He breathed out a long, slow sigh. Yes, she mattered. He hadn’t wanted her to matter until he knew more about her. Sy Karlsen had sent an out-of-office reply, indicating he’d gone to Fiji for his daughter’s wedding. There’d be no investigation until he returned.
So. Kate. Even when he should be worried about flying in ever worsening weather and beating the storm clouds home, Matthew had her front and centre of his mind. Beautiful. Desirable. Willing. And possibly treacherous.
~♥~
Already there was a difference in the air. Kate pulled her cosy cap on again, wound the scarf a couple of turns around her neck, and drew her jacket close. The small planes were deserting the airfield like a swarm of insects.
“Will we be okay?” she asked, eying the darkening sky.
Matthew sent her a broad grin. “Right as rain, but we need to bustle. The wind’s rising faster than they predicted.”
He waited impatiently for his turn, drumming his fingers on his thigh, and taking to the air without delay. The little craft bucked and shuddered in the less stable air. Kate caught her bottom lip between her teeth.
The mountains still sparkled, but far to the south, a bank of threatening cloud advanced. She flinched as she surveyed the vast area of steep uninhabited country below them. What were the chances of finding such a small target if the worst happened?
The turbulence steadily built. Matthew sent her another slashing smile as he reached across and caressed her knee, but the challenging flying conditions soon diverted his attention from her again.
Kate tried to allay her concern by reliving their embraces on the boat. He’d wanted her fiercely, and had told her and shown her with passion. He was not Lottie’s husband, after all—she could enjoy him and see where it led. If it spoiled the chance of working with Lottie, so be it; Matthew had totally deflected her attention from the job.
A huge buzz of anticipation spread through her body, and the present sense of danger only heightened it. She ached to be on the ground and in his arms again, surrounded by the scent of his skin.
The little plane droned ever on, see-sawing, rising, dropping, its engine note changing as Matthew compensated for the conditions. At last she heard, “Soon be home,” and he dropped the nose a little. Lake Wakatipu crept into sight, and Kate glimpsed the now familiar sight of the old Earnslaw steaming across the ruffled water.
Relief swamped her as the plane finally touched down with a heavier bounce or two, taxied out of the way, and rolled to a halt.
“Piece of cake,” he said.
“Really?”
“Glad to be home, actually. That’s going to be quite nasty.”
“What about Lottie? Will she be safe?”
“She’s with friends. They’ll look after her. I made sure she had her medication with her.”
They alighted. The wind bit through fabric, and sent icy fingers under cuffs and collars. The temperature had plummeted, and the sun lay buried in a mess of poisonous bruise-coloured clouds. Kate pulled her jacket close and wrapped her arms across her chest.
The gale whined around the SUV as it sped along the spookily darkening highway. She was pleased once they were inside the house again, and safe.
Safe? With Matthew? The real danger is just beginning...
Chapter Fourteen — Spa in the Storm
Matthew stripped off his jacket and tossed it over the newel post at the bottom of the stairs. “Hang your party dress up first,” he suggested, handing Kate the bag he’d carried in from the SUV.
He strode up the hallway toward the big sitting room, and she turned for her bedroom. A hiss and flare greeted her as she arrived back at the double doors. He squatted in front of the wide stone fireplace, absorbed in lighting the kindling under a pile of logs.
Feeling more certain of her ground now, she said, “I thought you didn’t like this room?”
One corner of his mouth kicked up. “Real fireplace, Katie. Big deep rug. Thick curtains for privacy.” He rose and crossed to the huge window to draw them, shutting out the view of tossing tussock and the fading mist-shrouded mountains. The room became surprisingly dark. As he returned, he snapped on a pair of lamps at either end of the long bookcase. A golden glow reflected off the walls. “Just imagine what we could do in here. It might become my very favourite room in the house.”
“The sitting room?” She’d been expecting the privacy of his bedroom.
“It’s the only real fireplace. The rest is central heating.” He sent her a hard hot glance. “I’ve pictured you spread out in the firelight here for the last couple of days. Your dynamite legs...” He’d moved close enough now to cup her breasts. “These beautiful things. And all that hair tumbling free...”
