AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Anyway, I avoided high places completely for a while, but I eventually taught myself ways to cope.’
Going to university in Dunedin, she had had little choice—the city was much hillier than Invercargill and boasted a daunting number of multi-storey buildings. And, of course, by then there’d been Ryan to adore and impress…
‘I can usually handle the anxiety OK now, as long as I get the time to psyche myself up beforehand,’ she added. ‘Thank God, it’s never been as bad it was that first time.’
He looked down at her restless fingers, smoothing and re-smoothing his T-shirt, and slowly let his arms drift down to settle around her narrow hips. As he had suspected, the ruffled sparrow had the heart of a gamecock. When she was knocked off her perch she didn’t lie in the dust waiting to be rescued. She rescued herself.
‘Because you’re no longer that young impressionable girl.’ He brushed a stray curl back from her cheek, tucking it behind her neat ear, taking his time smoothing it into place until her skittish gaze darted back to his. ‘Maybe your fear at the time was exaggerated by a form of post-traumatic stress—delayed feelings of grief and loss, especially the loss of your mother.’
Nora frowned at him, her hands spreading wide over his chest in instinctive protest. ‘But Tess is the only mother I remember having—’
‘That doesn’t mean the memories aren’t there.’ His fingers had lingered on the sensitive skin behind her ear, toying with the lock of hair, his knuckles grazing her delicate lobe. ‘Until you were four you were bonded to your birth mother, and then suddenly she vanished from your life. It must have been profoundly bewildering and frightening. You were obviously able to transfer your maternal bond to your aunt, although I notice that you don’t call her Mum, or share her surname—’
‘Sean still called her Aunt Tess so she thought it would be less confusing if I did, too. Lots of people call their parents by their first names,’ Nora murmured, distracted by the little trickles of heat sliding down the back of her neck.
The strong supportive hand that had been in the small of her back had somehow moved south, his fingers curving down over the gentle flare of her bottom, the warmth of his hard palm tilting her hips against the cradle of his thighs, while her small breasts grazed his chest.
She struggled to pretend that she hadn’t noticed, in case she was obliged to object. ‘Anyway, Tess and Pat didn’t formally adopt us, and Dad’s father wanted Sean and me to carry on the family name—Dad was an only child.’
Nora’s breathing was breaking up again, but not from the echoes of panic. That Blake was naked under his thin trousers was becoming more obvious with each passing moment. She could feel the unmistakable masculine shape of him against the hollow of her groin, the soft bulge of muscle slowly firming into a distinct ridge.
‘What makes you such an expert on young girls, anyway?’ she heard herself babbling wildly. ‘I thought your sisters were all older than you.’
His fingers abandoned her ear to trail lightly down the side of her neck, his thumb dipping into the small indentation at the base of her throat.
‘Four nieces.’
‘Oh!’ An unexpected laugh began to bubble up inside her, mingling with the intoxicating fizz brewing in her blood. ‘No nephews?’ she guessed.
He answered her with a mocking glower of discontent. ‘My life is a plague of women. Kate’s seventeen-year-old twins are reckless tearaways who need firm and frequent squashing.’
An effervescent giggle escaped Nora’s compressed lips, unconsciously relaxing her guard. The new information had put the ruthless predator male in an entirely different light.
‘Why are you looking at me like that?’ he demanded
She had screwed up her honey-gold eyes, her freckled nose wrinkling. ‘I’m trying to visualise you as a father figure,’ she dared to tease.
‘Oh, please don’t!’ His thumb flicked up under the point of her chin, lifting it to meet her punishment in the form of a smouldering gaze and sultry purr. ‘Incest is not one of the sins I had in mind for you to commit…’
‘I—Really? W-what sins?’ she said, trying hard to maintain her brazen air and realising from his glint of satisfaction that she wasn’t doing a very good job.
His head dipped, his face so close that she could see the faint throb of the blue vein on his temple and count the tiny green flecks that gleamed like buried gems in his eyes.
‘Well, let me see…’ he murmured, his warm breath caressing her flushed cheek. He swooped down to graze a soft kiss against her jaw, moving up to settle lightly on her pale pink mouth before she had time to do more than draw a shaky breath. Even braced for more of his outrageousness she was surprised by the violent kick of her heart when his tongue briefly slid against hers, only to withdraw with a tantalising flick that left her tastebuds craving more….
He now employed his clever tongue to even greater seductive purpose. ‘I think lust, gluttony and covetousness are definitely on the list of our transgressions…’ he nibbled suggestively at her lower lip ‘…with possibly a long, lazy stretch of voluptuous sloth afterwards. What do you say?’ He rubbed his hawkish nose gently over hers, slanting his head to take her mouth with another, frustratingly light, languid kiss.
‘Of course, if you’re really hung up about the father thing,’ he whispered, ‘you could ask me to be your sugar-daddy—I’m sure we could arrange a mutually enjoyable exchange of favours….’
Nora’s brief flirtation with sexual sophistication went up in flames as she wondered what favours he had in mind. ‘Don’t be ridiculous! I—You—Y-you’re too—’
‘Perverted?’ he breathed into her stuttering mouth. ‘Insulting?’
‘Young!’ she blurted, and went crimson at his deep chuckle, a hot charge running through her nipples where they were pressed against his vibrating chest.
The sensation increased when his arm went around her back, only her braced hands preventing their upper bodies from melting together.
‘Well, I confess I’d be a virgin in the role,’ he admitted silkily, ‘but there’s a first time for everyone—isn’t there, Nora?’
