Willow looked up. Her lips parted and eyes darkened as she gave him a sultry once-over. “Hi.” Even her voice turned him on. “I wondered where you’d got to.”
He’d gone into the city to check on his kitchen renos. His apartment was more than habitable, but he wasn’t about to tell her that.
“I thought it was time for a distraction.”
Instead of straightening, she braced her weight on her hands, which were flattened on the desk, and wriggled her butt. “What did you have in mind?”
He couldn’t drag his gaze from her tempting arse. “I thought we could christen your desk.”
Her legs gave a delicious wobble. “What makes you think I haven’t done that already?”
“Have you?” He came up behind her and ran his hands over her provocative butt. Lust shot through him. Was she naked beneath her dress? Sure felt like it.
“Uh…no.” Her voice was breathless. “But I might have.”
He inched her dress up. A purple thong barely covered her crack and her naked butt cheeks rendered him speechless. He slid a finger over her wet slit and her throaty groan arrowed straight to his cock.
She arched her back, thrusting her arse more securely against his probing finger. He leaned over her and moved the phoenix so it was no longer in any danger of falling off the desk. Willow looked over her shoulder at him. Chestnut tendrils had escaped her messy topknot and tumbled over her face, and her smoky eyes said fuck me now.
“Can’t you move it so it’s got its back to us?”
“What?” He worked his fingers beneath her scrap of lace. She was so hot and wet.
“The phoenix,” she gasped. “It’s watching us.”
“Yeah.” His voice was strained as he tore open his pants and released his dick. Fuck. The relief. “That’s right.” He hardly knew what he was saying and didn’t much care. Willow’s musky scent was driving him out of his mind.
He slid the thin strap of her dress over her shoulder and cupped her breast through her lacy bra. She shuddered and he roughly pulled her bra down so he could feel her erect nipple dig into the palm of his hand.
“Your tits drive me crazy,” he growled against her ear. She groaned and her pussy quivered around his invading fingers. He nibbled kisses along the column of her throat and over the curve of her shoulder. She writhed beneath him, her erratic gasps and breathy moans pushing him to the edge.
With a muttered curse, he released her and pulled a condom from his pocket. Without even bothering to strip off his pants, he sheathed himself and grasped Willow’s hips.
“Incoming,” he said, and she choked on a laugh. He grinned at the back of her head and shoved his dick into her slick heat.
He groaned and closed his eyes as she bucked beneath him. She was so hot and tight and wet. Better than any of his fantasies over the years. He dragged open his eyes and roughly pushed her dress over her back. She was splayed over her desk and her naked arse jerked every time he thrust into her.
The sight transfixed him. He wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.
He slid his hand over her smooth stomach and between her thighs. Her pussy lips hugged his cock and he gritted his teeth. He would not come yet. She gasped and squirmed as he teased her swollen clit, and unbearable pressure throbbed through his groin.
“Seb,” she panted. God, he loved the way she said his name when she was so close to coming. She arched her back and shuddered, her pussy squeezing his cock like nothing he’d experienced before.
He buried his face against her damp neck and gave her everything he had.
She felt so good, flattened beneath him, with her butt plastered between his thighs. He finally raised his head to look down at her. She was leaning on her folded arms, gasping for breath, her eyes closed and a bewitching blush highlighting her cheek.
She looked thoroughly fucked.
He shifted and she opened her eyes, but didn’t attempt to move. “I think my desk is well and truly christened now, Seb.”
“Glad to hear it.” He reached over her and repositioned the phoenix so it was right in line with her gaze. He knew she was aware of the meaning of the phoenix, but he also knew she was clueless when it came to the significance of why he’d given it to her.
Rebirth. He wanted to start a new life with Willow. And inspiration—because Willow had always been his inspiration.
He stifled a sigh. Willow was so intuitive in many ways, except when it came to them.
But he was working on it.
She idly stroked a finger over the mythical creature’s head. “Did I ever tell you why I became involved in my New Age lifestyle?”
She hadn’t. Oddly, he realised he’d never really thought about why she had. She had only been seventeen when they first met, and a lot could happen to a person in six years. When he’d finally tracked her down three years ago, he’d been so relieved she hadn’t cut him dead that the fact she had taken up Eastern philosophies barely registered.
“No, you didn’t.” He lazily circled his finger around her erect nipple and she wriggled against his dick. Every bloody thing she did turned him on.
Not that he was complaining.
“It was that talk we had in the kitchen.” There was a dreamy note in her voice and he froze. It was the first time she had ever mentioned when they’d met. It was a huge taboo subject for Willow because of Amber. “You were just so matter of fact about the existence of a spiritual world and an alternate way of living. It really appealed to me. I spent ages researching it all…afterwards.”
Huh. He’d never guessed. But there was a perfect symmetry to it all. But although Willow had opened the door to the past, he was just too damn relaxed to follow through. There were, after all, still two days for him to bring up the prickly subject of Amber.
Willow stretched on the bed, naked and sated, and smiled blissfully up at the ceiling. It took her a few moments to remember that it was Thursday and her turn to host the Double D’s tonight, but even that failed to raise the usual flutter of nerves.