Kate’s body buzzed with anticipation. “But what about Lottie?”
“She might stay over if the weather gets much worse. I’ll phone and see what’s happening.”
He reached for his mobile and pulled Kate close, nudging a hipbone into the notch of her thighs and chafing slowly against her. God, he felt good there! Kate snuggled nearer. He kissed the side of her face as he keyed in the number. His lips moved to hers, and he held the phone so close she heard the signal, and then Lottie’s voice. “Ya?”
They regretfully, moistly, murmuringly parted.
“Matty, are you kissink someone?” Lottie demanded.
“I’m kissink Katie,” he chuckled, releasing her. Kate smiled and wandered across to the fireplace, crouching down to watch the small lively flames. She took no real notice of his conversation, her imagination now occupied with the very near future. He was not Lottie’s husband. She would not be stealing. The intensely desirable had become astoundingly possible.
Maybe she could return to Queenstown after all? A lover to Matthew and companion for Lottie. Or might that combination prove too difficult?
He laid down the phone. A predatory gleam lit his eyes. “No Lottie to spoil things for us. It’s already snowing there—they’ve decided to camp in the lodge.”
“She’ll be all right?”
“She’ll be fine. But not as fine as us.” He drew Kate up to stand beside him again. “We’ll start in the spa,” he murmured, smoothing her hair aside so he could nip her earlobe. “And by then, those logs should be as hot as we are.”
She was already on fire. He’d unsettled her from the moment she’d met him. Attracted her. Confused her. Enraged her.
Matthew challenged her in the most basic way, and everything female in her sparked and crackled when he was near. Now he ran his fingers through her hair, down her back, and into the curve of her waist. They walked step for step through the huge house as far as her bedroom door. “There’s something I need a few minutes for,” he said, lips quirking as he turned away.
What was he thinking? Kate dreamily removed everything except her underwear, deciding she’d give him the fun of removing that. Then, on impulse, she slipped out of her French knickers and pulled on the rose-printed thong. He’d said he could picture her in it; she’d enjoy providing the reality.
The warm air swirled around the steamy spa room as she closed the door behind her. A dozen fat candles flickered in the half-dark, exotically fragrant. Matthew had stripped, and now wore a white knee length towelling robe.
“You’ve been planning this,” she exclaimed, glancing across to the romantic candles reflecting in the mirror.
“Thought I’d better not inflict my tattoo on you in too bright a light.”
“Aahhh... your tattoo,” Kate murmured, stroking the slice of brown chest exposed by the robe. She attempted to push it open, and he caught her hands in his.
“That’s a treat you’re going to have to earn.”
She made a little moue, and tipped her head back enquiringly.
“We’ll have this off for starters.” He reached around and unhooked her bra, pulling it out from between their bodies.
Kate managed to plant both hands on his chest. She spread her fingers, sensuously massaging his
firm flesh. God, he was beautiful. Hot and hard and utterly male. She wanted him now. Wanted him against her, inside her, dominating her. Wanted him fiercely and desperately.
Matthew drew a deep breath, then cupped her face in both hands and pulled her close, claiming her parted lips with possessive intent. She closed her eyes and their tongues meshed like magic, finding and fitting... sliding and slipping. He smoothed his fingers over her shoulders, down her spine, and yanked her in against his hips. Through the bulky robe, he felt huge.
They stayed glued together, groaning and gasping and kissing in a greedy frenzy until the need for air took precedence, and they broke apart, panting.
“You have no idea... no idea...” His chest rose and fell, and he gazed down into her eyes before coaxing her face onto his shoulder and resting his cheek on her hair. His arms moved restlessly, pulling her closer and closer until their bodies pressed together from chest to knee.
“Maybe I do,” she protested, nipping at his neck. His pulse hammered under her lips. “Maybe I need you every bit as much.” She tried to loosen his robe, wanting to touch, wanting to see. He released her and sank down onto the edge of the big spa pool. The robe fell open, but the flickering candles cast her wavering shadow over him. Still no proper view of his magnificent body.
