Julia blinked twice. Her eyes felt scratchy and the light streaming in through the window made for a rude awakening. Her head felt a bit thick from the wine of the previous night and then she remembered what else had happened. A satisfied grin crept over her face.
‘What’s the time?’ she asked herself, her voice hoarse, realising as she stretched and yawned deeply that parts of her body were aching in a way they hadn’t ached for a long time. She squeezed her thighs together at the memory and smiled like a Cheshire cat.
She turned in the bed and looked around the room. Her boots were strewn on the floor, as if a crazy Cossack had kicked them off
mid-dance. Her bra was rolled into an inexplicable twist, snagged on the top of the chest of drawers, and her jeans were inside out, right beside her bra.
She couldn’t see any trace of Ry’s big black boots, his black T-shirt or his jeans.
Did I imagine the whole thing? Another grin at the answer. She jumped out of bed, making sure to wrap a blanket around her naked body before padding out into the empty and frigidly cold living room. Her toes became instantly numb on the bare floor and outside, the southerlies were blowing fiercely, rattling the front door in its frame. Fat droplets of rain were streaking the salt-encrusted windows.
‘Ry?’ she called hesitantly.
It was quiet in the house. She could see the haphazard arrangement of paint tins and roller trays on the floor in the middle of the room, where they’d left them the day before, and a couple of dirty coffee cups on the kitchen bench.
There was no sexy blonde man to be seen.
He was gone.
She blew out a breath and bit her lip. One night. No expectations. No explanations. Isn’t that what she’d wanted? And isn’t that what he’d wanted too?
She shivered, not sure if it was at the memory or from the cold. Boy, had she wanted. Details of her night with the sexiest man she’d ever met flickered through her mind like a slideshow on speed.
She remembered a toe-curling orgasm and could still feel a tightness in her belly from how unbelievable it had been. She remembered the heat of his body next to hers and being held close with his hand, his arm, his thighs. There was a lingering taste of dark chocolate and red wine on her tongue, the feel of Ry’s lips on her forehead, and his body warming her, surrounding her. A sensation of warmth and capitulation so strong washed over her at the memory.
And then … a total blank.
There must have been something else. Who could forget even one detail of having a man like Ry naked next to her in bed? Think. Think.
She’d reached up to feel his scar, he’d kissed her hair and whispered something in her ear, something low and delicious and — what the hell was it?
Nothing.
The realisation hit her like a slap to the face.
You fell asleep. With Ry next to you.
She’d had a naked, consenting — nay, demanding — adult in her bed, one who just minutes before had rolled her eyes into the back of her head with a flick of his tongue and she’d fallen asleep like a retiree watching a Saturday night British murder mystery.
The humiliation rose from her toes to the top of her head in a sickening wave.
He’d probably left in disgust.
And who would blame him.
CHAPTER
14
Ry gripped the gearstick of his SUV, dropping it down a gear to power up Flagstaff Hill Road, behind the coastal stretch of Middle Point. He checked the time on the dash. It was just seven a.m., and he had a good hour and a half of peak hour traffic to contend with before his nine a.m. board meeting in Adelaide, eighty kilometres away. That left him with plenty of time to think about last night as he drove.
Plenty of time to think about Julia Jones.
A strange spike of pleasure eased through him at the realisation that he’d spent the whole day — and night — with her.
After all of yesterday’s hard work, he’d been strangely proud to have her at his table, feeling relaxed and loose, drinking his wine. And she was a woman who knew about wine. He couldn’t deny that was a turn on. If he never met another woman who didn’t drink because they were afraid of the calories, he wouldn’t be sorry. And Julia didn’t stick to the safer light whites, like sauvignon blanc. She clearly preferred a deep, intense, full-bodied wine. Just thinking about her lips on the glass, sipping, swirling and savouring the bouquet had him wanting her again.
