He’d sat on the Le Roux plane, talking to various members of Thadie’s family, helping to keep the boys entertained, and with every mile that had passed, the rock in his stomach had got heavier. His gut had started screaming that this wasn’t where he was supposed to be, what he was supposed to be doing. He needed, for a few more days at least, to be with her. He knew it wasn’t a clever move, he should be putting distance between them, emotional as well as physical, but the compulsion to return to Petit Frère was, like his compulsion to fly to Johannesburg after seeing that video, too strong.
She was the moon, and he the tide. One of these days he was going to have to learn how to break their connection because he had a company to run, a legacy to create and he didn’t have time for unscheduled disruptions to his schedule.
But that was next week’s problem.
His footsteps made no noise as he crossed the deck to drop to his haunches next to her, using one finger to push a bright braid off her cheek. His heart stuttered, and he sighed as he looked at her wide, lovely mouth, the long eyelashes on her cheek. She wore a low-cut vest top without a bra, and her full breasts tempted him to touch and taste. Pulling his eyes away, he smiled at the strip of bare skin between her top and her silky sleepingshorts, printed with... He looked closer. Were those tiny, perfect sketches of positions from the Kama Sutra? He squinted and his eyebrows lifted... Right, that one needed incredible flexibility.
He smiled, entranced by the thought of seeing how many positions they could get through over the next few days. Quite a few, he reckoned.
And he’d get to that. Right now he just needed to breathe and be. He could stare at her forever, content to inhale her perfume, to trace his eyes over every luscious curve.
Her eyes fluttered open, and he smiled at her dazed look, and watched as her hand came up to touch him. ‘So real,’ she murmured. ‘Wish you were here.’
Her eyes closed again, and she rolled over, pulling her long legs up and settling back into a deep sleep.
‘Oh, no, you don’t,’ he said as he stood up, bent down and scooped her up and into his arms. ‘I know that I said you should sleep and relax, and you will, but not for a little while yet.’
He carried her across the deck and into the house, enjoying her look of wide-eyed amazement. ‘Angus?’
He dropped a kiss on her nose. ‘Hi.’
‘Uh...hi,’ she said as he lowered her onto the mammoth double bed in the master bedroom. ‘What are you doing here?’
He kissed the spot where her neck and jaw met and painted her jaw with tiny kisses. ‘Right now, kissing you.’
She pushed at his shoulders. ‘I don’t understand. You were flying back to London!’
‘I flew here instead.’ He lifted his head to smile at her. Damn, he was ridiculously happy to be here, in this big bed with her, the sound of the sea hitting the shore, moonlight pouring in from the open doors. ‘I thought you might be lonely.’
‘It’s only been a little more than half a day, Docherty,’ Thadie dryly told him. That didn’t, he noticed, stop her from yankinghis shirt out of his trousers and trying to pull it up and over his back.
He pulled his shirt off, and reached for her vest top, bright white against her stunning, smooth brown skin. ‘Well, I was lonely without you,’ he told her, placing his mouth on hers. She seemed to melt a little into the bed, a little into him, and against her lips he felt her smile.
But he still needed, crazy but true, a little reassurance that she was happy he was here, that he wasn’t intruding on her space. He might feel as if they’d known each other forever but it had only been a little over a week, ten days since he’d dropped back into her life.
‘Is it okay that I came back?’ he asked, pushing his hands inside her sleeping shorts and down her hips. Nearly naked, he thought, one of the many ways he liked her.
Thadie used her core muscles to sit up, and echoed his movements, pushing his shorts down his legs and wrapping her hand around his shaft. She ran her thumb across his tip, and everything faded, there was just him and her and the pleasure they could generate together. When she held him like this, he didn’t care whether he was intruding, whether she needed time and space and quiet.
He needed her. Angus needed to feel her wrapped around him, his tongue in her mouth, her amazing legs around his hips, to hear her gasps and groans, her wet, hot heat around his length. She was the closest thing to a home he’d ever experienced.
‘It’s not okay that you took so long to come back,’ Thadie said as he parted her legs and slid his hand over her feminine lips, testing her readiness for him. The sound she made was part sigh and part sob, and he positioned himself at her entrance, sliding his tip inside.
He intended to take it slow, to savour the moment, but Thadie had other ideas. She lifted her hips, he found himself inside her and he was lost.
And found.
Discombobulated and delighted. And very much not in control.
The island wasn’t very big, and they walked it in an hour, following the wooden path that took them through the jungle-like foliage, across the huge granite rocks and over rock pools and coves. It was lovely to be alone on the island—when she’d heard she was going to be the only person on the island, Thadie had insisted that the staff take a vacation, she didn’t need looking after—and even better that Angus was here with her.
She looked at his broad back as he walked the path in front of her, his board shorts riding low on his hips, the pre-dawn light accentuating the deep valleys of his spine. They’d got, maybe, a couple of hours’ sleep last night, and had reached for each other time and time again, unable to get enough of each other. She was both exhausted and wired, and comprehensively thrilled to have more time alone with him.
And when Angus had suggested that they watch the sunrise from the other side of the island, she’d sleepily pulled on a pair of shorts and a vest and followed him out of the door.
Despite knowing she had a life to figure out, a career to reinvigorate, she was in deep danger of following him anywhere.
Angus stopped, looked up at a granite rock and nodded. ‘The view from up there will be amazing.’