”
He ignored her, nudged her legs wider, and bent her farther forward over the worktop. Where he held her hand behind his back, his fingers found hers, and they linked and clasped, a tender gesture amidst the passion forming between them.
She was wet now, her moisture coating his erection, and he slowed his pace for a moment, listening to the slick sound as he slid in and out of her. He released her braid, and she lowered her forehead onto her forearm, groaning at the sound.
“Yeah,” he said. “I’m going to fuck you hard now, and I’m going to keep fucking you, and I won’t stop until you come, do you understand?”
“Ohhh...”
Taking that as a sign that she approved, he set a fast pace, holding her shoulder and keeping her steady as he pounded into her. His own climax hovered in the wings waiting for its big moment, but he held onto it, concentrating on the woman beneath him. She was so beautiful, soft and inviting, her body welcoming him in, closing around him each time he stroked in and out.
Her exclamations grew louder with each thrust, and although he’d thought she might not be able to come until he stimulated her clit, to his surprise before long her gasps grew irregular, and then she stiffened and came, clenching around him in a series of pulses so strong that it proved his undoing.
Crying out, he let his climax sweep over him, thrusting hard, and groaning as blissful sensations flooded his body, spiriting him away for a brief moment to a dreamy land where there was nothing but Hermione and her soft body and pleasure.
He stayed there as long as he could, but gradually the real world asserted itself, and he released her hand and leaned forward over her to press his lips to her neck.
“All right, sweetheart?” he whispered.
“Mmm.” She sighed.
Smiling, he withdrew carefully, disposed of the condom, and zipped up his jeans, then turned her and wrapped his arms around her.
He kissed her cheek. “Did I hurt you?”
“No, of course not.” She snuggled up to him and kissed his chest. “It was nice.”
“You like me playing Mellors?”
She laughed. “Yes. You slip into the role surprisingly easily.”
He grinned. “And you play the innocent Lady Chatterley very well too.”
They stood there for a while, letting the autumn sun warm them, and Danny felt a sense of happiness and wellbeing settle over him. At that moment, in the here and now, he was sated and content. Did Hermione feel the same way?
He kissed the top of her head. “Do you feel better now?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“I’m sorry about the phone call. If you want to talk to me about it, you can, okay?”
“Okay.” She didn’t elaborate though. He felt a twinge of disappointment, but pushed it away, not wanting to spoil the morning.
“We need a shower,” he said.
She nodded and pulled back from him a little. “Do you want to go in first?”
“You’ve misunderstood me.” Taking her hand, he led her down the corridor to her room, and through to the bathroom. Opening the shower cubicle, he turned the water on, then began to unbutton his jeans.
She met his mischievous smile with wide eyes. “You mean...together?”
“Yep.” He tugged the scrap of satin and lace that was barely covering her. “Come on, get it off.”
Laughing, she stripped, and they stepped into the shower.
Danny put his arms around her, content to stand there and let the water wash over them. Her pale skin gleamed, and it felt like silk when he ran his hands down her back.
He washed her with the body gel, kissing her as he did so, and then passed the body puff to her and let her wash him. She took her time, and he glowed at the admiration in her eyes when she washed the muscles in his arms and chest, and turned around so she could wash his back.
She took a while to stroke over his shoulder blades and down his spine, then slipped her arms around him and hugged him, resting her cheek on his shoulder.
“You okay?” He stroked her arms, then turned and lifted her chin.
She nodded, but her smile was sad. “Just disappointed it’s nearly over.”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t have to be.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can ask Fleur whether she can look after Dad again for a few nights until you leave. I don’t ask her much, so I’m sure she wouldn’t mind. If you want, that is.”
Her face lit up. “That would be nice.”
“Okay. I’ll see what I can do.” He kissed her, and the kiss turned into a long smooch that made them both sigh and break apart reluctantly.
They left the shower and dried each other with towels, then got dressed and made themselves another coffee to have on the deck.
Danny sat beside her and watched her stretch out in the sun, his gaze lingering on the curve of her pale throat as she tipped back her head, the glimpse of her cleavage visible in the V of her top, and wondered if he’d done the right thing. He’d had a great time, but maybe it would have been better to end it today. As much as he didn’t want Hermione to return to the UK and marry someone she didn’t love, equally he didn’t really want to get caught up in some big emotional conflict. He liked her, found her sexy, and had enjoyed her company, but that was as far as it went.
Yeah, his brain whispered. Keep telling yourself that, and you might begin to believe it.
Chapter Twenty-One
Danny left around ten to go home to relieve Fleur, promising Hermione he’d be in touch as soon as he’d worked out when he could see her again.
She waved goodbye as he drove away, then walked back into the living room and stood there for a moment.
The room was oddly quiet, and everything felt strangely unreal. Her life had changed so much, and yet outwardly nobody would notice any difference. If her parents and Richard walked into the room right now, they would assume she was the same as she’d always been.
After making herself another coffee, she took it out onto the deck along with her laptop and settled down to do some work. Her assistant, Renee, who was looking after the office while she was away, had sent her a few queries, and Hermione spent a while answering emails and doing some admin that couldn’t wait until she got back.
