by Kris Pearson
“Thank you. You don’t have to do this.”
“I’m offering. Make the most of me.” He braced himself to take her weight, settled his arms under her legs, and smiled unseen as she wrapped a hand around his chest and grumbled about having to carry the briefcase.
“You wouldn’t say that if you knew what was inside.”
“What?”
He didn’t reply as he set off walking.
“What?”
“Files you father would give his right arm for.”
“Dad?”
Matthew detected genuine confusion in her tone, and knew this time he could believe her. “We’re in total competition as far as business goes.” He hitched her a little higher on his back and walked on, waiting to see if she’d make the connection. She left him in no doubt when she whacked him on the thigh with the briefcase.
“Put me down!”
“Not a hope. I’ve got you now, and I’m keeping you.”
He heard her annoyed exhalation right next to his ear. Felt her soft hair caressing his neck and the side of his face.
“You thought I was a spy?” she accused.
“Wondered. A bit.”
“Ridiculous man.” But she said it with a hitch in her voice that gave him hope.
“Forgive me, Katie. I’d just had a real shock with Lottie falling. Her ankle was giving her hell and she was screaming blue murder. Her head was bleeding torrents.”
“How is she now?” Kate demanded.
“Too darn stroppy. Doing well.” He turned slightly and smoothed the side his face against hers as he continued walking. “I got her to hospital and she dug out your CV. That’s when I found the girl I had to entertain for the day was named Pleasance. And you were tall, like Rob...”
“You weren’t very welcoming. I wondered why you were so cold.”
“Not cold. Worried for sure. About both you and Lottie.”
“Cold,” she repeated.
“I bought you a nice lunch.”
“And quizzed me like a criminal! I knew there was something you were trying to dig out of me. Well bad luck, Matthew, there was nothing to dig.” She nuzzled his ear and nipped the rim of it before locating his lobe and sucking it briefly. “Go on. You’re not nearly forgiven yet.”
Matthew closed his eyes for a few seconds and strode on. The sudden heat of her mouth had been a wonderful shock. “I was married to someone who tried to take me for a lot of money. My fault. Obviously I didn’t treat her well enough or something...”
Kate snatched a deep breath and huffed it out again. “Or you chose wrong.”
“Yeah, lost all the ladies I loved and trusted when I was too young. Had no nice examples left.”
“Lottie?”
“My mother first of all. It was only appendicitis, but up in the Pacific the medical help can be far away, and Dad got her there too late.”
“How old were you?” Kate asked softly, shifting her weight.
“Five. It’s too young to lose your mum. Dad married again pretty fast. I guess he was lonely, and felt Hamish and I needed a mother.”
“And that didn’t work?”
“Worked fine for two young boys. Cornelia was warm and outgoing. Won us over in no time.” He shook his head, enjoying the way Kate’s hair brushed the side of his face. “But she couldn’t stand the island life. Held on for several years, but finally gave in and took Lottie back to her family in The Netherlands.”
“So you lost your mother, your stepmother and your sister?”
“Yeah.” He fell silent.
“How long were you married?”
“Three years. I had to travel a lot. Left her on her own too much. She found someone else.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” Kate protested, voice soft in his ear. “It takes two.”
“It took two on that occasion. He was a scheming bastard—almost as bad as she was. The telco business is cut-throat. Martine was a clever bitch with the same background. Made the most of her knowledge to try for a very big divorce settlement. Stuck with me just long enough for the half-and-half law to kick in.”
“And she got half?”
Matthew turned into the driveway of Kate’s townhouse, adjusting the length of his stride because of the slope. “No. Tried very hard for half. Thought she was entitled, and tried to swing things that way. But there’s a difference between what they class as ‘relationship property’ and ‘separate property’ under New Zealand law. Thank God I hadn’t built the house by then.”
“Or they’d have awarded her half?”
“Yep. So, when I found you searching my office...”
“But I wasn’t looking for anything secret. Put me down.” She tried to wriggle off again, and Matthew used his superior strength to hold her firmly in place.
“There’s more to it than that. Stay there—thirty seconds and you’re home.” He walked as far as the open front door and set her down. “Not room for two of us to get round that bend.”
Kate glared at him. “That’s why I brought the painting in through the garage.” She motioned him to the outdoor table. “Unless you want to make coffee while I get cleaned up and find some Band-aids?”
Matthew watched her limp up the hallway toward what he presumed was the bathroom. “Can I help? I’m looking for an excuse to grovel at your feet, after all?”
“Make the coffee,” she said, trying for stern but letting a giggle break through.
He caught the flash of her smile, and his hopes rose a notch. By the time she returned, he’d boiled the electric kettle and spooned the granules into two mugs.
“Just a bit of skin,” she said. “Nothing that won’t heal in a few days.”
He stepped closer and drew him against him, burying his nose in her hair. “But it’s your skin, and I’m very fond of your skin.”
“My thieving skin,” she mocked, trying to pull away.
He knew better than to hold her against her will. “At least let me tell you the rest. You can’t think me much more of a fool than you already do.” He poured the water into the mugs.
