Page 54 of Just Say (Hell) No
Running out onto the pitch behind Hugh, looking like he had the day before, when he’d concentrated all his power on defending Ella. Looking larger than life. She couldn’t see his expression, but she could imagine it. And she could see the intention in every hard muscle and the focus in his big body as he stood, his torso canted forward, his eyes on the opposition No. 10, and waited for the kickoff. She could see the ferocity of his tackles, the power in his legs when he took the ball in a quick recycle and ground out a few more hard-won meters over the bodies of his opposition. The sheer strength in his upper body, too, that meant it took three tacklers to bring him down, and the unselfishness with which he passed the ball to the next man instead of going for the tryline himself.
Which was part and parcel of being an elite rugby player. The best ones were team men first, foremost, and always. And yet… and yet. When Marko embraced the teammate who’d just dotted down across the chalk and taken the glory? She’d swear that he felt as much pleasure as if he’d been the one doing it.
Maybe it was wrong to respond so much to his physical self. If it was, she was wrong. All she knew was that seeing his power, watching him do the thing he was best at, feeling him embrace his driving force like he was inside her, made the hair rise on her scalp and a dark tingle start up low in her belly.
He wasn’t the man who’d held his cousin’s hand, or the one who talked to her in the dark. Except that he was, because he was all of that together. It was exactly like that first day at his house, when she’d sat on the bed beside him, felt the vibration in him, and responded to it like he was a tuning fork and he resonated exactly at her frequency.
He stole her breath. He rolled her like a wave. He shook her to the core. And he didn’t even know it.
Marko pulled into the driveway, saw darkness save for one light at the entrance to the house, and was glad for it. It was nearly midnight, and when he parked the car and climbed out, he felt all the usual stiffness from the muscles seizing up on the drive home. Not to mention his body’s delayed reaction, now that the adrenaline had subsided, to the battering it had just taken.
Never mind. They’d won. And Nyree had been there to watch it.
He hadn’t thought she’d come. When he’d offered the tickets, she’d hesitated for a long moment, and he’d wondered why he’d care if she didn’t. He still didn’t know the answer. He wasn’t sure it was a question he wanted to ask.
When he got in the house, he shut the door quietly behind him, set down his bag to deal with tomorrow, when he might be able to get into his bedroom, stretched his arms over his head, and wished for a session in the spa tub.
He’d flipped the switch tonight the way he’d told Jakinda he would, but no question, it had been harder than usual. Partly because he still wasn’t as easily in sync with his teammates as he’d been in the familiar territory of the Highlanders, and partly because he wasn’t in sync, period. But that was the satisfaction in it, too. That even when it wasn’t one bit easy, you dug deep anyway to put up a performance you could be proud of.
A faint but persistent sound, growing louder, and then a gray dustball came skittering around the corner, meowing hard. He picked her up before she could launch herself at his leg, put her on his shoulder, and headed to the kitchen.
He’d like a soak in the spa tub, yeh. For that matter, he’d like to take somebody’s clothes off and put her in there with him. He’d like to look at that full mouth smiling at him across the bubbles. He’d like to carry that sweet, soft somebody to bed, and he’d like to lay her down across it, wet and warm and naked. He’d like to come down over her and cover every single inch of her with his hands and mouth until she was sighing under him. And eventually, when she couldn’t wait another minute, when she wanted it exactly as much as he did, he’d like to sink into her. Slowly, so he could feel her stretch to take him in. He’d like to feel her legs wrap around his waist, and to hear the sounds she’d make when he put his hands flat on the mattress and put some effort into it. He’d like to watch her eyes close, and to see her face twist with the force of her orgasm.
He’d like heaps of things. For now, he’d get a beer. He navigated in the dark, but when he went to open the folding doors to the deck, something stirred.
“Hey.” The voice was soft. The accent was Maori. One syllable, one turn of a dark head, the moon backlighting her cloud of hair, and he was gone.
Lowered resistance. Weary body, aftereffects of adrenaline. He thought it, and he forgot it.
“Hey.” He came to sit beside her. She wasn’t in the dressing gown tonight. A jumper and leggings instead. “Bit chilly out here, isn’t it, bare feet and all?”
“Mm,” she said. “Maybe. I could say that you don’t have any furniture, but it’d be a bit teasy. The truth is that I couldn’t sleep, and I wanted to talk to you.”
“And that you’re a Maori girl from Northland who took off her shoes every day as soon as school was over and walked home barefoot. I’d like to have seen you then.”
It took her a moment to answer. “Maybe you wouldn’t. Could be I wasn’t beautiful.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll bet you were more alive than anybody else. Waiting for me tonight, though. That’s nice.”
“Could be. I may have wanted to tell you that you impressed me. I wasn’t sure I’d have a chance tomorrow, so I wanted to…” She hauled in a breath. “Get my vote in early.”
That shouldn’t make him feel so good. Girls should be impressed by blokes who saved whales or tackled child hunger, but so many of them were more impressed by blokes who just tackled, period. Sad but true. “I did, eh.”
“You must know you did.”
“Maori girl,” he said. “There’s more to a man than his muscles.”
“Yeh, well,” she said. “You’ve got that, too. That’s the stupid problem.”
“Well,” he said… yes, stupidly, “that’s good to know.”
A second when he just looked at her, and then she said, “It was good that your mum came. You could say she was necessary. She made this feel… normal. Like Ella could ride it out and come out stronger on the other side. But I’m wondering about some things your aunt said, too. About whether I’m the best person for this. You’re off to Aussie in a couple days, and Ella’s got a rough road ahead. That’s what I really stayed up to tell you.”
“She does. But isn’t that why you’re here?”
“I want it to be. But I need to say this. I’m not your mum. I can be a friend, I can be a housemate, but I haven’t had one baby, let alone twins. I can see why she doesn’t want to be with her mum. I think I’d run screaming, if it were me. But now that I’ve metyourmum—if she stayed with her instead, and all the rest of her whanau, wouldn’t that be better? Couldn’t she say it was to be with her cousin or something? They text like the phones are attached to their palms. Or you could say that she needed somebody there all the time, since her mum works away from home and your mum doesn’t. You could think of a reason.”
“I could,” Marko said, “if she wants to do that. Or she could decide not to go through with the pregnancy after all. Twins change things. What did she say?”
