Harlequin Romance April 2021 Box Set

by Rebecca Winters

  He kissed down the side of her neck to the hollow of her throat and she murmured her pleasure. Her breasts swelled above the top of the bodice of her dress. She ached for him to touch her. Forget caution, forget worry about how this might end, her world shrank to just him and her and how he made her feel, her need for more. Josh.

  She attempted to hook one leg around his in an effort to get closer but her dress, tightly fitted to her hips, got in the way.

  He released her arms. ‘This dress needs to come off,’ he said, his voice husky.

  ‘Yes,’ she said.

  ‘Do you want that?’

  ‘Yes, yes and yes again,’ she said impatiently.

  Desire had been relentlessly building since that first dance. The way he moved, the way he held her so close, so possessively. It might not be anything more than this night but she would regret it if she didn’t take full advantage of his willingness, of that big, inviting bed.

  ‘You’re sure?’

  ‘I told you what kissing like that would lead to. And I want—Oh!’

  He deftly turned her around and kissed the nape of her neck, the backs of her ears. How did he know that was one of her secret turn-on spots?

  Then he slowly pulled down the back zip of her dress. The dress was lined with fine silk and it was like an extra caress on her highly sensitised skin as it fell from her body to pool on the floor.

  She stepped out of her gown and moved it aside so she stood in just her deep blue lace thong, a strapless bra and her glittering high-heeled stilettos. From behind, Josh caressed her back and started to unhook her bra, but she twisted in his arms to face him.

  ‘My turn now,’ she said, her breath coming unevenly, scarcely able to get the words out.

  She planted small kisses over his face as, with impatient fingers that weren’t quite steady, she undid the buttons of his jacket and slid it off his shoulders.

  ‘It was fun to fit you for this jacket, but it’s even more fun to take it off you,’ she murmured as she placed it on the chair near the bed. Even giddy with desire and want, she couldn’t throw that beautiful piece of tailoring on the floor. With impatient fingers she unfastened the studs and buttons of his dress shirt and slid it off his broad shoulders as he freed his arms from the sleeves.

  She stilled as she took in the delicious sight of him, wearing only his trousers, broad-shouldered, well-built, skin smooth and lightly tanned.

  ‘Do I pass inspection?’ he said.

  ‘Oh, yes,’ she sighed, placing her hands flat on his muscular chest to slide them down his flat, washboard stomach. ‘Are you really and truly a tech nerd? Because you look more like an athlete to me.’

  ‘Both,’ he said shortly, his breath coming faster as her hands went lower.

  ‘And here I was thinking you couldn’t get any better looking.’ Her voice broke. ‘You’re perfect.’

  ‘I don’t know about that,’ he said, scarcely able to get the words out as she slipped her fingers under the waistline of his trousers, then went to undo his belt. ‘Are you teasing me? Keep doing that and I—’

  ‘Won’t be responsible for what happens next?’ Eloise looked up flirtatiously at him, not hiding the need from her voice. ‘I’m looking forward to that.’ She started to unbuckle his belt.

  ‘Two can play at this game,’ he said hoarsely as he unhooked her bra and tossed it onto the bed. He gazed at her in wonder, standing there in just her thong and her glittering stilettos. ‘You’re the one with the perfect body. Ellie,’ he groaned.

  She didn’t let many people call her Ellie but she had given him permission and she liked how her name sounded when he said it in his deep voice.

  He stroked her breasts, rolling her nipples between his fingers until they were hard and aching. As he slid his hands down her waist, her muscles contracted with pleasure and anticipation. He slipped his fingers under the scrap of lace that was her thong and she gasped. He would find her ready for him. What else had that slow, sensuous dancing been but a subtle and exquisite form of foreplay?

  She unfastened his trousers and started to push them down over his hips. ‘Getting these trousers off is easier said than done when you’re standing up,’ she murmured.

  ‘Might be easier if we took this to the bed,’ he said. The bed that had caused so much angst and yet was just right for the two of them.

