Worlds Apart (16 page)

Roo swallowed. “Sorry. Mouth running away with me again, nothing unusual there. Maybe you’ve got a girlfriend—um…boyfriend. Taylor? Sorry, sorry, sorry.” She clapped a hand over her mouth but spoke through her fingers. “Niall, if you don’t say something soon I’m going to freak out big time.”

“I like your mouth,” he croaked.

Roo let her hand fall. “You do?” She smiled. “I like yours too.”

She lifted his hand to her lips and, looking into his eyes, she kissed the tip of his index finger, then kissed the next and the next before she sucked hard on the littlest finger. Niall’s cock hardened and he groaned. How could something so simple be so erotic?

“Are you in excruciating agony and being brave?” she asked. “Or incandescent with lust like me?”

How could he not smile at her?

Roo held his hand tight, their fingers entwined. She took a deep breath and lowered her mouth slowly.

Please, please, please.
Niall waited for the blast of pain, but her lips touched his, and when all he felt was desire, he relaxed and felt her melt into him.

“Thank God for that,” she mumbled against his mouth.

She ran the tip of her tongue along the seam of his lips and Niall felt like he’d been zapped by lightning—but in a good way. Lingering pain ceded to growing pleasure and he pulled her on top of him and slid his hands under her T-shirt onto her back. As her tongue slipped into his mouth, a great chasm of longing opened up inside him for wasted time, wasted years, wasted love.

Roo was sweet, soft and sexy, so different to Taylor with his hard muscular body. Her skin felt satin smooth under his fingers and she smelled of coconuts. The slow kiss grew hotter as desire sparked through him. Their tongues tangled and parried, and Niall danced his fingers down to her butt and squeezed. Roo mewled into his mouth and, as if putting a match to gas, Niall’s body exploded with need.

He rolled so she lay beneath him, making sure he didn’t crush her and that their mouths stayed welded together. Niall slid his hand onto her breast, letting the hard nub of her nipple rub against his palm. His cock struggled in the confines of his pants. He wanted to eat, devour, consume her. He wanted to know every contour of her mouth, her body, her sex. He wanted her under him, over him, beside him. He wanted—

Roo broke away, gasping. “Air.”

Shit.
He’d forgotten. Not breathing for a while was no problem for him, but she and Taylor weren’t like him. Niall tried to calm his racing heart, his accelerating brain and particularly his overexcited dick. This was just lust. He’d spent so long without having sex, and it seemed those recent encounters with Taylor had opened the flood gates. Niall could never stop loving Taylor, but he wanted Roo. He took his hand from under her T-shirt and ran his finger along the line of her jaw to trace a path around her face. Roo lay panting, cheeks flushed, eyes cloudy with desire. Niall thought she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.

Which totally confirmed he was not in his right mind because she couldn’t be.

Except…

He dropped his hand to the bottom of her T-shirt and peeled it over her face and up her arms, using the material to trap her hands above her head. Niall raked her with his gaze. Long legs, cute, white hipster panties covered with pink lips, a gently rounded belly, perfect breasts, small tight nipples, a long neck and that mouth that made him laugh, made him smile and would make him come. He kissed his way from her neck down, smiling against her skin when he tasted the chlorine of a swimming pool, alternating licks with kisses as he danced his tongue over her nipples. He made the skin flutter around her navel while she writhed and groaned beneath him. When Niall was sure she was too far gone to stop him, he let go of her hands.

Roo groaned as he trailed his tongue along the edge of her panties. He tugged at the material with his teeth and her fingers threaded his hair as she arched her back.

“Oh wow,” she gasped.

Niall peeled her panties down her legs and almost came in his.
Shaved.
He stripped, tossed his clothes aside and lay beside her.

“Condom in my purse, but it’s not going to fit,” Roo blurted.

Niall laughed. He didn’t need to use a condom. He couldn’t get her pregnant, but the thought dragged sense back into his brain and his smile died. What the hell he was doing? If Taylor found out—
when
he found out, because Niall doubted Roo could keep her mouth shut—how would he react?

