Seven Sexy Sins (21 page)

“Neither did Eve. What a pair.” She sighed. “They were arguing about her moving in with him.”

“I know. I told him he should.” He shrugged at her surprised look. “I told him he needed to stop worrying about you.”

She nodded, pleased at his confidence, but also feeling a strange twinge. He was happy for her to live alone. Did he not worry about her at all?

“Yes, I do,” he said, and she stared at him, startled. Had he read her mind? He smiled. “Of course I worry about you, Faith. But one thing I learned from tonight is that you’re a big girl now. You don’t need Dan, or Eve, or me, to look after you.” He brushed the back of his hand up her arm. “But you’re always in my mind. You know that.”

Her heart rate increased, but she made her pose casual, her voice playful. “Rusty Thorne, getting all tender. That’s a first.”

“You don’t think I can be tender?”

“It’s not exactly the first thing that springs to mind when I think of you.” She had a vivid image of him pushing her up against the window, slapping her butt, and her cheeks grew hot.

He smiled. He stepped closer to her and slipped a hand around the back of her neck. And then, right in the middle of the supermarket, with half a dozen late-night shoppers looking on, he kissed her.

Faith’s heart hammered, but she kept still, accepting the kiss. His lips were soft, cool, and he kissed her for a while, only deepening it when she sighed and opened her mouth to accept his tongue as he brushed it along her bottom lip. He pulled her to him, ignoring her basket as it slid into the freezer, and wrapped his arms around her. He cradled her head in his hand as he continued to kiss her passionately, but so gently it made her tearful.

“Evening, Mr. Thorne,” came a pair of voices from behind them.

Rusty lifted his head and glanced across at the two girls who were watching them, giggling. Faith recognised them as students from his classroom, the ones who’d known she was the Faith from the website.
Oh my God.

He nodded at them and cleared his throat. “Evening, ladies.”

“Are you giving Faith some extra tuition?” said one girl, and the other nudged her and giggled.

Rusty cast the girls a reproachful glance, but laughed nevertheless as Faith felt her cheeks redden. He lifted her basket out of the freezer, took her hand and led her toward the counter.

“Great,” she said. “We are so bad at undercover.”

He unpacked her basket onto the belt and took out his wallet. “I’m past caring, to be honest.” He waited till the assistant had finished scanning the items, pushed Faith’s purse away and paid for them. “Come on.”

He led her outside and started walking back with her toward her house, carrying her bag.

“You don’t need to come with me. I’m fine on my own.”

“I know. You’re perfectly capable. You’re also perfectly female and it’s perfectly dark, and there’s no way I’m letting you walk home alone.” He took her hand.

She said nothing, enjoying the feel of his warm touch, and his concern, and they walked quietly for a while. Eventually she felt like she should say something, however. “I think those girls have guessed your secret identity.”

“Hmm.”

“Will you get into trouble?”

“Well, it’s not like we got down to anything in the classroom.”

“True.”

He scratched the back of his neck. “If any of them start making comments about Mars Bars, though, I’ll know the word’s spreading.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“I’ll just deny all knowledge. Don’t worry about it.” He flexed his hand in hers. “What are you up to next weekend?”

“Nothing. Seeing you. Why?”

“It’s avarice time, isn’t it?”

“Yep. Multiple orgasms all around.” She giggled.

He smiled. “Well, I was thinking, we need a good run at it, give ourselves a few hours, eh?”

“Oh, totally.”

“So how do you feel about going away on Saturday for the night?”

She blinked at him. A smile spread slowly across her face. “Sounds lovely. You have anywhere in mind?”

“Not really. Maybe over to the Hokianga. I know a parent of one of my year thirteens who has a holiday home there, right on the beach.”

They reached her house. Dan’s car had gone. Rusty held open the gate, let her walk through and followed her to the front door. She took the bag from his hand. “I’d like that. Very much.”

“Okay. I’ll sort it.”

She met his gaze. Two sins, she thought, and then she wouldn’t be able to look into his eyes like this ever again.

“You look sad,” he said.

She forced a smile onto her lips. “Just thinking that Eve’s gone. I’m pleased for her, but sad too.”