  She ran her fingers up his chest. ‘I’d be happy to take you up against the wall,’ she murmured huskily. ‘Floor, chair—wherever we might happen to end up. But the bed might be more comfortable. I just want you, Josh.’

  ‘I want you too, Ellie,’ he groaned. ‘I think you know that.’

  She brushed her fingers lightly across the front of his trousers. ‘Oh, yes, I can tell.’

  He cupped her face in his hands and looked down into her eyes. ‘But before we go any further—’

  ‘To the point of no return?’

  ‘There’s something I have to tell you; it’s important and I—’

  ‘No. We’ve done more than enough talking.’ She silenced him with a kiss. The kiss deepened and became more urgent. She wanted more than kissing. All she could think of was making love with Josh. If what he wanted to say was that important he could tell her later.

  Josh effortlessly swept her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. He kicked off his shoes and she helped rid him of his trousers and boxers. As she did so, she made admiring comments about what she found beneath them. She had to touch and explore, which made him groan with want and heightened desire for both of them.

  In turn, he kissed his way down her stomach, giving her almost unbearable tremors of pleasure and anticipation. He took her lacy thong in his teeth and tugged it over her hips and down her legs, managing a lot of highly arousing kissing of very sensitive places on the way.

  She took him by the shoulders. ‘Josh. No more. I want you inside me. Now. Please.’

  He reached for protection from his wallet and obliged.

  ‘Yes,’ she moaned as he pushed inside her body. Josh. He felt so hard, so powerful, so right. Almost immediately, she shattered into a climax and then another followed when he came.

  ‘Oh, my gosh, what happened there?’ she said, flushed and satisfied, with post-orgasmic tremors still rippling deliciously through her. The best sex of her life. ‘I couldn’t wait.’

  He pushed her hair away from her face where it was falling out of its pins. ‘There’s a time for fast and furious and now there’s the time for a slow exploration,’ he said.

  She shimmied her body under him. ‘That sounds very good to me. Shall I start by exploring you?’

  ‘Let’s explore each other,’ he said. ‘There’s still more to learn about pleasing you.’

  He was a fast learner.

  Afterwards, she fell asleep in his arms. Some time later they both woke, very early—near dawn, judging from the light in the room—and wordlessly they made love again, as she let her body say what she couldn’t say in words.

  * * *

  Josh woke to the morning sun streaming through the French doors. He and Eloise had had more important activities to occupy themselves with the previous night than to draw the curtains. Naked, she lay close to him, one hand resting on his shoulder, a long, slender leg resting across his. The sheets were rumpled across her hips, leaving her beautiful breasts bared. Her hair glinted blue-black in a shaft of sunlight that fell across her face, the same shaft he suspected had woken him.

  She looked...different. Then he realised her face was free of cosmetics. He vaguely remembered her getting up at some stage to go and wash her face, saying she never slept in her make-up.

  Her skin was ivory pale and smooth with a smattering of light freckles on her cheekbones, her natural lashes dark and luxuriant, her mouth an unadorned pink. Her fingernails painted red were the only artifice, short and neatly shaped. He imagine
d it wouldn’t be so easy to negotiate a sewing machine with long nails. She’d taken off the ruby ring. This Eloise, without her props of attention-getting vintage-style clothes and careful make-up was lovely, a natural beauty. But he liked both looks. He liked Eloise, period.

  Aware, perhaps, of his gaze on her, she stirred and opened her lovely blue eyes. She blinked. ‘Josh?’ Then smiled. ‘Josh,’ she said, this time with warmth. She stretched with unconscious grace then rested on her elbow to face him. ‘Last night. We broke every rule. And wasn’t it wonderful?’ A slow, sensual smile spread across her face.

  Her hair had tumbled down from its style of the night before, and he pushed it back from her face. ‘It was indeed wonderful. You were wonderful.’ He dropped a kiss on her bare shoulder. He had kissed practically everywhere else on her body last night.