Thursday. Her sense of wellbeing deflated. Seb was flying to New York today. In fact that was why he was in the shower now, instead of them sharing another lazy morning in bed.
She rolled onto her side. She hadn’t asked him what his plans were regarding their affair when he returned from the States. Was this just a brief interlude, or did he want more?
She nibbled her lip. Did she want more?
Of course she did. For three years, since he’d unexpectedly turned up in her life again, she’d fought her feelings for him. If this week had never happened she’d probably have fought them forever.
But this week had happened. How could she possibly go back to them being just good friends, when she knew how right they were for each other?
Her mind skittered back to the first time they’d met and she cringed. How could she really be with Seb when he’d been with her mother? How could she face Nella and Lana, who definitely knew all about Amber’s affair with Seb, and Darla and Virginia, who most probably knew about it?
She couldn’t. But she didn’t want to give up Seb or what they’d found together this week. Maybe they could somehow make it work, without anyone finding out?
The need to see him, to hold him again, consumed her. She went into the ensuite where he stood with his back to her, stark naked, rubbing his hair dry with a towel. She wrapped her arms around him, his body damp and hard and comforting as she laid her head against his shoulder.
“You know I’m running late, don’t you?” He didn’t sound especially concerned about the possibility of missing his flight. She trailed her hand over his taut abs, and wrapped her fingers around his erection.
“I’ll make it a quickie,” she whispered as she came to stand in front of him. Her breasts flattened against his chest and his cock branded her stomach. He grinned down at her and palmed her arse, moulding their bodies together.
“I don’t have a condom on me.”
“That’s okay.” Anticipation a
nd desire curled through her. “I’ve got something else in mind.”
His eyes darkened as she provocatively slithered down his body. Despite all the times they’d made love, she hadn’t got around to giving him a BJ. Truth was, she didn’t much like doing them and never offered.
But the thought of taking Seb in her mouth was a turn-on all by itself.
“You know how to pick your moments.” Seb’s fingers forked through her hair as she kneeled before him. “D’you do it on purpose?”
She licked her lips. “Of course I do.” Her voice was husky. She leaned closer and swirled her tongue around his slit. The faintest taste of salty male flooded her senses.
He groaned and his grip on her head tightened. She cupped his heavy balls in one hand and wrapped her other hand around his thick cock. She wanted to prolong and savour this moment, but knowing time was against them gave an erotic edge of urgency.
She fastened her lips around him and sucked him into her mouth. He tasted shower-fresh with an exotic trace of primal sex. His fingers dug into her head and his breath was uneven as his hips flexed, thrusting his cock deeper into her.
Wet heat trickled from her pussy and her clit throbbed with need. She wound her arm around him and grasped his arse, and his groan of impending climax heightened the lust coiling between her thighs.
His muscles went rigid and then he came, filling her mouth as he ground out her name. She swallowed, knowing that he watched her, and raw desire clawed through her at the thought.
Without warning he pulled back and wrenched her to her feet. Gasping, she gazed at him before his mouth crashed down on hers, his tongue invading.
One arm pinned her to his body in an ironbound grip as he worked his other hand between their damp bodies. He pressed his finger against her clit, teasing and circling, and with a choked gasp she came over his hand.
When Willow finally emerged from the ensuite, wrapped in a bathrobe and glowing with satisfaction, Seb almost changed his mind. But he needed to know how things stood between them before he left and he couldn’t put it off any longer. “Willow, we need to talk about Amber.”
Her smile froze and eyes widened in horror. Frustration ripped through him. Was she still going to let the past rule them, even after everything they’d shared over the last few days?
“I don’t want to talk about my mother.”
He gripped her shoulders. “We have to. We’ll never be able to put what happened behind us and move forward until we do.”
“Move forward?” He heard the note of panic in her voice. “What do you mean?”
Fuck, did he really have to spell it out? “You and me. Facing the world together. That’s what I mean.”
She stared at him as though he’d just spoken in Martian. “You mean date?”
He meant a lot more than just dating. But dating would do for a start.
“Yeah. We date. But first we clear the air about what happened nine years ago.”
She pulled free of his grip and retreated a couple of steps. “I can’t talk about that. I don’t want to talk about that. I know it was a mistake, but…” She hitched in a ragged breath and looked so tragic that if he didn’t feel like the whole fucking world was collapsing around his head he would’ve felt sorry for her.
She might have enjoyed the last few days. But she didn’t think enough of him to face what had happened in the past and move on.
Maybe it was as simple as the fact that she didn’t want to have a future with him. Funny. He’d never really thought about it from that angle before. He’d always been so sure that if he could lower her defences enough to show her how right they were for each other, she’d want to work with him to overcome the problem of Amber.
But it had all been in his own deluded mind.
I know it was a mistake. Her words echoed around his head. Told him everything he needed to know. He picked up his unzipped holdall and his gaze snagged on the gift he’d collected for her a week ago. The gift he’d had specially commissioned with such high hopes.
Fucking pathetic.