“That tattoo,” she whispered. “Head to toe?”

He nodded. Roo climbed over him, kneed him in the chest, then the back and whispered, “Sorry, sorry.” He sucked in a breath at the feel of her body pressed against his, his butt against her warm stomach, her leg hooked over his. Then she began to explore, her fingers and mouth brushing his upper back.
That feels good.
But Taylor was going to be pissed off. Niall knew the guy fancied Roo, so the fact that Niall had got here first wouldn’t make him happy, and Niall needed him to be happy.
If I do this, Taylor’s going to kill me.
He groaned as Roo trailed her tongue down his spine.

“You taste like a sunny day,” she said. “All warm and comfortable.”

She nibbled around his waist and Niall groaned. Why was his head full of Taylor? Niall knew he ought to stop this, but he didn’t want to.

Could this be a trap?
The breath caught in Niall’s throat.
Were
they
interfering? Tempting him?

“This is an amazing tattoo,” Roo mumbled. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one so intricate. What other secrets are you hiding?”

Her mouth had reached his lower back, and Niall had to push down on his balls to stop himself coming.

“They wouldn’t be secrets if I told you, would they?” he said.

“So long as you’re not going to bite my neck.”

“Not hard.”

Don’t flirt with her. I have to stop this right now.
It wasn’t Roo’s fault. There were forces at play here that were beyond her comprehension. This was too big a risk.

Roo’s tongue trailed down the crease of his butt and Niall lurched away and grabbed his pants.

“Sorry, I can’t do this.” Where had he heard that before?

Niall heard her swift intake of breath but she didn’t say anything. He didn’t look at her as he dressed, but she reached past him for her T-shirt and panties. When Niall turned, Roo was curled up inside her sleeping bag facing away from him.

“Roo,” he whispered.

She pulled the bag over her head until he couldn’t see her.

Leave. Don’t make this worse.

When Niall stepped out of the tent, the rain stopped.

Roo shuddered when she heard the rasp of the zipper closing her inside the tent. She wondered when she’d ever been so disappointed. Even when the big surprise her parents had promised turned out to be a sister and not the bike she’d hoped for. Sometimes it seemed Roo’s whole life was one big letdown after another which was probably why she tried so hard to be happy. She didn’t want to know why Niall had changed his mind.

Yes I do.

Something she’d said, not said, done, not done?
Because I licked his backside?
She squirmed. Because of Taylor? Roo lifted her head out of the sleeping bag and switched off the lantern. Everything was messed up. But maybe not if neither of them said anything. She could pretend this never happened. Nothing
did
happen except she’d fallen in love again with yet another asshole.

Roo rolled onto her front and slipped her hands inside her panties. She was so wet, so ready, so…annoyed. Yet it was still Niall she thought of which made her even crosser. Why not add Taylor? Roo imagined them in the tent with her, four hands stroking, two mouths kissing, two cocks inside her, the guys feeling each other through her. Roo rubbed harder at her clit, trapping the slippery nub between her fingers. She groaned as her orgasm rose in slow motion, spreading from her belly until her legs and arms tingled. Roo tensed as it broke and chewed her lip as the spasms hit.

Bitter-sweet pleasure and ultimately unsatisfying. And that was her, wasn’t it? Occasionally annoying, fun to have around for a while, but not for long.

By the time Roo had dressed, ready for work the next morning, she had her happy face back on as well as her only decent pair of shoes that just happened to be open-toed, black high heels. Her more suitable shoes were still wet through and her only other footwear was a pair of running shoes. As Roo bent to zip up the tent, her stomach rumbled. Her plan to eat SpaghettiOs for breakfast had been stymied by the lack of a can opener.

Never happened, never happened. It was a dream.
She could do this, be happy and carefree. Nothing had happened. Not really. She could still love him.
Yes, I know it’s not really love.
It didn’t mean she was stupid, just lonely. Well beyond the age for crushes, Roo had yet to grow out of them.

She emerged from the bushes and headed down the drive toward the house.

