Worlds Apart (14 page)

Taylor pulled him onto his back, pinched his nose, tipped his head back, and then a miracle happened—he pressed his lips against Niall’s. Niall could have done without Taylor forcing air into his lungs, but it was a small price to pay. This counted as a kiss, didn’t it? Taylor had made the first move. Niall knew he shouldn’t push the moment, but he couldn’t help himself. He forgot the slow, small steps and took one large leap. He slid his tongue into Taylor’s mouth, wrapped his arms around him and kissed him.

“
Mmph
—?” Taylor tried to jerk free but Niall was much stronger, though he had to be careful not to show Taylor how much stronger.

Urgency flared between them. Taylor hovering between acquiescence and desperation to get free, and Niall torn between keeping him where he was and letting him go. And then Niall wondered what he was doing, forcing Taylor. All this time waiting only to wreck everything in a moment of lunacy. Maybe Taylor was right, maybe love was insane.

Niall let go and slithered away over the wet grass. He lay on his back and flung his arm over his eyes. This was hopeless.
He
was hopeless. All these years wasted, pining for a guy who’d never be his. Those who’d mocked him were right. Niall
was
a fool. He’d been so sure he could make this work, his pride hadn’t let him see the truth, that even without the terrible secrets that could destroy everything, Taylor would never be his.

Pain seared his chest as effectively as a shark’s teeth. Niall just wanted Taylor to go now. Fuck off back to the house and leave him alone. Nothing mattered anymore. Niall couldn’t go back to his old life and this one would soon be over. He didn’t want an afterlife. He wanted the torment to end.

“Niall,” Taylor whispered.

Nor did he want to hear soft, apologetic words—Taylor telling him he was sorry, Taylor telling him he wasn’t into guys—but through the rain pouring over him, Niall felt the warmth of Taylor’s body as he moved closer.

“I thought you’d drowned,” Taylor said.

I wish I had. I wish I could.

“And I thought who’d bake for me if you’d copped it?”

Niall felt as though barbed wire was winding tighter and tighter around his heart. Taylor lifted the arm Niall had over his eyes and pushed it down onto the grass. Niall kept his eyes closed. Then the rain stopped hitting his face and he felt the wash of Taylor’s breath on his lips as he leaned over him. He had to fight the urge to pull him down.

“I feel…” Taylor paused, “…comfortable with you and I don’t want to lose that. I swear it’s as if we’ve known each other for years.”

We have.

“There’s something about you,” Taylor said. “I…what you just did surprised me, that’s all.”

It surprised me too.

“Want to try again?” Taylor asked.

Oh Christ.
Niall opened his eyes, looked up into Taylor’s beautiful face, and every cell in his body hummed back to life.
Try what again? Being friends? Being more than friends?
Niall couldn’t move. Lightning bolt, blazing fire, raging flood—nothing could shift him, because
this
was what he’d waited for. Except Taylor seemed to be waiting for him. That look on his face—uncertainty, shyness—not Taylor at all. Niall couldn’t speak. This
had
to come from Taylor.

“Oh fuck it,” Taylor said and bent his head to brush his lips over Niall’s in a rough, clumsy caress that almost burst Niall’s heart with joy. This time, he didn’t drag Taylor down, didn’t try to kiss him back, just left him to do what he wanted.

Taylor lay on his side next to him, supporting his weight on his elbow, and leaned over to lick the seam of Niall’s lips. When Taylor’s tongue pressed harder, they both groaned and Taylor released a choked laugh.

“Christ, I don’t know what I’m doing,” he whispered.

Taylor brushed away the water he was dripping onto Niall’s face, and with it Niall’s tears, and kissed him again, a wet, open kiss that set Niall’s pulse jumping. The sudden thrust of Taylor’s tongue surprised him. Then Taylor leaned against him, his leg pushing Niall’s thighs apart as their tongues tangled. One moment of gentleness before the kiss turned rough and grew rougher. Their staccato gasps and cries rang out into the night sky as the rain fell more heavily.

