Tempting Taine (13 page)

“No, on the ground.”
 
He shone the torch beam a little way in front of them.
 
“Over here.”

It looked like a small pond filled with water – hot water, if she was not seeing mirages.
 
She inched closer towards it.
 
No, she had not been mistaken – warm swirls of mist were rising slowly off it and dissipating in the cold night air.
 
“A hot pool?”

“It's because we are so close to the volcanic crater of Lake Taupo,” he explained.
 
“The whole area around the lake is riddled with hot springs.
 
This one appeared out of nowhere a couple of years ago.
 
When I came back home, I had it dug out and put in a concrete bottom, and turned it into our own private mineral springs hot tub."

No wonder he had not told her what he wanted to show her.
 
She would definitely have run screaming away from the prospect of getting into a natural hot tub with him.
 
“Very nice,” she said perfunctorily.
 
“Now let’s go back to the house again.”

“Not so fast.
 
Aren’t you going to try the water first?”

She had to admit to a certain amount of curiosity.
 
She had heard of people around Taupo with their own private hot springs, but she had never seen one before.
 
The closest she had come was the occasional visit to
Debrett’s
Hot Pools, the commercial hot springs operation just out of town.
 
She always loved her visits there, but the public swimming pool atmosphere of
Debrett’s
certainly lacked the romance of a private hot spring in the middle of the bush.

She crouched down at the water’s edge and dipped her fingers into the water.
 
“It’s really warm.”

To her alarm, Taine was already shrugging off his jacket.
 
“You can’t tell anything by just dipping your fingers in the water.
 
Try it properly.”

She could see right through him.
 
This was nothing more than a crafty ploy of his to get her naked.
 
“I don’t think so.”

“Chicken?” he taunted her, as he threw off his shirt and stood bare-chested in the cold night air in front of her.

She felt her mouth grow dry at the sight of his naked torso.
 
It drew her eyes like a magnet.
 
She knew she ought to turn away, but she could not stop staring at him.
 
Ten years, and she still wanted to touch him.
 
“Absolutely.”
 
But
even to her own ears, her voice lacked conviction.

He took a couple of paces towards her until he was standing right in front of her.
 
Slowly he reached out and unzipped her borrowed jacket.
 
“Then I will have to help you get over your fears.”

She clutched the edges of the jacket together with anxious fingers.
 
Thoughts and feelings whirled around in her head in utter turmoil.
 
She wanted this so
much,
even as she knew she ought not.
 
Turning her back on this man who had already broken her heart once would be the right and the sensible thing to so, but she knew she would not, could not, do it.
 
She had hungered after his touch for so long she could not resist him any longer.

His hands were still gently tugging at her jacket.

Slowly, deliberately, she loosened her grip and allowed him to draw it off her shoulders.

His fingers moved to the buttons of her shirt, and this time she offered no resistance.
 
Neither did she
move away or utter a word of protest when he reached behind her to unclasp her bra.

He sucked in his breath sharply at the sight of her naked breasts in the moonlight, their tips hard and peaked from the cold.
 
“You are as beautiful as ever.
 
No,” he corrected himself, “you are even more beautiful than I remembered.
 
I’ve waited far too long to see your body naked before me, and to hold it in my arms again.”

She stepped out of her borrowed gumboots – a mute invitation for him to continue undressing her.
 

It was all the invitation he needed.

He pushed her borrowed pants roughly down over her hips, and she stepped out of them, leaving them discarded in the mud.
 
Nothing but a wisp of lace covered her nakedness.

His fingers tugged at the lace, and mutely she allowed him to uncover her fully.

What would he think of her body?
 
It was not as taut as it had been ten years ago.
 
Childbirth had left its mark on her, softening her hard edges, leaving her with some faint silvery lines on the skin of her stomach.

His finger dipped in between her legs and came back glistening with wetness.
 
"You
do
want me.
 
You can't hide it any longer."

No longer content to take a passive role, she ran her hands over the planes of his chest.
 
He carried more muscle than he had as a youth.
 
He was thicker, stronger.
 
A man.

She shut her eyes, reveling in the feel of his skin under her hands.
 
It had been far too long since she had touched him like this.
 
Far, far too long.
 
She wanted him closer, needed him closer, to fill in the empty spot in her heart - the place that had remained empty since she had walked away from him so many years ago.
 

"Taine," she whispered under her breath.
 

"Verity,"
came
the whisper back.
 
She could feel his breath on her cheek, and then his mouth was on hers, kissing her.

She pressed her body against her, the nakedness between her thighs pushing against the hard denim of his jeans.
 
She squirmed against him, needing him to be closer, and
reached down
to unzip him.

He dragged his mouth from hers.
 
