As deliberately as they’d both moved towards each other, they halted. Haydn stopping first, lowering the arm he’d held out for her. Teela dropping her eyes to her bare feet. It was a physical check-in. A mental fail-safe from two people who liked each other a little too much.
“Didja miss me?” he said, in a very passable Aussie accent.
She looked up to see him sliding cufflinks out of the buttonholes of his shirtsleeves, his eyes on her legs under the short T-shirt dress she’d thrown on after a shower. “I wasn’t just sitting around waiting for you.”
I was sitting around scoffing scones, gorging on movie goodness and waiting for you.
“You weren’t, huh?” He rolled back his sleeves and removed the wrist brace.
She clucked her tongue. “That ego.” Still, despite the work needed on begging, if he didn’t take the Oscar home, he was robbed.
He grinned. “Bogan?”
“Completely. Thinks he’s God’s gift. Tickets flapping. Did you win?”
A headshake. “No. Fuckers.” He laughed and dragged a hand through his hair. “Got a kick out of making me tap dance and then telling me it wasn’t the kind of project they believed deserved supporting.”
“Oh, I’m so sorry.” She took a step towards him. What kind of rich person said stopping crooks who stole aid from people who needed it wasn’t worth supporting?
“Don’t be. Lit a fire under my complacency. I need to be a better salesman before I can call myself a statesman. Next person to raise politics with me gets told I need to run for mayor and be good at that before anything else. I’ve got a new stagecraft to learn and I know exactly what I need to do now. It won’t include ritual humiliation by men who are richer than anyone
has the right to be without paying their taxes and giving something back.”
“Them’s fighting words.”
He took a step towards her. “When I want something badly enough, there’s no fallback position.”
“Arrogant.”
He grinned and reached for her. “Desperate. It works for me.” He inclined his head towards the TV. “You watched one of mine.”
She put her hand in his and let him draw her close. “How can you tell?” With her free hand she slipped the next button on his shirt undone.
“Arrogant, remember. I thought you’d decide you weren’t into waiting around for me and I’d come back to an empty room.”
A glance at his face told her he wasn’t joking. “I’d have left a note.” She slipped a second button undone and her fingers under the cool cotton to touch his warm chest and tangle in the hair there.
He groaned. “Nice knowing you?”
Another button. She laughed. “Something like that.” Another and the shirt was undone, and she got both hands to his ribs.
“Incredible, you still like me even after I abandoned you.”
“I only like you for your talent.”
“Oh yeah, what particular talent would that be?”
Passing her hands around his back, she yanked his shirt from his pants. When it was all the way untucked and hanging loose, she stood back and admired her handiwork, making her critical appreciation obvious by outright gawking at him. He’d caught her doing that more than once today. If he was devastating in a suit, he was earth-shattering in swimwear. All those ripples and indentations her hands and lips had explored. He’d made her mouth water on the beach. It simply should not be allowed.
“You have more than one talent?” she asked.
“It’s a matter of opinion.”
She stepped forward and kissed him quickly on the lips. “These are talented.” Her hands grasped his. “These are talented too.” Shaking free of his return grip, she used one hand to smooth over his chest. “This.” And the other to drag it down his thigh. “Both of these.” Hands to his arse, she squeezed and winked at him. “And you have other talents.”
He closed one eye and shifted his pelvis, preparing for her to go for a crotch grab. “No need to be rude.”
No need at all. “This is talented.” She laid a hand on his forehead, and then pinched his earlobe. “These.” Another kiss and this time she opened her mouth and flicked her tongue over his. “Most of all,” she breathed against his lips and then kissed her way down his neck, collarbone and chest to his heart. “This heart shows real promise.”