Niall risked sliding his tongue into Taylor’s mouth, and when Taylor kissed him harder, he melted beneath him. They rolled on the grass, hands everywhere, legs entwined, Niall’s cock aching, Taylor’s cock growing. Bodies plastered together, they writhed and humped and kissed until Taylor jerked his head back, gasping for air.

“Oh Christ, what am I…what the…?” Taylor gasped.

Don’t stop, don’t stop.
“Don’t think. Just feel.”

But Taylor pulled away and pushed himself to his feet. “Can’t,” he blurted, and this time when he ran, he didn’t come back.

Niall stayed on the grass, lying flat on his back, letting the rain beat his cock into submission. Only some time later, when he heard the sound of Taylor’s BMW start up, did he slink back to the house.

Taylor didn’t know where he was going, only that he had to get away from Sutton Hall and Niall so he could think. He’d yanked on his clothes over wet skin and run for his car. Taylor felt like he were being torn in two. He didn’t know what he wanted and he thought his brain would explode trying to figure it out. He pulled out of the drive onto Thorpe Lane, windscreen wipers on full speed, and headed toward Ilkley with no better plan than to drive round for a while until he calmed down and didn’t see things like…a woman wandering along in a bikini. Taylor blinked as he passed her and then checked his mirror.

What the hell was Roo doing? When she scuttled off the road into some bushes, Taylor fixed the point where she’d disappeared and turned the car. When he pulled up there was no sign of her. Had he imagined it? The night was crazy enough.

He lowered his window and addressed the shrubbery. “Roo!”

A moment later, a bedraggled figure carrying a white plastic bag approached the car, her breasts level with his eyes, and Taylor forgot what he’d been going to say. Her nipples were sharp little peaks under the material.
Whoa, those breasts.

“I can explain,” Roo said. “I know this looks a little unusual, but—”

“Are you hurt?” Taylor asked, looking up into her face.

“No.”

“Get in the car.”

“I’m all wet. There’s no need.”

“Get in the bloody car,” Taylor snapped.

As he pulled through the gates, Roo said, “You could drop me here.”

Taylor rolled his eyes and continued up the drive. “Why the hell would I do that? And start thinking carefully about what you’re going to say.”

He pulled up outside the hall and waited until Roo joined him on the steps before he locked the car. But as Taylor strode inside, he realized she hadn’t followed. He went back to find her in the doorway, looking embarrassed and struggling to put a shirt on over her wet body.

“I’ll get you a towel,” he said and ran up the stairs.

By the time he came down, a dressed Niall stood in the hall with her and Taylor felt a surge of…
What? Jealousy?
Roo was barefoot and had a blue blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Taylor avoided Niall’s gaze.

“I’ll make a drink,” Niall said. “What would you like?”

“Wine?” Roo asked.

Taylor glared. “Get her hot chocolate.”

“I don’t like hot chocolate,” Roo mumbled.

Taylor sighed. “Fine. Bring a bottle and three glasses. We’ll sit in the drawing room.”

“Please,” Roo said.

“What?” Taylor frowned.

“This might seem like an odd situation, but you could still say please? Niall’s not your slave.” She slapped a hand against her mouth. “Sorry if he is,” she mumbled through her fingers.

“For fuck’s sake,” Taylor grumbled and then raised his gaze to Niall. “Please. Sorry.”

Taylor wanted Niall to know he was sorry about running too, but Niall turned and walked away with no hint on his face of how he felt.
Have I fucked this up?

“Drawing room,” Taylor said.

Roo didn’t move.

He exhaled. “You’re on very dodgy ground. Drawing room…please.”

Roo padded in ahead of him and curled up in a corner of one of the couches. “It’s not a crime to walk along a road in a bikini,” she said.

Taylor sat opposite and waited. The truth would spurt from her eventually. Niall came in with the wine and gave everyone a glass. He sat next to Roo and Taylor felt a jolt of disappointment.

“Did I miss anything?” Niall asked.

“Roo was just saying it’s not a crime to walk along a road in a bikini.”

“It’s not a bikini,” Niall said. “It’s underwear.”

