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Her eyes went very wide for a moment, and she paled, shock rippling over her face. And then came unmistakable relief. “Oh, it’s okay. I’m on the pill.” The delightful pink flush returned to her cheeks. “Period issues, you know.”
He didn’t know, obviously, yet he’d never been so thankful for “period issues” in his entire life. “Okay, that’s good. That’s…very good.”
Beth wriggled beneath him in a way that made him catch his breath. “So?” She lifted her head and brushed those soft lips of hers down the side of his neck. “Can we stay here for a little bit?”
Heat gathered inside him yet again, eating away at his resolve. And why not? Why shouldn’t he stay here with her? It had been a long time, after all, and this was a gift.
No memories, no guilt. Just pleasure.
Pleasure and sweetness and sunshine.
“Okay,” he murmured, his own voice gone husky. “But just once more. Before people notice we’re not there and wonder where we’ve gone to.”
“Sure. With any luck they won’t notice for a while.” She slid her hands up his back, her fingers hot on his skin. “Kiss me, Finn.”
So he did and left the world behind him for a time.
Chapter 5
A week later, the Brightwater Dreams gallery held what Izzy termed a “soft launch,” opening its doors to the inhabitants of Brightwater so they could get a first look at the place before its official opening the next day.
Chase and his team had organized a town barbecue on the lakefront to celebrate, but a fair few of the townspeople were in the gallery, poking curiously around at the various items on display.
Beth stood with Izzy behind the big wooden counter in the middle of the gallery, watching people look around the big, airy space. All the products looked so good displayed on the rustic wooden shelves that lined the exposed stone walls. There were lots of different products too, all produced by the inhabitants of the valley. Artisan preserves and cheeses from Teddy and Clive’s vineyard, handmade wooden furniture and other items from Jim in the bar, who turned out to be a dab hand with a chisel. A rainbow of brightly dyed skeins of yarn hanging from wooden pegs courtesy of Indigo, plus knitting needles and crochet hooks, and other hand-knitted items that Shirley, who helped Bill out in the general store, had made. A big glass case contained some of the jewelry Beth had brought with her from Deep River, as well as some that she’d made here in Brightwater, plus other items that she’d sourced from nearby Queenstown.
She was nervous, though, and trying not to show it. She’d sold her jewelry to cruise ship tourists at the farmer’s market in Deep River, so it wasn’t as if she’d never sold jewelry before. But this felt different somehow and she wasn’t sure why. She had a variety of different pieces on display, necklaces and bracelets and earrings, plus a couple of pendants. Silver mainly, with etched designs and some with semi-precious stones. She’d found a lot of inspiration in the New Zealand bush, with curled fern fronds and delicate rata flowers and kowhai.
She hoped people would like them. She hoped the gallery would be a success because one thing she was very certain of: she did not want to go home.
She and Izzy and Indigo were supposed to be here for three months initially, and one month and a bit had already gone. They had another nearly two months to make sure the business worked out, and she was crossing everything she had that it would.
At the counter beside her, Izzy was busy pouring celebratory champagne into glasses Cait had supplied from the Rose, and handing them out to people. Indigo was over by the yarn, talking to Shirley and another couple of ladies from farther up the valley.
There were quite a few people standing around sipping champagne and talking, and they appeared to be enjoying themselves, which was a good sign. Several townspeople—Bill especially—had been against the gallery opening, or rather “a bunch of Americans coming in and taking over,” so it was nice to see the people who’d grumped about it chatting and obviously having a good time.
Beth took a surreptitious look around the gallery, purely to see who was here and not at all to check whether a certain tall, dark, and handsome someone had come into the gallery yet.
She hadn’t seen him so far this evening, so maybe he hadn’t. Not that she cared whether he was here or not. It didn’t matter to her.
In fact, she’d been very, very clear how little Finn Kelly mattered because she hadn’t thought of him once the whole week since they’d had sex.
She definitely hadn’t gone over every minute of their encounter, thinking about it in the moments before she went to sleep, and it wasn’t still in her head the instant she woke up either.
About the hungry way he’d kissed her or the desperation in his touch. How he’d been so at the mercy of their shared chemistry that he’d lost control, putting her down on the couch and being inside her in seconds flat.
She didn’t think about her own pleasure either, of how good he’d felt, how the heat of him and the fire she’d seen in his dark eyes had set her alight.
And she definitelywasn’tstill burning a week later, no, not at all.
Once, they’d agreed. And okay, maybe it had turned into twice and possibly a third might have snuck in there, but then they’d finally managed to tear themselves away from each other, going back to the bar (separately) and continuing on with the evening as if nothing had happened.
That’s how they would go on, they’d both agreed on that too. Neither of them would mention it again.
Finn had been as good as his word, though, about being friendlier to her. The couple of times she’d run into him, he’d actually smiled and said hello. And if there was still a crackle of electricity between them, both pretended it wasn’t there.
No one else had picked up on anything either, which was good.
Yep, it was all great.