When she’d finished that, she opened her most recent file and stared at the screen for a while. She’d been working on a new brochure she was targeting at women in their thirties and forties with the theme of re-kindling a relationship that had gone cool and needed some heating up. After she’d stared at it for a few minutes, though, she closed the lid of the laptop, slid down in the chair, and looked out at the view instead.
Her whole business was built around love, romance, and sex, and it was only now that she realized she knew absolutely nothing about any of them. Or at least she hadn’t until she’d met Danny. She’d convinced herself it didn’t matter that she wasn’t in love with Richard—she’d decided that if a couple worked on creating romance in a relationship, it would magically appear, and that was what she’d been telling her customers for the past few years.
Now, she felt incredibly naive. She would never be able to feel for Richard what she felt for Danny.
Then she blew out a long breath. Wait, she told herself. Was it possible that she was making the wrong assumptions in both cases? She’d had so many letters from customers thanking her for the weekends she’d organized and saying it had given their relationship a new lease of life. Maybe she was right and it was possible to rekindle a romance, or to create romance that hadn’t been there before. Maybe now that she knew what it was possible to feel for a guy, she’d be able to recreate that with her husband-to-be.
She pulled out her phone and flicked through her photos until she came to one of Richard. She studie
d the picture for a moment. He was tall, although not as tall as Danny, and nowhere near as big across the shoulders, but he played squash and rode horses, so he was toned and muscular, without an inch of fat. He had a nice face, and dark-blond hair that flopped over his forehead. He was a lawyer, so he nearly always wore a suit.
So why didn’t he do it for her? Why didn’t her heart race when she looked at him the way it did when she looked at Danny? And was it possible to make it race—to create that magic?
At that moment her phone rang in her hand, making her jump. She checked the screen, not missing the fact that her first emotion was fear that it might be Richard again, but she didn’t recognize the number.
She swiped her thumb across the screen. “Hello?”
“Hi, Hermione?”
“Yes, speaking.”
“Hi, it’s Genie—we met at Between the Sheets the other night.”
Pleasure filled her. “Oh yes, hello Genie. Nice to hear from you.”
“I hope you don’t mind me calling—I texted Danny and he gave me your number. I was wondering what you’re up to today, and if you’d like to go to lunch with me.”
“I’d love to,” Hermione said, touched to have been asked.
“Great! I can pick you up if you like, say around one?”
“That would be lovely.”
“Cool. What’s the address?”
She gave it to her, and Genie said she’d see her later and hung up.
Hermione put the phone down and looked across the lawns to the ocean beyond. The sky was clouding over in the distance, and it wouldn’t surprise her if rain appeared later, but for now the bright sunshine lifted her spirits, and she felt a renewed sense of hope.
She was going to focus on the here and now, and enjoying her holiday and New Zealand while she was there. There was no point in spoiling it by worrying about returning to England or about Richard. Everything would sort itself out, one way or another.
Opening her laptop, she resigned herself to a few hours’ work before she got ready to meet Genie, and she pushed Danny Love and the memory of the way he’d thrilled her that morning by taking her in the kitchen in the way she’d always dreamed to the back of her mind.
*
“Kia ora,” Genie said as Hermione slid into the passenger seat of her car.
“Kia ora.” Hermione smiled and clipped in her seatbelt. “I hope I said that right! Can’t quite get my tongue to roll the ‘r’s like you Kiwis do.”
Genie pulled away, heading down the drive toward the main road. “Yeah, I guess it’s difficult when you’re not used to it. It’s like the word Maori—people from outside the country tend to rhyme the first syllable with cow, but actually we pronounce all the vowels so it comes out more Mah-aw-ree.”
Hermione repeated it, pleased when Genie nodded. “I was teasing Danny about the way your ‘e’s become ‘i’s,” she said. “That didn’t end well when he made a comment about sitting on his deck.”
Genie giggled. “And it works the other way too—our ‘i’s apparently become ‘e’s. Niall said when he was in Europe, girls kept holding up six fingers and asking him how many there were.”
Hermione grinned. “How long have you two been together?”
“Oh, not long. I mean we’ve known each other for years—I grew up with his family.”
“Yes, Danny told me.”
“I’d always liked him, of course, but you ignore it, don’t you? Pretend to yourself that you don’t, or that it doesn’t matter. It’s amazing how you can fool yourself without knowing, if you know what I mean.”
“I do, as it happens.” But she wasn’t going to ponder on that.
“I thought we’d go to a lovely place on the pier. There’s a wind blowing up so we’ll go inside. They have a real fire and do a great seafood chowder.”
“Sounds lovely.”
Genie continued to chat as she drove, and Hermione studied her profile as she listened. She was very easy to be with, but Hermione remembered Danny saying that her best friend—Niall’s sister—had died in the bomb blast that had also injured her. She wasn’t sure if Genie was comfortable talking about it, but she did notice as they pulled up and then walked across to the entrance of Flukes cafe that Genie had a slight limp.
As it happened, once they’d ordered their drinks and chowders, Genie brought it up herself.