All through dinner he’d become increasingly obsessed with getting her naked and as soon as they were alone he’d exploded with need for her. He wasn’t in the habit of pushing women up against walls and showing them exactly how hard he was. But damn it, from the way she’d responded he figured he might do it more often.
And then there was the sex. He shook his head at the memory and let a shit-eating grin crease his face. A single bed had never stopped him in the past and it definitely hadn’t cramped his style last night. She’d been hungry for him, demanding, and he couldn’t deny the sense of primal male satisfaction he felt when she came. And afterwards, when she’d fallen asleep holding his hand … well, he didn’t know how to describe how he felt about that.
He’d woken early, but lay there a while, watching Julia sleep. Her full lips were plump and pink and he counted the faint freckles scattered across her nose, biting back the urge to kiss each one. Her dark eyelashes were fanned out on her cheeks, and her creamy white breasts rose and fell with every breath. She’d been dead to the world, which was no surprise after all yesterday’s work.
He’d tried to control himself, tried to keep his hands off her and let her sleep. It had taken every single bit of willpower he had not to give in to his little brain and shake her awake for an encore performance. He’d tried the subtle way, with a gentle kiss on her lips, but she’d wriggled and gone back to sleep.
When he reached over to stroke her nipple, she moaned and tossed, then murmured in a rough and sleepy voice, ‘Ry … I like you sexy guy … oh yeah … mmm.’ In her sleep, she raised an arm above her head, bringing it to rest on the pillow, and then fell back into a deep and obviously totally satisfied slumber.
Eventually he crept out of bed and tiptoed silently about the room, collecting his clothes and boots, dressed and quietly closed the front door behind him. All in two minutes flat.
Ry stifled a yawn and smiled it away as he rounded a bend in the road. Sexy guy. He’d been called worse. He cranked up some music to get him revved for the day and the pounding beat of the
Foo Fighters immediately filled the car. He loved driving along the curved roads through the low hills with their songs in his head.
The music was so loud he almost didn’t hear his phone ring. When it finally registered, he glanced at his Bluetooth, checked his rear-view mirror and muted the music.
‘Ry Blackburn.’
There was a moment’s silence.
‘Ry?’ It was Julia, her voice amplified, filling his car, opening up a strange place behind his solar plexus. He found himself grinning like an idiot.
‘Good morning.’
‘Yeah, you too.’ Her voice was still morning-husky and he responded like any red-blooded man would. He rearranged himself in the car seat.
‘Sleep well?’
‘Look, Ry, I can’t believe what happened.’
Regret? This soon?
‘Julia …’
‘I was exhausted after all that painting. I’m not normally like that … I mean … Oh shit. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.’
Damn it. She’d taken his question about sleeping to be a dig. ‘Hell no, that’s not what I meant at all.’
‘It’s just that … it was a big day.’
‘Yeah, of course it was. It was an amazing day. We got a lot done.’
Ry wished he could see her face. ‘Believe me, JJ, I’m the one who’s sorry. I’ve got a meeting at nine in Adelaide I can’t get out of. I didn’t get the chance to tell you about it last night.’
‘That would be because I fe
ll asleep,’ Julia replied, and now he could hear the laugh in her voice. A weight lifted from his chest.
‘Hey. I’m never offended when a woman falls asleep in my arms from either sheer satisfaction or utter exhaustion.’
‘Mmm. Sheer satisfaction or utter exhaustion? I think it may have been a bit of both, Ry.’
‘So, I guess you found my phone number and my message.’
‘Yeah, I did. Great idea to stick your business card to my jar of Vegemite.’ She felt weirdly nervous.
‘I thought so. I wanted to let you know why I had to leave early. That I didn’t just run out. That’s not my style.’
He waited for a response. Flickering shadows fell across Ry’s car as he drove by a copse of pines on the side of the road and he took a quick glance at his phone to see if they were still connected.
‘Julia?’ he finally asked.
‘Yeah, I’m still here.’
