A Secret Between Friends: A New Zealand Sexy Beach Romance (Treats to Tempt You Book 6) (16 page)

Niall gasped and stepped back, bumping into the bar, as the cold cocktail soaked his hair and ran down his face. Everyone around him exclaimed, and Genie clapped a hand over her mouth.

He shook his head like a dog, then ran a hand through his hair. “What the fuck?” He yelled the words, angry and embarrassed.

But Tamsin had already walked off, and within seconds she’d disappeared through the door.

One of the waitresses he knew to be Tamsin’s friend sidled up, pulling an
eek
face. “I’m so sorry,” she said, blushing. “Tamsin asked to see the contact lists. I thought she was looking to see which guys had put her name down, but she only wanted to see Niall’s.”

“I said not to let anyone see them,” Beck snapped. “Contact details are given out later to stop this kind of thing happening.”

“I know, I’m sorry.” The poor girl looked mortified. “She’s a friend and I just thought…” Her voice tailed off as she stared at Niall’s face. “I’m really sorry.”

He blew out a breath. There was no point in blaming her. “It’s all right. No harm done.” Completely pissed off by now, though, he finished off his drink and pushed the empty back to Beck. “Thanks for organizing the evening. I’ll catch you later.”

Beck slid a couple of paper towels over to him and gave him a pitying look. “Sure. Thanks for coming.”

Turning, ignoring everyone else, Niall wiped his face and dumped the paper towels in the bin, then walked to the door.

He’d just reached it when someone caught his arm. He turned, about to bite the person’s head off, then saw it was Genie.

“I thought you were going to take me home,” she said.

He ran a hand through his hair. “Sorry. I forgot.” He gestured past her to the guys at the bar. “Perhaps Jonah should take you. Or Danny.”

Her lips twitched. “Don’t be daft. Come on.” Taking his hand, she led him through the door.

Outside, he hesitated, worried Tamsin might be waiting in the shadows to surprise him, but there was no sign of her. Genie tugged his hand and led him through the beer garden and along the road toward where he normally parked his car.

“It’s a lovely evening,” she said, lifting her face to the warm evening air. To the east, the sea brushed the sand with gentle hands, and the cicadas sang loudly in the trees.

He was too annoyed to appreciate it, though. He refrained from replying, still too angry to trust himself. He set his pace fast, but made himself slow when he remembered Genie’s cane, although she hadn’t complained.

When they reached the car, they got in, and he inserted the key in the ignition. Then he sat there for a moment, hands on the wheel.

“Don’t glower,” she said.

“I’m not,” he replied, knowing he was.

“Niall…”

He whacked the steering wheel, making her jump. “What the fuck was she thinking? Did she really think I was going to put her name on the fucking list?”

“Obviously she thought it was a possibility. She must love you very much to make a scene like that,” Genie said softly.

“I don’t care! That was unforgiveable. If I had still had any feelings for her, they’re well and truly gone now.” He banged the steering wheel again. Why was he so angry? He didn’t care what Tamsin thought of him, and he didn’t give a rat’s arse that everyone had seen him drenched in wine. So what was really bothering him?

Genie said nothing for a moment. Then she said, “Did you put anyone’s name on your list?”

He huffed a long sigh. Then he looked across at her. “Might have.”

“How many?”

He studied her sulkily. “One.”

She rubbed her nose. “I’m hoping it was mine, or it’s rather a sorry end to the evening.”

“It was you, Genie.” He held out for a whole ten seconds before he gave in and asked the question. “How many names did you put down?”

“One.” Her eyes were very blue.

“Mine?”

She blinked. “No, Danny’s.”

His sense of humor rapidly dissipated, and he turned the ignition on, shoved the car into Drive, and pulled away.

She laughed. “For God’s sake, of course it was yours. Come on, that was too good a line to miss.”

“I’m really not in the mood, Gin.”

She bit her lip. “Fair enough. Sorry.”

He drove the rest of the way in silence. At any other time, it would have been a beautiful, romantic drive, with the moon rising over the ocean and not a car on the road except his own. But he was too angry, his emotions and feelings too mixed up for him to enjoy the journey.

When they arrived in Opua, he pulled up outside Beck’s house and left the car running. “I guess I’ll see you later.”

She rolled her eyes, leaned across him, and turned the car off. Before he could stop her, she whisked out the key and was out of the door.

“Gin…” He really wasn’t in the mood for this. He ground his teeth and got out to follow her up the path. “Give it back. I want to go home.”

“No you don’t.” She slotted her key in the door and let them in. “We need to choose the next bucket list item, and besides, I’m going to wash that top for you.”

“I don’t want…” But she’d gone in, so he had no choice but to follow her.

“Come with me.” She led the way through to the laundry room and switched on the light. “Go on, strip off.”

“I don’t—”

Opening up the tub, she flicked her fingers at him while she filled it with a few more items from the basket. He sighed, pulled the sodden T-shirt over his head, and she dropped it on top of the other items. After adding the powder and liquid softener, she closed the lid and started up the machine.

“And now I’m going to make you a coffee.” She limped through to the kitchen.

He followed, hands in the pockets of his jeans, still grumbling.

She slotted a capsule into the coffee machine and turned it on. “Want some caramel syrup?”

He shrugged.

She poured a small amount into a tall coffee glass, fitted it into the machine, and pressed the button. Steaming liquid began to fill the glass.

Niall sat heavily on a stool, leaned forward, and rested his head on the breakfast bar. He heard her laugh softly, then felt her hand on his hair. “Poor Niall.”

“Don’t make fun of me.” He picked up the drink when she pushed it toward him and took it over to the window overlooking the ocean. “I’m so fucking pissed off.”