His mouth was now exactly level with her breasts. He leaned forward, and licked and sucked and teased, sending deep tremors down to flicker in her clit.
Kate nudged in between his thighs, pressing for contact, but he held her away, smoothing his hands into the dip of her waist, out over her hips, and around to cup her ass.
“Knew you’d look great in this,” he said, tweaking the narrow elastic of the rosy thong. The tiny panties left her very... accessible. His fingers crept down to play, exploring delicately until they slid out of bounds.
She jerked as he investigated, groaning softly, and thrusting against his hands, but he continued to caress her everywhere except where she really craved. “Do it,” she insisted. “Do it where you know I want it.”
She was no longer her normally decorous self. Now she was hungry for him to take her, growling, frustrated, and feisty.
One finger finally wandered to exactly where she needed it, circling, probing, circling again. She almost fainted with pleasure as the deep tremors shot upward. He deserted her clit a minute or two later with a knowing smile.
Kate was willing to beg on her knees for more.
“Perhaps if we just slid this down,” he conceded, peeling the tiny rosy thong off with agonizing slowness. His big hands were warm and strong, and nowhere near fast enough. Kate dragged his face upward, and pressed her lips to his to increase the contact between them. His tongue flicked out, and for long moments there was only the damp slide of warm lips and tangling tongues and husky murmurs of encouragement and desperation.
She drew away, and glanced into the mirror on the opposite wall. Her hair had tumbled everywhere. Her breathing was erratic, and her breasts rose and fell, nipples long and hard. Her eyes shone, hugely dilated in the flickering candlelight—dark pools of desire.
“I look as though I’ve run a marathon,” she gasped.
“I’ll mess you up worse by midnight,” he promised, pushing her thighs apart and pulling her forward to straddle him. “Just as well I got myself ready for you while you got undressed.” His cock reared up darkly in the dim light. He grabbed one of Kate’s hands, holding it there so she registered the condom. Her breath hitched, and she curled her fingers around him, squeezing and sliding. A tall man with big hands, and oh yes... built to scale all over. She kicked her panties away.
Matthew pushed his hips forward in blatant invitation, and gripped the edges of the pool for balance. Kate bent her knees. “You’re too low,” she whispered. She nudged him into place and Matthew slowly stood, filling her absolutely, pressing into her ready body almost to the point of pain. “Ooohhh...” she protested.
“Not for long,” he muttered hoarsely, lifting her with ease, and wrapping her legs around his hips. He shifted inside her. A hot slide. Deep and total possession. A slight withdrawal before he rocked forward again with a tortured grunt. “Better?”
She clenched around him, primitive instinct driving her now. “God, yes...”
“Jesus, Katie—you’ll kill me.”
He took two steps forward, and set her down on the edge of the long, hip-high cabinet, pushing some of the candles aside before taking her mouth in another explosive kiss. She was right in line with him, totally accessible. Kate locked her ankles; the angle was magic. He thrust slowly, stroking and teasing her, until her slick and sensitized flesh relaxed and allowed him deeper still.
His slow-burning smile grew wider. “Fitting fine now.”
Kate’s breath rushed out. He certainly was. Better than fine. Incredible. “Well, come on then,” she demanded, wriggling against him. She turned her flushed face up, locking her eyes on his as he plunged into her, again and again.
He was barely in control, and she was the cause. This fantastic big man was hers to command, hers to enjoy. She tilted her pelvis and wrapped her legs tighter around his waist.
Matthew’s eyes slammed shut. “Higher,” he grunted, reaching back and grabbing her ankles so he could hitch her legs up even further. Then he rammed into her without restraint, taking his pleasure as deeply as possible.
Kate dug her nails into his shoulders, bracing herself against his furious possession. And abruptly he slowed, capturing her mouth in another searing kiss, invading with his tongue, and tearing at her heart with the sudden change of pace.
“Not too much for you?” he whispered, pulling back so he could focus on her eyes, sliding slowly so all of her length was exquisitely caressed.
“No. Not too much. More please.”