  ‘Thank you. It goes without saying so were you.’ She paused. ‘It...it wasn’t just sex for me.’

  ‘No. Not for me either.’

  ‘I wish—’

  ‘I want—’

  They spoke at the same time.

  ‘You say what you were going to say,’ she said.

  ‘No, you go first.’

  ‘I was going to say, I wish you didn’t live in Boston.’

  ‘And I was going to say, I want to find a way we could continue to see each other after I go back.’ He’d been thinking of nothing else since they’d first made love. That, and how he could explain why he hadn’t told her about Tori, and that their meeting hadn’t been accidental. Fact was, the more he’d got to know her, the harder it had been to tell her because the more there was at risk in terms of him and her.

  ‘You mean long-distance dating? I’m not sure that—’

  ‘We can try and make it work. If we want it enough. And I do, Ellie—’

  ‘I like it when you call me Ellie.’

  ‘I’m glad,’ he said. ‘But don’t change the subject. I want to try to keep something going between us. At least try and see how it pans out.’

  She traced a finger down his nose and over his mouth. He caught it with his teeth. ‘I like that,’ she murmured as she took it away. ‘It’s not just the long distance. I... I’m frightened of liking you too much.’

  ‘Why is that?’

  ‘The more I like you, the more I open myself to hurt.’

  ‘I wouldn’t hurt you.’

  ‘Not intentionally, perhaps.’

  ‘Certainly not intentionally. Have you been hurt before?’ He felt a rush of anger at the thought of anyone hurting her.

  ‘Hasn’t everyone?’ she said.

  ‘That’s not what I asked,’ he said. He had to know what he was up against.

  ‘I’ve been hurt. Of course, I’ve hurt people too. Men I never should have dated.’

  He didn’t give a flying fig about the men she had hurt. Although maybe he should. She could have the power to hurt him too—there were definite fissures in that shield around his heart, chiselled by each kiss from this wonderful woman. ‘I don’t care about them. It’s you who interests me.’

  She sighed. ‘I started off a romantic, totally believing in happy-ever-after. My parents had a wonderful marriage—classic love at first sight, totally devoted to each other. I honestly thought it would be as easy as that for me too. Meet Mr Right in a shower of moonbeams, fall in love, glide up that aisle. The realities of teenage dating soon beat that delusion out of me. Me, all starry-eyed; him willing to gabble I love you as many times as it took to get what he wanted.’

  ‘That guy was a jerk. Not all boys were like that. Boys get their hearts broken too.’

  ‘Did you?’

  ‘Yes. Probably part of the reason I’m propelled by bitterness and revenge.’

  She bit her bottom lip. ‘I’m sorry I said that. It was harsh.’

  ‘But true. You were right. Meeting you has made me think about how I’m living my life, that maybe it’s not, as you say, so healthy. I need to look forward, not trip myself up by looking backwards for my motivation. But that doesn’t explain why you’re frightened of liking me too much.’

  ‘When my father died, my mother fell to pieces. An intelligent, capable person like her was utterly lost without him. It took her years to get back on her feet, though she’s never remarried. I saw that and it scared me—the power of love, the pain when you lose it for whatever reason.’

  ‘So you anticipate the end before you risk the beginning? I’m sorry. But that was your parents. What about you?’

  ‘The first time I really fell in love was with a guy in Paris. He loved me too. But we couldn’t keep it going long-distance. I was heartbroken. Couldn’t look at anyone else for a long time.’

  Jealousy, irrational but powerful, seared through him. He couldn’t bear the thought of her with any other man. It shocked him. He’d only known her a week.

  ‘How old were you?’

  ‘Nineteen.’

  ‘You probably couldn’t have afforded to keep it going. That wouldn’t be an issue with us.’

  ‘True. But you know it isn’t your wealth that interests me?’

  ‘If I thought that for even a second, I wouldn’t be here.’ He dropped a kiss on her mouth.