Kate reached into the fridge for milk, and snagged a sugar bowl from the pantry. She carried both to the outdoor table and sat. “I’m listening.”
He looked across at her and sighed. “You’ll hate me for this.”
Kate raised her brows and sipped. “Does it get worse?”
“Hell, yeah. I turned the tables and started spying on you.”
“I wasn’t spying.”
“I know that now. I didn’t know it then.” He took a spoonful of sugar and stirred it into his coffee, eyes down to avoid hers. “We’d had that fantastic trip over to Milford, and you were starting to relax, and I thought I had a chance after all.” He ran a hand over his hair and closed his eyes briefly. “And then we got the not-married-to-Lottie thing straightened out, and you kissed me, and things got better and better.”
“Apart from having to fly home.”
“Still getting better and better though. Home safe. No Lottie. Fantastic sex.”
He watched as Kate tried to suppress a grin. And failed. “So all good, and then you wanted to send an email. You sent me off to get drinks so you could write it in private.”
“No I didn’t.” She sipped her coffee again.
“Felt like it to me. By then I was half crazy about you. Didn’t want you in touch with the boyfriend.”
Kate shook her head. “Not likely!”
“You sent the message the instant I came back so I couldn’t be sure.” He reached a hand across the table and enclosed hers. “You said your Dad, but maybe not. I had no way of knowing.”
Kate turned her hand over and threaded her fingers through his. “Jealous?”
A warm flush had crossed his cheekbones. “Jealous as hell. And the more fantastic the night got, the deeper I fell.” He looked across at her, intense eyes glimmering in the late sun. “And in the morning you’d gone. I found you in my office, pulling the end off a document tube. What the fu
ck was I supposed to think?”
She tried to pull her hand away but he held on tightly.
“You should have believed me,” she said.
“Nah—in too deep to be rational. I retrieved the message you’d sent, and it confirmed all my worst fears.”
“It was to my Dad!”
“Precisely. The last person in the world I wanted knowing my business. And you described me as ‘a compensation’ as though I was a booby prize, and congratulated him on the merger and said people were going to be surprised....” He trailed off, gazing at her across the table.
“And that was all it took?” The corners of her mouth twitched. “Matthew, you twit! He was getting engaged. Family building, not empire building.”
“I know that now!” Matthew roared. “I didn’t know it then. At that instant, I felt everything good was being stolen away. Just when it was perfect.” He glared across the table at her.
“Perfect?” she whispered.
His glare faded to an expression that laid his emotions bare and told her he was bracing for, and expecting, the worst. “Perfect for me, anyway.”
She pushed her chair back and limped around to stand beside him, slid her arms around him and cradled his head against her breasts. “Pretty damn good for me too,” she said. He relaxed against her, pulling her close, sighing deeply.
Coffees forgotten, they were soon naked in each other’s arms.
Finally they lay exhausted together, sated, slippery, sleepy. Matthew twisted his head to look at the painting standing on end a few feet away.
“You brought him to remind you of me,” he said, stroking her hair.
“He’s nothing like you,” Kate murmured. “No tattoo. None of these bits.” She reached down and fondled them. “And if you had wings like him, I couldn’t lie on you like this, could I?” He lay flat on his back and she’d draped herself, boneless and possessive, across his chest. They’d crushed hell out of the new bed linen.
“We should phone Lottie,” he said.
“To see if she needs a lady’s companion?” Kate asked, still playing, and marvelling at his impressive recovery.
“I thought I might keep you fully occupied myself.”
“In your dreams.”
“Filthy dreams. Are you sure you’re up for them?” He buried his face in her hair, trying to find an ear to nip, or a neck to lick. She turned her face to him and offered a swollen sensuous mouth. “I can feel you are,” she said, squeezing gently.
He drew her down for another lingering kiss, hands wandering along her satin-smooth back and out over her gorgeous warm butt. “Katie Pleasance, you’re a total turn-on,” he said before kissing her again. “The moment I saw you...the instant we shook hands...I knew I was in big trouble.”
“One touch?” she queried.
“Didn’t you feel it, too?”
Kate kept him waiting a few seconds, and then relented. “You grabbed my hand so hard. I noticed that.”
Matthew raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, I felt it,” she agreed. “I sort of didn’t dare look at you and couldn’t keep my eyes off you at the same time. I thought you were totally unobtainable, of course.” She kissed his chest. “I let myself have some little fantasies though...”
Matthew grinned. “Tell me.”
Kate smiled down at him. “You were far too hot to handle. I imagined enjoying you quickly and running while the going was good.”
“You knew I was interested, did you?”
“No, of course not,” she said, backtracking madly. “I thought Lottie was your wife, and that maybe you had Diana as well until you introduced her as your sister-in-law. Why would you be interested in me?”
“Because,” he said, gathering up her hair and holding it back from her face, “you challenged me at every turn. You laughed with me and didn’t give an inch when I teased you. You flew into wonderful rages when I bought you clothes.”
“When you bought me underwear,” she corrected. “It was far too soon for that.”