He growled deep in his throat, and subtly changed the angle of his entry. Kate bucked as he contacted another million or two nerve endings.
“There?” he demanded hoarsely, pushing deep again.
“Yes, there.”
He grinned, pulled back, pushed deep, drew back.
Kate gasped, and gasped again, and clenched her teeth in a futile effort to stifle her noisy cries. Wild heat raced through her, melting her bones. She soared, and her whole body trembled, took flight and clenched around him. Matthew gave an exultant shout, crushed his mouth onto hers, and rode her joyously home.
Minutes passed as they slumped, panting, disbelieving, in each other’s arms. Eventually Kate drew a long shivering breath and straightened a little. “God,” she muttered.
He chuckled. “That was... definitely satisfactory.”
She rolled her eyes, smiling at him as he drew away and left her for a few moments to dispose of the condom. His white robe was somehow still on. When he returned, he shrugged it to the floor and Kate’s jaw dropped as the sudden flash of his glorious body. He vaulted into the spa-pool.
“No—I want to see you,” she protested.
“Come and join me, then.”
She followed, immoderately fast. “Stand up,” she urged, because he’d buried himself to chest level in the fizzing, frothing water. The brief midnight glimpse of his tattoo had intrigued and beguiled her. Now she wanted to see the whole hidden work of art.
“You might find it too much?” he suggested.
“I find you too much, so it’s probably okay.” She slid her arms around his neck for a languid kiss.
Once their lips parted, he pushed himself up. Again, Kate saw the tattooed band around his waist that had first alerted her to its existence. A fierce contrast to his golden skin—dark and dramatic as the man himself.
“This piece is pure Samoan,” he said, pointing to it. “We lived there for several years. Dad married Lottie’s mum there. She went back to Europe eventually, and took Lottie with her.”
“Did you lose touch?”
He shook his head. “Always close.” He rose up a little more. Kate caught her breath at the sinuous black lines snaking across hi
m.
“Very Celtic, these pieces,” he said, touching the curving designs that spread over his hip-bones. “That’s for the McLeod in me.”
Kate laid her hands over each. “More,” she said.
With the slightest hesitation, he covered her hands with his own, and drew them down to hide his genitals as he finally emerged from the water. From waist to mid thigh, he was etched with fantastic swirling curves and lines—too much to appreciate at a glance.
He swivelled a little. “Maori round here,” he said, nodding down at the spirals decorating his buttocks. “I’m one eighth Maori, officially.”
“Enough to give you a suntan all winter,” Kate suggested.
“Straight from my father.”
Kate moved her hands under his. “And?” she asked.
“Nothing to see there,” he said dismissively.
But plenty to feel. She gently hefted him.
Dense, weighty, smooth.
He growled her name, and Kate smiled. Her touch had him already stirring again. She pushed his hands away and watched.
“He’s as primitive and savage as your tattoo,” she whispered as his glistening cock rose slowly to full attention for her.
She leaned forward and placed a reverent kiss on the rearing velvety tip.
“He’s beautiful,” she said, running her fingers along his firm length, glancing up to his face and the expressions that flickered rapidly across it. “He’s frightening, too,” she added. “So fierce.”
She sank lower and began to explore him with her tongue.
~♥~
Matthew watched as she softly, sensuously, licked down his hot shaft and then progressed upward again to investigate the smooth ridge above his foreskin. He jerked as her tongue slipped and slid. Then she closed her mouth around him, surrounding him with wet heat, as one hand cupped his balls and the other searched for the pleasure point at the base of his spine.
He towered above her, spread legged and silent, fighting to retain his control. “You’re pushing me to the point of no return, Katie,” he eventually said in a strangled voice.
He felt her laughing around him. Sighing, he wound his hands into her hair and stroked the long soft strands as the ecstasy of release raged ever closer.
Chapter Fifteen — Final Inking Idea
Much later that evening, Matthew brought a plate of toast and pate back to the rug where Kate lay sprawled in front of the fire. He bent and spread a savoury dab on her belly, and followed it with his tongue. She giggled as he licked at her. “Again?” she asked hopefully.