Prodigal Son (Jensen Family #1) (5 page)

Suzanne composed herself, she
had known volunteering to wake him up was a mistake but she hadn’t been able to
stop herself, she had become so attracted to this boy over the past few months
that she had simply needed to wake him just to see the look on his face as he
registered her presence. He confirmed his attraction to her by his last
comment. As the blush left her cheeks, she turned to face him. “We have a month
here, that one day may come sooner than you think.”

A short ride in the fleet of
air conditioned Mercedes and the family were at Jackson’s parents’ substantial
villa, a gift to them from him once he had made his first million. Matt used to
hate the initial meeting of families as Paul was the child that usually got all
the attention, his colouring and fluency in the language displaying his more
than obvious Spanish heritage this was until Monica had pointed out that the
resentment and jealousy Matt felt at these meetings was how his brother felt
all the time as Matt was the one who received all the attention from their
father.

Once the various family
members had found their rooms, the Paloma and Jensen families settled down to an
opulent meal followed by a long stroll on the beach, Matt and Paul leading the
way throwing a rugby ball to each other. On these occasions Michael felt
somewhat left out, he had never bothered to learn Spanish and the Paloma family
would gabble constantly in their native tongue with Monica only pausing
occasionally to translate for him.

Paul loved it here, the
freedom he had was endless, he was popular with the locals and had to admit
that he would be happy to live here permanently, if he never spoke English
again it wouldn’t bother him. He felt relaxed and calm around these friendly,
social people, their sense of family appealed to him as did their unconditional
love for their children coupled with the fact that he would be able to wind
Michael up to the hilt and wouldn’t have to face the consequences until they
got home, he now also had the added attraction of Suzanne and had every
intention of pursuing her.

For the first few days, the
brothers spent most of their time either on the beach or in the sea while Tessa
and Suzanne worked on their tans only occasionally joining them in the water
causing Paul to swim further out to sea as the sight of Suzanne dripping wet in
a thin swimsuit turned him on immensely.

Around midday every day, the
family would disappear into the villa for their Siesta much to Paul’s
irritation as he didn’t like to sleep through the day. While the family slept
he would swim or sit in the shade out of the midday sun listening to music or
reading. By the fourth day of the holiday, he noticed that Suzanne had also
stopped taking her siesta, using the time to hunt for unusual shells in and
around the rock pools.

Suzanne and Tessa had drawn
quite a lot of attention from the local boys both being fair skinned blondes,
they stood out like a sore thumb amongst the curvaceous dark haired girls that
frequented the beach and had spent these early days of their holiday fending
off over amorous Latin advances.

Glancing up from his book as
Suzanne passed him on her way to the beach, Paul paused in his reading to watch
the gentle sway of her hips as she walked away, sitting up a little straighter
to get a better view as she removed her sarong, dropped it on one of the sun
beds and carried on towards the sea. Once she had submerged herself in the water
and had settled into a steady swimming pattern, he went back to his book,
glancing up now and then to see if she was still in sight.

Getting engrossed in a fast
paced chapter of his book, he realised he hadn’t checked on Suzanne in at least
fifteen minutes, looking up, he surveyed the beach and then the sea. Nothing!
Her sarong was still on the sun bed but she was nowhere to be seen. Coming to
his feet, he dropped his book and headed down the beach, by the time he reached
the waters’ edge he was beginning to worry, he still couldn’t see her. Wading
into the sea up to his waist, he leapt forward and swam in the direction he’d
seen her heading in.

He’d reached the small cove
before he spotted her standing in the shallows, arms folded across her chest,
back ram rod straight as she tried to extract herself from the group of Spanish
boys surrounding her. Swimming until his feet touched the sandy floor of the
cove, he was by her side in moments, his hand sliding across her back as he
drew level with her to confront the boys “Hey, you ok?” he asked .

“Yes, I’m so pleased to see
you, these guys don’t seem to get the idea that I’m not interested.” she had
jumped as he touched her but was now so grateful to see a familiar face that
his warm hand on her back didn’t bother her in the slightest.

“¿
qué
hace
usted
a
tipos
?” he addressed the boys in Spanish, translation “What
are you doing guys?” he received a loud gabbled response asking him what
business was it of his and where did he come from. He pointed to the clearly visible
villa and told them “It’s my business because she’s mine -
esto
es
mi
negocio
porque
ella
es
la
mía
” and “
derribe
y
déjela
en
paz
– back off and leave her alone.”

The boys turned to look at
the villa “¿
usted
es
la
familia
Paloma? – You’re Paloma family?”

“
Sí
”
he pulled Suzanne into his side and began to back away, the rabble of local
boys knew better than to upset a member of the affluent Paloma family, most of
their families were employed by them, muttering apologies they headed back up
the beach away from the couple.

“You can let go now.” Suzanne
said as Paul continued to glare after the boys.

“I kind of like you this
close.” he answered tightening his grasp and turning to face her, both arms now
around her waist, he leaned down to her “You shouldn’t go off on your own.” he
gently admonished softly pressing his lips to hers and pulling her body against
his.

With her hands resting on his
biceps, she allowed him to kiss her responding in kind to the hesitant
searching of his tongue.

“You do know I could have
taken care of those boys on my own right?” she asked, her lips still only
centimetres from his.

“Of course you could.” he
replied kissing her again. When she sucked his full lower lip into her mouth it
felt like his temperature soared, his skin tingled where her hands touched him
and his heart began to race, he tightened his grip on her as his body responded
to her stimulus. Embarrassed by his complete and obvious arousal at her hands,
he pushed her away a little too roughly and headed out to sea.