‘I thought you’d dropped out. The reception here in the hills can be a bit ropey. You all right?’
‘I’m fine. Really. I just need a coffee, that’s all.’
Ry stopped fighting over what he should say and just said it. ‘Look, I’ve got some work to do in the city in the next couple of days so I’ll be stuck there until Friday night. Can I call you later when I’m in the office? I don’t want to keep shouting at you on my hands-free.’
‘Sure. You should have my number in your mobile phone now, since I called you and everything.’
‘Great. I’ll speak to you tonight.’
‘Okay Ry,’ she said, the crackly reception breaking up her voice. ‘See you.’
‘Bye JJ.’
Ry slowed to negotiate the next bend on the highway. Instead of powering out of it, he pulled over to the side of the road, tapped his fingers impatiently on the steering wheel in time to the music. Something wasn’t right. After the night they’d spent together, he now felt strangely disconnected from her. That whole conversation had been strange, like they were two little kids trying to communicate with each other through cheap Christmas present walkie-talkies. And that’s not how he’d wanted to leave things. She had to know that one night wasn’t enough for him. He listened to the car idling, the wind whipping around him, the Foo Fighters urging him to think if everything could be this good for ever. Thanks Dave.
And he knew what he needed to do. Fuck it. Checking his mirrors, he executed a screeching u-turn.
The two pieces of bread Julia had slid into the toaster jumped up with a pop and she grabbed the butter from the fridge. As she smeared them with just the right amount of Vegemite, she took another look at the business card Ry had left attached to the glass jar with a rubber band.
Ry Blackburn
Managing Director
Blackburn and Son Developments
The type was dark grey, laid out simply on a thick white card, with a stylised art deco building on the left-hand side. He could have scrawled his number on a scrap piece of paper but, no, he’d left this and had written on it in a clear, strong hand, Call me when you wake up. And then underneath, XX. Nice handwriting, she noticed. Nice hands too, she remembered.
So they would speak later. Okay. That was good. That would give her plenty of time during the day to come up with some explanation for her behaviour last night. There were lots of hours in the day for her to rationalise it all away while she continued with the painting. She wouldn’t have made so much progress if it wasn’t for Ry. Julia still couldn’t get over the fact that he’d given up a day to help her. God, if it was up to her, she would have spent the day flopped on one of those white leather sofas in that magnificent house, simply luxuriating in the view or devouring a good book. That pulled her up, made her think about the last time she’d devoured a good book. She couldn’t even remember.
Julia yawned generously and flicked on the stove to boil the kettle, holding her hands over the flame to warm them. Yesterday had been a strange day. She had to admit, discovering that her crass generalisations about Ry and his life weren’t true was a bit of a humiliating blow. So he wasn’t married to The Princess. That was number one with a bullet on her list of conversational highlights. She’d been completely wrong about that whole scenario, although it seemed Amanda had been working the room hard on that front. Poor thing.
Second on the list? Finding out that Ry had lost his father five years before. Julia had never met his parents but knew what it was like to feel that loss. She’d seen the flicker in his eyes when he’d talked about it, a shimmer of memory and pain and regret. And when he’d looked at her, she saw that he finally really understood what she’d gone through. For both of them there would forever be a before and an after. And the after felt like the earth had tremored and never quite settled back into place.
Third on the list? On this one, she had to admit she’d been totally, utterly, and embarrassingly wrong. The ugliest house in Middle Point was absolutely the most stunning house in Middle Point. One look inside the place and she totally understood why Ry simply had to have it.
A bit like the way he simply had to have her.
When she closed her eyes tight she saw him once again, standing in her bedroom doorway, ripping off his T-shirt. I couldn’t wait. She could so get used to looking at his glorious, muscled body, full of masculine strength and pulsating desire for her. And come to mention it, being shagged boneless by the fine owner of that magnificent body wasn’t bad either.