“Hmm.” He slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “Are you going to eat that whole tub of ice cream by yourself?”

“Absolutely. Why?”

“I wondered if you wanted to share. Chocolate fudge brownie’s my favourite.”

“You don’t have to feel sorry for me, honey. Or worry about me. I’ve stayed on my own loads of times when Eve’s been at Dan’s.”

“Who’s feeling sorry? I’m seeing it as a golden opportunity to get you alone for the night.” He grinned. “It is still Beau’s evening technically, after all.”

She caught her breath. He wanted to stay the night. The thought made emotion come rushing up through her. “Are you sure?”

He reached out and brushed her cheek. “I’m sorry, Faith. You were right—I did see you as kind of an apprentice, someone I was training up, so to speak. But you put me right tonight. I’ve been so arrogant. Will you forgive me?”

His tenderness was too much, and she couldn’t stop a tear breaking out and falling onto her cheek.

“Oh don’t cry. Now I feel like a complete heel.” He kissed her forehead.

She wiped it away. “It’s not you, it’s me. Don’t worry.” She looked up at him, seeing his gaze so gentle it made her ache. “Have I frightened Sexy Rusty off forever?”

He laughed out loud at that. “No, he’s still here.” He took his hands out of his pockets and braced himself on the wall, his hands either side of her. “Want me to prove it to you?” His eyes were suddenly hot again.

For a moment she was speechless. “Um…”

“I forgot to take the handcuffs with me.” He kissed her cheek and around to her ear. “They’re still in your bedroom. It’s only fair I get a turn.”

“Multiple orgasms aren’t till next weekend,” she murmured, shivering as his lips brushed against her neck.

“I think we need some practice before the big night.”

She heaved a sigh, took his hand and led him inside. Well, she shouldn’t really eat a whole tub of chocolate fudge brownie ice cream on her own. She’d only get fat.

Rusty ended up staying all night. After he left the next morning, Faith spent several hours trying to convince herself that him sleeping in her bed didn’t mean anything. It would have been easier to do so if he hadn’t called her, emailed her and texted her twenty times a day the following week.

She began to grow used to her phone beeping almost continuously, usually with something completely pointless, with him telling her he was having a nice muffin with his morning coffee, or had just sat through a really dull staff meeting where he’d been asked a question and had got caught daydreaming, thinking about the weekend.

At one point, he sent her a text that said:
Can we still do this after sin 7? I’ll miss u.

She’d been in a meeting in Whangarei with a couple of commissioning editors, but they’d broken for a coffee break, so she took the opportunity to text back:
I think ur other women would have something 2 say about that.

He came back with:
Other women? Makes me sound like a right tart.

Laughing, she replied:
If the cap fits.

You’ll pay for that later
, he said.

She smiled and returned:
Promises, promises. Am I lying, then? R u taking monastic vows in 2 wks time?

As the editors came back out, he sent:
I’m seriously thinking about it. No one could match up 2 u, sweetheart.

She caught her breath, staring at the screen. He was joking, obviously. He wasn’t really thinking about taking vows. But even so, for the second time now, he’d admitted he was going to have trouble when their contract finished.

Her heart seemed to stop. He spoke to her—in one way or another—practically every five minutes of the day, even emailing her from the classroom when the students were working quietly. He couldn’t keep his hands off her when they were together. He cared deeply for her—she knew that without having to ask him. And now he was telling her he was having difficulty thinking about sleeping with other women, because “No one could match up to you”.

He loved her. She already knew that. But, being an idiot, or being a guy—which kind of amounted to the same thing where love was concerned—he didn’t realise he was in love with her. Either that or he did realise it, but he was still determined not to have a relationship and settle down.

“Faith, you coming?” called one of the editors.

“Sure.” She would have to think about this later. Clipping the phone shut, she shoved it in the pocket of her jeans.

It would vibrate three times with insignificant text messages before her hour meeting was over.

Chapter Twenty

The following Saturday, Faith told Dan and Eve that Beau was taking her to Auckland for the weekend. Rusty told them he was staying with the invisible Laura in Kaitaia. Nobody seemed to suspect anything, which was kind of a relief, considering that the previous weekend Eve had nearly walked in on Rusty chained to the bed.

