Page 70 of Just Say (Hell) No
Savannah was definitely going to touch his arms. That was fine, as long ashewas fine, which Nyree guessed he would be. It wouldn’t be the first time, she was sure. If anyone put her hands on his chest, though, Nyree might forget her manners.
Everybody else was somewhere behind them in Marko’s car. Ella. Tom. Kane. And Victoria. Who was riding with the others, because Marko had tossed his keys to Kane when they’d left the house and said, “I need to talk to Nyree, mate.” And Kane had obeyed like there was no question about it. Marko’s confidence was infuriating, when it wasn’t turning her on. Or both.
Her mind still hadn’t settled one bit. She was going to be a blithering fool today if she didn’t pull herself together. What was a woman to do, though, when she’d had some of the most thrilling sex of her life, then gone straight into a showdown out of some farce, andthenhad Marko tell her that her art was good? Which may have been the happening that had rocked her the most.
Well, no. The sex had rocked her the most. Who did something like that the firsttime?A man who knew what he wanted and wasn’t shy about it, that was who. Also a man with plenty more where that came from. Her body still hummed with the electric charge he’d given her, even after a shower and a change to her most conservative dress. Which dress had had Marko looking her up and down as if he didn’t realize her body wasn’t toned enough, because she didn’t actually like running at all.
She could swear he was looking her over now, in fact, as she merged onto the Harbour Bridge. She said, “My thighs aren’t firm enough. You do realize that. Since I’m meant to be sharing information now.”
He put a hand on the one closest to him, sliding it straight under the lace, and she nearly drove off the road. “Want to bet?” he asked.
She cleared her throat. “I’d rather say it first, that’s all.”
“You would, eh. Then let me say it second. Afterwards, when you were lying beside me, waiting for me to start you up again? Your thighs looked good to me. So did the rest of you. Which could be why I’m still thinking about it.”
“Despite the blondes,” she said. “Despite my stepfather.”
“Despite anything. And stop talking to me about blondes. I’m not with a blonde. I’m here with you, and I’ve got all the hardness either one of us needs. I don’t even mean that in a dirty way. Although, yeh, in a dirty way, too.”
She sighed. “That shouldn’t sound so tempting. Like I can just relax and let you take over.”
“What’s wrong with that? Sounds good to me.”
“Maybe that I’ve been fighting that exact thing for half my life?”
He seemed to give it some thought. He had time, since they were inching through traffic. “I’ll give you an alternative plan, then,” he said. “You can relax and let me take over in bed. And on the floor. And in the kitchen. And in the spa tub, because I’ve got a few things I need to do to you in there. It’s been exercising my mind, you could say, thinking of ways to overcome our height difference. Against the wall. On the stairs, maybe. I’ve had a thought or two about that as well. The rest of the time, I’ll back you up. How’s that?”
His hand had moved up while he’d been talking, and she managed to say, “A man who has as many reservations about my driving as you do shouldn’t be touching me where you are right now, or saying things like that. I don’t think my car has a five-star crash rating. I should’ve worn more substantial undies, too. Also, your fantasies seem to be ignoring a certain element in our lives. Which would be Ella. And wait a minute. Did you really come along today to support me, or… what?”
“Keep your mind on me supporting you,” he said. “And not on the idea that you look too sexy for my comfort in that dress. Much safer.” He took his hand away, though. Pity.
“Huh,” she said. “I’m chalking this up to life experience, so you know, which is why I’m not trying to sort out whether I should be bothered by any of that. So is my general fabulousness the reason why you aren’t making a bigger thing anymore of me not telling you who I was? I was sure you’d chuck me out. I had to tell you before I slept with you, which is one of the several good reasons why I couldn’t sleep with you. Also that if you chucked me out, Ella would be alone. Et cetera. You could call it a vicious circle.”
“Ah, well,” he said. “I wanted to at first. Chuck you out, I mean. Also sleep with you. I’m still not exactly rapt about your family ties, no. Grant isn’t going to be best pleased, and I don’t like being lied to. On the other hand, I remember what Josh Daniels said. And I have three younger sisters. Plus Ella. Could be I got it.”
She muttered, “I wish you wouldn’t be sensitive. It throws me,” and he laughed.
“It could also be,” he went on, “that I’d have a hard time chucking you out. It could even be that I thought back a bit. I told you I’d be holding out for something special. I couldn’t remember, though, if I’d ever asked ifyouwere.”
“Wow,” she said.
“Yeh. I assumed nobody else would do for you, because that was how it was for me. I think there’s a word for that. Probably ‘Arrogant bastard.’ Which is whatI’mputting out there before you can say it.”
“Well,” she felt compelled to point out, “I can see why you’d think so. And why you’d be arrogant in general.”
“Can you? You don’t have my grandmother, then. Not to mention my parents.”
“Obviously. Why? What would your grandmother have said?”
“Not much. She’d just have looked at me. But there’s something she said when I left home the first time to go to school, and again when I was chosen for the All Blacks. You could say it stuck.”
“Which was?”
He hesitated, then said, “‘Stay small. No man is a big fella. The world is the big thing.’”
“Sounds Maori,” she said. Cautiously, because he’d brought those words out from someplace deep.
“No. But not too far off. There’s something else she must have told my mum, because of course she’s picked straight up on it. A proverb, I guess you’d say, and my mumdoessay. Here you go. You’ll like this. ‘We are only visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love, and then we return home.’”