She chomped on her toast and at the same time became vaguely aware of the sound of a slamming car door, close by. It was unusual in the winter, when the beach was quiet and the esplanade had little traffic, so Julia glanced out her front window. The distinctive sound of crunching footsteps on gravel was followed by a demanding knock on her door.
When she opened it, she nearly choked on her toast.
Ry. In a dark grey, slim-cut suit that hung from his shoulders, and a light grey tie setting off a crisp white shirt underneath. His blonde hair was tousled, his eyes alive with energy and a half-smile on his lips created delectable crinkles in the corners of his eyes.
‘What the–’
Before she could move, much less come up with anything vaguely coherent to say, he’d enveloped her in his arms and crushed his lips to hers. Julia was bent backwards from the passionate force of his body and gripped the nearest thing she could to stop herself from losing her balance: his biceps. She felt every movement they made as they held her and she deepened the kiss in response, finding his tongue and teasing it with her own. His hands moved down her back and cupped her butt with a strong squeeze, urging her towards his hips. A thigh-quivering commotion started low in her belly and rumbled up to her chest, as she eased her hands up to his strapping shoulders and higher to the back of his neck, her arms around him in an eager embrace.
Only when Julia starting feeling light-headed did she tear her lips away from his. He reluctantly eased out of his kiss but not his hold on her.
‘I love the taste of Vegemite in the morning.’ Ry nudged her nose with his and squeezed her tight. She laughed and licked his lips, slowly and languorously. He sucked in a breath and pressed his impressive erection into her belly. Julia remembered every inch of how it had felt the night before and sighed.
‘Aren’t you supposed to be on your way to Adelaide?’ She loosened one arm from his neck and tickled her index finger around the collar of his shirt. When she reached his tie, she walked her fingers slowly down the grey fabric to his belly and found him, firmly encasing the bulge in his trousers with her palm.
He moaned into her neck and thrust his hips towards her. ‘Yes. And, oh God, yes.’
She squeezed him. ‘Since you’re here, do you want to stay and have some breakfast?’
‘Chucking a sickie has never seemed like a better idea than right now. But my boss can be a total hard arse.’
‘I’ve heard he’s really demanding.’ She pulled his earlobe into her mouth, suckled it. ‘And that he likes to throw his weight around.’
‘F
uck,’ he moaned. ‘It’s killing me, but I really have to go.’ She reluctantly released him, dropping her arms to her sides.
‘Did you leave something here last night?’ Julia looked around the room, wondering what it might be that he’d forgotten. Ry’s eyes widened and he looked for all the world as if he’d just realised something big.
‘Yeah, I did leave something here. You.’
‘Oh.’ Julia swallowed hard.
‘And I forgot to kiss you goodbye.’
‘You came back just to kiss me?’ Her eyes narrowed and she cocked her head to the side. It sounded like a line. But she didn’t care.
‘Hell yes,’ he replied as he took her in his arms again and gave her a final knee-trembling kiss.
It took Julia a minute to get her breath and put the top of her head back on. Ry checked his watch and gritted his teeth. ‘I really have to get going. Although you know there’s somewhere else I’d much rather be.’
Julia blew out a breath. This man was frying her senses, one kiss at a time.
‘I’ll see you on the weekend, I guess.’
‘Yeah, but JJ? Next time it’s my place.’ He grinned and reached into her hair to curl a tendril around his finger. ‘Six hours in that freaking bed and I need to book an appointment with my physiotherapist.’
All that she was left with when he got back into his car and drove away was his masculine scent lingering on her skin and a mouth that felt as if it had been stung. She raised her index finger and relished the warm buzz that remained on her quivering lips.
Oh my.
CHAPTER
15
By lunchtime, Julia had made the SOS call to Lizzie, imploring her to come quickly bearing food and real coffee. The first coat of paint on the walls was already finished, thanks to Julia’s fizzing sexual energy, which had been awakened into near eruption by Ry’s return visit earlier that morning.
Nobody But Him Page 13