  ‘I value my independence and I’m frightened of giving over even part of my life for someone else to control. That last guy...the one I told you about who lied to me about who he really was? He made me distrust my own judgement.’

  ‘Why does it have to be like that? My father had to have everyone under his control. Your parents were of a different generation. So were mine. When I turned eighteen, when she thought I didn’t need her any more, my mother went back to my father. Of course, I still wasn’t welcome at the house.’

  ‘Oh, Josh, no wonder you’re bitter.’

  ‘I haven’t got a great track record with relationships. As I told you, I’ve been a lone wolf. “He who travels fastest, travels alone.” That kind of thing. But meeting you...meeting you is making me look at things differently. Making me think it could be worth taking a risk.’

  ‘I seem to attract men who want to take charge of me. The last guy was like that too.’

  ‘What foolish men they must be,’ he said, smiling. ‘If I’ve ever seen anyone who is her own woman, it’s you. It’s one of the things I like about you.’

  ‘But would you want to change me?’

  ‘I don’t think so. I like you exactly as you are. But how would we know that, if we didn’t get to know each other better? It’s only been days, though it seems I’ve known you longer. I haven’t had much practice in making compromises, and maybe you’ve made too many. We won’t know unless we try.’

  ‘All I ask is honesty,’ she said. ‘I can’t forgive lies. Oh, I know we’ve fibbed our hearts out about the engagement, but that’s different; that’s—’

  ‘A targeted business strategy of purposeful evasion,’ he said.

  ‘You remembered?’

  ‘How could I forget?’

  ‘You’re laughing at me.’

  ‘I’m not. I think it’s brilliant. But there is something I have to tell you. There’s someone back in Boston.’

  ‘A girl?’

  ‘Yes, but it’s not what you think. She’s a very good friend and—’

  ‘I don’t think I want to hear about it.’

  ‘You should because—’

  The phone in the room rang. He looked at Eloise and she looked back. ‘I suppose we’d better answer it.’

  She got out of bed and walked over to the desk where the handset was. She was completely unselfconsciously naked, and utterly enticing. He lay back against the pillow and admired the shapely lines of her beautiful body. That feeling of being on shifting ground returned. He felt as if he was on the edge of something new and important and life-changing. Because of her.

  She picked up the
phone and listened. ‘Thank you,’ she said and hung up. She turned to him. ‘Breakfast for the house guests is being served in the conservatory for another hour. Do you—?’

  ‘I’d rather skip breakfast and have you back here in bed with me.’ Could he ever have enough of her?

  ‘Other appetites, huh?’ she said. ‘I couldn’t agree with you more.’

  She slid back under the covers. ‘Thank heaven they gave us this great big bed.’

  ‘Oh, I don’t know,’ he said, pulling her close to him. ‘I think we could happily have found our way around any size bed.’

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  BY THE TIME he and Eloise had left Silver Trees, stopped for lunch in Bowral and driven the two hours back to Sydney, it was mid-afternoon when she dropped Josh back to his hotel. He’d arranged to spend a few hours there and then go around to her apartment to take her out to dinner. They planned to talk seriously about how they might be the couple who could actually make long-distance work.

  But before he did that, he had to call Tori. He hadn’t been honest with her about how he felt about Eloise. But then, he hadn’t been honest with himself—fighting the fact he was falling for her. Right from that first meeting in the park.

  Tori was pleased to hear from him. He realised how difficult it must be for her not to know what was happening on the other side of the world. But why the hell hadn’t she connected with Eloise as soon as he’d told her he was certain they were twins? It would have made it so much more straightforward for him. Now it was complicated. Too complicated.

  ‘How did the wedding go?’ Tori asked.

  ‘So you remembered that was yesterday?’

  ‘That you were my twin sister’s plus-one at some big society wedding? Well, yeah. That wasn’t something I’d easily forget.’

  He’d known Tori since he was sixteen, but he wasn’t sure how to voice this. ‘It was good. Very good. But I haven’t been completely honest with you.’