Once submerged up to his
neck, he turned to face her still standing in the shallows. She was obviously
more than a little aggravated, her hands on her hips until he looked at her
then she threw her hands in the air and yelled “What the hell was that?” at him
before wading out to where he bobbed just out of her depth. Standing on tip
toes, she held out her hand to him and pulled him closer to her when he took
it. “Don’t be embarrassed, just find us somewhere to go.” she whispered once
more finding herself in his arms. Unable to reach the sea floor, she wrapped
her legs around him, flattening her body against his, completely surrounding
him with the cage of her limbs.

“I will find us somewhere but
it won’t be today.” he glanced at his watch over her shoulder. “Everyone will
be awake soon, we should get back.” for all his bravado in flirting with her
and initiating the first kiss, the way she had responded to him told him that
she had far more experience than he did and he felt a little intimidated. 
His sister had hinted that her best friend had had one or more sexual partners
leaving Paul the inexperienced second baser virgin. As Suzanne unwrapped
herself from his highly aroused body he grinned to himself, nothing was going
to stop him being with this gorgeous girl, he’d just have to man up a bit and
swallow his nerves.

The following day Paul was up
early scouting around looking for somewhere where he could, quite literally,
take possession of Suzanne. He found just what he was looking for in the small
cottage in the villa’s grounds that was set aside for the housekeeper who was
yet to join the family as she was supervising the closing up of the main house
for the summer.

Circling back to the villa,
he came across his Grandfather who had just been for his morning swim, greeting
the older man; they made their way into the kitchen for breakfast deep in
conversation. For the benefit of Michael and Tessa, meals were mainly conducted
in English, Paul and Jackson however had continued their conversation in
Spanish. Michael looked up when he heard Paul say his name; he frowned when his
son continued to gabble to Jackson in Spanish glancing up occasionally to sneer
in his fathers’ direction.

With breakfast over, the four
youngsters were left to clean the dishes as the adults set about organising
their day. With the hated task over, they headed out to the shaded pergola and
sat exchanging friendly banter while they digested the more than ample
breakfast they had just eaten. Paul was leaning over yesterday’s newspaper
spread out on the table discussing a story about one of his and Matt’s
favourite actors when Michael appeared at one end of the table,

“What were you saying to
Jackson?” he addressed Paul, the boys’ mocking smirk at the breakfast table had
got under his skin and he had decided to confront his son while Monica was busy
packing a bag for their intended day trip..

Paul looked up at his father
and leaned back in his seat “Nothing.” he replied, his arms folding defensively
across his chest.

“You said my name more than once
boy,
I suggest you tell me what it is you think I have
done to you now.” Michael demanded.

“I wasn’t saying that you had
done anything to me. I was simply telling Gramps that one day, everything you
have will be mine.” Paul answered, mocking smile and all.

“You have some front boy; do
you seriously think I will be leaving you anything in my will?” Michael fumed.

 
“I don’t need you to leave me anything Dad, you have
misunderstood, I meant that one day, in the near future , I am going to take
everything you own because I will be rich enough to do so and there won’t be a
damn thing you can do about it.”

“In your dreams, you will
never be in a position to take anything from me, I am the one who will do the
taking
and you needn’t think I will let this insubordination
slip just because we are here.” Michael lent on the table to get closer to his
son “We will be re-visiting this conversation when we get home.”

“You can threaten all you
like Dad and you can do to me whatever you want, I don’t care,
I’m
not scared of you anymore.” Paul had leant forward in
his seat and had made to stand when Matt placed a restraining hand on his arm.

Michael’s face went beetroot
red,
he snarled “We’ll see.” before leaving.

It was a few moments before
the stunned silence was broken;

“That was brave.” Suzanne
murmured.

“That was stupid.” Matt
countered “He’ll beat the shit out of you when we get home.”

“No he won’t, he can’t risk
sending me to boarding school with bruises, anyway, I don’t care if he does hit
me, like I said,
I’m
not scared of him anymore.” Paul
answered.

“You are insane.” Matt told
his brother.

“I don’t know why you two
talk about Daddy like
that,
he has never raised a hand
to any of us.” Tessa cut in.

“He has never raised a hand
to you Tessa,” Paul replied “Matt’s had a few back
hander’s
and he seems to take great delight in punishing me for the slightest mistake.”

“You go out of your way to
wind him up.” Tessa protested.

“
Uhuh,
and you wear blinkers.” Paul snapped “He has a go at me at every available
opportunity, you just witnessed this last bit, he’ll find any excuse possible
to give me a
beating,
you need to wise up Sis and stop
defending him.”

“Have you ever stopped to
consider that perhaps he does these things you say he does to get some
attention from Mum, she’s so wrapped up in you that the rest of us don’t get a
look in and that
includes
Dad.”

Paul got to his feet “You’re
deluded,” he glared at his sister “I’m going to take the boat out for a bit.”
he squeezed past Matt’s chair and headed into the villa to get the keys for his
Grandparents boat managing to sneak the keys for the housekeeper’s cottage at
the same time.

Jackson stopped him on his
way out of the villa; he had noticed his grandson’s scowl and wanted to check that
everything was alright with the boy. When Paul told him he planned on taking
the boat out, Jackson handed him a wad of notes and told him to fuel it up
while he was out he then informed Paul that the adults would be out for the
entire day and as Tessa was the eldest, she was in charge and would be seeing
to the youngsters food for the day.