“Seb.” There was an urgent note in her voice. He couldn’t bring himself to look at her. “Look. I know you’re in a rush, and I have a horribly busy day today. We’ll talk about this properly when you get back. Okay?”
Talk about what? The fact that she was fine for them to be fuck buddies but nothing more?
He’d always wanted more from her than that.
“No.” His gaze raked over her face, memorising every feature. Except he’d never been able to forget her face from the first moment they had met. All or nothing. His thought mocked him. He’d got his answer. “I won’t be coming back, Willow. I want more than friendship and you obviously don’t.” Before she could respond to that, he pulled the gift box from his holdall and handed it to her. “You might as well have this. It’s no good to anyone else.”
Willow clutched the gift-wrapped box and watched Seb turn and walk away from her. What did he mean he wasn’t coming back? How could he not be coming back? But her throat ached and she couldn’t find the words she needed. Instead their conversation whirled through her mind.
Seb wanted to date her. And wasn’t that exactly what she wanted, too? But he also wanted to thrash out the whole excruciating business of him sleeping with her mother and she absolutely did not want to go there. At all. Ever.
Even if she did now accept the whole thing had been a mistake, it didn’t mean she wanted to discuss it with him. A shudder racked her body and she finally focused on the gift he’d given her. Numbly she pulled the ribbons and wrapping paper off and opened up the box.
Her breath caught in her throat. It was an exquisitely detailed dragon, a flawless match for the phoenix he had given her at Christmas.
She pulled it from the box and stared at it. The dragon and phoenix, the perfect balance of yang and yin, bestowed good luck and harmony in marriage. A chill inched along her spine. Was that what Seb wanted—marriage?
Her gaze snagged on the curlicue base. It was hauntingly similar to the base her phoenix stood on. But as she stared through the hazy sheen of tears that filled her eyes, the decorative curls seemed to twist with mystic intent.
She blinked and her gaze sharpened. What the fuck? She ran into her office and placed the mythical creatures next to each other. And then she placed the dragon behind the phoenix.
Shock speared through her. The curlicues became more than decoration when seen together. For the first time she saw the cursive Ws interwoven on her phoenix—why hadn’t she seen them before? But more than that, now the phoenix was completed by her companion the dragon, the aligned calligraphy spelled out two words.
Willow and Seb.
For endless moments she stared, spellbound. And the longer she stared at those interwoven Ws the more an eerie certainty snaked through her.
She pulled out Seb’s three books and placed them on her desk. With a deep breath she opened the first one to the dedication.
Always on my mind, W
She swallowed and checked his second book.
Always in my heart, W
She held her breath and checked his latest, even though she knew what it said.
Always yours, W
Each W was the same elaborate cursive that had been used on the phoenix and dragon. He hadn’t dedicated his books to his legion of fans. He hadn’t signed off with W for Wallis.
He had dedicated them to her. Willow.
Her phone went and she grabbed it, heart pounding. Seb had changed his mind. He was coming back so they could talk this through properly. But it was Sienna, and her bubbly voice made no sense as Willow listened to her friend. Except it reminded her they were supposed to be meeting in an hour for their usual fortnightly pre-Diamond Dinner beautification regime at their favourite exclusive salon.
“I can’t make it to Phillipe’s.” The words blurted out before she even realised she’d made the decision.
“What?” Sienna sounded confused. “Are you sick? Are you cancel
ling the dinner?”
The sun would implode before any of the women would cancel a Double D.
“No, I’m fine.” Willow left her office. She needed to get dressed. “There’s something I have to do this morning, Sienna. I’ll tell you about it later. Wish me luck.”
Five minutes later as she grabbed her keys, Mrs Duval appeared in the doorway to the drawing room. “The florist has just arrived, madam.”
How had she forgotten the florist always arrived at precisely this time when it was Willow’s turn to host? She gripped her car keys and they cut into her palm. Seriously, why did she always feel the need to hover over the florist? The arrangements were always perfect.
She took a deep breath. She could lie to Mrs D but there was no point. Her housekeeper would need to be dead not to know how things had been between Willow and Seb over the last three days.
“I need to speak to Seb before he catches his plane.”
Mrs D nodded, as serene as ever. “Then you’d better leave now. And don’t worry about tonight. Everything will be perfect, as always.”
Of course it would. The dinner was important and she loved catching up with the girls, but did she really need to stress out about it so much whenever it was her turn? She’d known half the women for all her life. No one would die if her nails weren’t freshly manicured tonight.
Only one thing mattered right now. And that was telling Seb she’d been a complete idiot and hoping he’d give her another chance.
Everything conspired against her. The traffic was foul, the lights were red, and when she finally found a parking space at Sydney Airport she was a seething mess of nerves.
She looked awful. And she had no emergency make-up handy to try and hide behind.
“Fuck, shit.” She gripped the steering wheel for a couple of moments and attempted to calm her mind. And screw up her courage. Suppose Seb didn’t want to give her another chance? He’d been trying to win her over for years, if his book dedications were anything to go by. Why hadn’t he said anything earlier? Why had she been so obstinately blind?
Secret Confessions: Sydney Housewives - Extended Edition Page 31