"Wait a sec," he said, fumbling in his pocket for a small foil packet.

He ripped it open with his teeth as she tugged off his jeans and boxers, displaying him in all his pride.

She reached down and stroked him, loving the feeling of his hardness in her hands.
 
Her pussy throbbed at the prospect of having him inside her.
 

He pushed her hands away almost roughly.
 
"Christ, Verity, I won't last if you do that to me."

She reached for him again, not caring if he lasted or not as long as she could keep on touching him.
 
She needed to feel him inside her once more, to have him fill the empty space in her heart.

He kicked their clothes into a pile and tugged Verity down to the ground.
 
Lying on his back, he sheathed himself in the condom and then reached for her.
 
"Ride me.
 
Ride me just like you used to."

Awkward and out of practice she straddled him clumsily, and then slowly lowered herself on to his cock.
 
She was wet and ready, but it had been such a long time, too long, since she had had a man inside her.
 
She paused, letting him stretch her, until she could sheath him fully inside her.

He was bigger than she had remembered him to be - way bigger.
 
Slowly, she inched herself down on him, loving every moment of the delicious torment.

His hands on her hips, he urged her down on to him.
 
"Christ, Verity,
are
you trying to kill me?" he ground out, as she paused for a few seconds to allow her body to accommodate him.

"It's been a long time," she muttered.
 
"Just give me a moment to adjust."

"God, you
are
trying to kill me."

She was too busy enjoying the sensation of having him deep inside her to answer.
 
If she was killing him, he was killing her in equal measure.
 
It had been so long since any one had touched her.
 
Just having him inside her was almost enough to make her come.

His hands moved to her breasts, teasing her nipples to hard points and making her so wet that he pushed inside her the rest of the way.
 

"Ride me now."

Just try to stop me, she thought, as she rose up and then sank down again on him.
 
Oh, how she had missed this.
 
Not just the pleasure, although that was already threatening to burst its barriers and overwhelm her, but the closeness.
 
The caring.
 
The love.

A sheen of sweat glistened on his forehead, despite the cold of the night air.
 
"Fuck, Verity.
 
I want you so badly.
 
I'm going to come."

"I'm right there with you," she managed to gasp.

She felt his whole body shiver under her, and he thrust his hips up into her with a guttural cry as he
orgasmed
.

The throbbing of him inside her as he came pushed her over the edge as well.

A scream burst from her throat as the pulsing in her body took over from every other sensation, losing her in the pleasure of having Taine loving her again.
 
Nothing else in the world existed for her but the touch of his skin and the movement of his body against hers.

It seemed an age before she came down to earth again and she sank down on to him, her body wrung out from the fierce satisfaction of their lovemaking.
 

Taine gathered her into his arms and laid her head on his chest.
 
"You
did
want me."
 
His voice was all sleepy satisfaction.
 
Like he had won.
 
"I knew all along you were just pretending."

The sound of his voice scratched like fingernails on a chalkboard.
 
This was not the Taine she had fallen in love with ten years ago.
 
She had to remember that and not allow herself to become vulnerable just because he had given her a few stolen moments of intense pleasure.
 
A vibrator could do that almost as well, and it
wouldn't
spoil things afterwards by opening its mouth and talking to her.
 
"Yeah, well, we all make mistakes."
 
She disengaged herself from his embrace and scrambled to her feet.

"Are you calling what we just did a mistake?"
 
He shook his head lazily from side to side, like a lion surveying his pride.
 
"I call it long overdue.
 
Ten years overdue, in fact."

"It was a mistake," she repeated firmly.
 
How could she have forgotten what kind of a man he was?
 
The kind who turned his back on his own child, that's what
he
was and she had better remember it.
 
A light breeze ruffled her hair and she hugged her arms around her middle, suddenly freezing.
 
"Clothes, please."

Some of his good mood evaporated at her grim words.
 
"Get into the hot pool first.
 
That's what I brought you here for."

Yeah, like she believed that for a moment.
 
He did not move, and she faced the prospect of tugging her clothes out from under him to stop
herself
from freezing, or getting into the hot pool as he suggested.

With a glare in his direction, she clambered into the hot pool.
 
The hot water enclosed her, making her feel protected and safe, keeping her from the cold and warming her from the inside out.

In a moment, he
was seated
beside her, his legs touching hers in the small pool.
 
"Worth it, huh?"

She turned her head away from him and shut her eyes, not wanting to ruin the moment with speech.
 
The hot water soaking into her bones felt like heaven, soothing her soul along with her body.
 
Just a few more minutes and she would get up and walk away from him.
 
She was so warm and comfortable, and she had not slept well the night before.
 
Just a few more minutes…