Page 34 of Just Say Christmas
He smiled, and his hand was still in her hair, tipping her head up. She couldn’t imagine how she’d ever doubted him. “I thought you’d never ask.”
* * *
KANE
She was still the same after all, he found as soon as he started to kiss her. She made the same noises into his mouth, and her hand was clutching at his shoulder in exactly the same way. He missed taking the pins out of her hair and dropping them to the floor, because that had given him a charge and no mistake, but maybe, next time, she’d put her hair up for him.
He wanted to shout. He wanted to . . .
Shit.He was still sharing a room with Tom. Victoria was still sharing a room with . . . who?
His heart was pounding like a jackhammer, and he was in the same state everywhere else. He was exalted, of course he was. But he also wanted to take her to bed, and right now, it was pretty bloody hard to think of anything else.
He pulled back from her with an effort, and she made a protesting noise and pulled his head down again.
He said, against her neck, because, yes, she still loved being kissed there, was tipping her head to give him access, her hand in his own hair, “Tell me you’re not sharing a room.”
“I’m not . . . sharing a room,” she said on a gasp, because he’d got to the good spot, the hollow above her collarbone, and was working his way slowly up. This dress buttoned up the front, he’d noticed. He wanted to unbutton it. “I’m sleeping on the couch.”
He stopped kissing her neck. “Bugger.”
She laughed. It was breathy, excited, uncertain. Not like Victoria any other place, but exactly like her in bed. Which they weren’t.She said, “There was no luxury house available on this island with more than six bedrooms. I looked.”
He focused. It wasn’t easy. Alternatives, that was what he needed. “Water taxi,” he decided. “Your place.”
He heard the voices, then. Laughter, and then the splash. He turned, and there they were. Ella and Tom. Ella was already in the pool, treading water, and as he watched, Tom dove in himself. His dive was a thing of power, his body stretching, breaking the surface with barely a splash before he headed to the bottom. A few strokes, and he’d swum the length of the lap pool under water, flipped in a turn, and was swimming back, still without a breath.
It was quite a demonstration. Kane didn’t care.
Somebody else was moving into the light now. Luke, carrying a bottle of wine and two glasses.
Kane kept forgetting things tonight, and if a man could ever be said to be torn, he was it. He hadn’t seen his brother in a year. There was a reason Luke had come back now, and that he’d come out here, not just shown up for the wedding. He needed to know what it was. He needed to be there for his brother for once. It had been the other way around too many times, but they were both grown men now.
Victoria said, “I’m good. You want to catch up with your brother. We can do this later.”
“We can do it tonight,” he said. “I’m sure of that. Time to call in the talent off the bench.” He tilted his head toward the two in the swimming pool. “Kors is a pretty sensible bloke, and Ella’s not bad, either. We tell them they’re in charge of breakfast, and that they’ve got my room. They’ll take that trade. What do they have to know?”
“The time for the shuttle to the wharf, then the boat back,” she said, as Luke came up the steps, his eyes questioning. “Getting on the bus for theNutcracker.”
“The nutcracker? What nutcracker?”
“You know.TheNutcracker. The ballet. The girls are going, and some of the boys, too. The kids. Everybody. It’s my final event for the weekend. It was on my spreadsheet. You didn’t RSVP for it, so I put you down as a ‘No.’ Kevin’s wife Chloe, you know. She’s the Sugar Plum Fairy, and some other part, too. It’s a big deal. That’s why she can’t be here today, because she has two shows on Saturday and Sunday. It’s a Christmas thing,” she went on as he continued to look blank. “The Sunday matinee. You’ve heard of theNutcracker.”
“Vaguely. Right, then. I’m buying a ticket and going to a ballet. That’ll be a first. One thing all these boys know how to do, though, is follow a timetable. Tell Kors when the shuttle comes, and the rest of the program, and we’re done.”
“Or I could tell Nyree, I guess.” Victoria sounded dubious, as well she might.
“If you want everybody to miss it, you can,” Luke said. “We can do this later, bro, if you’re out of here. Tell me what has to happen, and I’ll take care of it.” He looked beyond tired, Kane realized. His beard as was neat as always, the skin around it shaved clean, his hair perfectly cut, but his nose had been broken more times than Kane’s, both of his ears had the swollen, misshapen cauliflower look that no amount of tape could prevent, and his eyes didn’t open as wide as they’d once done, because the skin around them had been stitched up too many times. He looked like what he was: a rugby captain who’d put in the hard yards in the front row for fourteen years, and would wear the evidence on his face and body forever.
“You had a reason for coming, though,” Kane said.
“And I’ll still have a reason tomorrow,” Luke said, sounding as sure as always.
“How long are you here?” Kane asked.“Whereare you here?”
“Staying with a mate in Ponsonby,” Luke said. “I’ll be up here until the wedding. Nyree sounded a bit fraught, and I thought there might be something I could do. Moral support, anyway. After that, I may go down to Dunedin for a bit. We’ll see. I’ll text you tomorrow, and we’ll go for a feed, have a chat. Right now, though, I’ve been on a plane for more than twenty-four hours. All I want is a couch to kip on.”
“I have everything ready for that,” Victoria said, surprising Kane not at all. “As I was going to sleep on it. It’s in a lounge, so it’s not the most private, but . . . I’ll just pack up my things and, uh . . . show you. You found the wine, I guess.”
