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She was on the point of begging him for more when Angus slowly peeled her bikini bottoms down her legs, before rising to shed his shorts. Scars and kids and the future forgotten, Thadie stared at him, and Angus stood there, allowing her to look. Wide, big shoulders, big, muscled arms, that broad chest. He had sexy abs, but she also adored those long hip muscles, his lean, powerful thighs, and his scar was proof of the battle for life.

Angus managed to combine his blunt good looks—he was the definition of masculinity—with the suggestion of speed. Silent, but obvious power. But under that fine package was a man who could make her feel, make her want, make her need. Sheenjoyed his body and was impressed by his quick, sharp mind but his effect on her emotions scared her. He could melt her mind...

But...dammit...she couldn’t resist him. She always, as long as she breathed, would want him but she wouldn’t let herself love him.

Angus leaned over her to place his hands on the cool cotton next to her head and dropped his mouth to cover hers, taking his time to explore. Last night, they’d rolled around the bed, their kisses desperate, their hands insatiable. But tonight was different. He seemed to want to take his time, to draw pleasure from the journey and not the destination. Thadie tried to touch him, but he moved his hips, nudging her hand away.

‘I want to play,’ he told her. ‘I want to make this last, draw it out until we are both breathless with need.’

She didn’t think that was a good idea. Hot and fast sex could be categorised as a biological need—they were just a pair of healthy adults enjoying themselves. But slow sex, sweet sex, profound sex was...

Making love.

She couldn’t allow her feelings to get involved because she had work to do, on herself, for herself. She needed to find out who she was, and how she was going to navigate this world without reference to anyone else. But Angus had a way of making her dream in glorious technicolour. And feel far too much...

‘Angus, please,’ she begged, a couple of deep breaths away from releasing a sob. They had to treat this, them together, sex, as release they both needed.

She couldn’t afford to allow an emotional connection to develop and deepen.

Finally, weeks,yearslater, Angus pushed inside her and Thadie wrapped her legs around his back, pulling him closer.As he pushed her higher and higher, the physicality of the act, her yearning for release, calmed her whirring thoughts and she simply shut down. All she cared about was the crashing release he could give her. Her hands flew over his thighs, back, up and down his butt, stopping occasionally to dig her fingernails into his skin. One of her braids dropped over her eye as she thrashed her head from side to side, hovering, hovering...

She floundered on the edge of that fireball of pleasure, holding herself back from stepping in, needing another few moments of anticipation.

‘I can’t hold on, Thads,’ Angus muttered against her mouth. Placing his hand between their bodies, he found her and stroked with just enough pressure and intent. One minute she was on the outside, the next she was burning up, in the best way possible. She became the sun, and the stars, danced with the moon and skated along the Milky Way.

Angus, breathing heavily, rested his weight on one hand and gazed down at her. He pulled her braid off her face and tucked it behind her ear. Emotions, confusion mostly, jumped in and out of his eyes and she was relieved to know that he felt equally off-balance, as unsettled.

He didn’t know how to handle the situation—any of it, including their crazy chemistry—either. And, strangely, that eased a great deal of her tension, calmed her washing-machine mind.

It was reassuring to know that he was also stumbling around in the dark.

While the island’s staff transported their luggage for them to the boat to Felicite, and the private jet, Thadie walked down the beach with Angus, in sight but out of hearing of the twins.

Their holiday was at an end, and it was the start of a new chapter...no, the opening of a new book. Hopefully, the press attention about the wedding had died down and she could slide back into relative obscurity and life could go back to normal. Or, with Angus in their lives, a new normal.

Whatever that meant.

Thadie glanced up at him, his eyes shaded by expensive sunglasses. They’d been living in a bubble these past few days—him in her bed at night, making her sigh and making her scream—and they’d spent their days with the twins, swimming, snorkelling and making fifty thousand sandcastles on the beach. With good food, and unintrusive five-star service on a stunningly lovely island, their days, and nights, had passed in a happy, hazy dream.

But they were leaving this morning and reality lurked over the horizon, rough and tough and taking no prisoners. She and Angus needed to talk about his future relationship with the twins, but should they do that now, or on the plane, or should she wait until they landed back in Johannesburg?

‘Did you hear back from any of your designers?’ Angus asked her.

She’d sent them a ‘would you consider this?’ email and all but one had replied. ‘Two turned me down, four are interested. All want to see my portfolio of designs before they commit to anything,’ Thadie explained. ‘And they want them quickly.’

‘What’s the rush?’ Angus asked.

She shrugged. ‘One of the designers is taking maternity leave and wants to get this sorted before she has the baby, another is in the process of launching an online store and a brick-and-motor boutique in London. I guess the other two want to see if I can work under pressure.’

‘You’ll get it done,’ Angus assured her. While Thadie appreciated his support, she wasn’t as confident. She wasn’tsure she would be able to produce a portfolio of designs within a few weeks. Looking after Gus and Finn was a full-time job and she could see a lot of late nights in her future.

‘What’s your deadline?’ Angus asked.

‘Two weeks for one, a month for two, two months for the other one,’ Thadie told him.

He winced. ‘Two weeks? That’s tight.’

He had no idea.


Tags: Joss Wood Billionaire Romance