Wife for a Week(47)

‘Please!’ As his mouth moved closer and his hands held her firm. She strained against him, clutched at the sheet above her head, and finally, finally, he licked into her. She couldn’t breathe, the heat of his mouth was divine, the rhythmic stroking of his tongue an unbearably exquisite torment. He knew exactly where to lick, exactly how to please her, and she writhed beneath him, riding the wave of anticipation he built so cleverly, riding it hard. And when she didn’t think she could stand any more, when she was slick with sweat and just about to shatter into a million pieces, he concentrated his efforts and the world exploded inside her, all around her, as she shuddered her release.

‘Oh, my God!’ she gasped.

‘Told you so,’ he muttered, shedding his trousers and moving over her as she brought her hands to his hair and his lips down to hers for a feverish kiss that had nothing to do with tenderness and everything to do with raw, driving need. It was his turn to groan now, his turn to shudder as he settled himself between her legs. His turn to whimper as her need for him turned savage.

‘Shh,’ he muttered. ‘Easy.’

Nick inched slowly into her, inexorably penetrating her hot, slippery flesh as her body stretched to accommodate him. He slid his fingers between them to further coax her taut, tight muscles into submission. And then he was seated in her up to the hilt, exactly where he wanted to be, his entire body on the verge of exploding as her hips slammed into his and her body climaxed around him again. He’d never seen anything more wanton, more beautiful, than Hallie lost in passion. So fearless, so utterly open for him as he spread her legs wide, cupped his hands around her buttocks and surged into her, glorying in his possession, in the scent of sex, and the tight slickness encasing him.

‘This would be the sex part,’ she whispered as her legs encircled his waist and her nails raked his back.

‘This isn’t sex.’ He was spiralling out of control, seconds away from his own pulsing release. ‘This is madness.’



Hallie woke just before dawn, too worried about what the day held to go back to sleep. She slid out of bed and padded to the window to look down on the Teys’ tranquil garden, wondering if John would be up soon and out there practising t’ai chi. Wondering if he did and if she watched, would some of his calm feed through to her? She shifted the curtains aside to lay her palm on the window-pane, and reached for the confidence she knew she had to have if her plan was ever going to work.

Nick stirred and she turned to watch him; saw him reach for her, and wake when he couldn’t find her. She felt the moment he saw her, felt it as a heat that licked over her entire body, and then he was out of bed and heading towards her, beautifully, magnificently naked. She knew that body now, had loved every inch of it during the night. She knew his scent, the taste of him on her tongue, the playful edge in him and the fire.

What she didn’t know was the workings of his mind. What he wanted from her and whether he was going to regret their lovemaking and pull back as he had done last time and, in doing so, shatter her heart. So she looked to his eyes to see if they were cool, to his mouth to see if it was stern, and to his jaw to see if it was set, but Nick was none of those things this morning. He snaked an arm around her waist and drew her into his warmth and his hardness, resting his chin on her head, saying nothing as he too stared out at the wakening day.

‘I couldn’t sleep,’ she murmured.

‘I noticed,’ he rumbled, his voice working its usual magic on her skin. ‘Ready to save the day?’

Not yet. But she would be. ‘Sure.’

‘Liar,’ he countered, with a gruffness that spoke of worry. ‘You don’t have to do this, you know. It’s not too late to change your mind. We can find another way. A safer way.’

‘There is no safe way. This is a good plan, Nick. You know it is. I want to give it a try. I want to fix this my way.’

‘Why? So you can prove to your brothers that you can?’

‘No. It’s not that.’ All her life her brothers had fixed her mistakes when she’d made them. They’d done it out of love for her; she knew that. They’d done it because they considered her upbringing their job and they took their work seriously. But hadn’t they seen? Hadn’t they ever looked beneath the protests and seen how they were eroding her confidence and her self-belief? ‘This isn’t about my brothers,’ she said quietly. ‘It’s about me. I need to prove to myself that I can do this.’

Nick sighed heavily, his arms tightening around her. ‘Can’t we just take that as a given?’