“That was some renegotiation,” she said, trying to snap the moment before it snapped her.
A beat bled by in which she wondered if she’d gone too far, made light of something too significant. Then his laughter rumbled through them both, deep and satisfying. “Wasn’t it just?”
Nate trailed his hand from hip to arm and back again, and Saskia found it hard to hang on to reality at all.
“Why the hell did we not do this earlier?” he asked.
“From memory, we were being smart.”
“Yeah? You’re probably right.” He bent down, gathered his gear. “Bathroom?”
She angled her head down the hall. “Second on the left.”
He laid a kiss on her neck, followed by a quick swipe of his tongue, then walked that way, giving Saskia a superb view of beauty incarnate. A sexual dynamo. A frustrating, hard-headed, stubborn example of a man. A danger to the heart of any woman who crossed his charismatic path.
She was in so much trouble.
At the door he looked back. A grin spread across his face—a happy grin—leaving in its aftermath a clench in her belly that pierced the pleasure-induced numbness that held sway all through the rest of her. Then he shook his head once and disappeared.
Slapping a hand across her eyes, Saskia thanked her lucky stars the fire was still roaring as the night air cooled her damp skin. She was also thankful that she’d shaved her legs.
Crushing on Nate from afar was one thing. Sharing a few kisses was flirting with danger. But what had just happened—that inferno of desire, that wanton drive to take and be taken... It was still too soon. Her body was still humming from the effects, all of her too damn raw, to decipher what that was.
The old cuckoo clock in her lounge room cuckooed—seven o’clock.
Lissy!
She reached for her phone to turn Lissy around before she arrived with Indian, then realised she was butt-naked and her phone was nowhere to be found. In a flash of inspiration, she grabbed her bikini top from the floor, quickly opened the front door and hung it from the handle outside and slammed the door shut.
It was no tie on the door, but it would have to do!
When Saskia turned back, Ernest—tail wagging, eyes bright—met her nose to nose.
“Hey buddy,” she said. “Did you catch any of that?”
Ernest gave her nose a gentle lick of support.
“I know, the guy brought Oreos. This too shall pass, but we can have some fun till then, right?”
Ernest thumped his tail on the floor before sliding across the floorboards to his possie in the lounge. One thump was for yes, right?
She heard the shower being turned on. Her head kicked in that direction. That shower was touchy. Only right she should show her visitor how it worked.
SEVEN
First thing Monday morning Saskia sat in the foyer at Dating By Numbers, humming to herself. Her eyes roved happily over the golden-framed artwork, the fresh flowers on every surface, the discreetly frosted glass walls, the thick white carpet that must be a bitch to keep clean.
With many online businesses run from a home offices these days, instead the dating site took up the top floor of a beautiful old building in elegant Kew. It seemed there was a lot of money to be made in facilitating the search for true love. And in random hook-ups, one night stands, invites to friends of friends’ weddings...
“Saskia? Marlee Kent,” said a tall, elegant woman with a slick dark bob. She could have been aged anywhere from early forties to late fifties.
Saskia pulled herself from the overly soft couch and shook the woman’s hand, before following her through padded velvet doors into a discreetly elegant office beyond, where on a tidy desk sparkled two big glass bowls—one filled with Baci chocolate kisses, the other with condoms.
“So you joined the site?” Marlee asked as they sat, her long red nails wrapped around the handle of an old-fashioned china coffeepot as she poured without asking how Saskia liked it.
Saskia reached into her bag for her yellow legal pad. “I did. A few weeks back.”
“And what did you think?”
“It’s very thorough. As a researcher, I like thorough.”
Marlee’s smile didn’t reach her eyes. “And you’ve found someone?”
“Excuse me?” Saskia said, wondering if it was written all over her face that she’d been on the receiving end of some very hot and thorough loving only a couple of hours before, when Nate had turned up at her door before work for a breakfast special.
“You mentioned a case study in your email?”
“Oh. Yes. Well, studying him, getting the man’s perspective, has been most helpful.”