Summer Sins

‘I’d love to see the river walk,’ Hayley said, springing out of her chair and grabbing at Jasper’s hand.

* * *

She waited until they were out of earshot and view of the house before she lambasted him. ‘How could you lie to those poor old people?’ She put her hands on her hips and mimicked him. ‘I’m willing to learn about farming. You unfeeling selfish bastar

d. How could you?’

‘I’m not lying,’ he said evenly. ‘I am interested in learning a bit about farming.’

‘Since when?’ she asked.

‘I thought it might be interesting to diversify my financial interests.’

‘You’re a property developer. You wouldn’t know a cow or a sheep if you bumped into one,’ she said. ‘I know what you’re up to and I won’t be a part of it. You’re going to buy this place under false pretences and then chop it up and develop it.’

‘You’re entitled to your opinion, but I can assure you that’s not what I intend to do,’ he said, walking towards the sinuous curve of the river in the distance.

Hayley had to trot to keep up. ‘I hope you’re not lying to me, Jasper,’ she puffed. ‘I would hate to think I was helping to deceive the Hendersons.’

He stopped to look down at her, an ironic smile tilting his mouth sideways. ‘But you are helping to deceive them, baby girl,’ he said. ‘You’re pretending to be in love with me and doing a damn fine job of it too.’

Hayley started to move away, but he snagged her arm and pulled her back to face him. She met his eyes, her stomach giving a little kick of excitement as his hands slid down her arms, his long, strong fingers encircling her wrists.

She suddenly felt exposed and vulnerable under his dark, intense scrutiny. She wondered if he had somehow guessed her real feelings, the feelings she was trying to hide from herself, let alone him. She had been fighting it for days, the attraction she’d thought had died twelve years ago with his cold dismissal, but instead it had leapt back into vibrant life, threatening to take over her common sense all over again.

He was standing so close she could smell his skin and the lemony notes of his aftershave that clung to it lightly. She could feel the pull of his pelvis as if he had a magnet attached to his belt that was luring her into intimate contact with him. She felt herself tilting towards him, her legs swaying as if they had a mind of their own.

‘W-what are you doing?’ she croaked as his head started to come down.

‘I’m going to kiss you.’

‘I t-told you not to touch me.’ Damn! she thought. That hadn’t sounded half as strident as she’d intended.

‘I know you did but Jim and Pearl could be watching from the house,’ he said.

She stared at his mouth, her heart leaping at the thought of feeling his lips and tongue playing with hers. ‘It’s a long way to the house. They couldn’t possibly see us from here … you don’t have to kiss me …’

‘Perhaps not, but I thought I might do so all the same.’

‘I—I don’t want you to kiss me unless it’s absolutely necessary.’

‘Oh, it’s necessary, all right,’ he said, brushing her lips with his in a light-as-air movement that set her mouth tingling. ‘It’s absolutely necessary.’

Hayley sighed as he swooped back down and covered her mouth with his, his tongue driving through the shield of her lips in search of hers. Her lower body jumped in response, her breasts swelling against his chest as he used one hand on the small of her back to bring her closer. She felt the intoxicating heat of his erection and marvelled that his blood had surged so quickly in reaction to her closeness. It gave her a sense of feminine power that her body was exciting to him, especially when he had spurned her clumsy adolescent advances all those years ago.

The skin of his jaw rasped her face as he deepened the kiss with an urgency that thrilled her. She felt her lips swelling beneath the demanding pressure of his, her whole body quivering to feel more and more of his touch. The dew of arousal budded between her legs, her tail bone tilting in delight as his fingers explored each small knob of her vertebrae. She pushed herself closer, her achingly empty heated core searching for his thickness to fill it with throbbing, exhilarating life.

His tongue swept the cavern of her mouth once more, flicking against hers in a provocative caress that fuelled her need of him like a match to a live gas outlet. The combustion of his touch as his hands moved to her breasts to cup them sent her over the edge of reason and control.

She fumbled between them for the zipper on his jeans, her fingers relishing in the spring of his engorged flesh as she finally freed him. She heard him groan deep in the back of his throat, but he did nothing to stop her as she explored him with a touch at first tentative, then increasingly bold as she felt his tightly reined in response. He felt like satin-wrapped steel under the soft pads of her fingertips, the sticky moistness at the tip bringing her gaze down to look at him in awe. He was much bigger than she’d expected, and uncut, which made him seem all the more primal and dangerous.

‘You’re going to have stop doing that, right now,’ he said on a harshly indrawn breath. ‘Otherwise I won’t be held responsible for my actions.’

She kept stroking him, but he snatched at her hand, his fingers around hers almost painfully tight as they pulled her off him.

‘No, Hayley,’ he said, breathing hard. ‘This is taking things way too far.’

Hayley felt her face fire up and mentally kicked herself for revealing how much he affected her.