“I wanted to spoil you. I wanted to keep you with me. I couldn’t bear the thought of you going away again. I wanted to touch you all the time and make sure you were real.”
“I was real,” Kate said. “I was real and I was falling for you so fast I was scared witless. Why does it happen like that for some people?”
“Because we’re the right people for each other,” Matthew said. “It was time for us to be lucky.”
“I could have killed those women flirting with you at the party,” she said darkly.
“And I nearly throttled that smarmy Irish guy.”
“But we almost lost each other.”
“Never in a million years.” He said it with the certainty of a man who at last had exactly what he wanted. “You’re a strong passionate woman, Katie. I’ll have a hard time getting the better of you. Not,” he added, “that I’ll ever stop trying.”
Kate heaved a huge sigh of contentment.
“Not,” she countered, “that I’d expect you to...”
They dozed, and finally roused themselves enough to raid the kitchen for supper.
“I wasn’t expecting a guest. I could do you melted cheese on toast with some bacon on top,” Kate said, peering into the refrigerator.
“And after that I’ll have you on toast with me on top.”
“Melted Matthew,” she grinned, enjoying his long lithe body lounging against the cabinets.
He watched as Kate switched on the grill and placed the slices of bread to brown. As she turned, he tugged the sash of her robe undone.
“Hey,” she objected.
He pulled her close and planted a tender kiss on the end of her nose. Thus distracted, she found he’d parted the fabric and pressed himself against her skin again.
“I’m remembering something you told me in Queenstown,” he whispered, his breath warm in her ear. “You said if a man bought clothes for a woman, he could dress her in them. I think undressing you is so much more fun, even if this isn’t the robe I bought you.” He slid his hands luxuriously over her breasts and found her nipples with his thumbs. They rose at his bidding into firm peaks, and his smile broadened.
Kate gazed at his ruffled hair, his huge relaxed grin and boyish air of triumph. How had she ever thought his face tough, his expression hard? He was quite simply the most sensational man she’d ever met. And apparently he was hers.
“Do you want supper or not?” she asked, reaching sideways for the cheese knife—trying to look menacing, and failing entirely.
“I’m starved,” Matthew admitted, giving in and smoothing her robe back into place. “But you’re wearing too many clothes.”
Kate set the knife down and re-tied her sash. “And you’re not wearing enough. We don’t want the bacon spitting hot fat anywhere. I’d get those fancy tattooed pants out of here if you know what’s good for you. A little splatter-burn on my favourite piece would stop you in your tracks—even faster than that extra design you were joking about.”
She watched with amusement as Matthew feigned fright and turned away. And couldn’t resist goosing his gorgeous naked butt as he sauntered out of her kitchen.
She heard hammering a minute or two later, and went to investigate as the cheese and bacon started to hiss and bubble. Matthew had found the tool-kit.
“Lift that end up for me?”
Together they raised their muscular guardian angel onto the hangers he’d attached to the wall.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“I suppose I should rent this place out for a while,” Kate said as they lazed in bed the following morning.
“Keep it for us. I’m in Auckland for regular board meetings. The rent you’d get would barely balance out our hotel bills.”
“Us?”
“I do hope so, Katie. Pack up some of your things and come back to Queenstown with me. We’ll stay here each time I’m up on business. You can have a tickle around your garden and catch up with friends.”
She rose on on
e elbow and gazed down at him. “I quite fancied some rent coming in.”
“I’ll pay you wonderfully exorbitant rent. You can spend it all on feminine frippery and drive me wild with lust.”
“Wilder than last night?”
He smiled and stretched. “Who knows, Katie? You peeled all your frippery off pretty damn fast last night. I could quite enjoy helping you to remove tiny green panties and—”
She squealed and flung herself down on him. He subdued her with very little effort, twisting her over, pinning her there, and holding her helpless beneath him.
“God, you’re a turn-on,” he whispered. “How am I ever going to love you enough?”
Kate heaved a blissful sigh as he left her bed. “Give me twenty-four hours to settle things here, okay?”
Matthew grimaced. “I need to get back to Lottie today.”
“I know. But I’ve things to arrange. I need to let Maurie know I can’t continue with the swimming coaching for a while. Job applications to put on hold. Things like that. I promise I’ll come and see you both tomorrow.”
“If you don’t, I’ll fly up and kidnap you.” He bent and smoothed her hair back from her brow. “Is your shower big enough for two?” he asked hopefully.
This time, there was much more snow everywhere. In the two winter weeks she’d been gone, Queenstown had changed from a pretty scenic resort to an icy fairyland.
Kate gazed out of the window as the plane dropped lower and lower in the crisp clear air. Somewhere down there, he waited for her—the tall terrifying pussycat of a man who’d stolen her heart and transformed her life.
The plane bumped gently down and raced along the runway. Finally it wheeled around and came to rest close to the terminal building. Kate unfastened her seatbelt and lifted down her small cabin bag. Two big suitcases of her belongings were stowed away below—the excess luggage charge had been horrendous.
She walked eagerly toward the arrivals hall.
Fingers touched her arm and a deep voice said “Kate Pleasance?”