Taylor gaped.
Is it?

Roo’s eyes widened. “Everyone else thought it was a bikini.”

Taylor clenched his fingers on the side of the couch. “Everyone else? It doesn’t matter what the hell you’re wearing. What were you doing walking along Thorpe Lane half-naked at this time of night?”

Roo turned to Niall. “How did you know it was underwear?”

“Stop changing the subject,” Taylor snapped. “And think before you speak.”

Roo pressed her lips together and then sighed. “How long do you want me to think?”

Niall let out a snort of laughter.

“Okay,” she sighed. “After I had the fish and chips—thank you for…yeah, er…I decided to go for a swim. When I came out I realized I’d lost my keys. I went back in, but they weren’t there so I wondered if I’d left them here. Because it was still raining and I didn’t want to get my skirt and blouse wet, I took them off and put them in my bag.”

She stared straight at Taylor.

“Lying little witch,” he whispered.

Roo bristled. “Here. Check my purse. You’ll find the swimming ticket and no keys.”

Taylor upended the purse on the carpet and stared in bewilderment. Along with a phone, lipstick and the normal sorts of things women carry, there were guitar picks, a screwdriver, a bottle of peppermint essence, a wind-up nun, an egg separator and a plastic lizard
…
condoms but no keys. Oh, and a ticket to the local pool. Taylor swallowed the lump in his throat. Maybe she wasn’t lying. In her convoluted brain, it probably made perfect sense to do what she’d done.

“Why didn’t you call?” Taylor asked.

“I did. No one answered.” Roo bent to refill her handbag.

Ah.
“So how were you going to get in the house?”

“I thought I’d just wait for you to come back.” She started to tap her foot.

“Why didn’t you go home and call a locksmith?” Taylor asked.

Roo glared. “What is this? The Spanish Inquisition?” Then she grinned. “Oh, I’ve waited years to say that.”

Taylor bit back his laugh.

“I couldn’t call a locksmith because I don’t know any. I don’t have internet access on my phone.”

“You could have asked a neighbor,” Taylor said.

Roo clapped her hand to her head. “You’re right. Mrs. Dutton has a spare key. I’m so stupid. If you’d just call me a cab, I’ll get out of your hair. Oh, you’ve both got wet hair. That’s—”

“I’ll drive you,” Taylor said.

“No, you’ve had wine. I insist on a cab,” Roo said. “Please phone for one. Sorry for being a nuisance. I’ll go look for my keys just in case I did drop them here.”

She fled from the room. Taylor took his phone from his pocket. He might be a private detective, but he couldn’t figure Roo out at all.

How unlucky could she be? Roo carried her clothes to the office and got dressed. A couple more minutes and she’d have been safe in her tent, not frozen like a wide-eyed rabbit in Taylor’s headlights. Now she’d have to pay for a cab she didn’t need and tell him to drop her outside the gates.

When Niall had come into the entrance hall and seen her standing there dripping in her underwear, his jaw had dropped and then he’d gulped. He’d been so fast to fetch the blanket, Roo wondered if he’d managed to slow time. One blink and he was back. But when he’d wrapped it around her shoulders, she felt his fingers tremble and maybe they’d lingered for a moment.

Wishful thinking, idiot.

Dressed again, she walked back to find Niall leaning against the doorframe of the drawing room while Taylor paced.

“Any luck?” Taylor asked.

What was he talking about?
Think!
“No, they’re not there. I’ve called Mrs…B—Dutton and she’s in all night.” Why couldn’t she make up names she’d remember? She’d picked it because it was like Sutton. Maybe too close to Sutton. And what happened to the not-telling-lies-unless-it-was-a-matter-of-love? Roo looked at Niall, her gaze settling on his lips.
Ah love.
That was okay then.

“Cab’s here,” Taylor said.

Roo picked up her purse and the bag with the water. “Thanks. Sorry to be a nuisance.” Words that would no doubt be engraved on her tombstone. “Good night.”

The elderly driver held open the door and then shut her in. He sat next to her and said, “Pudsey, right?”