“You don’t say.”

He sipped the coffee. It was delicious, sweet and hot, and he let it warm him through as he looked out across the bay.

Genie finished making her own drink, and then he heard her footsteps along with the clunk of the cane as she walked across to join him. He waited for her to appear next to him, but to his surprise she stood behind him. Then he felt the soft brush of her lips between his bare shoulder blades.

“You have a great back,” she murmured, placing small kisses from there around to his shoulders before standing next to him. He looked down at her.

“Sorry,” he said.

She took a swallow from her cup and shrugged. “I can understand why you’re mad—that was pretty embarrassing.”

“It’s nothing to do with Tamsin.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?” He didn’t reply, and after a few moments her eyes widened. “You’re not talking about Danny, surely?”

He looked out across the bay and drank his coffee.

She huffed out an irritated sigh. “Niall, seriously? You know we were winding you up, right? Anyway, me and Danny?” She laughed. “That’s as funny as saying me and Jonah. All the guys are like brothers to me.”

“Including me?”

Humor lit her eyes. “No, Niall. Excluding you.”

“Why?”

Her smile faded. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t think of me like a brother?”

“I trust you like one. I respect you. You drive me nuts the same as the others.”

He couldn’t bring himself to smile. “Why were you and Danny winding me up?”

“I thought that was what we all did to each other.”

Not now, he thought. Maybe a long time ago, he’d thought of her like a sister. But no longer.

A frown flickered across her brow again. “Why are you so angry with me?”

“I’m not angry with you.”

“Then…”

“I don’t want you to see anyone else,” he said.

He waited for the outburst. For her cry of indignation. For her to yell,
Who the hell do you think you are?

It didn’t come. Instead, her lips curved a very tiny bit, and her eyes shone in the moonlight.

“Okay,” she whispered.

He held her gaze for a while. Then they both turned back to the view and sipped their coffee.

He couldn’t think what to say. He felt confused, hopeful, and frustrated, all at the same time.

After a few minutes of silence, she put down her glass and limped off to the laundry room.

He waited a moment, then put down his glass and followed her.

When he reached the doorway, he leaned on the jamb and watched her, hands in his pockets. She was folding up some washing she’d done earlier, placing tops on hangers and laying jeans over the clothes stand.

She glanced up at him, then back at the washing. What was she thinking? She’d expressed no resentment at his demand, and he couldn’t understand why. Hadn’t it irritated her? She’d always been fiercely independent, disliking any guy who tried to make demands on her. But the only word to leave her mouth had been
Okay.
Why had she said that?

His gaze slid down her, noting the curve of her waist and hips, the swell of her breasts as she leaned over the machine to reach the basket. The pale skin of her neck and behind her ear. How pink her lips were, and her beautiful Cupid’s bow.

She didn’t look up again, but twin spots of red touched her cheekbones. He tilted his head to look at them, and the color intensified.

A smile touched his lips.

He pushed off the doorjamb and walked into the room. Took the washing from her hands and threw it into the basket.

Her lips parted, but she didn’t object, her breathing coming quickly as he turned her to face him.

Bending a little, he caught the bottom of her dress in his hands and lifted it. Wordlessly, she raised her arms so he could pull the dress up over her breasts and head, and he dropped it to the floor.

He stared at her. “Whoa.” She was naked beneath it.

Pushing her back against the washing machine, he moved in close. Her eyes widened when he pressed his hips to hers, and he knew she could feel his erection even through the denim of his jeans.

He placed his hands on her hips, stroked down, his left hand skirting over her scars, then smoothed his hands up her body, into the dip of her waist, up to cup her breasts. He brushed her nipples with his thumbs. She shivered and her nipples tightened.

Sliding a hand to the base of her neck, he touched his fingers to the love bite he’d given her that had just been hidden by the wide strap of the dress, the faint mark giving him an uncharacteristic glow of possessive pleasure. He’d done that to her. Not some other guy.

Moving his hand to the back of her head to hold her there, he lowered his lips and kissed her.

He didn’t bother with a warm up—he was too fired up for that. He threw all his frustration and jealousy into the kiss, and Genie gasped, her mouth opening under his. Plunging his tongue inside, he savored the taste of her, turned on by the way she returned every thrust, her hands sliding up his chest to his neck and then into his hair.

Placing his hands beneath her butt, he lifted her up onto the washing machine and then pushed her knees apart. He kissed down her neck, and when his lips touched her collar bone and moved along to her shoulder, he could feel the machine’s vibrations travelling through her.

He lifted her breast and covered the nipple with his mouth, and Genie groaned and leaned back on her hands, arching her spine to push her breast toward him. He licked and sucked, loving the softness of her body, and swapped to her other breast, licking and sucking there too until she writhed beneath him, her fingers tightening in his hair.

Straightening, he spread her knees wide, breathing heavily as he drank in the sight of her glistening inner lips. Stroking his hands up her thighs, he paused at the top to meet her gaze and watched her catch her bottom lip between her teeth and suck it when he slid two fingers into her swollen, moist flesh. As he moved them into the heart of her, she tipped back her head and moaned. He stroked inside her a few times, then brought his fingers up coated with her moisture to focus on her clit. The little button was swollen, begging for his touch, and he circled his fingers over it, loving the power he had over her, the way he was making her come apart. Her thighs loosened and a beautiful flush spread over her face and chest, and he knew she was near to her climax.

When he could take it no longer, he pulled his wallet from his back pocket and flipped it open, hoping desperately he’d remembered to slip a condom in there. Holding back a triumphant
Yes!
when he found one, he unzipped his jeans, released his erection from his boxers, and quickly rolled the condom on.