“Hey,” Taylor shouted.

Roo cringed as she stumbled to a halt.
Damn.
She turned to see him walking up from the gates. Niall was with him. Roo fixed her gaze on Taylor.

“What were you doing in the bushes?” Taylor asked as they reached her.

A question that told Roo everything. Niall hadn’t blabbed to Taylor that she was living in a tent because he wanted her to keep quiet about last night.

“I thought I saw a squirrel,” Roo blurted.

Taylor raised his eyebrows. “You’re not going to be more imaginative than that? Sure it wasn’t a moose or an elephant or a T-rex?”

Roo straightened up. “It was limping.”

Taylor narrowed his eyes and walked toward the rhododendrons.

“Don’t bother. It went up a tree,” Roo said.

Taylor turned to stare at her. “With a bad leg?”

When he pushed his way through the bushes, Roo sagged. She could feel Niall at her shoulder but couldn’t look at him.

“Roo!” Taylor shouted. “Get in here.”

She sighed and made her way to the tent.

Taylor stared at her incredulously. “Have you been sleeping in this?”

Not even her vivid imagination could come up with an excuse, though she wasted a few minutes trying. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“That’s a stupid question. I was sleeping in the tent because…” Her defiant tone fell away as Taylor raised his eyebrows.

“When I got back to my bedsit after you’d said I’d got the job, my landlord had chucked out all my things. I didn’t have enough money for a hotel or to rent somewhere so I bought a tent.”

“Your landlord’s not allowed to just throw you out,” Taylor said.

“I hadn’t paid last month’s rent,” Roo mumbled.

“He’s still not allowed to put you on the street.”

Niall had come to stand next to Taylor. “It’s not safe out here.”

No, it wasn’t. Roo still couldn’t look at him.

“I don’t want to go back to where I lived,” she mumbled. “If you could give me an advance on my salary, I should be able to find a room to rent locally.”

Taylor stared at her for a while. “Fine. I need to go to Leeds at lunchtime. I’ll drop you in Ilkley and you can go round the estate agents.” He took out his wallet and offered her a twenty-pound note. “Get a taxi back and tonight I’ll drive you and your…tent to your new place.”

“I don’t need the money—”

“You just told me you need an advance on your salary. Take it,” Taylor snapped.

Roo put it in her purse.

His mouth quirked in a smile. “You’re late for work, hurry up.”

In these shoes? He had to be kidding.

Roo tottered along behind as they strode up the drive.

“You’re wrong about the gates,” Taylor said to Niall. “They’re not dangerous.”

“Just thought you ought to look at them.”

And Roo guessed that Niall had somehow engineered this so she’d be caught out without him having to say anything. Her heart clenched. Niall wanted her gone. So what had last night been about? He’d wanted her one minute and not the next. Why had he even come to the tent?

Roo almost tripped as she remembered the voices, the faces pressed against the material. How the hell could she have forgotten that?

By the time Roo made it to the office, Taylor was already at his desk.

“Coffee,” he said.

“No thank you.” Roo sat down.

He rolled his eyes. “Not for you, for me. Though you can have one too. I’ll take it out of your wages.”

Roo stared at him.

“Joke.” He smiled. “Niall will have some ready.”

Roo pushed herself up and headed for the kitchen. If she was lucky, Niall wouldn’t be—
Oh.

“Taylor wants coffee,” she mumbled and took two mugs from the shelf.

She shouldn’t still want him after he stalked off last night but she did. Roo reckoned lust killed brain cells. She set the mugs on the counter and turned her face straight into Niall’s. He caught her head and held her there as he stared into her eyes. Every single one of Roo’s erogenous zones caught fire. Niall flicked his tongue very lightly into her mouth and she felt the tension ease from him when no thunderbolt struck. He sighed and kissed her properly, exploring her mouth in languorous delight as if she were the most delicious thing he’d ever eaten. And Roo knew she should have stepped back, asked what he was playing at, kicked him in the shin or slapped his face, and she did none of that. Instead, idiot that she was, she kissed him back.