It was ten in the morning, and they were heading west across the North Island to the Hokianga Harbour, a stunning area with kauri forest and waterfall walks inland, and, on the coast, magnificent sand dunes that fronted the sparkling blue Tasman Sea.

Rusty looked gorgeous, wearing navy surf shorts and a light blue top that she would never have thought went with his colouring, but somehow complemented it perfectly. The bright sunshine had lightened his hair, making it even redder. He looked relaxed and happy at the thought of spending twenty-four hours with her.

Faith looked out of the window, seeing the flat-topped volcanoes in the distance with their forested skirts. She’d given a lot of thought to their situation over the week, and had finally come to one conclusion.

She was going to have to talk to him about it.

Well, she couldn’t go on like this. One of them had to raise the subject of how they were feeling, and what was going to happen when the contract was over. What had started as a bit of fun and a light-hearted adventure had turned into something much more serious, and it wasn’t fair to the relationship to treat it as if it were insignificant and irrelevant. Millions of people never found their soul mate, never had someone feel for them the way she felt for Rusty, or the way she was sure he felt for her. It was stupid to pass it over. They needed to address it.

But not yet. It wouldn’t be an easy conversation, and she didn’t want to spoil the day. They had a lot of fun to get through first, and she was very much looking forward to it. Twenty-four hours of sex with Rusty Thorne.
Yum
. What could possibly top that?

They arrived around eleven and found the house easily. It sat just off the beach on a bank of grass, with a large living room that overlooked the sea. The water was a sparkling turquoise, topped with white surf, the sand a shimmering gold.

“Oh.” She sighed as Rusty opened the sliding doors and let the warm March air into the house. “It’s beautiful.”

He came up behind her and wrapped her in his arms. “It’s nearly a full moon tonight,” he murmured in her ear. “I want to make love to you out here, and watch the moon turn your skin silver.”

She turned around to face him. “‘Make love’?” she said playfully. “When did we start ‘making love’?”

“It’s just a phrase.”

“Sure it is.” She reached up to kiss him, whispering, “And how many times do you think you can ‘make love’ in one day, hmm?”

“I don’t know.” He picked her up, making her squeal, and wrapped her legs around him. “But I think we should get started. I don’t want to run out of time.”

“God forbid.” She kissed him, and he carried her back into the house, up to the kitchen, and lifted her onto the worktop.

“Pre-sex sex?” She tightened her legs around him, pressing his now-very-obvious erection to her.

“Just a warm-up.” He slid his hands under her top, up her ribcage and cupped her breasts.

“So this doesn’t count then.” She arched her back as he slipped his hand inside her bra and rolled her nipple.

“Well, I didn’t say that. I still think it should count toward our golden total.” He stroked her and kissed her until she began to squirm against his fingers. He put his hand up her skirt and pushed aside her panties, and within seconds he was inside her.

She tipped her head back as he pulled her to the edge of the worktop and slid right into her. “Oh…” She looked back at him, her gaze unfocussed. “So what’s your guesstimate, then?”

“For what?” He seemed to be having trouble concentrating.

“How many orgasms can a man have in one day?”

“I’m aiming for half a dozen,” he said as he began to move inside her, “but I expect you to top that.”

“Ooh.” She shivered at the sensual slide of his skin on hers. “Six-plus orgasms? Oh God, is this just the perfect day or what?”

“You have no idea,” he mumbled, increasing his pace. “I can’t believe you made me wait all week.”

“All part of the contract.” Her breath came in gasps. “Jesus, Rusty. You’ve been inside me, like, ten seconds…”

“That’s…what comes…of making…us wait. Fuck.”

They came together, sighing and groaning in turn, and afterward he pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her.

“One-all,” he said.

She started laughing. “You’re going to keep score?”

“Well, isn’t that the point?”

“I guess.”

And so they were off.

By lunchtime, it was three-two to her and they needed a bit of R&R, so they made sandwiches, grabbed a bottle of Coke and had a walk along the beach, shoeless, toes sinking in the soft sand. She took a blanket and spread it by some rocks, and they ate as they talked about nothing and let the cool sea breeze wash over them.