“It’s gorgeous here,” Hermione was saying. The restaurant was right on the edge of the pier and overlooked the ocean. The ferry was currently on its way to the town of Russell in the distance, and lots of other boats meandered around the water, presumably heading out to catch snapper for tea.
“It’s my favorite place in Paihia,” Genie said. “Apart from Between the Sheets, obviously! But Ciara and I used to come here a lot.” She looked out, across the waves.
“Ciara was Niall’s sister, wasn’t she?” Hermione asked gently.
“Yes, and my best friend.” Genie smiled, but it didn’t touch her eyes. “She died in Afghanistan.”
“I’m so sorry. That must have been awful.”
“It was. It’s been hard. I hurt my knee in the blast, but in many ways it’s the emotional stuff that’s harder to get over, you know?”
“It sounds as if it brought you and Niall closer together though. So at least something good came out of it.”
“Yes.” Genie smiled. “Silver lining and all that.” She tipped her head, and a touch of mischievousness lit her eyes. “Anyway, enough about me. Tell me more about you. Danny said you run a romantic retreats business.”
“Yes. Although I’m beginning to think I know absolutely nothing about romance or love, so I’m not sure I’m any good at it!”
“Aw, I’m sure that’s not the case, but I know what you mean. Mind you, I sometimes wonder if anyone knows what’s going on. We all fumble our way through relationships and hope for the best.”
“Really? I always assume that everyone else is privy to some kind of guide book but I’ve missed my copy.”
Genie chuckled, leaning back as the waitress brought their chowders, while another placed a bowl of hunks of bread between them.
“Ooh,” Hermione said, stirring the chowder with her spoon and seeing it contained whole prawns and scallops and large chunks of fish. “Lovely.”
“Best in the bay, I tell you.” Genie unceremoniously dunked her bread in the chowder and chewed it as she surveyed her companion. “Danny said you were engaged to someone else.”
“Did he now?” Hermione felt a flare of irritation, then realized it wasn’t irritation but jealousy at the fact that Danny had discussed her with Genie. She remembered the comment Genie had said at Between the Sheets about the size of Danny’s...feet, and wondered again if she was talking from experience. “Are you and Danny close?”
“Kinda,” Genie said, apparently oblivious to any undercurrent. “He’s a good friend, and I’ve known him a long time. Not interested in him in that way, though.” She gave Hermione a wry look, and Hermione realized Genie wasn’t as oblivious as she’d thought.
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t implying...”
“It’s okay. He’s a gorgeous guy, and I love him dearly, but there’s never been anything between us. We talk quite a bit, mainly because he doesn’t have many other close women friends.”
“What about his sister?”
“Tess? They get on okay, but there’s always been tension between them, beneath the surface, you know?”
This was turning out to be a great insight into Danny. Hermione felt guilty that she’d been jealous and determined to make the most of Genie’s insight into his background. “Why so?”
“I think basically because his mother left him and his father when he was four and set up shop with Tess’s dad. He doesn’t blame her for it, but it must be difficult not to bear resentment toward her. Tess’s dad is quite wealthy so she got to go to university, and I think he paid the deposit on her house, whereas Danny’s had to work for every cent.”
“He
said he would like to have gone to university.”
“Oh, he would have loved it—he’s really smart. The smartest guy I know, I think, apart from Finn—that’s Niall’s brother and he’s pretty cerebral. But it just wasn’t meant to be. What I like about Danny is that even though life shat on him, he didn’t sit there and cry about it and blame the world—he got out there and worked his socks off. I can’t tell you how much he’s put into his business.”
“Oh?” Hermione tried to squash the guilt that rose inside her as she thought of how she’d insulted him, and failed.
“God yeah. As a teen he went house to house asking for work in people’s gardens, and saved the money to buy his own equipment. Took online courses in landscaping and gardening to learn the basics, as well as bookkeeping and all that crap about setting up your own business. Started small, built himself up a client list gradually, got them to write recommendations, hired others to work for him. Now he gets large contracts—his firm is doing the improvements on the domain in town, did you know that?”
Hermione had driven past the domain—the town green—and had seen the work going on there, but she hadn’t realized Love Landscaping was behind it. “I didn’t, no.”
“He’s one of the good guys. A bit rough around the edges, I know. He used to get into a lot of fights when he was young.” Genie took a mouthful of chowder and winked.
“Oh.” It didn’t surprise Hermione. She’d already learned he was a physical kind of guy. “What about his...you know...love life?”
Genie sipped her wine. “He went out with a few girls in his teens, no one special, as far as I know. In fact, nobody special at all until he met Lynda.”
“Lynda?” Hermione fought against another surge of jealousy.
“Yeah.” Genie’s eyes turned hard. “She was a bitch. Sorry, but that’s how it is. He was pretty into her, but right at the moment she started putting pressure on him to settle down, his dad had a flare and was really sick. Sometimes I think if she’d waited for Ron to go into remission again, she might have been able to talk Danny into putting him into a home, but she kept on and he just wasn’t ready. So she walked out.”
An Ocean Between Us Page 15
